Looking after our farm
It’s no secret that as dairy farmers, we rely heavily on the land beneath our feet to be able to produce great tasting milk, cheese and yoghurt for you to enjoy.
Our land has seen a lot of change and growth in the 70 years that our family has been farming here. In order to continue farming for another 70 years it is important that we adopt new farming practices that allow us to adapt to the ever-changing conditions of the environment.
It’s a case of sunshine, rain drops and cow manure!
Lake Boga is blessed with plenty of year-round sunshine so it made perfect sense to utilise this. Our Milk Enhancement Centre (MEC) and our dairy is fully powered by solar energy.
As an irrigation farm, every single drop of water that arrives onto our farm- whether that be water allocation or rain, is a precious resource; therefore it is essential that we try to use each drop more than once.
We achieve this by recycling the water used in the dairy and the MEC to irrigate paddocks. In addition to this practice, irrigation water used on paddocks is drained and recycled onto the next paddock in a water-logged game of dominos!
To maintain this standard of water efficiency we choose not to irrigate our paddocks during the Summer period due to the extreme temperatures we experience over those months. Instead we take advantage of the lush Spring growth and preserve excess feed as silage and hay. Not only does this preserve water and minimise waste, but most importantly allows our cows to relax in the shade closer to the dairy rather than trekking long distances in the heat. The happier the cow, the happier you will be with the taste of our produce!
When it comes to fertilizing our paddocks we have an abundance of natural fertilizer, in the form of cow manure, right beneath our gumboots. To incorporate the cow manure into the soil we have employed dung beetles who also assist in lowering our fly population on the farm. Along with the use of chicken manure, this act has proven to attract earth worms, improving soil health naturally.
Several years ago we fenced off the beautiful 5 kilometres of river frontage on our property to protect it from stock erosion and effluent. The native vegetation is now thriving and many new red gums are growing. The results have been inspiring. We are constantly planning projects to improve our farm and following the success we’ve seen in our river frontage regeneration, our next project will be to add more trees and shrubs across the entire the farm to encourage native birds and animals to make their home on our farm.