On September 30, a group consisting of 5 RIST and 5 SW TAFE agricultural students headed off from South West Victoria for a 4-day intensive Gippsland Dairy Study tour. These students ranged from Certificate III, IV and Diploma of Agriculture students.
The first stop was Gippsland Jersey factory at Pakenham where students were given an insight into the marketing opportunities for milk/milk products, with a focus on high quality products, a specialised market based on the Jersey breed. Students got to see how the cheese and butter was made, and got to taste some samples.
Day 2
The group was up bright and early and on the road to visit farms in the Warragul region.
First stop was Dean Turner at Yannathan. Dean gave the group a very valuable insight into transitioning from managing a large farm of over 1,000 cows, to 50/50 share farming, then onto leasing properties. He was very open about the pros and cons of undertaking these business models. He had a very impressive turnip crop that he had planted in May- the cows have only begun to graze it over the past two weeks.
The group then travelled onto Grant and Leesa Williams’ dairy farm at Athlone. The group were very interested in the two Lely robotic dairies on the farm, particularly how this system appears a more natural way to manage and milk the herd. Grant is in the process of installing fully automatic Lely calf feeders as well. The other interesting thing to note here was Grants approach to pastures- he has sown multi species pastures and has not had to apply any N to these and is getting some very good results.
The final destination for the day was the Ellinbank Smart Farm. The students were very engaged in the projects the research farm has currently, of special interest was the Halter virtual fencing system which the farm has trialed. Many great discussions were had in regards to this project and costings and implementation were debated. The carbon neutral emissions trial was very informative, as was the Pasture 365 project aiming at finding forage mixes that could potentially provide fodder 365 days of the year.
The group headed onto Maffra for the night’s accommodation.
Day 3
This was to be a jam-packed day full of wonderful host farms.
First stop was Peter Neave and Kate Mirams’ property at Newry. This was an inspirational visit where students got to deep dive into all thing regen farming. To hear what Peter and Kate have been undertaking on farm, and the results they have been getting was amazing. Students got a whole farm tour to see the pasture development as well as the composition of pastures being used and trialed.
Next the group travelled just down the road the visit the Hussey and Co vegetable farm, Newry. This was certainly something different and new for all to see and hear about. The scale of the operation and market share/demands was very interesting. By far the most amazing part of the visit was the new laser technology used to eradicate weeds from the seedling beds, where it can identify weeds with pin point accuracy. Students were lucky enough to see spinach being harvested as well.
After lunch the group travelled to Ross Anderson’s property situated at Denison. Ross has a 500 cow herd on irrigation, where he focuses on the performance of his herd, and uses data to drive decision making. He is also looking into the Halter virtual fencing, so great discussions were had about the students experiences from the previous day at Ellinbank Smart Farm. Ross was kind enough to allow students to observe the afternoon milking, where a sheep/beef based Diploma of Agriculture student was able to have her first go at milking a cow!
The final destination for the day was Benn Thexton’s property at Nambrok.
Benn’s story was very inspirational in that he has purchased additional properties and offers his managers the opportunity to buy into the farm they work on after five years. This is a fantastic alternative to traditional share farming.
