Bellamy was forced into a share trading halt after an anonymous complaint was made to Chinese officials.

Then there was a complaint that Parmalat had used excessive heat in the pasteurisation processing of fresh milk – absolutely trivial with no risk to human health. While the China market is immense, there is now increasing domestic production from larger and more numerous herds. These operators naturally eye imports as serious competition. This is to be expected, as after all we do the same in Australia.  

Also on the dairy competition horizon is the fact that India is tipped to become the world leader in dairy production in the next decade.

Their wage factor and cost of production is sure to be much lower than ours or the Kiwis.  

Just waiting for the dentists to weigh in on climate change and how our eating habits and subsequent dental health will be affected as temperatures rise.

We have had countless doctors express concern over health issues from over exposure to the sun and the effects of hotter days.

Surprisingly, they did not touch on the effect of freezing temperatures and the cost of warming abodes. Now a random veterinarian has chimed in with dire warnings for animals, and in his wild claims he cited a drop in dairy production.

Obviously has not heard of dairy production in Israel, where under challenging conditions production is tailored to consumption in a highly efficient industry. Surely we have enough anecdotal evidence from our arid areas to enable farmers to plan for any change.

We wait as the court deliberates compensation to northern cattle producers for the losses incurred after their export trade was shut down by the Gillard government.

If any compensation is to be paid the present government will have to pick up the bill. In politics, as in life, the shocking things that are done are soon forgotten.

There are people in the present opposition who should be ashamed.