Taking the plunge

Brad said their starting milk price at the time of $4.80 was definitely not what they had in mind.

“We bought this farm thinking that there was a real opportunity for someone who was young and wanted to have a crack,” Brad said.

“We both had careers before entering the dairy industry – I was a cabinet maker and Janelle had continued as a nurse educator until recently.”

Currently milking 150 registered Holsteins, the family milk an average of 120 cows all-year-round.

The herd calves most of the time except for December, January, part of February and June.

“We have a break in June and then get back in to it in July.”

Brad said he preferred to have cows calving most of the year, which makes the workload easier to manage, particularly considering they only have help with milking three mornings a week.

They recently purchased an additional 33ha which they hope will stop the hay truck from driving through the front gate so regularly.

“We are vulnerable to feed costs including hay and water.”

Since purchasing the property, they have cut 240 rolls of hay and have been able to feed their heifers, freeing up more paddocks for grazing and silage production.

The majority of the new block was sown down to wheat and vetch and 7ha to rye-grass and clover for grazing.

“We are hoping to build a laneway this year for better access and to join the new block to the farm to help with paddock rotations in the future.”

Brad said they have a little bit of permanent water but rely heavily on the temporary market and an 80Ml water lease.

He said with temporary water prices sitting around $300 he is reluctant to water any paddocks with barley grass in them, instead choosing to focus on the better quality pasture.

He will also bypass growing any sorghum or millet and will instead buy in hay as needed.

“We have already secured a fair bit of silage we have grown and bought.”

When it comes to stock numbers, Brad and Janelle choose to sell any excess stock as yearlings rather than heifers, so they can focus on feeding and growing out the replacement stock they want to have in the herd.

“This helps us in the long run and ensures we keep a pretty good eye on our numbers and costs.”

The couple recently opened up their farm for the North West Sub Branch as one of their farm walks.

Brad and Janelle started Melaleuca Holsteins when they first purchased the farm.

They breed functional and high producing Holsteins and it’s Brad’s passion, to use classification to correctively breed all of their cows.

“We place a great amount of emphasis on cow families and pedigrees when it comes to the cattle we purchase and sires we select to improve our herd.”

There are no plans to increase stock numbers in the future, reducing debt and getting the new block paid off as quickly as possible is their main focus.

“We will keep numbers where they are because we are not looking to employ additional staff, we are comfortable where we are and we can still focus on our family,”

Brad and Janelle have four kids – Ethan 9, Conor 6, Leah 4 and Abbie 2.