![Brad (left), Kelly-Brae, Boyanup, Gay and Vin Scott, Ashvale Pastoral, Boyanup, and Western Dairy extension officer India Brockman, Busselton, at the 2024 Dairy Innovation Day last week. Brad (left), Kelly-Brae, Boyanup, Gay and Vin Scott, Ashvale Pastoral, Boyanup, and Western Dairy extension officer India Brockman, Busselton, at the 2024 Dairy Innovation Day last week.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/126677566/d909f970-c6a8-4e4a-bde7-7ed184ba1f5e.JPG/r0_0_6000_4000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Resilience refers to the ability to cope with and recover from adversity.
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It's about bouncing back from tough times - and was the focus of Western Dairy's 2024 Dairy Innovation Day on May 16.
More than 200 dairy farmers and industry representatives gathered at former dairy Melville Park, Brunswick, to mark the event's 25th year.
Fitting to the theme, those attending heard stories shared by generations of dairy farmers, spanning across eight decades, who have all faced adversity through life in different ways.
For two 20-something dairy farmers, resilience was finding their feet in the industry, despite not coming off a family farm, for others it was carrying generational legacy when succession plans do not go to plan, or surviving - and losing almost everything - in the worst flooding event in a region.
Young dairy farmers Neroli Weatherhead and Jordyn Fry
Gone are the days where you have to come off a family farm to work in the dairy industry - and there are two young women who are proof of that.
Meet Neroli Weatherhead and Jordyn Fry, who are both 21 years old, and were part of the young farmer panel discussion, alongside Jack and Tom O'Farrell, at Dairy Innovation Day.
Ms Weatherhead did not grow up on a farm, but developed a love for the dairy industry at two years old, when she first stepped into her grandparent's single stall milking shed.
Despite Ms Weatherhead's family stepping away from the agricultural scene and her grandparents selling the farm, she decided to attend Denmark Agricultural College.
Graduating in 2019, she completed a certificate three in agriculture, with a focus on dairy, under a Western Dairy traineeship in Busselton - and she's been in the industry ever since.
"I had a lot of interest in the couple of Jerseys that we had as our house milkers," Ms Weatherhead said.
"I had an amazing dairy teacher at Denmark Ag, who took me under her wing and showed me the ropes, and I fell in love with the cows and the whole system."
Now Ms Weatherhead is studying nursing and midwifery in Bunbury, while also working at Kitchen Farms at Boyanup.
As the first person in her family to make it past year 10, she was encouraged by her parents to go to university and make use of her education.
Admittedly, she thinks they would prefer if she worked as a nurse or midwife, as opposed to working on a farm.
"The family farm is no longer in the family and going forward I think my parents would much prefer I stay away from farming," Ms Weatherhead said.
"They probably don't see as much opportunity for someone who does not come directly from a farm, hence why I am studying midwifery.
"I have almost finished my four-year degree and I don't want to waste it, so I'm not really sure what the future holds yet.
"In terms of progressing in the dairy industry, conversations have been had with the family, about potentially buying heifer calves and potentially contract milking."
Something that Ms Weatherhead is sure of is that she loves being on the dairy farm and around cattle everyday.
She works at Kitchen Farms when she is not at university, and does a few milkings during the week, as well as feeding, fencing and any other jobs that need to be done.
Ms Weatherhead is not a morning person, but watching the sunrise with the cows is what motivates her to get out of bed.
"I do feel torn sometimes," she said.
"I think my heart is definitely leaning towards dairy.
"I feel like midwifery and milking cross over in many ways, particularly given a dairy is really just a massive maternity ward and the gestation period for cows and humans is pretty similar."
Ms Weatherhead said her ultimate goal was to have her own dairy, however she said there would be some challenges financially.
Farming and agriculture is not in Ms Fry's blood.
As a child she would joke about working on a farm one day, but never thought it would be possible.
"I had never seriously thought about it, I didn't know ag colleges were a thing," Ms Fry said.
"No one in my family did any sort of farming, so I didn't think it was an option for me."
When Ms Fry was 18 years old, she worked in retail and hated it.
Desperate for change, she phoned up a number of different farmers in the Busselton area, asking for work.
A dairy farmer offered her a job milking cows, she accepted and immediately fell in love with the industry and what it had to offer.
