New milk brand, Gippsland Jersey, to help dairy farmers

REMEMBERING her dairy farmer dad — and helping others just like him — was all the inspiration Sallie Jones needed to kick start a grassroots milk brand.

Sallie Jones with some of her product. Picture: Rob Leeson

REMEMBERING her dairy farmer dad — and helping others just like him — was all the inspiration Sallie Jones needed to kick start a grassroots milk brand.

The 36-year-old has partnered with fourth-generation dairy farmer Steve Ronalds to create Gippsland Jersey — a rich local offering that bypasses major milk processors to give producers a greater share of the profits.

Part of the proceeds will also be diverted into a welfare fund for farmers doing it tough.

Gippsland community and local businesses supporting the new milk product. Picture: Rob Leeson.

The milk label. Picture: Rob Leeson.

“Dad would be so proud, he would have loved to have seen this,’’ Mrs Jones said.

Her father, Mike Bowen, died in March after shifting from his farm. “The farm was his life. He was lost without it,’’ Mrs Jones said.

But she said the tragedy had underlined the wider mental health issues affecting rural Victoria in the wake of the dairy crisis.

Sallie Jones as a child with father Michael Bowen.

Maya Ronalds on her dad’s Jersey cow Jemma. Picture: Rob Leeson

Processors Murray Goulburn and New Zealand company Fonterra blindsided farmers when they slashed farmgate prices and ordered farmers to pay back the difference.

The Gippsland initiative came yesterday as the Victorian Farmers Federation announced a fund would be created from the sale of Farmers Fund milk brand at Coles.

Gippsland Jersey will be launched at the Warragul Farmers’ Market on September 17.

gippslandjersey.com.au