DECEMBER 2021 ISSUE 134
MURRAY REGION
ETHEL’S A HELLUVA LUCKY COW Ethel is one of the luckiest Holstein cows in northern Victoria, after her owner Britnee Smith decided to take a chance on surgery to fix her broken back leg - despite the outcome being very much a gamble both physically and financially. Pages 10 & 11
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
2 // NEWS
Stay informed on dairy levy WITH CONTINUED cooler and wetter condi-
tions prevailing throughout spring, our season continues to provide excellent conditions for dairying in the Murray region. Our Murray Dairy team has increased its delivery focus as we emerge from COVID-19 restrictions and I encourage you to keep up-todate with the latest programs via our eNews, Country News column or visit our website at: murraydairy.com.au An important topic for all of us is the levy poll, with voting opening in February. The Murray Dairy directors have been busy discussing the current levy investments and what opportunities it could bring for the future of the industry depending on how farmers vote. As an individual farming business, I recognise that I could not achieve – or get access to – the vast array of research, development and extension without Dairy Australia’s levy
investment and contributing funds from the Federal Government. The levy is invested in many ways to add value to our businesses, much of which many farmers may not be aware of – such as increasing Australia’s access to overseas markets, and investing in promoting the health and nutrition of dairy through, for example, the recent research into bone fracture trials. It also supports continued advancement of herd genetics; increasing farmers’ ability to plan and manage risk through national programs such as Our Farm, Our Plan; and regional investments in local forage programs such as Fodder for the Future, which investigates winter and summer forage options. I encourage all of my fellow farmers to ensure you are well informed by visiting the levy poll website at dairypoll.com.au or contacting one of the Murray Dairy directors or team members.
As we head into the festive season, I want to remind you of the importance of farm safety. The holiday period is often a time when family and friends visit, and a farm can be an exciting place to explore. Farms can also have many hidden dangers, so remember to always keep farm safety at the front of everyone’s mind. The holiday period is also a valuable time to recharge the batteries and as you plan time off with your staff, remember it is equally important to plan time off for yourself too. In wrapping up, on behalf of the Murray Dairy board and staff, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas and happy new year, and I look forward to seeing you out and about in the new year. • Andrew Tyler Murray Dairy chair
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
NEWS // 3
Cow career starts in school FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD DARBY McClaren was
Darby McClaren was inspired by the Cows Create Careers program at school and now has his own fledgling stud, Derryvale Illawarras.
Sarah and Raymond Parker enjoy giving back to the dairy industry after benefiting from Gardiner Dairy Foundation support themselves.
Darby recommends the Cows Create Careers program to a new era of primary students. “I’d love to see more kids getting into it,” he said. “It’s good learning for everyone. If they’re anything like me, they’ll just absorb it all and hopefully in the future they can buy their own calves like I did.” Raymond and Sarah have been staunch supporters of Cows Create Careers since buying their farm at Undera in 2006, and initially Raymond forged a bond with Darby when providing calves for Cows Create Careers at his school. While Raymond started in the program supplying calves and speaking to classes, Sarah joined later wearing a different hat – as an industry advocate while working as a milk supply manager. The industry advocate role within the Cows Create Careers program provides a great opportunity for those in off-farm roles to get involved. As a team, Raymond and Sarah were able to offer students a unique experience, where they learned about the role of farmers, raising calves, animal health and welfare and nutrition from
Raymond, followed by post-farm gate roles in the industry and the value of processors in the industry from Sarah. The students were also able to try a variety of cheese and dairy products, with Sarah talking about the processing off-farm and Raymond talking about the many impacts on-farm systems have on milk quality and production. “We wanted to get involved to give back to the industry and we also realised the need to start educating those interested in the industry from a young age and offer them opportunities to develop and learn and engage with farmers,” Sarah said. “Some of the kids in urban areas like Shepparton never get an opportunity to go on a farm.” Sarah said the program helped to engage students and give them a different learning experience. “The kids respond really well to the calves,” she said. “It gives them structure because they’re working in teams and have to feed them morning and afternoon, and the calves come back here healthy and very friendly.”
