Escalating input prices and stagnant farmgate prices are fuelling concerns for the dairy industry’s future

Phil Depiazzi is worried about the future of WA’s dairy industry. The third-generation dairy farmer, who milks 220 cows with his brother Kevin at Dardanup, is among a dwindling number of his kind in WA facing stagnant farmgate milk prices and soaring input costs. Mr Depiazzi, who supplies to Coles, said he believed processors had taken a “short-term” view by not increasing the prices paid to farmers this upcoming season, and failed to take the financial pressures farmers were facing into account. “We can’t do much about it — we (WA farmers) are price takers not setters,” he said. “There is competition for milk in the eastern states that we don’t have in WA.” The third-generation farmer said he hasn’t seen a price rise in three years, a move he said was “concerning” given the steep rise in farmers’ input costs including fencing, drenching, labour and electricity. He said most farmers would like a farmgate price of about 80c/L to combat these pressures and move towards a more sustainable industry, rather than one that was “going backwards”. “A sustainable price is when we see new entrants into the industry, (one that encourages) people getting into dairy and investing,” he said. “Older farmers — like myself — are going out and we’re not seeing younger farmers enter.” The WA dairy industry is made up of approximately 107 dairy farms in WA’s south, with a total herd size of 49000 cows. Together, they produce about 344 million litres of milk per year — four per cent of Australia’s total milk production — and play a key role in the economy of local regions. WA dairy farmers’ struggles were laid bare in new data from Dairy Australia, which revealed the State’s milk production had declined 3.5 per cent in the 2024-25 financial year to date — the biggest national decrease. Brunswick farmer Michael Partridge echoed Mr Depiazzi’s disappointment. “WA is finely balanced with its milk supply and with the number of people who have left the industry. . . it’s disappointing.”