Milk pickups expected to resume tonight, but thousands of litres lost

MILK processors have scrambled all qualified and available drivers in the past few days in an attempt to collect as much of their suppliers’ milk as possible, while members of the United Workers Union (UWU) engaged in industrial action.

Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of litres of milk have still been tipped out, into on-farm effluent dams, by those dairy farmers whose milk couldn’t be collected before the next milking time came around.

Most often it was producers at the furthest end of the milk supply area that missed out, but local dairy farmer representative, Ben Vagg, at Leongatha South, had to tip out 3000 litres of milk on Wednesday and was waiting, with a full vat of 7000 litres on Thursday afternoon, hoping a truck would arrive before the cows came in again, their udders at the peak of spring production.

“I got picked up on the first night, but they couldn’t fit me in on the second night.

“I kept some back for calf feed, but I still had to tip out 3000 litres. I’ve got a full vat there again now so hopefully they arrive in time,” said Mr Vagg, who nonetheless gave credit to the processors for trying pick up as many people as possible.

“We’re in a community where we’ve all got to live together.

“We’re all part of a supply chain, one relying on the other to get the job done. The milk doesn’t stop, we know that, so the work doesn’t stop. The pick-ups have to keep going.

“It’s peak milk supply time, the height of the spring. Everyone knows that so it’s a hell of a time to be trying to make a point.

“Leongatha is heavily reliant on the dairy industry so when you do something to the dairy industry, it hurts everyone,” Mr Vagg said.

Ben supplies Australian Dairy Farmers Corporation (ADFC), but it’s Saputo that takes care of the logistics.

Ashley Zuidema at Yanakie tipped out 5500 litres on Tuesday but fortunately, got picked up on Wednesday.

“They’ve said we’re going to get paid for it, but it’s pretty hard to watch all your hard work going down the drain, well, into the effluent pond, which is another problem.

“Too much milk is not good for the aerobic system. Hopefully they’re back picking it up again today.”

Mr Zuidema also praised the efforts taken by the processors to pick up the milk.

“The guy they had picking up our milk was a driver from northern Victoria who had no idea how the pick-up system worked but he had a supply services officer with him and they did it that way.

“He was just jumping in and out of trucks when he got back to the factory and managed to do an extra run that way.”

But Mr Zuidema said a number of other suppliers in the Yanakie area also missed out on one or more pick-ups.

Mark Dowling at Berrys Creek, who supplies Lactalis, said he so far hadn’t missed out on a pick-up.

Leigh Roberts at Binginwarri near Yarram told ABC Radio on Thursday that he had tipped two vat-fulls of milk, each 7250 litres, down the drain on Tuesday and Wednesday, and knew of a number of others locally who had done likewise.

“They’ve told us we’ll get paid but you never know until you’ve got the money in your pocket.”

He said there was also the concern that it could happen again, if the issues about pay and conditions weren’t resolved.

He was also concerned the factories might have to tip milk out themselves if they couldn’t process the milk in time.

“The factories are working on pretty tight margins and someone has got to pay for it,” he said.

“We’ve been told we’re getting picked up tonight but we won’t know until 5pm,” he said.

It’s not known exactly how much milk has been lost, at the peak of spring production for South Gippsland dairy farmers, but it would certainly be hundreds or thousands of litres.

Upwards of 1400 dairy workers walked off the job across Victoria on Tuesday, October 17, calling for better pay and working conditions.

The 48-hour industrial action targetted large dairy companies such as Saputo, Fonterra, Peters and Lactalis.