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Darby is a prime example of the program’s ability to engage young people. “He’s dead keen on cows and developed that interest through Cows Create Careers, which was an enriching experience for him,” Sarah said. “He was able to work with other dairy farmers and industry professionals as part of a show team. These people, from around the world, mentor the young people, enabling them to learn about cow health and nutrition, animal management and teamwork.” Raymond and Sarah are both beneficiaries of Gardiner Foundation’s investment in building the capacity of people and leadership in the dairy industry. They were both Gardiner recipients for the Fairley (Goulburn Murray) Community Leadership Program, and both have gone on to leadership roles in the industry, holding executive positions with their state breed society. Raymond is a cattle judge and served on the Classification and Production Committee at a national level, while Sarah has served on state, national and regional boards including the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority.
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inspired by the Cows Create Careers program to pursue a career with cattle and already has practical dairy experience under his belt as he studies towards his goal. “We did Cows Create Careers for three years while I was at St Joseph’s in Nagambie,” he said. “We had three lots of calves and I really got into it from there. It was a very good learning experience and inspired me to work in the cattle field.” The program exposed him to the joys of raising dairy cows and Darby now has his own fledgling stud, Derryvale Illawarras. He has 15 Angus beef cows and this year bought 15 Illawarra dairy steers to rear for the dairy beef market. On school holidays he has enjoyed working on Raymond and Sarah Parker’s dairy farm, Glencliffe Illawarras at Undera, near Shepparton in northern Victoria, and he’s now returned to study at Yanco Agricultural High School. “He’s been staying with us at Glencliffe, with Raymond mentoring him during school holidays, since he was eight years old and he’s now studying at Yanco for a career in agriculture and it all came from Cows Create Careers building his enthusiasm,” Sarah said. Gardiner Dairy Foundation provided seed funding in 2005 to launch Cows Create Careers across Victoria, and recently returned as a sponsor of the program. In 2021, Cows Create Careers is being delivered to 68 schools and about 2380 students across Victorian dairy regions, giving students an insight into the different skills and capabilities required for a career in dairy and the different job opportunities that abound. Usually, students get to raise calves as part of the program but that was curtailed in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, although the program continued on Zoom and it’s hoped calves will return to schools in 2022. For Darby the program has forged a clear path ahead to a career connected to cattle, potentially as a stock agent. “I just feel it’s where I belong,” he said. “I really enjoy working with cattle. I’ve had a passion for cattle since I was a little kid.” Darby is keeping his options open, and will also consider a dairy traineeship. He had started a traineeship with the Parkers when he couldn’t attend school during COVID-19 lockdowns, but has since returned to college.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
4 // NEWS
AI pioneer recalls old days GEOFF ADAMS
MARY PEDLER was only 17 when her father
died and she knew the family couldn’t afford to keep her at school. Although it could have been a crushing circumstance for the English girl, the decision she made set her on a pathway to a career which eventually led her to the other side of the world and a novel job in northern Victoria. Growing up in Chesterfield in northern England, the daughter of a Church of England padre, Mary loved working with animals. When she knew she had to find work, she found a job on a dairy farm called Forest Farm in West Wales, which had a herd of Ayrshire cattle, most of them sporting long horns. “We were quite modern; we had a milking parlour with Alfa Laval machines,” Mary said. After about 18 months at Forest Farm, armed with considerable experience and having been awarded a scholarship from Derbyshire County Council, Mary enrolled in a year-long dairy husbandry course at the Monmouth Institute of Agriculture in Usk, Wales. After graduating at the top of her class she was offered an instructor’s position at the college, which she took up. It was while teaching she met her future husband, Alan, who was a student in the general agriculture course. Asked how they came to get to know each other, Mary simply replied: “He was good looking and he asked me out!” They married in 1953 and, after they worked on several farms at different locations, they decided to emigrate to Australia in the hope they could find their way into farm ownership. “We were 10-pound Poms,” Mary recalled the term given to sponsored British immigrants to Australia in the 1960s. After the long voyage on the ship, which was something of a holiday for the couple, they travelled from Melbourne to the Echuca district in northern Victoria, where they found several farm jobs – eventually ending up at Cohuna on a sharefarm. Mary became known as someone who was competent on the farm and, through her contact with the locals, she was approached by the regional herd improvement association to see if she was interested in training to do artificial inseminations. This was only 10 years after the first artificial breeding association was established in Victoria.
Mary Pedler at her Shepparton home recently. Mary wrote two fictional books when she was a teenager.
