Dairy News Australia Gippsland Region February 2023

Women in dairy get together

WOMEN IN Dairy discussion groups from across Gippsland came together to celebrate the industry at the Traralgon Vineyard in mid-December.

The fully booked event, organised by discussion group members and GippsDairy, provided Gippsland women with an opportunity to meet, hear from inspirational women, and network.

“We put a call out to see if women would like to come and network together and meet new women that all dairy farm in Gippsland and we had over 140 responses,” Sarah O’Brien, a Macalister Irrigation District dairy farmer and Women in Dairy discussion group member, said.

Celebrating the industry was the key theme of the lunch.

Attendees heard from a panel of four local dairy farmers, including Nicole Saunders (an MID farmer who is diversifying her dairy business), Emily Pendlebury (a new dairy entrant), Amy Cosby (a South Gippsland farmer and Associate Professor in Agricultural Education and Extension at CQUniversity), and Rosemary

Atherton (a West Gippsland farmer and Dairy Ambassador 2022).

The panel session was facilitated by consultant and South Gippsland dairy farmer Gillian Hayman.

The aim of the lunch was to shine a light on dairying women in Gippsland, celebrate their successes and to acknowledge the hard work they do to produce quality milk.

“I think it is really important for women to know that they’re not just doing what they do every day by themselves in isolation, we’re all in this together,” Sarah said.

The generosity of the industry was a standout on the day, with sponsorship and also gift donations. Local businesses and dairy farmers donated lucky door prizes, hampers and gifts, ensuring no-one left empty handed.

“It was a wonderful event, we had a lot of fun, and there were really great, inspirational dairy farmer speakers,” dairy farmer Lucy Young said.

GippsDairy hopes to make the celebration of women in dairy an annual event.

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Creating a happy workplace

SOMETIMES SIMON and I joke that one of my roles on our farm these days is ‘Milker of Last Resort’.

I’m fortunate that our farm affords us sufficient scale that I’m not required for every milking, and with three children and several major projects to manage in the past few years, it’s not often I find myself rostered on for a milking shift.

The Milker of Last Resort gets called up for events such as cricket finals, bushfires and other emergencies, leave and illnesses. Once upon a time, long ago, she even strapped a baby to her chest to milk so husband could go to a buck’s party.

And of course, there’s Christmas.

When our children were small, milking on Christmas afternoon was one of my favourite ‘dates’ of the year. We would eat a big lunch, then leave the kids with their cousins to work off the sugar rush from dessert while we went home to milk.

Just the two of us and our cows, with the roads and phones quiet in the heat of the afternoon. We’d then return to the family and be ready for another feast of leftovers, while everyone else was still full of lunch.

This year it was between Christmas and New Year’s Day when I found myself on the roster, and I enjoyed spending some time milking in our new dairy.

It’s good to be reminded of all the things I like about dairy farming — it’s physical, has purpose, and I get to work with cows!

It was also a great opportunity, six months in, to really experience what was working well with the new dairy and what could still be improved.

Commissioning a new facility certainly takes patience, and I was counselled by a dairy farmer who’s been there before that we’d need at least a year before everything was really settled in.

One of our key objectives when we designed the new shed was to incorporate better facilities for our people, as well as the cows. We now have a decent bathroom, and a tearoom for breaks and meetings.

Not everything has been a big investment — a basic pedestal fan at cups on and a pack of icy poles in the freezer has been popular in the hot weather!

We are competing against other industries for people. We need to find employees who  value what dairy has to offer — a job with purpose, satisfaction, variety and flexibility.

There are roles to suit people who like structure and set procedures, as well as those who like challenge and responsibility.

Dairy Australia and GippsDairy are making significant investments into promotion of jobs in the dairy industry, and you will see plenty of people-focused extension activities over the coming year.

We can recruit endless new employees to the industry, but we won’t retain them if they don’t have a good experience when they get here.

The most valuable promotion though, is wordof-mouth. We can recruit endless new employees to the industry, but we won’t retain them if they don’t have a good experience when they get here.

