Dairy

Agribusiness Elders, reporting a strong lift in sales and profit for the half year to March, is upbeat on the rest of the year with improved winter cropping conditions and good cattle prices. Sales at Elders were up 22% to $1.1 billion and statutory profit was 31% higher at $68.2 million.

The milko is back — the clinking of glass bottles, the layer of cream at the top of the milk — harks back to a time long gone. Dairy farmer Shane Hickey delivers fresh bottled milk straight from his Jersey cows to homes around Kyogle ... Shane said bypassing the supermarkets meant people could connect to a farmer who “farmed in a way that was ethical and sustainable”.

Demand will take the driver’s seat in 2021, as global dairy markets look towards a “palpable return to familiar consumer patterns” by mid-year, the latest Rabobank global Dairy Quarterly report has found.

The Future Food Systems Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has welcomed Australia’s longest-established plant-based health-food manufacturer, Sanitarium Health Food Company™, into its consortium. Australia’s iconic health-food brand is set to work with UNSW food-technology specialists in CRC projects to improve the functional properties of innovative plant-based protein products, starting with its Barista dairy-free milk range.