West Vic Dairy focus farm sheds light on dairy practices

Dairy farmers Peter and Marnie Kerr run an operation with about 300 milking cows, and opened the gates to their farm to share profit, loss and the challenges they faced with their small dairy, as well as how they could work through investing and improving infrastructure.

West Vic Dairy lead regional extension officer Libby Swayn, said the idea behind the focus farm projects was to open up real expertise, and allow farmers to see the whole picture and compare what was happening throughout the industry.

As part of the project , participants are supplied with an expert farm consultant and a support network of other farmers and those from the industry to help with advice and difficult decisions.

"It's about making those next steps of where they what direction their business takes, and what the projects vary on what stage each farm is at," Ms Swayn said.

Each farm involved in the program sets unique goals and an overall analysis of the current way the farm is rn as a business to ensure they go toward achieving those goals.

Each farm has its unique goals that it sets at the start of the project and we always start the project with sort of like a SWOT analysis of where they are happening and what their goals are.

"For Peter and Marnie theirs was a little bit easier in the terms that they did the our farm, our plan program," Ms Swayn said.

"They sort of mapped out what their goals and their values were in terms of being involved in the industry,

"So then we've been able to work in with that while looking at what we can achieve over two year project."

Mr and Ms Kerr's farm was previously owned by their family, and after gradually increasing their share hold in the farm they now run their herd entirely themselves, they faced an undersized dairy for the herd size they ran and now intend to upgrade it with the guidance of the program.