Rural Management

Rating system useful

DAIRY FARMERS seeking a way of assessing the agronomic performance or economic benefit of different rye-grass cultivars can use a rating system to determine the best choices for their property. Australian dairy farmers invest more than $100 million...

Dairy News

Tips for autumn pasture

DURING SUMMER in south-eastern Australia, with limited rainfall on rain-fed areas of the farm, leaf emergence rates slow, pasture growth rates decline and there is increased grazing pressure on any irrigated areas of the farm. As a result, the...

Dairy News

Committed to natural and sustainable farming

A DAIRY farming family’s decision to move away from perennial rye-grass to some new pasture species might be challenging convention, but it is certainly working for the Davis family from Cobden. Reggie and Tanya Davis along with their four...

Dairy News

Committed to natural and sustainable farming

A DAIRY farming family’s decision to move away from perennial rye-grass to some new pasture species might be challenging convention, but it is certainly working for the Davis family from Cobden. Reggie and Tanya Davis along with their four...

Dairy News

Getting started on pasture renovation

HOME-GROWN FEED on a dairy farm is most often the lowest-cost feed source. Repairing run-down and severely drought-affected dairy pastures is a high priority, but can be an expensive process. Planning your renovation program Start by assessing and...

Dairy News

Jerseys rich in family heritage

Patrick Anderson is part of a long family heritage involving the Jersey breed. The 18-year-old dairy farmer from Athlone in Gippsland, Victoria, registered his own stud in 2016, continuing the tradition of using Kings V in the breeder’s prefix...

Dairy News

Clydevale teams a family affair

International Dairy Week 2020 will very much be a family affair for the Dee family from Clydevale Holsteins Macorna. Showing and breeding quality cows is built into the genetics of this family. The passion and love started with parents Adrian and...

Dairy News

Herd a fan of breezy comfort

Temperatures can get hot and oppressing in Cowra during the peak of summer, unless you are one of the lucky cows housed in the free stall barn built by dairy farmers Colin and Erina Thompson. The building of the barn has been a gradual process over...

Dairy News

‘Hillbillies moment’ hits jackpot at Gunbower

Uncertainty surrounding the future of irrigation was the catalyst for Gunbower dairy farmers Harry and Jodie Rowlands to look outside the square and do something no-one in the area had done before — install a bore. It was October 2018 when Harry...

Sophie Baldwin

Farm evolves at steady pace

In the words of dairy farmer John Cockerell, the family has been ‘puttering away’ on its Baulkamaugh North farm, Warrain Jersey’s, for four decades. John, wife Margaret, and son Edan have expanded their land holding from one settlement block...

Sophie Baldwin

Mixing milk and wine

Barry and Bernadette Wurlod’s farm south of Terang makes milk for breakfast and will soon make wine to have with dinner. The dairy part of the farm is leased but Barry and Bernadette have been tinkering with a vineyard for the past 12 years and...

Dairy News

‘Struggle’ family moves on

Barry and Rosey Warburton brought dairy farming, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and the effects of poor water policy into the spotlight when they recently featured on the SBS documentary Struggle. The couple were facing their second year with zero...

Sophie Baldwin

Measuring grain for rye-grass value

Agriculture Victoria research scientists have developed a quicker and more cost-effective way to measure the nutritive value of thousands of individual rye-grass plants, enabling pasture breeders to select for high-energy varieties. The nutritive...

Dairy News

Beefing-up US dairy

It’s hot and dusty and there are pens of cattle lined-up alongside each other into the distance. A tractor is moving manure, another is dispensing feed into the long troughs. The animals stick their heads in and munch, it’s like they don’t...

Dairy News

Love of cows unites pair

Katunga’s Krystal Sheridan and her partner Benj Roubini might have been born on different continents, but they have been united by a love of cows. Neither grew up on dairy farms but together they are determined to carve out a future in the...

Dairy News

Farming a family affair

With five brothers interested in farming, the Parkinson family at Kirkstall had to get big to keep busy. Today, the extended family runs three adjoining farms and a dry-stock farm, with a peak of about 2550 cows, and brothers Xavier, Vin, Adrian...

Dairy News

A simple plan for Australia’s food bowl

Brad Collins believes western Victoria is the best dairy farming land in Australia, and will only continue to grow in stature.

Dairy News

Efficiencies key to running two farms

Jeanette Severs Ashley and Lisa Mezenberg, from Denison, operate two farms, milking 600 cows; a self-replacing, predominantly Friesian-cross herd, with infusions of Normande, Aussie Red and Brown Swiss. The herd produces 3.7 million litres annually...

Dairy News

Perfecting time for work and play

Jeanette Severs Milking once-a-day meets production targets, minimises risk and creates an enjoyable work-life balance for David and Narelle Macalister, of Orbost. It has also kept them in the dairy industry. This is the fifth season of milking...

Dairy News