The new year is a great time to take a walk through your business in the shoes of your employees.

The physical walk is the easy bit, and there are many small improvements that can make a big difference, especially if you ask for your employee’s input. It might be a $25 pedestal fan, or a set of written instructions.

The mental walk is the harder one. How are you spoken to? Do you feel valued? Do you have opportunities to learn, to take responsibility, to improve and to fail safely?

For most of us, working with people is a skill that needs to be learned and practised, just like any other skill on the farm.

GippsDairy and Dairy Australia have some great programs in the people space, and I encourage you to come along and learn, share and network with your fellow farmers.

• X-Zelit allows springers to calve on homegrown feed such as directly grazed pasture, ryegrass silage and pasture hay

• Add it to your existing concentrate feed used in the dairy or tip it into your mixer wagon

• Activates her natural systems to elevate blood calcium during transition

On the road to good health

A GIPPSLAND dairy farmer is using his experience with poor mental health to help other people by becoming an advocate and mentor.

Six years ago, Aaron Thomas was in crisis. His mental health was suffering and he was self-destructive.

Since then he has learned how to use medication, counselling and physical fitness to improve his life, his relationship with his ex-wife and children, and to beat alcoholism.

Aaron, from Yarram, has also become a mentor in a wellbeing program and last year was accepted into the current cohort of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation’s program, with his position funded by a Gardiner Dairy Foundation scholarship.

As a participant of ARLP, Aaron is part of a cohort that is seeking to identify how to support increasing the number of health professionals in rural and remote Australia.

Aaron is manager of a dairy farm in central Gippsland owned by Paul and Lisa Mumford.

It was Paul who found Aaron at his lowest point, in severe crisis, and helped him to get help. The couple has stood by him every day since.

“I’ve worked with Paul and Lisa for 15 years,” Aaron said.

“We have a great relationship.”

Through counselling, Aaron has also learned to build a better relationship with his ex-wife

and they share their children’s care, albeit across two households.

“Our girls move easily between the two households. That flexibility works for Vanessa and I,” Aaron said.

It was recognising he had depression and anxiety, and there were options to treat it and help him get better, that made the difference for Aaron.

Fitness focus

He was always into sport. A couple of knee and shoulder surgeries later, he had stopped making time for exercise. Working long hours on the dairy farm and obsessing over his life led him down a dark path. He’s an alcoholic.

As part of his mental wellbeing recovery, Aaron initially took to cycling — training and racing.

Over the past six years, that has evolved to social cycling, and he has added running and swimming into his physical exercise regime.

“I was swimming a lot when I was younger and I got back into swimming three months ago. I now go into the pool three times a week,” he said.

Aaron has pivoted his enjoyment of social cycling into a volunteer mentor role with CycleWELL. He initially attended a CycleWELL retreat in 2018 as a participant.

CycleWELL was founded by Ashley Bennallack, who continues to run the program, combining social cycling challenges with health education and wellness workshops at retreats

in central Victoria.

After participating in one retreat, Aaron has become a mentor at two further retreats.

Aaron’s lived experience underpins his role as a mentor. He said he also gained a lot from listening to other participants’ stories.

“I know what it’s like to look down the barrel of a gun,” he said.

“The retreats teach life skills, we get blokes out riding their bikes, we learn about nutrition, and a personal trainer teaches us basic exercises we can do on the lounge room floor.

“We learn how to be a better dad, husband, partner, bloke — and that it’s okay to invest in myself and my health.

“When I hear other people’s stories, it snaps me out of my own self pity.

“That helps me to build resilience and momentum as I’m processing stuff — other people’s stories help me to sort out my own shit.

“The common link is cycling — people who like riding a bike.”

Continued on page 8.

THE MORE PERSISTENT ITALIAN RYEGRASS

Vibe is a very persistent and very high yielding diploid Italian ryegrass, having been developed as part of a 15 year breeding programme focused on developing more persistent Italian ryegrasses. Vibe handles hard grazings very well and hangs in there when most other Italians won’t.

