Dairy pioneer puts the industry under a spotlight at annual conference

Mr Pyle was the keynote speaker at the FUTURE Dairy conference, hosted by the Dairy Industry Association of Australia, at Flemington Racecourse last week.

Mr Pyle, who turns 90 in the coming weeks, first got into agripolitics in the 1960s after 20 years of subsidies resulted in overproduction.

He started as a sharefarmer with wife Bev in 1957, and introduced artificial insemination to the farm in 1959.

He joined the Warragul AB Co-Op Board in 1962, and within 10 years was the president of the newly-formed United Dairyfarmers of Victoria.

"I happened to win the election by 10 votes and Doug Miles became my deputy," he said.

"We did a lot of things, we had to make a lot of changes, and you can't beat economic pressure for motivation."

He said they were able to achieve their goals and help support Australia's dairy industry.

"She is the reason we're all here, the cow," he said.

"The Friesian cow and the Jersey cow are the two most-prominent breeds in the nation.

"A cow has to be beautifully built because she walks twice a day up to the dairy, and twice a day up to the paddock."

He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2002 for his work in the dairy industry, development of new markets, and his encouragement of education, training programs and technological advancement.

"Our dairy has changed rapidly," he said.

He said by 1979, milk production had lowered and the Australian Dairy Herd improvement scheme was launched.

"These men all discovered they could earn a living and it was a better way of living life, so we had a massive change," he said.

"We dropped a billion litres, and we did not get back to that level until 1992."

He said he expected the dairy industry's future changes to include farm and herd size, dairy beef, technology, impacts on milking sheds, staffing levels, pasture management, production and exports and education.