"It was like a whole new world, I knew nothing and had to learn everything," Ms Fry said.
"It was really cool to start from scratch, but I wish I could have had the opportunity to learn more about the industry in school."
Now, and in stark contrast to retail, Ms Fry works at Stockdale Pastoral at Bunbury, milking cows and rearing calves.
She said being outside and taking care of the animals made the early mornings worth it.
"Working in a dairy has brought me happiness," Ms Fry said.
"I am outside working with animals, helping them as much as I can and learning from the people around me.
"I love what I do and the people I work with, the work environment is great.
"I am lucky to be where I am and to have the opportunity to grow, hopefully one day that will lead into a management role."
Ms Fry also hopes to encourage other young people to consider a career in dairy, no matter what their background is.
She said the industry was about more than waking up at 3am and working long hours milking cows.
"There are so many other ways people can be involved, whether that's caring for the cows, growing grass or harvesting silage," Ms Fry said.
"I want to show others that you don't have to come from a dairy, agricultural background or attend ag college to work in the industry.
"It is an option for them and I think more can be done to educate people on the different roles and jobs they can do within the workplace.
"Find what their interests are and help them get to where they want to be."
Retired Boyanup dairy farmers Vin and Gay Scott, Ashvale Pastoral, and nephew Brad Scott, Kelly-Brae
The Scott family has been milking at Ashvale Pastoral at Boyanup for the past 80 years, but when it came to deciding the farm's future, son Hayden was content in his chosen career.
Vin and Gay Scott said, "the goal posts changed" and instead their nephew Brad ended up carrying the generational legacy.
Mr Scott's parents purchased the farm in 1944, just after the war, having grown up on another property 10 kilometres down the road.
"We had six boys and two girls in our family - we are pretty competitive," Mr Scott said.
"The way mum and dad wanted to operate was that if one of us wanted to become a dairy farmer and expand on what they started, we would work together and help each other buy our own farms."
As the youngest of his siblings Mr Scott took over the family farm.
Machinery and labour was shared between his siblings, which reduced costs that other people might have when starting out.
When Mr Scott started out, they were milking six to seven litres per cow, compared to 32 litres per cow now.
The Scotts loved and were grateful for the life they had together on the farm with Hayden and daughter Naomie.
"I definitely believe in the saying you work to live, not live to work, so that was always our focus," Ms Scott said.
"We tried to work smarter at getting things done."
About 18 years ago, life took a turn when one of Mr Scott's brothers passed away suddenly from a heart attack.
It was then the family first started to think about life after milking.
"I thought, what the heck are we doing?," he said.
"So I did actually put the cows on the market and a couple of weeks later a buyer had shown interest."
Hayden was working down the road at the time on another dairy farm and asked if he wanted to return home.
He did and carried on milking for another 16 years, before the goal posts changed again.
In 2020-2021, life changed pretty quickly when Hayden became a dad.
It became more difficult to share the workload, particularly as the Scotts were planning on heading towards retirement.
"It took our daughter Naomie to help us realise that perhaps our farm succession plan wasn't going to plan.
"That threw us for a bit because that's what the plan was, but we couldn't have got to where we are without Hayden and sometimes that's what happens, plans change."
Ms Scott likened it to a grieving process and found comfort in reaching out to family, friends and industry representatives and staying connected.
However, she realised there was always another plan and that when one door closes another one opens.
"The Ashvale door has sadly closed for us now as far as milking goes, fortunately in that time, with our son leaving, Brad was able to help us have a bit of work-life balance," Ms Scott said.
"Then I think Brad started to enjoy milking again, which was lovely.
"We were very excited for him and his family."
Brad grew up on his family dairy farm Kelly-Brae, Gelorup.
He returned to the farm after school in 1996, however reached a point eight years later where he decided there wasn't much left in the industry for him moving forward.
"Me and my father Chris made the decision in the dairy one morning, milking, that we would get out," Brad said.
"After that my family and I moved to Paraburdoo for 10 years, where I worked fly-in, fly-out.
"I came home when the kids started high school and worked on a few different dairy farms with the passion to always get back on the farm with dad in the beef side of things.
"Certainly at that point I didn't think I would be milking cows again at any capacity."
Brad was wrong - after helping Vin and Gay, he ended up taking over the farm's lease.