At +27 days heading date, Vibe is up to 10 days later heading than traditional Italian ryegrasses, enabling it to maintain forage quality for longer into the spring. And with low aftermath heading, it returns quickly to vegetative state, enabling higher livestock performance potential.

Major changes reap rewards

A SUCCESSION plan was the catalyst for Daniel and Chelsie Hales to transition from conventional farming to being accredited as an organic dairy farm, at Lance Creek in South Gippsland.

Daniel returned home to the farm in 2012 and began the succession conversations. He found his parents, Paul and Carolyn, receptive.

Paul and Carolyn are proud of the family’s 138-year history with the farm, and conversant with succession planning from their own experiences with Paul’s parents, Joseph and Joyce.

“They transferred the farm’s ownership to us in 1994. It gave us independence and the opportunity to manage it as our own business,” Carolyn said.

Daniel and Chelsie now milk 130 cows once a day in a 12-a-side herringbone dairy, off 214 hectares. The herd contains Jersey, Ayrshire, Friesian and crossbred cows.

They transitioned from twice-a-day milking and split calving to the current system.

“Twice-a-day milking and split calving was too much stress on the cows and people,” Daniel said.

“I worked out the milk cheque was paying for the fertiliser contract.

“As the succession transition evolved, we recognised the system was broken.

“We needed to change our system. We also recognised there was no risk in trying something else.”

The changes encompassed thinking about animal welfare, herd health and fertility, pasture management and fodder conservation, weather and climate, soil health and people.

“We used to calve in January and February and milk twice-a-day into winter,” Daniel said.

“We began by modifying to once-a-day milking during winter.

“It was better on the cows and on the pasture. It was also more cost-efficient to milk once-a-day than pay someone for the second milking.”

Daniel began learning about soil biology and built multiple worm farms in 1000-litre IBC tanks, while he researched about the pathway to organic accreditation.

Pumpkins grown on the property, hay, manure, along with any waste — silage and vegetable scraps from the kitchen — are recycled through the four IBC tanks. The worm castings and liquid are diluted 1:100 and used to fertilise the farm’s paddocks.

Now the milk cheque easily covers the overheads of fuel, electricity and general maintenance.

“Self-sufficiency is a requirement of our organic accreditation,” Daniel said.

“The farm is now a closed production system, recycling what it produces.

“The stocking rate means the paddocks are well rested, so we have groundcover all year, the soil is rested — and we’re seeing increased soil microbiology, and regenerating a mixed pasture species.”

Daniel said the herd health had improved and he had no cow mortality in the past two years.

He now uses short, wide bulls and chooses dairy bulls for the milking herd, prioritising the top 25 production cows to breed replacements.

“I only AI from 25 dairy semen straws each year. We use these straws for joining the best cows to breed self-replacements,” he said.

It’s part of the objective to breed the best production cows and herd bulls. Apart from these 25 cows from the herd, all the heifers are joined to Ayrshire bulls at 18 to 20-months-old. The resultant heifer calves are kept and raised.

The rest of the milking herd is joined using Angus bulls, that go into the herd on April 17, for joined cows to begin calving on January 24.

In 2021, Daniel sold 75 Angus-dairy calves at one week old, to a regular buyer. In 2022, he kept some heifers from the seasonal drop and intends to grow them out and join them to Angus bulls again, before selling them.

“We start drying off at the end of November,” Daniel said.

Calves spend their first 24 hours on the cow, and colostrum is collected for five days.

“The small calves are fed three times daily. The larger calves are fed twice daily,” Daniel said.

“After their own colostrum is finished, the calves receive apple cider in milk for seven days.”

Weaning occurs at 16 to 20 weeks old.

Milk production now averages 12 to 15 litres/ cow/day.

All fodder is grown on the property. Along with pasture hay and silage, a mixed species summer crop of sorghum, turnip, clover, ryegrass, tillage radish and pea, is grown for the cows to strip graze. No grain is purchased off site.

