Barb Gear has been milking cows at Cedar Pocket near Gympie in Queensland all of her married life, her husband Rob grew up on the family farm and dad Ivan, at 85, is still helping out.
Farming in southern Queensland is not for the faint-hearted.
Throw in 500 cows, and you have a different set of problems, predominately related to climate conditions.
Living on the edge of the coastal climate means dealing with wet weather and consequent humidity is part of daily management, particularly during February, which is the wettest month.
Barb said to help mitigate impacts they calved all-year-round except for December through to February.
If it comes in wet and mastitis becomes an issue, cows are dried off early.
“Our focus is to keep cows alive, and if they are pregnant, we just dry them off — 90 per cent of the time they are fixed up, and we save the cow,” Barb said.
Barb is a big believer in automation, even though Rob is not so interested.
She said installing cup removers into the 22 swing-over was a game changer and enabled Rob’s mum to retire from milking.
The installation of Easy Dairy has helped with drafting, while Allflex SenseHub heat detection monitors in the cows ears have been a game-changer.
“We have put the monitors in our best genetics and the old ducks are just joined to the bull,” Barb said.
A shade cover over the dairy helps keep the cows cool, but Barb draws the line at investing in a million-dollar shed.
“We are debt free, and at 60, I am just not interested, that’s up to the kids if they end up taking over the farm,” she said.
Currently, two of the four children are home and working on the farm, while another one has expressed interest.
“Our succession plan is currently up in the air, while the kids work out what they want to do,” Barb said.
“We are contracted to supply Bega until 2027, and we will worry about it all when the contract finishes.”
The family operate a closed herd and breed bulls from American and European genetics.
They currently have eight bulls, which are used for older cows or cows with reoccurring mastitis.
Barb said she was focused on improving genetics and using AI on her young stock.
The building of a purpose-built calf shed capable of housing 50 calves has improved management and helped with mortality rates.
“We used to get a lot of sick calves from pneumonia as the nights can really cool down here,” she said.
“The calves stay in the shed for six weeks, and then they are robust enough to be moved out into the paddock — we don’t lose any calves at all now.”
The family business operates over 500ha, and at last count, is made of 35 blocks.
They have made the most of any opportunity to purchase any neighbouring properties, although Barb said, since COVID, land prices have skyrocketed.
“There was no way you could just come into this area and start farming,” she said.
“You would have to have some sort of step up, land is just too expensive, and it is very hard to find a farm to lease as a lot of people have transitioned across to beef.”
Barb said this year had been particularly wet, and it rained most days, humidity is sitting up around 80-90 per cent.
At the time of talking to Dairy News, the four-day forecast for rain was 5mm, 10mm, 30mm and 70mm, instead they received 300mm (with no flood damage).
While it is not unusual for the farm to flood, and for it to be cut in half, Barb said the seasons were changing.
In 2022, at the same time as the Lismore floods, the farm received 1600mm of rain in just eight hours.
“We lost all our fencing, 20 head were killed, and cows were found kilometres away stuck up in trees, it was a disaster.”
She said the first morning after the initial flood there were cows to milk, but only 100 showed.
“The farm was divided by very fast-moving floodwater, and as some of the cows tried to get across, they were washed away,” Barb said.
We found 40 or so cows in the silage paddock, and we had to work out how to get them across.
“Some of the trapped cows received a police escort through the floodwater,” she said.
Barb said Bega was amazing during that period, supplying a consultant who encouraged them to focus on the basics and get their feet back on the ground.
“It took months and months, and we had to be patient and take it one day at a time,” she said.
“We kept the feed pad full of silage, and we also used a lot of antibiotics and eventually things returned to normal.”
During that particular year, the farm was refenced three times.
She said Rob now watched the weather channel religiously, and they know they have a two to three-hour window to get their pumps out and move the stock up the hill if they get a flood alert on the nearby dam.
She said despite the challenges, the Queensland dairy industry remained fairly steady.
“As prices have increased, there has been more interest in the industry, but as I said before, it is costly and hard to find a way in,” she said.