Australia’s top 20 dairy localities by cattle

The numbers have been crunched and The Weekly Times can reveal Australia’s top 20 dairy areas by the number of cattle.

Victoria’s dominance of the dairy cattle league tables highlights how the industry has shifted in the years since the Howard Government deregulated the sector. Picture: Andy Rogers

Already home to the Twelve Apostles, Corangamite Shire has another claim to fame.

The municipality, which covers the Cobden, Camperdown, Terang, Derrinallum and Port Campbell districts, boasts more dairy cattle in its shire boundaries than the entire state of Queensland.

According to the agricultural number crunchers, Corangamite lays claim to more than 220,000 dairy cattle grazing across its council area.

Figures from the ABS for the 2020-21 financial year show 13 of the top 20 council areas for dairy numbers Australia-wide are located in Victoria.

Corangamite Shire deputy mayor Geraldine Conheady said more than a third of all jobs in her municipality were agricultural, with dairy the dominant employer.

Cr Conheady has three sons in dairy farming and said the job opportunities in the sector weren’t limited to the farmgate.

“There are so many different aspects of dairy farming for younger people to become involved in,” she said. “In the past few years, we’ve undergone succession planning in our family and now three of our sons run dairy farms.

“But among their peer group as well, I’ve been really impressed by the skills that many young people have taken up through dairy and agricultural training.”

Not far behind Corangamite’s 224,254 estimated dairy herd is the neighbouring Moyne Shire, which claimed 214,670 dairy cattle in the most recent estimation.

Wellington Shire (158,000 cattle), South Gippsland Shire (145,131) and Circular Head council in Tasmania (124,253) round off the top five dairy municipalities nationally.

Corangamite Shire councillor Jamie Vogels operates a 607ha farm at Scotts Creek, near Timboon, milking 700 cattle and producing four million litres of milk per annum.

“South-west Victoria really is the main district for dairy farming these days,” he said.
“If you combine the Corangamite Shire and the Moyne Shire’s cattle numbers, we’d probably beat Tasmania.

“That said, we do feel a bit taken for granted by government. This part of the world feeds the rest of the country, yet the roads have been in a bad way for a long time.”

In northern Victoria, the Campaspe Shire (124,253 cattle) — covering dairy towns such as Girgarre, Echuca, Kyabram, Rochester, Tongala and Rushworth — is in sixth position.

Victoria’s dominance of the dairy cattle league tables highlights how the industry has shifted in the years since the Howard Government deregulated the sector.

In 2000, just prior to the implementation of deregulation, Victoria’s dairy herd was more than 1.37 million.

By 2020, that figure had contracted by nearly 400,000 to sit at 895,000 dairy cattle.

But Queensland and NSW, with its heavy reliance on the domestic market, has been hit harder during the same two decade period.

The New South Wales dairy herd was more than 289,000 in 2000 and has contracted to approximately 145,000 by 2020.

Queensland’s dairy herd at the start of this century was 105,000 but by 2020, the Sunshine State only has a third of that figure at 65,000 dairy cattle.

United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president Mark Billing said the Garden State had long been the dominant player in dairy, but the past two decades had consolidated that claim.

“It’s unsurprising that southwest Victoria is the main dairy region. But Gippsland still has a very strong dairy base too,” he said.

“But it doesn’t matter where you are in Victoria, dairy farmers deserve a fair price for their milk. Even in places where there are still plenty of dairy farms, there are fewer farmers than there were a decade ago.”

It’s a view echoed by Cr Vogels.

“Dairy is still big in the Corangamite Shire but if the prices drop at the start of the new season (July 1), then you’ll see more farmers get out of dairy,” he said.

“There’s been a shift to beef but also there’ve been farmers that have sold land to plantations, for carbon off-sets.

“It all comes down to price. If the farmer is getting a fair price for their milk, they’ll stay in dairy. If they’re not, they’ll do something else. Simple as that.”