The Business of Dairy

Welcome to this episode of The Business of Dairy . In this live recording from the 2026 Raising the Roof conference in Shepparton, Victoria, Claire Waterman from Agriculture Victoria and Sheena Carter share the latest update from the Total Mixed Ration Feeding Systems – Dairy Farm Monitor report. Covering the 2024–25 financial year, the report now brings together nine years of analysis, with insig...

Dairy farmers and farmers generally are facing significant challenges regarding their autumn sowing plans due to high fuel and fertiliser costs because of the war in the Middle East. Decisions need to be made by farmers to enable them to minimise the effects of this situation on pasture and herd production and ultimately financial performance. Nathan Jennings from the North Coast Local Land Servic...

Australia’s dairy sector is rich in performance data, and herd recording remains a key source of insights for on-farm decision-making and tracking national herd trends. In this episode, host Sheena Carter is joined by Michelle Axford (DataGene) to explore key takeaways from DataGene’s latest Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Report, including emerging trends in herd performance and how genetics an...

Starting out as a milker and rising to herd manager of 900 cows, Tegan Gilfillan’s career is a true dairy success story. With more than 18 years spent on the one farm, Tegan has grown alongside Speldon Partnership, owned and operated by the Maslen family in the New South Wales Mid Coast region. Today, she leads both livestock and people, managing a large herd and a committed team of staff. In this...

This month we revisit one of our very early episodes which was released on the 1st December 2023 which was a particularly dry period across most of NSW and other regions. My guest was Neil Moss, a veterinarian and consultant with Scibus.  The focus of our discussion was on heifer management in dry times and while we currently have much of southern NSW, Victoria and SA who have been managing very d...

The 2024-25 financial year was one of extremes for NSW dairy farmers with extraordinarily wet conditions in the North and significantly dry conditions in the South. Despite these challenges, average profitability on our NSW Dairy Farm Monitor farms was above the long-term average for the 5th year in a row. Average Return on Total Assets managed was 4.3%, down slightly from the previous year of 4.5...

This month we continue the theme of planning, not business planning but farm development planning and approvals. My guest, Wendy Goodburn, a NSW DPIRD Land Use Planner joins us to explain the development and recent release of a fantastic, freely available online tool called myFarmPlanner. myFarmPlanner assists farmers, planners, consultants and local government with the pre-lodgement process for d...

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” This is a quote from Dwight D Eisenhower who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe in WWII and also the 34th President of the United States. What he as saying is that a plan is a guide that can often change in the heat of battle, but because there is a plan it means different risks and scenarios have been thought through, you kn...

Farm businesses in some parts of NSW have experienced some very challenging weather events throughout 2025 including ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in March and the East Coast Severe Weather event in May. When disasters of this scale occur and they are declared a severe weather event, the NSW Rural Assistance Authority (RAA) is the agency that administers funding made available by the state and federa...

What is over-capitalisation, what does it look like on a dairy farm and how does it impact your business performance? It is important to be aware of how over-capitalisation can add to your business’s cost of production – adding to both cash and non-cash costs. This month, updates have been provided on average depreciation and interest costs as we revisit one of our very early podcast episodes. The...

How do you tell if your dairy business is heading in the direction you want it to? Is it ‘gut sense’ or can you quantify it? MiniMilkBiz is a tool that we have recently updated that allows you to generate some rich physical and financial reports to see how your milking herd is currently performing. This episode explains MiniMilkBiz, what information is required and outlines the two key reports tha...

As Australian dairy farms have expanded and herd sizes grown, the demand for skilled labour has increased —but finding local workers can be challenging. In this episode, we explore how employing overseas staff through various visa options and the Dairy Industry Labour Agreement can help fill the gap. Migration agent Fadi Malek, who is Director of Global Skilled Employment Services and NSW dairy fa...

