Julian and Dianne have cared for the land and their animals since they starting farming in 1981.
One of the highly visible aspects of their multi-faceted approach towards "regenerative" farming has been the planting of native trees to combat erosion, provide shelter for their cows on hot, windy or cold days and provide a habitat for native animals to thrive.
While many farming areas are still struggling for rain we've finally had some luck. We recorded over seven inches of rain in June and around five inches in July.
We were desperate and this much needed rainfall has filled up the dam that we enlarged only a few short months ago.
We were fortunate to get over five inches of rain in the first half of June which is just what the pastures needed! The mole drainage - spread over 20 acres and positioned higher than the dam - have delivered more water to our storage (dam).
Approaching the end of autumn and rainfall has been extremely low. It's going to be a very difficult time going forward if farms don't get 3-5 inches of rain in the coming weeks to get feed growing for our cows and water to top up the dams.
Watch as Julian talks more about water challenges for farmers in South West Victoria in this month's journal.
Do you know how many litres of water dairy cows drink each day?
In this month's journal Julian touches on the importance of dams in farming and the movement of water from dams to tanks to troughs to cows to keep their herd hydrated.
In this month's journal Julian takes us on a tour of a very dry farm with not much feed value in its pastures.
Paddock rotations have been stopped and the herd is being kept close to the dairy and grazing off a crop of millet and rape as well as silage wrapped last Spring that is now being fed back to them to reintroduce protein into their diet.
In our first dairy farm journal for 2025 Julian announces that after 52 years of farming he has handed the farm over to his son Luke which gives Julian more time to focus on cheesemaking.
In our final journal for 2024 Julian takes us on a tour of the pastures and shows us the crops planted in October to provide the cows with protein over summer.
The two year old cows have also done some training to become familiar with the dairy before calving which will make them less nervous (after calving) when they arrive to be milked for the first time.
In this 11th edition of our dairy farm journal Julian talks about this critical time of year when farmers cut their pastures to make silage. The ability to make silage on farm - which is dependant on good rainfall and weather - reduces the amount of hay that has to be bought to feed cows, and therefore reduces input costs and helps farms remain financially sustainable.
The weather keeps us farmers on our toes! Despite good winter rainfall that allowed us to grow a lot of grass for our cows to feed on, there's now TOO MUCH moisture in the ground. We need the grass to dry out a fair bit before cutting it to make silage, a valuable source of nutrient rich feed preserved and stored for use in the drier months when there is less grass on the ground.
In this edition of our farm journal Julian explains the various initiatives and investments he and Luke have put in place to capture and secure water every time it rains.
In this month's farm journal we take a closer look at the "Mooternity" Ward, our undercover #calving pad we built way back in 2001! We relocate expectant mothers to the comfort of the Mooternity Ward from the wide open, unprotected paddocks shortly before they're due to give birth.
In the 7th edition of our monthly farm journal Julian reports that solid April rain and warm weather has combined to produce a lot of feed (lush green grass) for our cows during May/June.
After the driest three months in memory the farm received around 90 millimetres of rain during April. As a result grasses have bounced back, providing precious green feed for our herd!
In the latest edition of our monthly dairy farm journal Julian reports that he doesn't remember seeing the farm this dry in autumn in his 43 years in Cooriemungle on the Great Ocean Road.
When cows get to within 10-12 days of calving they are bought in to the “Mooternity Ward” and fed a special feed of grain.
In this edition of our farm journal we'd like to show you our approach to subsurface drainage using mole drains.
Soils can be variable: from sandy types that respond quickly to rain and drain freely (but also dry out very quickly), to heavy clay soils which can be very slow to drain and will hang on longer when rain ceases.
We're delighted to launch a series of educational videos with Regional Rising to provide customers with behind the scenes access to life on our single origin dairy farm along the Great Ocean Road.
We’ve had a very mild spring with cool temperatures and a bit of rain. This has meant grass has continued to grow, allowing us to make a lot of ‘silage’.
A fermented grass high in protein and energy, silage is packaged up and stored to feed cows later in summer when conditions are drier.
We "dry off" our cows during December and January following roughly 300 days of milking.
Drying off is very important and means we stop milking for 7-8 weeks to give the mothers a break before they give birth to their calf (calving).