Dairy vs Beef in Tasmania

AUSTRALIA - The boom in the Tasmanian dairy farms is causing concern for those in the beef industry.
calendar icon 3 April 2008
clock icon 1 minute read
Some are worried that high milk prices may entice farmers to turn their beef pastures over to dairy.

North east beef farmer, Leon Quilliam, says it is possible beef production could suffer in the short term.

"The way things are going, yes, the the dairy industry will affect the beef industry," he said.

"One thing is, if we have too many beef farms converted to dairy it will give us a significant shortage of animals to go through works the other thing that will happen is that a lot of animals will come in from the mainland, we lose our state grown beef."

South Springfield farmers, Joanne and Wayne Bowen have recently installed high-tech dairy equipment and now plan to purchase hundreds of extra cows.

Wayne Bowen says the dairy industry is expanding faster than he has ever seen, despite grain and labour shortages.

"This last season has been really good and next few seasons going forward its probably never looked better," he said.

Source: ABC Regional Online
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