"I was actually enjoying it," Brad said.
"I wanted to be my boss as such, and to a degree anyway.
"I also wanted to give the kids an opportunity to work on the farm and give them something to go with.
"Honestly I still don't know how I ended up there."
At breakfast one morning, Brad's wife Taryn asked him what he was watching on his phone.
He didn't want to tell her he was watching videos on robotic dairies, but eventually did and her reaction caught him by surprise.
"I didn't think she would want to go back to milking, however she was very supportive," Brad said.
"Then we went to a producer meeting and the way (an industry leader spoke) was fantastic, and was the tipping point of me making that conversation with DeLaval (a producer of dairy and farming machinery).
"I still hadn't spoken to Vin or Gay about this at this stage and it sort of went on in the background, before I did."
The Scotts did have another offer to take over the lease, but Brad's offer was too good to be true.
It meant Mr Scott could still play around with the cows and watch them, after 50 years of breeding.
"You love your cows and that's why you do farming," Mr Scott said.
"It is a big part of what you do."
Brad took over the reins of Ashvale, under the name of Kelly-Brae, and already his children have shown an interest in dairy farming.
It shows promising signs that the Scott family's generational legacy will continue.
"My eldest son Kyle was two years old when we left the farm, never milked cows and was never interested in agriculture at all," Brad said.
"Now he is basically running it for the next six weeks, while my shoulder is in a sling.
"To see what he's done in the past six months since he started with us has been phenomenal."
Other than plans to build a robotic dairy, Brad said future plans would be around maintaining work-life balance.
He said by not getting tied to the farm at certain times of the day, the family could work life around milking cows and take time off when they needed to.
And how have Gay and Vin gone taking a step back?
Not too well according to Mr Scott, who said it was always going to be difficult.
"I have been trying my hardest not to get in Brad's way," he said.
"But I am blessed that he is still prepared to listen and hasn't changed much at this stage.
"It is about what we have built staying in the family, that is the most important thing.
"The other morning, I was artificially inseminating the cows, Kyle was milking as usual, Brad's daughter Maddie was helping him and other son Lachie was out feeding the cows, which was pretty cool to see."
Mr Scott said while "goal posts sometimes move", it was important to keep the dairy industry ticking along.
He said far too many dairy farmers were lost from the industry due to several reasons.
"To have it go to the next generation, regardless of whether or not it was to our son, was a direction we need to consider to keep the industry ticking over," he said.
"I think anybody who wants to get into dairy farming should be given the opportunity.
"It is still being handed over to the next generation and that is the important part - even if it may be sideways and not directly."
![Paul and Sharon Weir, Lismore NSW, with Jacqui and Bob Biddulph, Kerridge Farm, Cowaramup. Paul and Sharon Weir, Lismore NSW, with Jacqui and Bob Biddulph, Kerridge Farm, Cowaramup.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/126677566/aef97a74-bfa9-4a97-a5ce-7ca1d60e87b0.JPG/r0_0_6000_4000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Fourth-generation Lismore, New South Wales, dairy farmer Paul Weir
Sunday, February 27, 2022 - it was the day that changed everything for fourth-generation Lismore, NSW, dairy farmer Paul Weir, his wife Sharon and their sons.
Two years on from the devastating Lismore floods, Mr Weir recounted the horror of watching his farm go underwater at Western Dairy's Dairy Innovation Day.
Mr Weir said floods were something he dealt with regularly, but the 2022 floods were like nothing he had seen before.
Keeping an eye on the flood warning updates, the Weir family expected water levels would sit lower than the 11.4 metre peak.
They had executed their flood plan as normal, moving cattle and machinery to higher ground above historic peak levels.
"We had never lost anything in a flood before," Mr Weir said.
"After hearing a radio report, I walked the girls back to the dairy yard and shut the gate.
"I left the dairy, machinery and outside lights on, as we normally did, so we could (watch the water)."
At 2.45am, Mr Weir's wife Sharon woke him and said the water had arrived.
The couple immediately realised the forecast was wrong, however were relaxed knowing that historically, flood waters did not rise any higher.
Not even an hour later, that changed when water entered the dairy, which was the highest point on the farm.
"It had never been there and had never been that high," Mr Weir said.