Mary Pedler, 19, (right) with one of the working horses at Forest Farm in Wales, and her mother, Gladys. She loved working with animals.
Mary Pedler feeding calves at Leitchville in the 1960s.
Mary Pedler with an Ayrshire shown at the Welsh Royal Show in 1950.
Mary went to the Werribee state research farm for a one-week training program where she again found herself surrounded by mostly male trainees from all over Victoria. She excelled in the class and returned to her home district to begin her rounds, visiting farms, decked out in her white overalls, white boots and white coat, and travelling in a VW Beetle, modified to carry the liquid nitrogen bottles in the front passenger seat. Mary drew a mixed reaction from farmers. One old-style farmer, who made his wife and children stay inside the house so they couldn’t watch when the AI man came to visit, was horrified – and quietly asked the
artificial breeding company not to send her out again. Most welcomed her, and one farmer who was especially protective of his young Jersey heifers, insisted she was the only one for the job, presumably because he assumed she had a smaller arm and was less likely to hurt his girls. “Most farmers were good, and you learned how to deal with all types,” Mary said. Mary’s husband Alan went on to retrain as a TAFE teacher and the couple spent three years in New Guinea where Alan taught animal and cropping skills in a vocational school. Alan’s appointment to the former North Shepparton Technical School in 1976 saw them
move to the Shepparton area and Mary developed her interest in showing dogs, leading to her role as a judge. She also worked at Target in Shepparton for 17 years. “From milking cows to making curtains,” Mary remarked – but that, as they say, is another story. Recently turned 90, Mary and husband Alan are in retirement in Shepparton. Daughter Jane Lloyd would be known to many Goulburn Valley people as a former primary school teacher who eventually became principal of Tatura Primary School, and son Jonathan lives in Tasmania where he works for Bendigo Bank.
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
MURRAY REGION // 5
New board members welcomed AT ITS annual general meeting held online on
October 21 Murray Dairy welcomed three new directors to the board. The new directors are farmer director Hamish Crawford, specialist skill director Phil Candy and co‑opted specialist skills director Jason Scott. Hamish said he wanted to join the board because it “continues to offer a broad range of resources to dairy farmers”. “Its ability to serve different farming systems and farming families at different stages of their dairy career is truly impressive and I want to be a part of shaping that into the future.” Jason, an agronomist, joins the board with key expertise in feed-base production and with a valuable connection to dairy producers and fodder growers in the region. He said he was keen to contribute to the strategic conversations on the challenges and opportunities for growing quality feed for the dairy industry. “I see the trial work conducted by Murray Dairy and its partnerships designed around driving profitability and sustainability for our region’s dairy producers, ensuring the industry can meet the requirements of society now and into the future, and I want to be an integral part of that process,” Jason said. Directors Tony McCarthy and Chris Thomas, who had both completed six years on the board, bringing tremendous knowledge, passion and vision for the dairy industry in the region, were
farewelled and thanked. New staff join the team There have been some new additions to the Murray Dairy team in recent months, with Bec Wyper and Russell Holman joining in June and Natalie Eckert joining mid-November. With the roll out of Our Farm Our Plan nationally as part of the Australian Dairy Plan commitment to increasing farmer participation on risk and business planning, Russell will work with farmers and consultants across the region in delivering this valuable program. Russell is well known to many, having worked in the region for a number of years in the service sector and is actively involved in developing regional sport. Russell is also coordinating the regional network groups, regional extension and education committee which highlight industry issues and opportunities. All farmers are encouraged to attend, please contact Russell at russellh@murraydairy.com.au to find out more. The Young Dairy Network is an important program for our next dairy generation. Bec has come on board as the YDN co‑ordinator and is passionate about developing opportunities for our younger dairying cohorts. The YDN program is valuable in providing technical training, social interaction and leadership development opportunities. In the Murray Dairy region, there are five YDN discussion groups and plenty of opportunities for
Hamish Crawford has joined the Murray Dairy board. Other new members are Phil Candy and Jason Scott.
