I've been here for one week, visiting our daughter Charlotte and we're touring the Gold Coast up towards Cairns in the north. Yesterday we managed to visit a dairy farm and their 220 Holsteins. Even in this extreme heat of high summer, the relaxed cows are outside strip grazing grass and wander back to the shade of the barn where water sprinklers cool them down whilst waiting their turn to go through the robotic milking stalls. They have four robots and the cows choose when to be milked with the average of 2.7 times in 24 hours. We listened to the excellent Farmer Gregie explaining the process and his attention to cow welfare, cow comfort with the water mattress cubicles and rubber matting in top of the walkways, was evident everywhere. Due to milk price pressures, this forward thinking family now process all their milk (5000lts per day) on farm in the brand new milk bottling plant and distribute locally to outlets daily. This venture employs 12 people and markets its milk as '4 Real Milk' from the Scenic Rim. As there are only about 450 dairy farmers left in the whole of Queensland, all their milk is mainly sold on the domestic market, leaving milk producers in Victoria and SA exporting milk products across the world. In fact all the milk products in the shops are mostly Australian with some imported cheeses including our own famous Stilton Cheese!
It was interesting hearing all the same economic problems we face at home, with the supermarkets taking much of the blame, but Farmer Gregie has the work/ life balance much better than my husband does as Farmer Gregie was just off in his new Jaguar to play a round of golf!
Although robots are doing the lions share of the milking it's not a labour free farm. A young cow was calving and still needed a hand, which delayed Farmer Gregie a little and the strip wire in the paddocks needed moving. Also the computers need constant adjustments but all in all the whole operation ran smoothly and stress free both for the cows and the farmer. A great eye opener and of much interest to me.
Most of the time, Gregie spent his time educating through farm visits, talks to groups and through local media, the benefits of real milk. Pasteurised but not over processed. This model was refreshing to see in a country of extremes!
Well done to Farmer Gregie!
To see for yourself, visit www.scenicrim4realmilk.com.au or Facebook.com/roboticdairy
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