Warrnambool’s inspiring dairy farmers named: Renata Cumming, Josh Philp, Liam Allan and Liz Mackley

From farmers with generations of experience to young men and women who have found their feet in the industry, see Warrnambool’s most influential dairy farmers here.

Riverbank Farm co-owner Josh Philp with son Hugo.

There are many inspiring dairy farmers in Warrnambool and surrounds helping to bring food to your plate.

Leader spoke to farmers around the region to learn what drives their love for the dairy industry and their passion for agriculture.

Here are some worth celebrating.

Riverbank Farm co-owner Josh Philp with son Hugoin Garvoc.

Josh Philp, Riverbank Farm Garvoc

Josh Philp who co-owns Riverbank farm with his wife Lilliana has grown up on dairy farms his whole life.

Josh was brought up on his parent’s dairy farm in New Zealand and when they moved to Warrnambool in 1996, his family bought Riverbank Farm in Garvoc.

Mr Philp went on to study an agricultural business management diploma at Marcus Oldham College after finishing school and now co-owns Riverbank Farm.

The farm milks 800 head of cross bred Jersey, Friesian and Red cows with four full-time employees.

The farm supplies around 5 million litres of milk a year to Union Dairy Company (UDC).

Mr Philp said the lifestyle of dairy farming, along with its rewarding challenges are the benefits of working in the industry.

“I didn't work on dairy farms for six or seven years after school but I could see the benefit in the lifestyle, being able to have flexible hours and be able to do things with your family and stuff like that,” Mr Philp said.

“I think the day to day challenge of continually trying to improve things and be better than you were the day before or the week before and I guess exploring new opportunities is what I love about the dairy industry.”

Mr Philp enjoys implementing new and innovative ways to improve Riverbank farm, including trialling 10 to 7 milkings — where you milk 10 times in 7 days instead of 14 times in seven days which is the standard process.

“We trialled it at the end of last lactation. It was great for staff and great for animal management side of things over the summer,” Mr Philp said.

“We're going to try and extend it out from the start of August this year.

“It’s something that won’t fit every farm or every breed of cow but for the way we farm and for our cows I think it’s can fit in quite well.”

Renata Cumming from Scotts Creek Dairy Farm.

Renata Cumming

Renata Cumming is a co-owner at Scotts Creek Dairy Farm with partner Matt Grant, while also working for Open Food Network.

Renata studied agriculture at Dookie College at the University of Melbourne before working in the dairy industry in 2008 across multiple farms in Victoria.

The farm milks a herd of 430 cows, primarily Holstein and operates two dairies which supply to Fonterra.

The farms milk goes to Woolworths, Western Style butter and the Fonterra milk factory in Cobden.

Ms Cummings said she never thought of doing anything else other than working in agriculture.

“My uncle and aunty have a sheep property in northern Victoria and I spent a fair portion of my weekends and holidays growing up on the farm, I just preferred being on the farm to pretty much anything else,” Ms Cummings said.

“I don't really think I’d ever thought about doing anything but being in the ag industry.”

In May Ms Cummings received the 2022 Young Dairy Leader of the year award at the West Vic Dairy South West Dairy Awards.

Ms Cummings was partly nominated for the award due to her co-founding of a new conference called Cream of the Crop which focuses on women in dairy.

Ms Cummings also demonstrates her passion for farming through an Instagram account @farm.garden.table educating followers about the industry along with seasonal eating.

“I personally felt like a lot of consumers were disconnected with where food came from, so I guess it became pretty important to me to, I’ve always felt like agriculture is such a primary industry — we all need food to survive,” Ms Cummings said.

“I’ve always been quite attracted to helping to spread the message about where food comes from and how food is produced because I think that that connection to food is really important.”

Liam Allan, a Terang share farmer.

Liam Allan, Terang share farmer

Liam Allan has grown up around his grandparents’ dairy farms, and now share farms in Terang with owner Paul Maloney.

At the age of 22 Mr Allan became a share farmer after working in the industry across the Warrnambool region and studying at RIST.

Mr Allan is now 26 and runs the Terang dairy farm milking 280 Friesian, Jerseys and cross breed cows supplying to Bega.

Mr Allan is a previous recipient of Young Dairy Leader in the South West Dairy Awards.

“My grandparents had dairy farms … as kids we were always at nan and pas on the farm, helping pa milk,” Mr Allan said.

“Once I got a bit older and I could do it myself I got a job doing that and never looked back.

“(I love) the challenge of it, and I suppose what you put in is what you get out of it, like being able to feed cows well, look after cows — and grow assets.”

Liz Mackley Farmhand from Hawkesdale farm 2022

Liz Mackley

Liz Mackley is a farmhand at a Hawkesdale farm owned by corporate milk producer Aurora.

Ms Mackley started working in the dairy industry only 18 months ago after moving from England with a desire for a career change from regional newspaper journalism.

Ms Mackley said her love for cows and the desire to find a job during the pandemic led to becoming a Win news journalist for Gippsland before becoming a farmhand in the south west.

“It has been a bit of a shock to everyone back home because nobody in my family or in all my circle is involved in agriculture in any way, shape, or form,” Ms Mackley said.

“There are a lot of parallels from what I did before to what I do now — in journalism you know what you’re going to do that day, you’re going to put a paper together … but you never actually know exactly the details of what that looks like.

“That’s a bit like here. You can say right today I’m milking I’m just going to milk the cows but you never know what those cows are going to present to you … how the weather is going to affect their mood, is there going to be any dramas?”

Ms Mackley received the employee of the year award at the 2022 West Vic Dairy South West Dairy Awards.

“I get to work with these animals and I've always had this weird fascination with cows, now I get to work with them. And I just think they’re great,” Ms Mackley said.

“It was a huge honor for me … my achievements wouldn’t have been possible without the team and Aurora as well.”