Daniel feeds the herd a mix of organic accredited seaweed and apple cider vinegar with their own-grown garlic and a locally supplied mineral mix, while in the dairy as an ad lib lick.

Daniel also recently changed milk processors, to Pure Harvest.

“Pure Harvest pay for organic milk on volume,” he said.

Last year, Daniel and Chelsie also purchased Prom Country Cheese, in Moyarra, to process a portion of their organic milk as cheese and other dairy food. This move continues their ideology of a closed loop business.

“I like to know we’re in control of the supply chain, from soil health, to growing grass, to packaging the cheese product,” Daniel said.

“I think at the moment we’ve got a good balance with the farm production and value adding through the cheese business.”

ORGANIC CHEESE IS ‘WHEY’ TO GO

Last year Daniel and Chelsie Hales purchased Prom Country Cheese, at Moyarra in South Gippsland, to value add to their organic dairy farm.

They milk a herd of 130 cows off 214 hectares, in a 12-a-side herringbone dairy, once a day. Their farm is organic accredited.

At the moment, most of their milk is bought by Pure Harvest.

“We use 15 per cent of our milk for making cheese, and within 12 to 18 months we’re aiming to increase that to 20 per cent of our production,” Daniel said.

Purchasing the milk processing factory and cheese crafting business was an ideological decision, Daniel admits.

“My ideology is to be in control of the supply chain from soil health and growing grass, to making and packaging the cheese product,” he said.

Daniel took over the family farm and during the succession phase he also oversaw changing the production systems from mainstream to organic accreditation and once-a-day milking.

The purchase of Prom Country Cheese has potentially increased the milk processing business’ diversified focus from producing sheep and cow’s milk cheese and dairy products, to more organic cow’s milk products.

To do this, Daniel is undertaking a cheesemaking apprenticeship with Burke Brandon, who founded Prom Country Cheese.

The factory is also accredited to produce raw milk cheeses.

“As a supplier of milk to Prom Country Cheese, my interest about making cheese was piqued and I decided to buy the factory when it was listed for sale,” Daniel said.

“The facility was already accredited for making raw milk cheeses. We had to go through an audit process on the farm to be certified for using cow’s milk to produce raw milk cheeses.

“Then we went through the process of getting the factory accreditations to produce certified organic cheeses.”

Daniel is interested in diversifying product development, growing the organic cow milk cheese products and expanding local market demand.

Prom Country Cheese’s first raw milk organic cheese produced from cow’s milk, named the Glen Moidart after the dairy farm of origin, is currently under

production; it is cellared for five months.

“Our cows produce 12 to 15 litres milk/ day/cow, with 4.8 per cent fat and 3.9 per cent protein,” Daniel said.

“We’ve always tried to build components in our milk.”

On the farm, milk is pumped directly into a 1200-litre tanker, bypassing the vat, and is delivered to the factory less than two hours after the cows arrived at the dairy. Milk quality is critical.

Milk is still pasteurised at 65°C for the pasteurised cheeses produced at Prom Country Cheese. The raw milk isn’t pasteurised, so this milk is tested twice weekly to identify cell count and any pathogens.

“The regular testing means any anomalies are easy to identify,” Daniel said.

“The certification agency and the purchaser are confident the stringent testing ensures the raw milk product is fit for human consumption.”

Daniel said the raw milk cheese was full of flavour from the mixed pasture species grazed by the milking herd.

“I think we’ve got a good balance with the farm production, and value adding through the cheese business,” Daniel said.

“The cheese factory gives us a buffer, especially with the organic side of its production, and being in control of the supply chain is future proofing the business.”

ON THE ROAD TO GOOD HEALTH

Continued from page 4

Tapping into the toolbox

For Aaron, it’s all tools for the toolbox that help him daily.

“I’m still taking medication. It’s a small dose and it keeps me level. I’ve tried going off it; that didn’t work — I was getting agitated very easily.

“For me, I didn’t understand what caused it. When I found it was a chemical imbalance, it was a relief.