"We waded through waist-deep water to get into the dairy, but could tell it was rising fast and that we needed to get home.
"The water was noticeably deeper and the current was stronger, it was pushing me away from the house.
"I grabbed a post with the last two joints of my fingers.
"They say life is fragile, but for me the difference between life and death is five centimetres."
When the sun started to rise, Mr Weir watched on as cows fought to reach higher ground, breaking the gate chain.
For the first time in his life he did not want to be on the farm.
"It was just surreal - for me the emotion was of absolute failure, those cows relied on me to keep them safe and I failed," Mr Weir said.
"I was done."
The next 24 hours, the Weirs scrambled to save what they could and to get themselves, family members, friends and neighbours to safety.
By Tuesday morning, water levels had gone down and Mr Weir was able to fire up an old tractor, that was not damaged, to feed the remaining cows.
"The cows were spread across the property, as soon as they heard that tractor they came back," he said.
"I counted 170 cows, the last number I counted on Sunday night was 303-head."
As water levels continued to recede, the Weir family's losses became evident - fencing, machinery, silage and sheds were all destroyed and there was no power.
A marathon starts with one step, and their marathon had just started.
The video of Mr Weir's cows being swept away by the water went viral and support started rolling in.
A long-term friend and local dairy farmer moved Mr Weir's cows to his farm, where they remained for two months while the dairy was being rebuilt.
At one point he had received 85 phone calls in one day from complete strangers through to industry leaders right across Australia.
Looking back Mr Weir said it was a big part of what kept him going.
"In the weeks and months that followed, everything was hard, but we rebuilt," he said.
"We rebuilt the herd and introduced heifers and cows from well-bred herds.
"Eighteen months later we were back to our pre-flood cow numbers and it was a great season with record production, and we completed 10 kilometres of fencing.
"We have chipped away at rebuilding and there are still things that need doing today."
Mr Weir acknowledged that everyone had a different story or something that had happened in their life, which cemented who they were today.
He said what makes us all different is how we respond to these events.
Mr Weir said it was important to reach out to others in tough times and ask, 'how are you going?' and 'are you OK?'.
![Melville Park co-custodians Barbara Connell and David Doepel hosted Western Dairys 2024 Dairy Innovation Day. Melville Park co-custodians Barbara Connell and David Doepel hosted Western Dairys 2024 Dairy Innovation Day.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/126677566/64253f60-750a-48e4-808a-39aac1582dc3.JPG/r0_307_6000_3694_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Former Melville Park owner, John Shine
It seemed fitting that Dairy Innovation Day was officially opened by former Melville Park owner John Shine.
The Shine family's association with the dairy farm started over a century ago in 1918, when John's grandfather Jack purchased the property.
About 11 years later, Mr Shine's father took over the reins and invested in 100 Australian Illawarra Shorthorns.
"Black and whites in those days were declared water bags, but over time that changed," Mr Shine said.
"For our family, the dairy operation at Melville Park was always the most lucrative; however, like most farming businesses, diversification in other areas including potatoes and sheep, helped ensure there was a consistent income all year round."
By 1950, Melville Park had one of the bigger dairy herds in South West WA and milking was still done twice a day on a six-a-side walk through.
Cans of milk were delivered to Browne's factory, Brunswick Junction, on a one tonne truck.
When Mr Shine took ownership of the family dairy in the mid 1960s, Holstein Friesians had replaced Shorthorns, as the predominant breed for milking.
In 1979, the introduction of embryo transfer programs was a gamechanger for the cattle industry, and Melville Park was one of the first dairy farms in WA doing embryo transfers.
Mr Shine and his wife Andrea milked the last cow of their 235-head herd at Melville Park in June 2006.
"It was certainly a sad day to see them go," he said.
"However it was well planned, we knew we were going to get a strong market from Victoria and South Australia.
"We had an auction, with an average of $1700 per head, and sold just about everything.
"The trucks were called and arrived right on time, we had stretched our times to about 13 hours between milkings."
Nowadays Melville Park is owned by co-custodians David Doepel and Barbara Connell, who have rehabilitated the disused dairy and retrofitted it for an artisanal cheese factory.
The couple also have a farm shop and events space, have re-established a market garden on the property and will turn the historic barn into a barrel ageing room for a new distillery.