Page 2 - National Poultry Newspaper

Dealing with spanners in the works
Poultry Industry Calendar of Events
2020
MAR 25-26 – APF Poultry Nutrition Symposium, Bangkok, Thailand E: nmukhtar@uaar.edu.pk
MAR 25-27 – Mediterranean Poultry Summit, Cordoba, Spain www.mpn- wpsa.org/spain2020
APR 8-9 – National Poultry Show, London, Canada www. westernfairdistrict.com/national- poultry-show
MAY 17-19 – PIX/AMC, Gold Coast www.pixamc.com.au
MAY 26-28 – Meat, Fish, Seafood & Poultry Summit, Crocus Expo International Exhibition Center, Moskovskaya, Russia www.10times. com/meat-fish-seafood-poultry-summit
JUN 5-9 – National Poultry Show, Sydney, NSW www.rasnsw.com.au
JUL 7 – Annual Poultry Club Show Ipswich Showgrounds, Ipswich, QLD
AUG 16-20 – World Poultry Congress, Paris, France www.wpcparis2020.com
NOV 4-5 – Poultry Xpo, Stratford, Canada www.poultryxpo.ca
2021
JUN 21-23 – European Symposium on the Quality of Poultry Meat and XIX European Symposium on the Quality of Eggs and Egg Products, Krakow, Poland www.eggmeat2021.com
How to supply event details: Send all details to National Poultry Newspaper, PO Box 387, Cleveland, Qld 4163, call 07 3286 1833 fax: 07 3821 2637, email: design@poultrynews.com.au
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A SERIES of events leads to a cycle, and yet as farmers you are all aware that even in the cycle of a day, span- ners find a way into the works!
As sure as the sun ris- es at dawn and sets in the evening, eggs will need to be packed to get to your customers.
But what happens when it all comes crash- ing down and you need rainfall and machinery repaired?
You can complain to someone but it’s of- ten you as the owner or manager who needs to fix the problem with machinery, and we hope our prayers will be answered as to re- quests for rain.
It’s great to see there has been widespread rain, which will lead to crops.
Itmaybeawhileto harvest, with an under- standing that feed will not be plentiful at the cost producers would like for good profits, but improvement is on its way.
It’s pleasing to know that part of the cycle being improved (the weather) will eventu- ally lead to a return of dollars in the bank.
It is important that good follow-up rain continues and for those who are struggling, please consider the sup- port available, such as loans offered through the regional investment bank (www.ric.gov.au).
For those who feel isolated and need someone to speak with, support is available and I encourage you to read through the Managing Stress on Farm book- let at farmerhealth.
org.au/wp-content/ uploads/2020/01/Man aging-stress-on-the- farm-2020.pdf
Contact numbers are also provided in the booklet.
A meeting of agricul- tural ministers was held in Tasmania recently in relation to the Austral- ian Animal Welfare Standards and Guide- lines.
As I write, we await further information on the names being released publicly and further details on the process in the coming weeks.
When further infor- mation is available, a note will be forwarded to all Egg Farmers of Australia members.
Travel was recently undertaken to Western Australia to attend the Animal Welfare Act Review with Commer- cial Egg Producers As- sociation executive of- ficer Rachel Wilson.
It was also a great op- portunity to meet up with CEPA farmers and Egg Farmers of Aus- tralia WA director Ian Wilson and hear about the great work under- taken pertaining to the WA petition.
I then travelled to Tas- mania for a workshop attended by farmers
and government agen- cies (health, food and agriculture related) in conjunction with Egg Farmers of Australia South Australia/Tas- mania director Dion Andary.
The following day we were fortunate to have a farm visit with Danny Jones (chair of Austral- ian Eggs) and John Sat- tler (farm manager of Pure Foods Eggs).
I very much enjoyed not only seeing the system and machinery employed in the opera- tion but also the way in which the farm makes it accessible for peo- ple to visit and have an understanding and appreciation of egg pro- duction.
