Dairy industry looking much more positive after years of tough times
After a devastating decade in which 8,296 farmers abandoned Australia's dairy industry, the future is finally looking more positive, thanks to better weather and higher milk prices.
Key points:
For the first time in years the dairy outlook is positive
Wade Johnston has started his own dairy farm
His 72-year-old father Stan Johnston has re-entered dairying after 35 years
For the first in years, the prospect of starting a dairy business could stack up.
Wade and Courtney Johnston took the leap, buying their first farm at Bollier in Queensland's Mary Valley. Dairying is in his blood.
"I'd have to agree there's not many of us who are putting their hands up to begin (a dairy), especially from scratch too, so we're awfully proud," Mr Johnston said.
The couple has worked with a tight budget, running a herd of 42 Illawarra milking cows and a single side milking set-up they built themselves in a rustic old barn.
"The banks said 'no' every time I went to them, so we really had to budget hard, Mr Johnston said.
"Courtney did some cementing.
"We just used everything we could that was already here," Mr Johnston said.
"Our plan is just to be slow and steady and not be in heaps and heaps of debt. We just don't want that stress."
Wade and Courtney Johnston's property is on land once resumed for the failed Traveston dam. They feed their growing family from a thriving vegetable patch.
"We're doing our very best to be self-sufficient. We've got the chickens giving us eggs, and we always have the cows milking, and I make yoghurt and cheese," Ms Johnston said.
"I'm an ex-musical theatre performer, so this is very different, but I love helping where I can."
At nearby Kenilworth, Wade's 72-year-old father, Stan, has re-entered the industry after an absence of 35 years on land with more than four kilometres of Mary River frontage.
"I get up at half-past three, have some cornflakes, come down to the new dairy," Mr Johnston said.
"We have cut the farm in half. Half will be horses [Mr Johnston founded Craiglea racing stud and agistment], and half will be dairy."
He has taken on great genetics in Illawarra cows from his 81-year-old sibling, who still regularly comes to help milk.
"My brother Jock, he just loves his cows, so he moved all his herd here; otherwise, he would have had to sell them," Mr Johnston said.
Outgoing Queensland Dairy Farmers Organisation (QDO) president Brian Tessman said anyone looking at a dairy enterprise in Queensland would have to say that right now, it "actually looks reasonable".
"I think the industry is on a bit of an upturn as far as returns to farms are concerned, and certainly in Queensland and New South Wales. I think the returns are certainly better," Mr Tessman said.
After 11 years in the top job, he is proud to have successfully fought for the end of dollar-a-litre milk and the introduction of the mandatory Dairy Code of Conduct which requires processors to publish the price they will pay for fresh milk on the first of July.
"The game is a bit better but there are still people leaving the industry," Mr Tessman said.
"They are basically on a conveyor that was set up to three years ago when things really got just too tough with the drought and higher feed prices, so those people will still be leaving, and they will still probably outnumber the ones coming in."
The QDO and New South Wales-based Dairy Connect advocacy group have merged to form eastAUSmilk, focused on stopping the decline of the fresh milk industry.
Australia has 4,600 licensed dairies, a 9 per cent drop on last year — with 307 in Queensland, a 6 per cent decline on last year.
In recent days, Woolworths, Coles and Aldi lifted the retail price of their homebrand milk to $1.30 a litre.