EastAUSmilk rocks Finley & Blighty

36 dairy farmers descended on Finley and Blighty last week to visit some very impressive dairy farms. Attendance of 29 Queensland farmers were funded under the Dairy Farmers Technology Uptake Program through Queensland DPI’s ‘Bush Boost Fund’. 7 of the farmers that travelled were from NSW, both from the north and south coast, were funded by eastAUSmilk.

The farmers visited 8 different dairy farms across Finley and Blighty with one situated over the border south of Echuca. The farm systems varied immensely, including pasture, hybrid and a range of TMR systems including free stalls, dry lots and compost barns. The 8 farms varied from a small 200 cow herd, 4 farms were milking just over 1000 cows, one was milking around 2000 cows and one over 3000 cows. There was a lot of technology to see including full robotic milking platforms, rotary dairies, various cow monitoring technologies and robotic sprayers.

We also heard from several speakers at our dinners in Blighty and Finley. We heard from representatives from Garlock about their impressive products including greases, sprays and additives for both fuel and oil.  Rob Miller from Milton in NSW spoke about his cheap fit for purpose feed pad and approach to investing in land and minimising expenditure on depreciating assets. Ron McCalman and Tom Kindred from Murray Irrigation Ltd spoke about the local irrigation scheme and their proactive approach to helping farmers best utilise irrigation and Murray Irrigation to build their business. We also had a panel session of hosting dairy farms on the last night.

This was a very worthwhile exercise which the visiting farmers greatly appreciated. It was great to see so many young people attend and a special thanks to the Daley girls and Clewley kids for attending in force and taking in so much on one of their first dairy trips. One of the farms we visited said that this was the most positive and inquisitive group that had ever visited their farm which they really appreciated.

The trip was successful in connecting dairy farmers across the two states of different ages and experiences, where they were able to share thoughts and learnings to bring new ideas back onto their own farms. The trip will be followed up with an online Zoom session to encourage ongoing discussions and further learning.

Eric Danzi - CEO, eastAUSmilk