Stephen Coats, Dairy Australia
Drought makes the climate change visible for farming. Australia suffered under long droughts, but is not the only country that has problems. Russel Wards from Al-Safi Dairy reported about the harsh situation in Saudi Arabia. Dairy farming might be running out of business because of the shortage of water, he predicts. Already now wheat producers are going out of business and dairy farms might follow in the next 10 to 15 years. Mohammad Al Khateeb said that dairy farmers in Jordan also have great problems with water. Today they have to pump up the water from 700 meters; a year ago it was from 400 meters.
In Egypt farmers have a double problem, Walid El-Sherbiny explained: lack of water and the possibility that the water level of the Mediterranean Sea will rise and flood the river Nile delta with salt water. And in China the farmers in the northern region are complaining about the lack of water, Professor Shengli Li said.
More efficient with water
Less availability of water forces the farmers to be efficient and economical with water. One of the most used solutions is recycling. It is among other things used for cooling down the cows, but Abelardo Martínez from Mexico warned about a side effect: the danger of getting higher somatic cell counts.
Abelardo Martínez, Mexico, with one of many comments and questions from the delegates
New ways to milk cows with less water
The Australians expect that they can cope, although the climate situation will get worse with more heat and less rain. The average temperature will increase in the next 20 years at least by one degree Celsius. Nevertheless they are confident that the industry will grow again and that they can manage the climate impacts. But there are conditions. Dairy farming has to find new ways to milk cows on less water. The first steps are set. And the dairies have to protect their rights to access water. There is an upcoming battle about water upcoming, Stephen Coats predicted. 'We have to struggle for our right for water. We feel the heat of the climate change.' According to the Australian manager one of the ways dairy farming can protect its right to access water, is to clearly articulate sustainable practice. And the dairy sector has to demonstrate that – for economical reasons – dairy is worth having.
Concern about water availability
The climate situation in Australia changed dramatically during the last ten years, with considerably less rain since the mid-nineties and droughts in 2002 – 2007. It's not only the drought and the heat that causes problems. Changes in land use, population growth and over allocation of available water rights were important factors too. When it comes to land use the bush fires, forestry, and also the increase of hobby farms are the main changes. The population increases in the cities (five to eight percent per year). There is a greater demand for water. The cities in the South East are near to the main dairy farming region in the Murray Darling Basin.
The dam inflows decreased. For the coming 20 to 50 years these water reserves will decrease further up to 10 to 50 percent. Concern about water availability is growing. There will be a competition between human consumption and the need for food production and not only in Australia, David Homer UK-IDF Chairman predicted at the Summit.
David Homer, Chairman IDF-UK and conference co-moderator
Water costs for one ton of dry matter: 600 to 1 000 AU$
Half of the 8 000 dairy farmers in Australia have to irrigate their land, in total 240 000 hectares with 2.1 billion litres. Dairy Farming is the largest user of water in agriculture. 1 mega litre of water is necessary to grow 1 ton of dry matter. The costs are AU$ 600 to AU$ 1 000. Because of the lack of water, milk production decreased from 11.3 billon litres in 2002 to 9.2 billion in 2007. Thanks to the higher milk price which went up to AU$ 6.8 per 100 kg. The farmers did survive financially, and those prices gave confidence. In the past, AU$ 4.5 was the limit for profitable production. In the future that won’t be enough, because the farmers have higher costs for water supply, feed and fertilizer.
Extreme rainfall
Anna Hall, National Farmers Union, UK
The opposite of the drought is extreme rainfall as the UK has had recently. 'Rivers were flooding. Despite the rainfall there was no drinking water available. Milk tankers were used to bring water', said Anna Hall of the National Farmers Union in the UK. A survey among farmers showed that more than half of the farmers in the UK see climate change as a threat. Most of them are not aware of measures to work efficiently with water. For example the dairy farm of the Dairy Research Center at the Scottish Agricultural College in Dumfries saved £20 000 by using the rainwater from the roofs and preventing that water came into the slurry depot. |