John Hodge: Feed growers also feel price pinch

Photo / Michael Cunningham

Hopes are high that maize variety trials will identify cost-friendly domestic feed that can undercut the cost of imported GM feed

Waikato dairy farmers are not the only ones reeling from the dairy price drop. Dairy support and maize growers are worried too.

The recent publicity about the projected milk price for the current season has focused largely on dairy farmers but readers should be aware that this drop also has a direct effect on dairy support providers. Supplement feed for dairy herds, such as hay, grass silage, maize silage and maize grain, is a big part of the dairy industry and comes from the arable industry.

Dairy farmers have been told by bank managers, farm advisers and others to have a good, hard look at their expenses and to cut out any unnecessary spending. This is astute advice but, at this stage of the season, the cut should not come at the expense of the cow. Milking cows should be fed to capacity and, through high quality supplementary feed, should gain weight prior to mating.

We arable farmers, like dairy farmers, have been advised to look at the costs of our production and, where possible, to cut back on unnecessary expenses. This is not easy to do with maize as it is a crop that requires high inputs. If fertiliser and weed spray are cut back production will really suffer. And, after two years of drought, we can't afford to cut back, especially with contract prices for maize silage and maize grain easing to $410 to $420 a tonne for the coming season. Dairy farmers are not the only ones who will need a good season to compensate for the price drop.

Throwing another spanner into the works, there are reportedly many feed mills in the North and South Islands that have purchased imported grain, which will impact on the demand for domestic grain. Brewers' grain is being dumped in New Zealand from the US at a discounted price, which is a worry to growers here. A lot of these imports are also genetically modified (GM), raising the debate for the potential of GM in New Zealand. The varieties we grow now have been modified which, in some cases, have taken 30 years to do instead of five years with GM, but let's look at it from a scientific point of view rather than from an emotional one.

In this area, the Dairy Industry Technical Advisory Group (DITAG) is developing a declaration form to be filled in by farmers who grow feed for sale to dairy farmers, and by farmers who buy in feed. I have contacted growers for their response to this proposal and, without exception, they have said that they will have nothing to do with this until the feed that is imported, which would include palm kernel extract, carries the same declaration.

Not all is doom and gloom in the maize world. The Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is expanding its trials area at Tamahere to include independent maize variety trials this season. Growers have been asking FAR to do this for quite a while. They currently do it in the South Island with wheat varieties with excellent results for growers down there.

Four locations have now been chosen with two in Waikato but, unfortunately, Genetic Technologies have pulled out of this trial, which is disappointing. Nevertheless, we will be watching this trial with great interest.

Fingers crossed for the season ahead.

• John Hodge is Federated Farmers' Waikato Arable chairperson.