farm owners, sharefarmers, farm workers and service providers to participate in engaging programs designed to meet their needs. To find out more and get involved, contact Bec at becw@murraydairy.com.au Murray Dairy was also delighted to welcome Natalie to the team. Natalie has previously worked as an animal health officer and then as an agronomist in the region, bringing valuable
experience and networks to her new role. Natalie will continue a focus on agronomy in working on the Fodder for the Future project and extend her skills into coordinating programs in climate, soils and water. Natalie can be reached on natalie.eckert@murraydairy.com.au To find out more about Murray Dairy’s activities and opportunities for dairy farmers, visit dairyaustralia.com.au/murray-dairy
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
6 // MURRAY REGION
Cows tell us what’s what THERE IS an increasing trend towards inten-
sifying dairy production by housing and fully feeding cows. This has been driven by a combination of factors, including: business expansion; access to land; volatility in water prices and availability; coping with hot or wet conditions; and wanting to improve cow comfort. Theoretically, farmers should be able to create a situation where cows are provided with adequate nutrition and an optimum climate conducive to milk production. This in turn should allow cows to calve down every year and live a long healthy life. Of course, the theory is always easier than practice. Once cows are in a new facility and consuming a formulated diet, there is often a gap between herd production targets and actual performance. A recently completed project by Murray Dairy took a group of farmers transitioning across to an intensive dairy system. The systems included dry-lots, loafing and free-stall barns with manure and sand bedding systems. As part of the series of events, Peter Havrlant from Aggregate Consulting worked with eight individual farmers and with a broader group via a workshop. Using the CowSignals approach, they looked at bridging the gap between potential of the system and the reality of current performance.
Well-maintained feed access is important.
How? By asking the cows. The farmers in the group were thorough and focused throughout their research, planning and project implementation stages. They sought expertise and advice from consultants and equipment suppliers, both locally and overseas. They
visited existing intensive operations to understand the challenges and what worked in these systems. The farmers aimed to invest in the right system to meet their needs, the needs of their herd and provide the best return on investment.
Once the cows are in and the new processes put into place, it can often be hard to step back and have a fresh look at how this system is performing. What is working? What adjustments are needed? Are these changes process and
We’re delivering for
We foster people through supporting the young dairy network and
provision of hiring and employment resources and training. We drive feedbase innovation through investment in Fodder for the Future project operating across six regional trial sites.
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We support farm business management through Dairy Business Network Groups and Discussion Groups, with over 260 participating businesses.
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
MURRAY REGION // 7 management-related or is further capital required? Peter was able to work with owners, managers and staff to pinpoint areas that were worthy of reconsideration. The common aim was overcoming ‘owneritis’, where we become narrowly focused on day-to-day tasks. This can lead us to becoming blind to the indicators, both good and bad, on how our cows and system are performing. There isn’t anything complex about the process — just a fresh set of eyes and a process allowing evaluation. The CowSignals review process focuses on three principles: Look, Think and Act. Look ‘Look’ starts with observations of the cows and system. What do we see? Are any cows waiting for feed or water? Are there crowded areas of a facility, areas cows avoid or cow flow issues? Why are cows standing but not eating, drinking or resting? Is there a lack of feed or excessive feed available? How prevalent is the situation, behaviour or problem? How does this situation vary between individual cows, different management groups or over time? Think ‘Think’ relates to reviewing these observations and potential causes. It requires mapping causative factors to determine the ultimate root cause for a situation. For example, why is a job taking multiple people to complete for cow group A and not cow
Farmers transitioning towards housing their cows find the CowSignals review process of three principles — Look, Think and Act — to be useful.
