Some people buy a car, dye their hair or take a big holiday to celebrate their 50th birthday — teacher Russell Moyle bought a dairy farm.
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Russell grew up on a wheat and sheep farm in the Mallee, in Victoria, and his mother milked half-a-dozen house cows, but his farming dreams were thwarted.
The third of three boys, Russell didn’t have an opportunity to stay on the family farm despite his keenness and instead had a short stint in the army before becoming a physical education teacher.
But he never lost his desire to be a farmer.
During his first teaching appointment at Trafalgar in Gippsland, he met his future wife Cherie Kilpatrick, now Camperdown College principal, and they bought a small parcel of farming land at Willow Grove.
“I was running beef and then built myself a little four-a-side dairy and started raising dairy heifers to export to China,” Russell said.
“I was milking six cows and feeding 30-odd heifers before I’d go and teach.”
In 2006, they moved to Bright where Cherie secured an assistant principal position and leased the Willow Grove land to a local dairy farmer.
“Cherie was always a career teacher and loved it,” Russell said.
“I’d like to think I did a good job of teaching and gave it my all, but it was never the love of my life.”
Russell got a job teaching at Wangaratta and later moved to Bright before working in the forestry industry for two years.
In 2010, they moved to Derrinallum and Russell worked on a station before going back to teaching.
In 2014, they bought their 70ha farm at Glenormiston and sold the Gippsland land.
The dairy hadn’t been milked in for six years. Russell took the front part of the farm and leased the back area to a neighbour.
“The dairy was non-functional but I got it and up and running to milk a few cows and raise calves again,” Russell said.
“It wasn’t good enough to milk for human consumption but I bought about 10 choppers and started raising calves and selling to China again.”
He did that for 12 months and at the end of 2015, as he was turning 50, Russell decided it was “now or never” for his farming career.
“I said to Cherie if I wait any longer, I’ll be too old.”
It was a good time to buy equipment and cows in the wake of bad seasons and clawbacks.
Russell was introduced to farm consultant Kevin Maher, and he clicked with his philosophy of a seasonally-based milking program with minimal inputs.
Never a fan of Friesians because they’re too big, Russell opted for a Kiwi cross to suit his seasonal grass-fed system.
“The Kiwi cross is a magnificent animal — a medium-sized cow that chases grass, not grain,” he said.
“I try to run a cow in the middle between the Friesian and the Jersey.”
Russell was still teaching full-time but bought 42 cows in 2016. It was a baptism by fire.
“They were older cows and very susceptible to milk fever. I was still teaching full-time, milking the cows and they had milk fever and high cell count but I got through it.”
After a year of mixing full-time teaching with farming, Russell went to 0.8 teaching and grew to 68 cows.
“Things settled down in the second year because I did lead feeding and learnt to manage the cell count a lot better.”
Because of the clawbacks, a lot of farmers had left the industry. Russell purchased a disused 22-a-side swingover with cup removers and feed system, pulled it apart and brought it back to the farm and reassembled it.
“It’s still fairly basic but it covers what I need,” he said.
“I gutted my dairy, took out everything and re-fitted it all. When you grow up in the Mallee you tend to do things for yourself.
“Once it was ready, I got Scanlan Dairy Service in for the final check and they gave it the tick of approval.”
In 2018, Russell cut back to two days a week teaching at Derrinallum and expanded to about 100 cows. Apart from his brother helping during harvest, Russell did everything.
“It was like a nine-day week,” he joked.
In 2020 he resigned from teaching and purchased an out-block with his self-managed super fund.
“It was pretty tight here. I was cutting other blocks for hay on a share basis for feed but the block allowed me to run more,” Russell said.
“I don’t believe in using contractors if you can do it yourself, and because of my size they’ll only come here when they can fit it in.
“I understand that, but with silage, when it’s ready to go it has to be done.
“It forced me to buy all my own machinery and be self-sufficient. I do everything myself except make the tracks.”
Russell revived most of the paddocks.
“I’d like to think I’ve made massive improvements.
“It was basically a farm of barley grass but I embarked on a renovation program. I spray and cut a paddock of barley grass for silage as early as I can get on it.
“It goes into a summer crop and then the following autumn it is under-drilled with an annual rye-grass, cut for silage and sprayed a second time, and the next autumn I go back to a perennial rye-grass.
“After next autumn, I’ll only have three more paddocks to do. The rye-grass is much better — no comparison. As soon as they get on the paddocks of barley grass you can see production fall.”
Learning silage was a new skill and for three successive years Russell had the highest percentage of protein in feed tests conducted by his feed company.
“That’s because I can get on the ground when I need to,” he said.
“A benefit of this volcanic ground is that I can usually get on it in September or early October.”
Now when drying off in mid-March, all cows go to the out-block. Three weeks before calving they come home and go on lead feed and into the calving paddock.
He feeds 3kg/day for the entire lactation.
“My feed system is adequate but it’s difficult to change the amount. I’m okay with that and can still make a good margin.”
The cows produce around 500kg — at least their bodyweight — with about five per cent fat and 3.5 to 3.8 protein.
After initially supplying Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, Russell moved to ACM for three years but more recently joined South West Dairy Ltd, a group of local farmers who pooled their resources to negotiate a better price.
Russell would like to expand and hopes to lease another out-paddock and grow to 125 cows.
In the long-term, he’d like to help his sharefarming son Henry to expand in the industry.
“Ideally if Henry could buy something around here, we could work together. I think we’d make a good team.”
Better late than never, Russell loves his new career.
“I love working with the animals. If you’re going to milk them, they might as well be good ones, and I think I have a good herd.
“My only regret is not doing it 30 years ago.”