John Hooke has been a second generation Dungog dairy farmer for 53 years, but is discouraging his young grandchildren from wanting to stay at home on the family farm.
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The now 71-year-old was just 17 when he had to make the choice of furthering his education or taking over the family farm from his aged and invalid father.
“I chose the farm,” he said. “I had to make a decision but I have no regrets.
“The Hookes have been around this area for four or five generations and I started off with 350 acres and a herd of 44 cows.
“I now have 650 acres and 260 milking cows.
“My son Mitchell works fulltime on the farm with me. Our other son James wanted to be on the farm too but it just couldn’t sustain three families.
“To be viable you have to keep spending money and get bigger and bigger.”
Mr Hooke said a large percentage of his milk and that of others around the district is used for drinking milk while that of his southern colleagues is used to make cheeses and other products which are mainly exported.
“Milk prices are always fluctuating and vary on the time of the year it is produced and the butterfat and protein quality testing.
“We get more for our milk in winter than in summer and we average between 50 to 55c a litre.
“When the industry was regulated we got better prices and regular price rises.
“The farmers would get a set price for their milk, then the transport and manufacturer would get something and then the price in the shop.
“Now it’s the reverse and what is left over is what the farmer gets.
“When I started there were 250 dairies supplying the local butter factory in Dungog. They had 50 people employed there and also made powdered milk which was sold.
“Now there would be less than 20 suppliers in the area and the butter factor is long gone.”
Mr Hooke was critical of Coles and Woolworths who were not helping the situation.
He said they were subsidising the milk which was good for the consumer, but not the farmer.
While he has no future on the farm, his youngest son Mitchell has worked at a number of different jobs before deciding he still wanted to work on the farm.
“I can’t see there being a future for young ones on farms. There is a lot more stress now than there used to be.
“Costs are going up so fast but milk prices are going down.
It’s getting to the point where it just isn’t viable.
“Until they sort this out, nothing is going to improve.
“New Zealand and England have the same problems as we do . . . it’s all over the world with commodity prices.
“The price of milk needs to go back up. I think we need to get 60c a litre to cover our costs of running the farm, machinery and fencing.
“I certainly hope it happens soon rather than later because there will be a lot more farmers out of business if it doesn’t.”