groups B and C? Cows are leaving feed due to contamination — how is contamination finding its way into the feed? This part of the process generally involved discussions with owners, managers and staff to gather further insights and develop a consensus. Act ‘Act’ does not simply relate to corrective action. Acknowledging what is working well is often more important to ensure changes are corrective and not a cause for further changes and complication. Involving staff in the discussion and problemsolving process builds a positive work culture and aids people buy-in to the solutions. If a problem was identified as consistent and having a significant impact on performance, corrective action was recommended. This included
simple changes through to complex actions requiring further review and monitoring. Observations Observations are focused on six key areas — feed, water, space, rest, light and air. By observing the herd at critical times we can identify potential issues and check the observations against cow time budgets (what is the herd doing across the day); physical measures like ambient temperature, humidity and airflow; and performance records like health records, reproductive performance, stocking rates, daily feed consumption, ration quality, herd structure and milk production. In future articles we will look at these key areas in specific detail. Lachlan Barnes, Murray Dairy
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
8 // NEWS
Always moving forward LEIGH ‘SKEETA’ Verhey and his partner
Angela Turner are proof that starting from a low equity base is no barrier to success. When they bought their farm — Marleigh Park, at Koondrook in northern Victoria — in 2005, they had a small herd of around 50 milking cows and nothing much except a dream and a determination to make a go of it. “You could probably say we started off in the worst position possible and on paper we were probably one of those businesses a bank shouldn’t have lent any money to,” Skeeta said. Through hard work and intimately knowing the ins and outs of the business, the herd has increased to 340 cows across 176 irrigatable hectares and the milk cheque now covers more than just the bills. They survived the milk price crash in 2009 and then six years later the Fonterra claw-back. Skeeta is proud to employ three workers — two part-timers and a full-timer — and is keen to facilitate a future pathway for new farmers into the industry. He firmly believes in working on his business from the inside out and finding a system that works for him. He is not interested in milking big numbers and running a labour-intensive system, so he is working on ways to expand his business with that line of thinking in mind. “I like to keep things simple and I am more motivated by running two 350 (head) farms and using them to help others get a start in the industry than going down the path of high stocking rates and investing in big machinery.” The three main principles for his own farm have always been stock, land and water. “You have to have stock for income, land to grow and water for security,” Skeeta said. He likes to have, at the very minimum, at least a third of his water requirements secured each year. They run a three-way herd consisting of Aussie Reds, Holsteins and Jerseys. “We run three breeds but we keep them pure; we don’t cross and we use all Scandinavian genetics, which works well for us and supports our pasture-based system,” Skeeta said. He has prioritised herd health and has been able to cut his overall herd costs over the past few years from $206 an animal to $162 (the northern Victoria average is $173). Skeeta is the first to admit his business skills have certainly come a long way from where they first started — continually analysing his own data and looking at the numbers is now critical to the success of the business. “When we first bought the farm we had only ever worked within another farmer’s business and we had never been shown how to budget and track costs, so it was all very new to us. “The real turning point came when we became involved in the Murray Dairy Focus Farm program back in 2010.” Focus Farm is a two-year program designed to help farmers understand the performance of their business. Farmers develop a business plan and set production and finance goals under the guidance of an experienced dairy consultant and support of a group made up of about 15 farmers and service providers. “We surrounded ourselves with people I could learn from, both young and old, and it was a real positive experience for us,” Skeeta said.
Leigh ‘Skeeta’ Verhey and Angela Turner run a three-way herd consisting of Aussie Reds, Holsteins and Jerseys.
Getting involved in the Focus Farm program, run by Murray Dairy, in 2010 was a real turning point, says Leigh ‘Skeeta’ Verhey.
“I didn’t necessarily want our team who would agree but rather challenge our thinking and management. “In the end the program became an important health check for my business every month and the lessons I learnt were crucial moving forward, especially through difficult times like drought and claw-backs.” He said working with real farm data and sharing it with the group was what made the Focus Farm program so successful. “It has helped me build some great relationships with people we entrusted with guiding our business forward and it has given us great leverage to adopt and engage other programs or learnings to do better.” It is now 10 years since he was first involved
in the program and he would love to host a catchup with the group. Skeeta is always looking to make use of available resources and Focus Farm isn’t the only Murray Dairy program he has participated in over the years. He has also been involved in the Dairy Business Network, Accelerating Change project and other courses like Cups On (milking) and ESKI (employment). “Murray Dairy also understand the importance of water and irrigation in our region and how pivotal it is for us and they are a good connector to other branches of the industry.” While Skeeta acknowledges there are difficulties within the industry, including how the next
generation can get involved, he remains passionate and believes there are still opportunities. “I would love to see something like the water guardian project reinvigorated; something to enable young farmers to start to build equity. “Back in the day we just relied on milk income but now there are other options to generate money including export heifers, dairy beef, water and even hay trading. “Dairying has come a long way over the last couple of decades. We understand the importance of stocking rates and storing fodder and how to better manage dry periods. “Dairying will never be perfect but we have developed strong skill sets and there is a lot of support and information to access, particularly through Murray Dairy to help as well.”
