Hamish Crawford’s farm is no stranger to battling.
The land is sloped, the 30-a-side herringbone dairy is too small, the chiller fights to keep milk cold in summer, the government hasn’t made anything easy and the family is outgrowing the old farmhouse.
Some Dairy News readers might find all these challenges very relatable.
“I’m trying to be a modern farmer and keep the milk safe, I’m not trying to make excuses,” Mr Crawford said.
Custodian of nearly 800 cattle, Mr Crawford is kept busy managing the farm and five workers.
The northern Victorian farmer attributed his success so far to his local Dairy Business Network.
“It has been very helpful and it keeps me disciplined. It helps me spend money right,” Mr Crawford said.
Dairy Business Networks (DBNs) are closed groups of farmers and a consultant who meet to discuss farm finances and business strategies.
“We get to compare each other’s figures. It’s been really good over the years, because whenever I get a bright idea it brings me back to reality,” Mr Crawford said.
Recently Mr Crawford received a $29,735 Victorian Government grant to improve his farm’s energy efficiency.
“The process was a nightmare, quite honestly,” he said.
“I’m going to have to spend $58,000 to get the $29,000. I wasn’t even sure I was going to get it because it’s been so long since I heard anything from them.”
Mr Crawford’s main goal when applying for the grant was to improve his milk chilling system and install a capable solar system on the dairy.
The Victorian Government watered down both projects because they didn’t directly improve the energy efficiency on-farm.
“I applied for a $80,000 chiller because I’ve been having issues cooling the milk over summer and Freedom Foods is strict about getting the milk down immediately,” Mr Crawford said.
“But it got rejected because it was no more energy efficient than a sub-standard milk mister. From my perspective a milk chiller would have given me piece of mind and gotten the milk to 18 degrees instead of 24, but I understand.”
Another upgrade was a variable speed drive on the vacuum pump, which will allow the farmer and his staff to slow down the milk as it flows into the vat pump instead of “going like a rocket all the time”, according to Mr Crawford.
The solar power system was originally going to be 33 kilowatts but got knocked back to six.
“Six kilowatts is barely big enough for a house, but they wouldn’t go with 33 kilowatts because they calculated something like 71 per cent of the energy generated would be going back to the grid,” Mr Crawford said.
“They decided putting power into the grid wasn’t a good use of taxpayer money.”
Mr Crawford bought his current farm, near the dairy town of Tatura, in 2010.
“Previously I was working on my parents’ farm, which is next door. I levered that connection as much as I could,” he said.
“At purchase it was pretty run down. None of it was lasered and now it’s all lasered.”
Some of the land is “heavy country”, which Mr Crawford is currently spreading gypsum on to lessen the impact of the loam clay.
“It is well drained but slopey,” he said.
Over the past decade, the 125 ha farm has accumulated another 113 ha from neighbouring properties.
Mr Crawford’s wife works in nearby Shepparton as a physiotherapist and wisely keeps herself out of most farm matters.
“She is 90 per cent work, 10 per cent farm I would say, and on top of that she’s a mother,” Mr Crawford said.
“She’s started talking about a new house since the old farmhouse is in a bit of a state.”
The farm’s 2001-built dairy is “a bit small, but a good dairy”.
“We’ve added an auto-drafting gate and it has three-phase power but at the end of the day we’re trying to milk 500 cows in a 300-cow dairy,” Mr Crawford said.
The herd is 85 per cent Holstein and 15 per cent Jersey, an equation with no rhyme or reason.
“I don’t really know why I have the Jerseys, they’re just there. I don’t think about them much and so they get to stay,” Mr Crawford said.
“They say your best cows are the ones you never notice, so I’m going to steal that line.”
The farm runs an autumn and spring calving system, spring being its busier season.
“I have 11 bulls on the property, most of them Jersey, who do mop-up and are kept with the heifers,” Mr Crawford said.
In terms of herd goals, Mr Crawford is all about “trouble-free cows”.
“I look for cows who calve easy. I spend lots of money on genetics, I use a fair bit of genomic semen and that’s been worth the risk I think.”
Over the past few seasons, the farm has been buying in more feed than it grows, mostly vetch hay, due to the high water price making it too expensive to irrigate.
The upcoming seasons are looking far better for Mr Crawford, with a good winter done and a wet spring under way alongside 100 per cent water rights looking more and more likely.