With June starting with World Milk Day, it seems fitting to focus on dairy when reflecting on this month’s Farmers Guardian’s campaign theme of #FarmingCAN feed and protect the world.
World Milk Day itself was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations to recognise the importance of milk as a global food. Demand is truly international as the popularity of milk products spreads to new locations. The dairy industry is responding to innovate its management and production to meet growing international consumer demands.
Farmers keep up to speed with these changes, often that is through the adoption of technology to increase productivity and solve problems. In dairy this has already been happening for some time. For over two decades robotic milking has been a feature of the European dairy industry. Robotic milking systems (RMSs) / automatic milking systems (AMS), were initially largely designed to combat issues surrounding the lack of available farm labour. The first systems became available in the mid-90s and uptake has since continued to rise.
Back in October 2019 while visiting my brother and his wife in Australia, I was fortunate to visit the DeLaval Robotic Rotary AMR installed at Sydney University’s dairy farm. The University’s Automatic Milking Rotary is operated with five robot arms and the research is a collaboration between DeLaval, Dairy Australia and the University working to ‘future-proof’ Australian dairy operations to be in a position to fulfil demand. More recently, the University of Sydney is again supporting the industry to help safeguard food security. Its $16 million NSW dairy recovery program is to support farmers under pressure in the face of the combined effect of drought, bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back on home soil, over the last 18 years, I have seen robot milking machines become wildly different. Manufacturers have improved on existing models and introduced advanced communication systems, high-performance real-time data connectivity to boost milk yields and improve animal welfare.
Agriculture is adopting an innovative approach in the face of challenges that sees farming deliver for the consumer. There are increasing mouths to feed, a growing global population brings the need to boost productivity to meet the growing consumer-base. Farmers are aware of the value of how they are producing food, not just what they are producing. They have become more efficient and incorporate best practice across the farm from operations to animal health and welfare.
If farming stood still it just would not work, we simply would not be able to produce enough food for the population. I look at how Arla has developed Cravendale. It has taken an existing product, milk, and innovated to make it last longer (7 days once opened). They are also investing in the establishment of a ‘global innovation centre’ in Denmark.
As we saw with Coronavirus, disruption to the supply chain impacts everyone, from farmers to processors, right down to consumers. Yet farmers continue to keep the nation fed.
World Milk Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations to recognise the importance of milk as a global food.
