Fuel prices have dipped and fertiliser remains expensive – but now it’s antibiotics, twine and silage wrap availability that dairy farmers are keenly watching.

The Weekly Times last spoke with Irrewarra farmer John Martin in March, when fuel costs soared and he predicted his fertiliser costs to sit at about $1300 a tonne.

At that time, he bought fuel in at $1.55 a litre before the Middle East conflict, topped up fuel at $3.25/L. Now, he estimated it would cost less than $2.60/L.

“We made a conscious decision with the extremely high prices that we would basically put no fertiliser out this year,” he said this week.

“I’m on the phone basically all the time to ascertain when to buy back in, and I’ve found basically all the suppliers we deal with here have bought in at higher prices and have to offload at those high prices.”

Mr Martin said nitrogen reserves were available, and their farms recorded 90-100mm of rain for June despite the potential dry outlook.

“We’re just going to treat it week by week and month by month. It’ll be critical for us at a stage where we get close to spring,” he said.

But he had concerns about silage wrap availability headed into spring. “It’ll be interesting to see if everyone can get net wrap, twine, silage wrap,” he said.

“Once these importers start to put in orders and finalise it, then we’ll get an indication.”

Meanwhile, Kyabram dairy farmer Brooke Monk said she faced difficulties securing certain animal medications including Dry Cow, an antibiotic typically used to reduce infections, somatic cell count and mastitis.

“I’ve never had this problem before,” she said.

She said fertiliser and feed were her major on-farm costs, after diesel fuel dropped back to $1.89/L for her region and $1.69/L for petrol.

“I bring in about 40 per cent of my commodities through the gate … I use about 20-30 tonne a year with urea,” she said. Ms Monk said she last paid about $1300 a tonne for urea, which had nearly doubled in 12 months.

South Australian Dairyfarmers Association president and Mount Compass farmer Robert Brokenshire said input costs remained a “real concern” for the industry.

He believed some sellers had priced fertiliser up to $400 a tonne more than others.

“Fuel has come back a bit but we’re still nervous about the Strait of Hormuz and how that will have an impact going into spring,” he said.