From humble beginnings to a ‘family corporate’

The massive expansion of a family dairy farm in Swan Hill owes its success to resourcefulness, quality and efficiency.

Safety first: Matt Glowrey, pictured with his son Dallas, has placed a priority on hygiene and health in milking sheds and cow herd. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

MILKING up to 1900 cows is a far cry from where one dairy farm at Swan Hill in northern Victoria started.

Third-generation farmer Matt Glowrey knows there has been a meteoric rise from the humble beginnings his family had in the dairy industry. And it has taken resourcefulness, lateral thinking and plenty of hard work to scale up the business from family farm to what he calls “family corporate” — and from about 100ha to 570ha.

The Glowrey family began dairy farming near Swan Hill in 1942, when the local Greek cafe owner was looking for a source of milk for his business.

“My grandfather agreed to do it and went out and bought 12 cows,” Matt said.

“We were processing our own milk from 1953 and my Dad’s first job when he left school was being the local milkman.”

When Matt returned to the dairy farm in 1992, his own first job was to rebuild the herringbone dairy, which was undergoing its sixth renovation.

Fast-forward to 1997, and a 50-unit rotary dairy was installed and then in 2014, another rotary was installed but this time, a massive 100-unit.

The rapid expansion was all part of a master plan that came about after the family got outside help to assess their business in 2010.

“With that help, we decided we all wanted to continue to milk cows and grow the business with the aim of milking up to 2000 cows,” Matt said.

“We did have that many at one point, but we have scaled back due to a tough three or four years in the industry.”

SIZING UP

NONETHELESS, the family and their staff, a combined workforce of 10, are now milking 1500 cows, which are fed from a mix of grass and total mixed ration.

Irrigated pasture and crops provide much of the feed for the herd for six months, and then the cows are fed on five feed pads with a mix of silage and hay. Each cow also receives between two and 2½ tonnes of grain each year.

It’s no mean feat to source that amount of feed for a herd so big, and that’s where the lateral thinking came in.

The Glowreys have their own silage and hay-making equipment, and buy standing crops from farmers and then cart the feed back in.

It means they have their own trucks to make that transport as economical as possible, but Matt said they were prepared to look at making ­silage or hay across a wide geographical spread.

“We look at the most economical way to feed our cows, which you have to when you feed quite a few cattle,” Matt said.

Each year, they make up to 5000 tonnes of fine-chop silage, as well as 4000-5000 big square bales of hay.

They bought a 500hp Jaguar silage chopper and can cut up to 1000 tonnes of silage a day, all with the goal of being 75 per cent self-sufficient when it comes to providing feed for their herd.

They also carefully monitor how much of the feed is used by the cows on the feed pads, but there isn’t a fancy piece of equipment to do this.

Every day, at 2pm, the troughs in the feed pad are swept out. It allows Matt to tweak the feeding regimen, either adding more or giving less depending on how much they are eating.

CONNECTION KEY

THE sweeping time can also be a venue for impromptu meetings, and Matt said this was an important part of staff management.

“Taking the time to go down and sweep troughs can mean you have a good talk about some aspect of the business and that also happens as people have a quick drink before they start milking,” he said.

“There is a lot of texting and we have WhatsApp groups to talk about aspects of the business and what is happening, but it is also good to talk face-to-face to check what is going on.”

Communication is key in such a big operation, with the two dairies at opposite ends of the farm running each day.

The big 100-unit rotary milks most of the cows, with the spring and autumn calving herds coming in to milking as separate mobs.

Freshly calved cows go into the 50-unit rotary, as do any cows that are in a “hospital mob”. At times this dairy is milking up to 700 cows after they have calved, yet at other times, only a small number.

It is important to keep that hospital mob apart from the main milking, a process that allows the Glowreys to maintain the quality of their milk, which is sold to Lactalis, the world’s largest fresh-dairy company.

“We focus on producing high-quality milk with good levels of fat and protein, but we also need to have low bulk cell counts, which are tested every day at both dairies,” Matt said.

“Cows are checked at least on a weekly basis for mastitis and more often if needed and we are very particular about the cleanliness of our plant.”

HEALTH CONSCIOUS

TO achieve this, herd health has to be a priority, but this aim has to be balanced by the fact that the workforce is 50 per cent short-stay backpackers.

Matt said the short tenure of many staff did not mean it was impossible to aim for high herd health.

“I think you can over-­complicate things,” he said.

“We don’t ask our employees to look for specific herd health issues — we ask them to find any unhappy cows.

“Even someone who does not come from a livestock background can spot an unhappy cow and we don’t ask them to diagnose what is wrong, just to find the ones where something is not right.

“It’s a system that works.”

The herd is 100 per cent Holstein, with genetics sourced from the US.

Each year, Matt meets with the genetic companies to discuss bulls and choose traits they want to focus on, whether that be fertility, herd health or production.

Then Nu’Genes from Numurkah is contracted to run the artificial-insemination program, right through from synchronisation of cows to the insemination.

“Using Nu’Genes with all the skills they provide has allowed us to get 10-15 per cent more of our cows in calf,” Matt said.

PEOPLE POWER

SURROUNDING themselves with good people including permanent staff and employing highly skilled specialists to do things like the accounts management, HR, payroll and artificial insemination programs has allowed the business to successfully expand.

And all of this has been achieved in an area where dairy farming is a rarity.

“In some ways, I think it has been a good thing for our family business that we haven’t been in a dairy district,” Matt said. “We look at something and think why not, rather than why.”

Matt’s son, Dallas, has returned to the business, drawn by the operation’s dynamic nature.

“I used to sit on my Dad’s knee on the tractor, and check the cows by torch at night,” Matt said.

“Now, it is a completely different business to come into.

“All the systems have been developed piece by piece and the next generation is allowed to see if they can do better and make their mark.”