DAIRYING touches the lives of a billion people around the world, with 121 million farms supporting a long tradition of milk production.
An incredible 600 million people live on dairy farms and 400 million additional people are supported by the full time jobs that are created from the sector.
In Australia, it’s the third largest rural industry with more than 6,000 farms producing 9.7 billion litres of fresh creamy milk a year.
Those are just a few of the staggering facts NSW Dairy Connect has highlighted to celebrate World Dairy Day today.
Chief executive officer Shaughn Morgan said the dairy industry directly employed nearly 40,000 Australians on farms and in factories, while more than 100,000 were indirectly employed in linked service industries.
Some of those people are fifth generation Victorian farmers the Nankervis family.
As part of World Dairy Day celebrations, Dairy Connect has launched a video detailing their progress in converting most of their 485 hectare family farm to dairy production.
Based at Corryong in Victoria’s North East, the family decided to change their beef cattle and peppermint oil growing and processing program to dairying.
Pete and Barb and kids Alex, Jane and Will worked closely and prepared detailed succession and business plans in a strategy designed to ensure the kids had a future in farming.
They now milk 390 cows, with the first milk hitting the vats last year.
Alex Nankervis said: “We milk all year round with autumn and spring calving. Aside from the odd relief milking job we had no dairying experience so it’s been a real learning curve.
“Easing that curve involved a shed and technology which was automated so it’d be easy to operate.
“We’ve had great service and support from Nichol Dairy Services – from choice of platform and technology to being there when we need them.
“That backup is really important; we’ve only been milking for six weeks but it’s going well.”
The Nankervis family video is available at www.dairyconnect.com.au and at www.digitalfarmtv.com.