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
MURRAY REGION // 9
Wise words never forgotten BY SOPHIE BALDWIN
“MACHINERY RUBS together and wears
out while animals rub together and multiply” is a simple piece of advice from an elderly farmer that has stuck in the mind of Gundowring dairy farmer Pat Glass. Advice that has proven to be pivotal in the many decisions Pat and his wife Kerrie have made throughout their long and rewarding time in the industry. “I have always believed in growing grass and turning it into milk and if I was going to milk 100 cows they might as well be a 100 good ones,” Pat said. “I have never been a machinery person and I hate spanners.” Now semi-retired, Pat has some advice of his own to pass on. “Trust in your knowledge and skills, have courage to make a change and don’t hesitate.” Pat and Kerrie started their dairy journey working for wages back in 1983 after they were first married. The couple moved on to sharefarming, leasing and then purchasing their own farm at Rochester in 1996. “We were lucky the person we leased the farm off left some money in the property because the bank would have never given us all the finance,” Pat said. Farming in northern Victoria came with its own set of challenges including climatic conditions and water availability, which forced the couple into changing their business and management from what was, at the time, a traditional spring-calving herd. “We moved to an autumn-calving herd with annual pasture, which cut our production by 10 per cent but saved us a lot of money and water use, especially when the price of water went through the roof,” Pat said. “Our management was considered unviable at the time because we were feeding lactating cows without green grass and we challenged the norm.” However it was that change that allowed the couple to capitalise on a premium milk price when Dairy Farmers (the milk company) first came into northern Victoria. “At the time we were milking 180 cows and we were paid an extra $70,000 a year which was a lot of money back then.” This also gave the couple confidence in decision making moving forward. In 2004, they were looking to further invest and came across a 142 ha dairy farm at Gundowring, in the state’s north-east. They knew the area and the appealing 1016 mm rainfall, so in 2005 they packed up their 180-cow herd and moved to Kerrick Park. They purchased an additional 140 heifers and began milking 350 cows. This proved to be a difficult period as the farm was rundown and covered in so much rye-grass they couldn’t over-sow through the trash, which significantly reduced their ability to harvest and conserve fodder. This was also exacerbated by the 2006 drought. “We were selling heifers before we had even paid for them,” Pat said. “It was a tough time but we made it through and in the end our move enabled us to really grow our wealth.” Pat’s son Brendan and his wife Sarah have recently purchased the Gundowring farm and
In 2005, attracted by the reliable rain, Pat Glass and his wife Kerrie moved from Rochester to a 142ha dairy farm at Gundowring.
are now making the business their own. Pat has always been a firm believer in knowledge being the most powerful tool a farmer can have and he has always valued the advice and opinions of other farmers. “Dairy doesn’t fit into a box and the more you can learn from others the better farmer you will be.” Pat has always taken an interest in the industry and been heavily involved in advocacy including roles in Murray Dairy, Australian Dairy Farmers and Holstein Australia. “As part of my semi-retirement I have resigned from a lot of positions but I am still chair of Alpine Valleys Dairy.” Pat firmly believes the resources and information available through Dairy Australia and regionally through Murray Dairy are relevant and have helped him better manage his business over the years. “There is good information for farmers who want to tap into the resources and I know all I have to do is ring Murray Dairy’s regional extension officer Lachlan Barnes and we can get a Cups On program up and running in our area. “Completing the Feeding Pastures for Profit program fine-tuned my rye-grass growing skills which was pivotal for our profitability and managing a grass-based system.” Pat said there were a lot of other good programs which helped enhance farm business management and improve profitability including the Focus Farm project, the Young Dairy Network and supporting employment (ESKI) to name a few. The biggest threat Pat can see for the future of the industry is declining profitability. “Deteriorating terms of trades are currently being camouflaged by good seasonal conditions. “From 2010–2015 our business analysis showed our profit slowly diminishing, however between 2015–2020 the decline was far more rapid.” Pat said back in the early 2000s the Agriculture Department ran a program called Operation Mid Lactation to address the issue of production decline in milkers. “It was a powerful program which helped profitability of the industry immensely and I hope that we see more programs like that again;
Pat’s son Brendan and his wife Sarah have recently purchased the Gundowring farm and are now making the business their own.