“I learned what was happening and the reason why I was feeling how I was, and why I wasn’t dealing with stuff.

“Medication is part of my life. I have a chemical imbalance and I rely on the medication to stop the wires in my brainbox from shorting out.”

After several years seeing a counsellor regularly, Aaron now checks in only periodically with the same counsellor.

“I touch base with him when there’s an issue. He’s more of a life coach now, helping me to identify how to work out the issue that’s bugging me.

“I know now it’s okay to have a bad day or a bad hour in a day. I know it’s okay to lay on the couch for half a day to process my bullshit and then get up and get going again.

“I’ll now say I’m having a shit day and I need to work it out.

“It’s taken me a long time to stop feeling guilty and accept it. Sometimes nothing has gone wrong, I’m just having a bad day.

“I’ve learned it’s important to stay in my own lane, be willing to listen and learn and grow, and be myself.

Milking their investment

“That is enough to get me where I want to go.”

Stepping up

Last year, at 5am one morning, Aaron was checking his messages before milking and saw a link to the ARLF program.

Initially he didn’t think it was for him, but he completed the application form.

He described his interview as chaotic. It was the middle of harvest, he was hot and dirty, and the prompt on his phone told him he had a Zoom interview.

“I connected and all the interview panel were in shirts and ties. I was covered in mud and black dirt,” Aaron said.

A few weeks later he was offered a place in the leadership program, funded by a Gardiner scholarship.

“Authenticity and enthusiasm for what I’m doing got me the scholarship and the place in the program,” Aaron said.

“Still to this day I pinch myself that I was chosen.”

Since starting the program, Aaron has joined a project group within the cohort that is trying to identify how to attract health professionals to rural and remote Australia.

“We settled on developing a project that can bolt on to existing programs,” he said.

“We’re all currently in the process of conducting field research to find out what a community thinks that looks like for them.

“Our aim is to develop a framework of four pillars that can be added to according to community requirements.”

BRAD AND Jenna White have bucked the trend of young people leaving the land and are milking it thanks to modernised water infrastructure.

They manage four properties at Riverslea, milking a 480-head seasonal-calving, self-replacing, Friesian-cross dairy herd.

They have invested significantly to improve water efficiency and increase production.

Southern Rural Water’s $159.7 million Macalister Irrigation District 2030 modernisation program motivated the Whites to make on-farm improvements that allowed them to add 40 cows to the herd and buy an additional farm.

“We wanted to expand and would have struggled to do so without the improved security around irrigation flows delivered by the MID2030 Stage 1B project,” Brad said.

In 2020, Southern Rural Water removed old Dethridge wheels, installed a new pipeline and upgraded and automated existing channels across the Riverslea section as part of Stage 1B.

“These works gave us confidence to invest in pipeline works on our farm, install and automate the associated pumps, build a holding dam, install a pipe-and-riser system, and install centre pivots,” Brad said.

Irrigation is part of core business for Brad, and he believes it’s worth investing to improve it.

“Irrigating is now a less time consuming and much simpler task, and we’ve been able to achieve much better water efficiency.”

Results from the 2021-22 Dairy Farm Monitor Project revealed farmers believed succession planning, input costs, milk prices and climate change are major challenges impacting the sector.

However, the Whites feel optimistic about the future.

“For us, there’s never been a better time to be in dairy farming,” Jenna said.

“We’ve spent a lot of time and effort building up and training a great team and investing in systems and technology that helps us keep costs under control.”

Even though wet conditions mean they’re likely to be less reliant on irrigated water this season, Jenna believes their efforts are worth it.

“Agriculture is cyclical. It might be raining now, but we could be in a drought next year and the changes we’ve made will be worth it when times change.”

Southern Rural Water was due to start construction of the Newry pipeline in January, part of Phase 2 of the MID2030 project.

“Anyone who’s got modernisation coming should be very excited,” Jenna said.

“If you’re willing to make changes on your property, the gains to be made from it are huge.”