Producing milk with less lactose – why might this be important? Our guest this month is Juan Garguilo, one of my NSW DPIRD colleagues. Juan has been involved in a number of research projects as part of the NSW Dairy Up R& D initiative and if you are a long-term listener of this podcast, you will have heard his Argentinian accent before! Juan, in conjunction with other well known dairy research...

We are now entering milk pricing season in the Australian dairy industry, which means there will be plenty of headline news as we head into milk processors announcing prices on the 1st June as required under the mandatory Dairy Code of Conduct. Joanne Bills, Director of the Global Insights team with Ever. Ag (Freshagenda) outlines their forecast around milk pricing with particular reference to the...

Over 170 dairy farms across SE QLD and the North Coast of NSW were impacted by severe flooding and wet conditions as a result of Tropical Cyclone Alfred in early March this year, 2025. This resulted in losses of power, pasture and crop and other feed losses, for some farms a period of time where milk was unable to be picked up and infrastructure damage on farm and off farm such as land slips impac...

Too hot, too dry, too wet - seasonal conditions can be challenging to manage for those on the land. Forecasting for the season ahead can be difficult but is important when planning what you will do now or in the coming months. The NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s Climate team have some excellent freely available resources including a recently released Drought Forecas...

  Are you a farmer or interested party looking to undertake a development on your dairy farm? Planning farm developments is complex and involves planning and assessment requirements which can be tricky to navigate. This month my colleague Zita Ritchie discusses the recent release of the NSW Dairy Development Guidelines with Clare Fitzpatrick who is a renowned and respected planning consultant with...

The 13th year of the Dairy Farm Monitor Project in NSW was one in which strong milk prices managed to hold gross farm incomes relatively stable. Increases in operating costs reduced average Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) relative to the previous year, with the most noticeable impact coming from purchased feed costs. On average, profits for the 36 NSW Dairy Farm Monitor Project (DFMP) part...

Very hot – that is the forecast for the summer ahead. Heat has immediate impacts on the performance of our dairy herd and pastures, but it also impacts other industries we rely on such as the broadacre cropping industry. Extensive work has been undertaken by the NSW Department of Primary Industries Climate Vulnerability Assessment program and also our own Dairy Unit through the Storm and Flood Ind...

Feed costs are the highest operational costs in a dairy business, so it is vital that we manage these well in order to enhance our farm’s profitability. We are currently well into a somewhat m­ild spring here, in most regions of New South Wales, so thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit some earlier podcast episodes on key aspects of profitable pasture management and silage making. The...

Late in 2023, a group of dairy farmers from across NSW were interviewed about their experiences, decisions made, support networks and lessons learnt following a number of recent natural disaster events, including the 2021-2022 floods. Tori Alexander (DPIRD) and Nikki Reichelt (University of Melbourne) share some of the findings from these interviews and the key challenges and successes observed.  ...

NSW dairy farmer Brad Winzer shares his journey, moving their well-established family farm from Northern Victoria to the Mid Coast of New South Wales – the reasons why, the differences between farms and the challenges they faced. He outlines the key support people he uses in the business, how he manages and monitors the performance of the business, and the things he focusses on to drive a profitab...

This month’s episode focuses on a project looking at intensive dairy systems in Inland NSW and Northern Victoria over the last 7 years. This has provided the industry with quality foundational information on the profitability, cost structures and risks of these systems. Claire Waterman from Agriculture Victoria and Sheena Carter (NSW DPI) led the project for their respective regions and were recen...

Feed costs are typically the largest component of operational costs in a dairy business, typically making up 50 – 60% of total costs, depending on feeding system, seasons and conditions. Hence it is vital that what is being fed to the cows results in good milk production. David Barber, DairyNEXT nutritionist joins us this month to discuss the important topic of feed conversion efficiency. He outli...

The use of a structured approach within a NSW dairying business to assist with decision making and risk management, is discussed this month with Kay Smith from Bulahdelah. The Smiths have been operating a family dairy business for over 40 years and 5 years ago, faced with a number of challenges, were weighing up their future options. One of these involved a significant change to the business requi...