Milking the white stuff in NSW

IT HAS been all about the other type of white stuff at a NSW dairy farm — snow.

Snow at Walcha Dairy in NSW, Australia's highest altitude dairy farm. Pictures: Kaitlyn Polkinghorne

IT HAS been all about the other type of white stuff at a NSW dairy farm last week — snow.

In the week up to Friday, Walcha Dairy on the northern NSW Tablelands had more than 100mm of snow.

It has been the biggest dump of snow in 32 years.

“It doesn’t worry the cows that much,” farm manager Leon McCabe said.

“They are supplementary fed with silage, they don’t suffer ... the Friesian cows love this climate.

“It has been quite exciting managing this with the snow outside.”

Leon, wife Lyn and children Joel, 17, and Chloe, 7, live at Walcha Dairy.

The farm, which is 80 minutes’ away from the closest dairy farm, is owned by Peter and Elaine Notman and supplies Murray Goulburn.

Ensuring the dairy runs and the 800 strong herd can be milked when temperatures hit -8C requires a lot of planning.

Leon said three DC45 spitfire diesel heaters are turned on at 9pm, as is the 80 stand rotary dairy, so all the cups slowly spin past the heaters all night before the 4am start. Water is not used in the dairy for the first full rotation, but once milk flows through all the lines hoses are right to go.

“It can get to -7C, -8C but it is not the temperature it is the chill factor that causes all the drama,” Leon said.

“In winter we start milking at 4am. At that time we miss the real icy (conditions) at around 6am and when the sun comes up.”

Leon said the cows pick through the snow to nibble on the ryegrass and enjoy their diet of silage.

Pastures haven’t suffered either thanks to the application of gibberellic acid this winter. In fact the herd is on a 40-day rotation with about 2900kg/ha of pasture cover at the moment.

The people on the other-hand, well they have had to add some extra layers.