It doesn’t matter what the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says about competition, or what it may look like at times, in a saleyard, it is alive and well.
There is no better indication of how well competition can heavily influence a market, than recent physical and store cattle sales. Rain throughout large tracts of land in all eastern states saw an immediate lift in competition.
Price quotes from the physical sales of Wagga Wagga, Wodonga, Forbes and Dubbo, in the north east, were 20-50 cents per kilogram liveweight higher, straight after the rain started, 10 days ago. You may wonder what is happening in the main photo, above. The sudden downturn in the dairy industry last year, led to a Gippsland dairy farmer starting up his own brand.
“Gippsland Jersey” markets its own brand of milk, and at the Lardner Park’s Farm World, Thursday-Sunday, Gippsland Jersey held milking competitions to raise their focus to the public.
One of the pre-arranged competitions was between councillors and politicians.
The photo shows, yours truly on the left competing against state Liberal MP for Narracan, Gary Blackwood, in Friday morning’s milk off.
Typically, Mr Blackwood milked it for everything it was worth and won. Competitors had to hand milk a Jersey cow, and whoever got the most out of the cow in one minute, was the winner.
One of the reasons I attended the field days, Thursday, was to judge nominations for un-powered machinery for an award.
The competition was fantastic, involving equipment that was designed over seas and manufactured in China, or designed and manufactured in another country, and some that was designed and manufactured, here in Victoria.
All healthy, and all good, but very competitive at the same time.
Lardner Park officials said there were 900 exhibitors at Farm World, and for mine, much more machinery suited to farming, than previous years.
Was this because companies believed farmers would be cashed up after the strong cattle prices, or because technology is improving at a rapid rate, and, research and development is competition personified. There was something at Farm World for everyone from the smallest hobby farmer, to the biggest farmers from the Gippsland region. The only equipment missing were the gigantuan tractors and machinery for large cropping farmers.
