The Emmett family farm in Stanhope, Victoria has successfully moved into organics after 102 years as a Jersey stud and conventional dairy.
Current principal farmer Craig Emmett made the decision to go organic four years ago, influenced by the premium milk price and sustainable methods.
“We were in the in-conversion period for a while, which is where you are operating organically but are getting the conventional milk price still. That hit us really hard last year with the high water price and cost of production, but now we’re fully organic and things are looking good,” the 34-year-old fourth generation farmer said.
“I’m very happy and excited about the coming season. We’ve had a good winter and nice autumn, and if this spring keeps up it will be a wet one. We are on track to get 100 per cent water rights so all our running costs should be right down.”
The 90 ha farm is fully lasered, irrigated, and is productive enough to keep the 210-head milking herd fed year-round.
“Pretty much 100 per cent of our feed is home grown, which it essentially has to be because buying in organic feed is impossible,” Mr Emmett said.
The property’s smaller size is a reflection of its origin as a solider settlement, given to the Emmett family after World War I.
“We got it in 1918 but the dairy didn’t start until 1929. There was a bit of mucking around with fruit trees and the family had a shop in town called Emmett’s Hardware,” Mr Emmett said.
The family’s multi-generational affinity for Jerseys began back in the days of hand milking.
“The Jersey was the original house cow, back when you only had 10 or twelve of them, and in those days it was all about the cream content and not the high liters,” Mr Emmett said.
The original milking shed still stands on the farm, complete with a handful of stalls where workers milked by hand.
“We use the old shed as a place to do AI and keep the crush chute now,” Mr Emmett said.
“It’s in a bit of a state.”
The Jersey stud, started by Mr Emmett’s great-grandfather, is less central to the farm’s operation these days, and Mr Emmett said he hardly used bulls anymore.
“They can be such a headache and a hazard,” he said.
“The mop-up bull I had last season was terrible. I didn’t trust him at all and sold him after two or three days. He was always holding cows up at the gate and turning to you looking like he was going to have a go. The bull I got after him was just like one of the cows — and that’s how I like it.”
Now that he is farming under organic principals, Mr Emmett said he was focusing more on health traits in his herd over milk production.
“On organic farms if you use antibiotics you can’t use the milk from that cow for six months, so I’m focusing on getting robust and hardy cows and moving away from high production,” he said.
Mr Emmett’s parents Gordon and Lyn still live on the property and dabble in farm affairs, but are becoming more and more hands-off.
“Dad still does some irrigation and tractor work, and Mum does a bit of bookwork,” Mr Emmett said.
“But they are doing their own things as well. They just bought a new caravan; it looks pretty good, too. Now they just need something to tow it.”
Outside the family, one full-time worker is employed to staff the farm’s 19-year-old herringbone dairy which is on track to receive a slight facelift.
“We’ve gotten a $18,000 grant from the Victorian Government to make the dairy more energy-efficient,” Mr Emmett said.
This includes a variable speed drive on the vacuum pump, a 13 kW solar system to heat hot water, and a 16 kW solar system to run a bore pump.
“We’ve currently got 25-year-old solar panels on the dairy’s roof. It’s a buzz box of a 6 kW system,” Mr Emmett said.
“It’s been handy over the years.”
The next step for the farm is the introduction of dung beetles which Mr Emmett hopes will improve soil quality, and experimentation with biochar, a natural feed additive recorded to increase milk productivity by 1.5 liters.
Mr Emmett is certified by NASAA Certified Organic and supplies ACM.