Pat has always taken an interest in the industry and has been heavily involved in advocacy.
rising costs are a real challenge and we need to look at mitigating this in the future.” Pat himself is busy working on a climate adaption strategy with Alpine Valley farmers. It’s a partnership approach involving Victorian Government Community Climate Change Adaptation Program, Alpine Valleys Dairy Inc, AgBiz Assist, the North East Catchment Management Authority, Murray Dairy and the Federal Government’s National Landcare Program. He hopes it will gain further funding and
provide some real data and information for farmers to make informed climatic decisions in the future. Pat also believes the next generation must step up and into the advocacy space. “We can all say we are too busy but it is much easier to influence a decision before a change is made. “Young people must get involved; they can’t continue to sit on their hands and do nothing or they have no right to complain when things go wrong.”
DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
10 // MURRAY REGION
Ethel’s a hell of a lucky cow BY SOPHIE BALDWIN
ETHEL IS one of the luckiest Holstein cows
Britnee Smith with her beloved cow Ethel who is recovering well after breaking her leg.
in northern Victoria, after her owner Britnee Smith decided to take a chance on surgery to fix her broken back leg — despite the outcome being very much a gamble both physically and financially. Traditionally when a cow breaks its leg it often results in euthanasia, but Ethel was too precious to Britnee to let that happen. “I just love her so much and I had to give her a second chance,” Britnee said. And it seems that second chance is going to cost Britnee around $12,000. But she doesn’t care about that either. “People spend heaps of money on cats, dogs and horses and Ethel is no different to me and my family just because she is a cow,” Britnee said. Ethel wormed her way into Britnee’s family as a newborn calf. She spent the first six months of her life in the backyard and has always been super-friendly, ridiculously quiet and muchloved by Britnee’s children Jarvis, 7, and Mabel, nearly 2. Ethel had just given birth to her first heifer calf, Maizee, and was being kept back at the dairy when she decided to jump the fence to join the herd and broke her leg. “The Ky (Kyabram) vet was coming past and I asked her to meet me,” Britnee said.
“She took one look and said with the skin broken on both sides she couldn’t deal with it. “Knowing how much I love my cows she mentioned someone had taken their cow to the equine hospital in Shepparton and had success, so I decided to lift her into the horse float and get her over there.” The equine hospital vet had only treated one other cow with a broken front leg and it was smashed, not a clean break on an angle like Ethel’s, so they were very much headed into unchartered territory. “He told me it was touch and go and gave me two options; one was $20,000 and one was $8600. I decided to go with the cheaper option and see what would happen,” Britnee said. Ethel’s operation was on the night of October 7. The operation itself was a success but Ethel wasn’t too happy about staying at the hospital. Britnee said the vets couldn’t get over how well she responded when the kids came to visit. “She would immediately brighten up and try to get up when the kids were around so it was decided to bring her home and treat her.” Britnee’s boss rigged up a special hospital pen for Ethel and she, along with the Kyabram vets, have been treating her. Initially they had to lift Ethel up every day and she was milked once a day. Now she can get up on and her own and is milked twice a day.
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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 2021
MURRAY REGION // 11 She is currently giving 22 litres, which is pretty good considering the terrible start to her lactation. She was due to head back to Shepparton to have her pins taken out and to make sure everything is okay at the end of November. She will then face another six weeks in a cast. “It has definitely been a lot of hard work,” Britnee said. “We have had to re-bandage her leg daily and the vet recently cut her cast back because she has a rubbing wound and we need to look after that, as well as clean out her pen, put down clean bedding and make sure she gets lots of love and attention as well.” Britnee is the herd manager for Brett Dixon at Merrigum, where the business milks 500 cows. She does all the calf rearing, looks after the young stock and she can AI — although in her current role she doesn’t have to. “I work mainly with the animals because that is my speciality; I have nothing to do with growing grass or anything like that.” Britnee currently has 14 cows of her own and would one day like to have her own small farm with her partner Joel Willett. A lot of people have asked her why she would spend so much money on a cow and her answer is simple. “Life isn’t always about money. “I had a very challenging childhood and home life and I found healing and peace in my animals and I still do today. I had to give Ethel a chance.”
Ethel with her first heifer calf, Maizee.
Ethel getting VIP treatment from Joel, Mabel and Jarvis.
Above and right: Ethel is happy to back on the farm under Britnee and her family’s care.
Pins were due to be taken out of Ethel’s leg in late November.
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