Australian dairy: Terry and Shannon Blasche on moving farms from NSW to Victoria
Making the switch from Casino in NSW to Jancourt in Victoria is a gamble that’s paid off for Terry and Shannon Blasche.
An old Yorkshire farmer phrase is often echoed by Australian primary producers: “Where there’s mud, there’s money.”
Ask Terry and Shannon Blasche, and they’ll tell you the old saying only holds true if you’re operating in the right region.
Hailing from the Northern Rivers of NSW, the Blasches relocated to southwest Victoria two years ago.
More than 1700km separate their previous NSW farm at Casino and their new dairy property at Jancourt East, between Colac and Cobden.
The sheer geographic transition shouldn’t be underestimated — in international terms, moving 1700km is the same as shifting from Paris to Lisbon or New York to Memphis.
Added into the bargain was making the move during Victoria’s second Covid lockdown, when rules were less onerous north of the Murray.
Since the Blasches took over their Jancourt property in September 2020, the Northern Rivers has been inundated several times – most notably in March this year.
But things haven’t exactly been dry at Jancourt.
“This year has been a very wet season and we’ve seen a large amount of rain since April, which has been very challenging,” Terry said.
“We average around 38 inches of rain a year with the majority falling over the winter months. “Due to only living in Victoria just over two years we don’t have a lot of time to compare it to previous seasons.”
One of the attractions of the Jancourt property was greater room to move. The Blasches’ Casino main farm covered 78ha while their southwest Victorian property is more than double that size at a spacious 216ha.
“We currently run the farm with ourselves, Terry does the majority of milking in our one person set-up dairy,” Shannon said.
“I help with calf rearing and other farm duties as required. We also have one casual staff member.
“Terry has been farming since he was 18 and was interested in getting into the industry as a young boy. We are third-generation dairy farmers and originally purchased (the Casino) family farm in 2015.”
Adjusting to the southwest Victorian climate has been an interesting process for the Blasches. Fortunately, the topography and soil of Jancourt are conducive for dairy.
“Our farm ranges from flats to gentle sloping banks,” Terry said.
“The majority of our farm consist of sandy loam soils to loamy soils on the flats.
“The weather is predominantly cooler and can even be cold in the summer months but we can still get extreme hot temperatures, up to 40 degrees which typically only lasts a couple of days.
“This year especially has typically been under 15 degrees since April other than the odd day or two. We’ve only just started getting some warmer days in the 20 degrees.”
One of the welcome features of the Jancourt farm has been its pre-existing vegetation.
“We have very well-planted sheltered tree lines across the whole farm,” Shannon said.
“We have been transitioning over the past two years, since purchasing the property to late flowering perennial rye grasses.
“So far, we have managed to sow over half of the property which is roughly 250 acres (101 hectares). The farm consists of 52 paddocks which are roughly four hectares each.”
Adapting to non-tropical pastures has been challenging for the Blasches and their livestock.
The new farm had perennials, native grasses and Italians but during the 2020-21 into the 2021-22 season Terry managed to plant summer crops such as turnips and millet.
“All of our water requirements come from dams,” Shannon said.
“Due to the low fertility across the farm, we have had to use a lot more fertiliser to lift fertility. Bought-in grain is also one of our biggest costs.”
Production for the past 12 months on the Jancourt East farm has been sitting at 2.2 million litres, or 171,000kg of milk solids.
Terry and Shannon also run Fairy Vale Aussie Red stud and operate the farm together with the help of a casual worker.
“We breed for a medium sized cow with good production and good type and udders,” Shannon said.
The Blasches supply Bulla, which has a processing site in nearby Colac.
At the leading edge on opening prices, Bulla then updated its price range to $8.70 to $8.90/kg of milk solids in late May before a further price revision nudged that figure past the $9.50/kg mark once the season opened on July 1.
“Current milk prices are quite good considering previous years but it still challenging with input cost rising,” Shannon said.
“Milk production is sitting around 7100 per cow which is around 540kg of milk solids per cow at a 3.56 protein and 4.15 fat.”
Despite dealing with a new processor, the Blasches have maintained some habits from NSW, roughly milking at the same time each day.
“We have always milked twice daily,” Shannon said.
“We start milking at 5.30 in the morning and three in the afternoon.”
In September, more than 50 people visited the Blasche farm. Organisers said the attendees were impressed with how Terry and Shannon had made significant production gains in just 24 months.
“Having good knowledge advisers and farmers to help support you and a good network of people in the industry,” Shannon said.
“We have always been involved in discussion groups and other industry related training to learn as much as we can.
“It can be challenging getting your own farm, we would say try leasing or other options and start buying your cows. Start small and grow your business, reach out to people who may be able to offer different solutions.
“If there is any succession planning that needs to be done get it done sooner rather then later as that in itself can be a huge challenge.”
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