Dairy News august 12, 2014
agribusiness // 35
Going pink for a good cause AGPAC IS promot-
combe says an Israeli company, Tama, is supplying rolls of pink and black striped netwrap, and a Swedish company, Trioplast, is supplying pink
ing a pink bale wrap and pink/black netwrap to raise awareness of breast cancer. Spokesman Sam South-
Pink bale wrap puts the spotlight on breast cancer.
Manage BVD. Vaccinate with Bovilis®
“The thought that we may have BVD in our herd really bothered us. The potential profit loss would threaten our family’s financial security.” Ciarán Tully
bale wrap. “Women have integral roles in the contracting and farming businesses we work with but they seldom get the attention and recognition they deserve,” Southcombe says. “We also know rural women do not have the same access to healthcare and information that women in towns and cities have. “We wanted to do something to change this, and the pink bale wrap and netwrap are our way of supporting breast cancer awareness. Agpac sales
representatives will each have an allocation of pink bale wrap and pink/black netwrap this season so you can expect to see pink bales dotting the rural landscape.” Agpac will donate a percentage from the sales to the Louise Perkins Foundation, a charitable trust that operates under the name Sweet Louise to improve the lives of New Zealanders living with secondary breast cancer. Sweet Louise provides support, therapy and practical support. Tel. 03 338 2400
Fonterra rejigs Nestlé JV THE FIRST step in ‘realigning’ Fonterra and
At first we were pretty naïve about BVD. We knew
up with some science, because we found our
nothing about it other than having some friends
PI straight away and were able to remove her.
whose herd had been infected. We decided to
Following on from that, we made a decision to
test after seeing what
vaccinate calves with Bovilis every year to build
they were going through
up the herd’s immunity.
with fertility losses and
Vaccinating has given us huge peace of mind.
that sort of thing. And because our young stock “My advice is don’t be on your own with it. Go to your vet, put a plan in place and monitor that plan until you’ve completely finished with it.”
were grazing with other animals, we knew there was a chance they might be compromised.
After the tests, we found out that some of our stock were positive and we were looking for a PI or persistently infected animal. It was really disappointing, but the good thing about farming in New Zealand is that everybody talks to everybody else and soon we knew we weren’t alone. There were a lot of people we could draw on to help us work it through. We put a management plan in place with our vet
We knew we wouldn’t completely remove BVD, but stopping young calves becoming PIs was a big step in increasing our herd’s reproductive efficiency – and also making sure the calves grew up and put weight on properly. If you find you’ve got BVD in your herd, my advice is don’t be on your own with it. Go to your vet, put a plan in place and monitor that plan until
“Stopping
young calves becoming PIs was a big step
you’ve completely finished with it. As long as you don’t give up halfway though, you can definitely get on top of it. Ciarán Tully Dairy Farmer, Thames
”
Nestlé’s Latin American alliance has been made, with the co-op taking a controlling stake in the Brazilian venture. The two have revised their 10-year-old Dairy Partners Americas (DPA) venture to better reflect each partner’s strategies. Fonterra now controls 51% of DPA Brazil, with Nestlé holding the balance. And with a local partner, Fonterra has taken over Nestlé’s share of DPA VenAlex Turnbull ezuela. Fonterra’s managing director of Latin America, Alex Turnbull, says this is an exciting next step for Fonterra and the people in these businesses as they are formally welcomed to the cooperative. “We are looking forward to continuing our strong relationship with Nestlé, while giving us the opportunity to further drive our volume and value growth strategy focusing on everyday nutrition offerings.” Fonterra’s Latin American business produces 900,000t of product per year and $3.5 billion in revenue from its consumer dairy, foodservice and dairy ingredients. The other changes to the DPA alliance including Nestlé taking control of DPA Ecuador and the DPA milk powder manufacturing businesses.
and made a decision to look at that year’s lowest producing heifers. That was a lucky guess backed
Hear how other farmers tackled BVD at bvd.co.nz
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