Lisa and Willy McKay combine Tasmanian and American farming heritage with a sprinkling of South Australia in the mix - but they’ve found their forever home in south-west Victoria.
For the past nine years, they have called Irrewillipe home and it’s proving to be an ideal farming area, though not without its challenges.
The biggest trial has been coping with the dry summers and lack of irrigation which they enjoyed in SA, but they have adjusted their calving pattern and their mindset to make it work.
Lisa grew up on a family farm in Tasmania; Willy grew up in Ohio USA where his grandfather milked cows. Willy was herd manager at a farm Lisa visited when she was in the US. They met, and the rest is history.
After Willy moved to Australia, they worked together on Lisa’s family farm for a while but her brother was also there and it wasn’t big enough to sustain everyone. They started looking to buy, ideally in Victoria but they couldn’t find a suitable option so instead opted for Mt Gambier.
“We moved half the herd and Willy and I farmed there and my parents and brother stayed in Tasmania,” Lisa said.
However, after three years they outgrew the farm and started the search again, eventually buying at Irrewillipe, which has since expanded by 25 per cent to 162 hectares on the home farm, along with 40ha leased land.
“It feels like we finally found home,” Lisa says.
“The community and area remind me of Tasmania but that was more a vegetable cropping area, here we’re surrounded by really good, progressive dairy farmers.
“We love it here.”
This spring they will peak at about 220 cows, mostly Holstein, but with about 20 Jerseys, mainly following Willy’s interest.
Numbers have stayed fairly consistent but extra land was needed for heifers previously sent out on agistment, and to reduce the amount of bought-in feed.
It’s a real family operation. Willy and Lisa basically run the farm, with the help of a casual worker, and their son Hugh, 6, is already showing great interest in the cows.
They also call on consultants and contractors as needed.
“We can’t justify a full-time employee year-round because we’ve got busy times and quiet times but we employ contractors, particularly with the harvest,” Willy said.
They continue to work with agronomist Rick Jordan from Mt Gambier.
“We keep it pretty simple,” Willy said.
“We concentrate on growing grass and getting as much milk as we can. Even in a tight year, we don’t really change what we do. Last year was a hard year and everyone was trying to save money, but if you skimp on fertiliser it’s going to cost you in the end.”
Instead of cutting back on inputs, they cut back on cows and bought in more high-quality hay and dipped into their silage and grain stocks.
They returned to the usual stocking rate within six months.
After moving to south-west Victoria, the biggest change was in calving, moving from a 50-50 split to 70 per cent autumn calving.
“Mt Gambier was different farming because we had irrigation so we could do 50-50 split calving,” Willy said.
“When we moved here, we realised it was hard to get milk in the summertime. We can’t grow grass here in the summer so you’ve got to buy in the feed to get the milk. That’s when we shifted the calving pattern.
“Now we calve most of our cows April-May when the grass gets growing. In spring we grow more than they can eat and we make silage and feed that through summer, but it’s not such good quality feed and it’s better to feed it to dry cattle. We don’t really push for production in summer.
“We’ve got a funny system. It’s high input, low-input, depending on the season. That was one of the hard things to get used to coming here because I like to get milk out of cows, but you can’t do it in summer here.”
The paddocks are mainly Italian ryegrass pastures. Efforts to introduce perennials haven’t been successful.
The herd averages around 11,000 litres and 800 kg/Ms, depending on seasonal conditions.
The dairy has a bit of age to it, but the16-a-side swingover with stall gates and cup removers is a good one-person operation. A new dairy is on the wish list but not yet in the planning stages.
They breed for type and select bulls from good cow families.
“We use mostly proven bulls,” Willy said.
“We don’t go for the new, hot bulls, we wait to see what their calves look like. I don’t mind being behind as long as I’m going in the right direction. That’s the way I breed my cows.”
They are also paying more attention to fat and protein, and appreciating improvements the Holstein breed has made on components.
“We’re not just looking at that, but we pay attention to it,” Willy said.
“What I’ve found suits our system best is not a big plus-for-milk bull but one that is plus for percentages of fat and protein.”
Herd fertility isn’t a problem.
“I’m pretty hard when it comes to culling.
“I’m a big believer that fertility is hereditable from the maternal side. A cow that is a hard breeder is going to have daughters that are going to be hard breeders. If they’re not in calf, you’ve got to get rid of them, especially when times are hard.
You have a better herd because of it,“ Willy said.
Their breeding work has paid off with several showing successes over the years.
This year they won Grand Champion Cow of the Holstein Show at the Victorian Winter Fair with Tomargo Recluse Door Apricot
Tomargo Recluse Door Apricot was bred by Steve and Erica Chesworth from Dubbo and purchased in partnership between Lisa and Willy and Nar Nar Goon farmers John and Cherie Gardiner.