Another farming family has taken the plunge into bottling their own milk.
However, this isn’t exactly a brave new world for the Cochranes.
A sixth generation Sunshine Coast dairying family, the Cochranes have been running the old Kraft Cheese factory in Kenilworth since 2017.
The local factory has won multiple awards for its cheeses, mousses, ice-cream and yoghurts.
Now the family and factory’s brand — Kenilworth Dairies — has made the leap to bottled milk.
The expansion is thanks to a $250,000 co-contribution grant supplied by the Queensland Government in 2019.
Helped by the money injection, Kenilworth Dairies was able to construct a brand new pasteurising system capable of handling large volumes of milk, a bottling plant and upgrade their quality assurance lab.
The first bottle of milk rolled off the production line in August 2020.
Kenilworth Dairies owner John Cochrane said the investment had turned the brand into a completely independent local dairy provider.
“With the help of this RED (Rural Economic Development) grant we are able to process 12,000 litres of milk each day and deliver products like milk, cheese, mousse and ice-cream across south-east Queensland,” Mr Cochrane said.
Queensland Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said Kenilworth Dairies had a strong reputation for producing high quality dairy products and was a well-known local dairy producer.
“The government’s RED grant offered a $250,000 co-contribution to purchase equipment to pasteurise their milk as well as expand the laboratory to monitor their products for quality and safety purposes,” Mr Furner said.
“Five people were employed to build a new plant and now that it’s complete, another 24 locals will get ongoing work here at the dairy.”
Milk is supplied to the Kenilworth factory from three of the Cochrane family’s own farms located in the Mary Valley.
Holstein, Brown Swiss and Jersey cattle are all used equally on the farms.