Award-Winning Dairy Farmers
Congratulations to our award-winning dairy farmers who have won the inaugural 2019-2020 UDC Grade Free Awards: Mark and Karen Ryan, S.J. and B.J. Hines, Ian and Cathie Brown (pictured), Wotton Park and Patrick Rose Dairies. It is a huge accomplishment to be grade free for a season.
Congratulations also to Tim and Bronwyn Lenehan (pictured with their team members Eden Addison and Matt Howe), the Daffy Family and Mark and Karen Ryan, who have achieved Dairy Australia awards for low Bulk Milk Cell Counts (BMCC).
Thank you for your hard work, loyalty and dedication to farming.
Nullawarre dairy farmers Tim and Bronwyn Lenehan, as well as Ian and Cathie Brown from The Sisters, have been with UDC since the company began.
“We’re very happy to be part of the UDC team. I like that they are a locally family-owned business, the money stays in the local economy, and they employ local people,” Tim says.
“They are very supportive of the community, why not support a business that supports your local community? They’re very competitive with their
milk price and they’re approachable at any time. It’s all about that personal contact as well.
” These are sentiments supported by Ian Brown.
“They’re terrific really – you ring up and you can talk to Dean or Colin, not someone who’s interstate or overseas. They’ll come out and visit if you need. “They’re farmers themselves, it’s a personal relationship.
” Tim, his wife Brownyn, and their children Sean, 20, Sam, 18 and Zac, 15, milk 550 friesians off 1100 acres and are proud to be recognised in the top five per cent of dairy farmers in Australia, with the lowest BMCC Australia-wide.
“It’s particularly pleasing given the size of our herd, it’s often more difficult to achieve lower BMCCs as your herd becomes larger. We have a strict two strikes and you’re out policy – if a cow has mastitis twice its culled from the herd.
“We also have a cow monitoring system which alerts us to health issues in the herd, and we changed our milking shells and liners to a triangular milk liner, which has made an enormous difference.
” Ian and Cathie Brown, with their children Rebecca, 21, Andrew, 20 and Josh, 17, milk 230 friesians from 665 acres at The Sisters. They were in band one for for their milk all year.
“We didn’t go over our cell count all year, and we’re very pleased with that. We’ve learned a lot over our years of milking and make changes when required – we watch what we do and always keep an eye on our cows for mastitis.”