Dominic Enter was raised on a dairy farm in Gippsland, went to university, and is now carving out a career at the Victorian Farmers Federation.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Dominic grew up on the family dairy farm in the Stony Creek area and has since pursued various educational and professional paths.
He moved to Melbourne, completing a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Psychology, at the University of Melbourne.
“I was interested in learning how people’s minds work and how people interact,” Dominic said.
He realised psychology as a career wasn’t for him and pursued construction management studies, and worked in the construction industry for a year in project management, building and retrofitting supermarkets.
Dominic moved back into the agricultural industry when he returned to the family farm after his father suffered an injury from falling off a tractor.
The return to the family farm coincided with lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My brother, Oliver, was sharefarming, and due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was difficult to find workers,” he said.
“So I spent the next three years working on the farm, and it was good working with Olli.”
During this time, Dominic completed several Dairy Australia courses, including Feeding Pasture for Profit, which he said was particularly valuable for learning about pasture management.
In February 2023, supported by the Gardiner Dairy Foundation, Dominic participated in the Don Campbell program.
He said the tour experiences, visiting Tasmanian farms and processors, and networking within the group, helped him develop a broader perspective on the dairy industry value chain and diversifying revenue streams.
“I was impressed by the optimism in the Tasmanian dairy industry, and the different approaches farmers were implementing,” he said.
“The Don Campbell program is valuable for gaining a bigger picture of the dairy industry.”
Dominic said some of the highlights included hearing how farmers implemented different milking regimes, including 10 milkings per week (10-in-7) systems, robotic pasture-based farms, and virtual fencing collars that help manage cow movement.
“There were quite a few farmers skipping milkings, only doing it 10 times a week,” he said.
Dominic was particularly interested in technologies as potential solutions to the early morning milking schedule that had previously discouraged him from staying in dairy farming.
“I kind of left the industry because I didn’t really want to be getting up at 4.30am every morning, so it was interesting to see how they do it in Tasmania,” Dominic said.
“It was good to see some different dairy farms outside of South Gippsland.
“We went to Ashgrove Cheese and I was able to talk to them about vertically integrating their product and having different revenue income streams.
“When I looked at the robotic milking systems, I thought there were a few things we could implement — that might be something we’d be interested in doing on the family farm, and there’s a new generation of robots to make it a better system.
“We’d need to look at a few more pasture-based systems that are using it.
“It was also interesting to see how the [virtual fencing] collars worked on different farms, especially farms with robotic milking units.”
His experiences on the Don Campbell tour provided Dominic with the impetus to apply to the University of Melbourne University to study the Graduate Certificate in Agricultural Sciences, which he has since completed.
He also started working with VFF, working as a project manager in the VFF’s Stock Sense team.
The Stock Sense programs operate with funding from the Cattle and Sheep and Goat Compensation Fund, providing hands-on workshops for farmers, e-newsletters, and webinars, with the aim of improving Victoria’s biosecurity status and providing education on animal welfare, health and biosecurity.
“I’m interested in staying in the agricultural industry, which is why I’m working for the VFF and running workshops for farmers,” Dominic said.
“I think growing up on a farm and doing the agriculture course has helped me in this role.
“I’ve also been working with a lot of stakeholders in the VFF community and learning a lot from them.”
Dominic’s particular focus is on organising workshops with a particular emphasis on biosecurity and animal welfare for farmers in the peri-urban and small landholder communities.
He also supports colleagues working with larger-scale commercial livestock and broad acre farmers.
Returning to the family farm in the future might be a possibility.
But Dominic said it would entail conversations with his parents and brother about expanding the operation beyond the 300-cow milking herd, to support them all into the future.
“I like the lifestyle of living in Melbourne with my partner at the moment,” Dominic said.
“I enjoyed growing up on the farm and maybe that’s where I’ll want to be in 10 years’ time. There’s a lot of perks to the city, but there’s also a lot of perks to living in the country.
“But for now, it’s about exploring other opportunities, not just work opportunities, but also life opportunities.”