The Pure Foods Eggs
tours also linked in with the local café and I think this is a wonder- ful initiative in order to support other busi- nesses in the region.
Annabel Johnson (NSW Farmers), Jim McDonald (vet) Margo Andrae (Australian Pork Limited) and I at- tended the Select Com- mittee hearing in NSW pertaining to Animal Cruelty Laws.
The report on this re- view will be available on April 2.
Further information is available at parliament. nsw.gov.au/commit tees/listofcommittees/ Pages/committee-de- tails.aspx?pk=263
In February I attended the Economic and In- frastructure Commit- tee meeting at the in- vitation of LT’s Eggs in Victoria.
Egg Farmers of Aus- tralia Victoria director Tony Nesci, Victorian Farmers Federation Representatives Lau- rie Mannix and Kellie Quayle and the whole LT’s Eggs team – Brian, Danyel and Renay – did a wonderful job bring- ing the farm to parlia- ment with 3D goggles
for the MPs to view the farm and answer their questions.
At the time of writing I was looking forward to attending a function in Queensland in early March run by AHA and will be visiting South Australia towards the end of the month.
It is very important to have the opportunity to engage with farmers around the nation.
A Board review was undertaken the last Board meeting of Egg Farmers of Australia, held in February.
A final report will be provided to the Board at our next meeting in March and we look forward to providing updates to our mem- bers in relation to how Egg Farmers of Aus- tralia will continue to progress and move for- ward.
If you would like fur- ther information about what Egg Farmers of Australia is doing to help your business, please join us by be- coming a member and completing a member- ship form online at egg farmersaustralia.org
by MELINDA HASHIMOTO CEO
Photo: Erol Ahmed
Price-taker farmers must be energy savers
WHILE farmers are familiar with the in- terconnectedness be- tween energy, water and food production, policy and regulatory developments continue to treat these as dis- tinctly separate areas.
Siloing these issues does not allow collab- oration on the policy nexus that is required to address the complex problems associated with them.
Current government policy does not provide essential and enabling services such as elec- tricity and water at a ‘fair cost’ for agricul- ture.
Where energy is con- cerned, over the past 10 years the price of elec- tricity has increased at about 10 times the rate of inflation.
A critical input for in- tensifying agriculture, electricity has now
become a major, and in some cases unsus- tainable, cost for farm businesses including those from the poultry industry.
The Queensland Farmers’ Federation is working to address the rising cost of electric- ity by delivering the Energy Savers Plus Program Extension with support and fund- ing from the Queens- land Government.
The project has reached a major mile-
stone, with half of the 200 farm energy audits now complete.
The audits provide options for farmers to reduce their energy consumption and car- bon emissions as well as make important bot- tom-line savings and productivity gains.
For example, a southeast Queensland chicken meat farm and ESPPE participant found the audit pro- vided helpful guidance about where to spend
their capital investment in the farm.
The need to deliver adequate ventilation, heating and lighting for the birds’ wel- fare means the farm is a large energy us- er, consuming over 500,000kWh each year and costing more than $100,000.
The audit compared the benefits of install- ing variable-speed fans to reduce consump- tion and improve the power factor with the potential savings of in- stalling two 100kVAR power factor correction units.
While the fans would reduce consumption and improve power factor, at a cost of $36,000, the power factor correction units would provide a quick return on investment at a relatively low cost by comparison.
A demand reduction of 62kVA R would be achieved, saving the farm $9347 each year on their electricity bills after implementing this recommendation alone.
Australia has gone from having a competi- tive advantage in en- ergy costs to being one of the most expensive countries in the world, resulting in many ir- rigated and intensified farm businesses losing their ability to com- pete globally, risking significant job losses and lower levels of pro- duction.
Without more delib- erate action to resolve water and energy is- sues imposed by cur- rent policy approaches, the likelihood of per- verse and wasteful out- comes will increase.
by GEORGINA DAVIS CEO
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