Canadian giant’s Aussie dairy expansion revealed

Backed by a massive Canadian pension fund, a corporate dairy has doubled their milking herd to 48,000 cows in about two years. See how it happened.

Backed by a mammoth Canadian pension fund, Aurora Dairies has doubled its cow herd in less than two years after a widespread consolidation of dairy assets.

Underpinned by PSP Investments, the biggest investor in Australian farmland with more than $6 billion in assets, Aurora Dairies owned and operated more than 16,000 hectares across 33 farms in mid-2022 with a cow herd of 24,000.

However, the Aurora Dairies portfolio now comprises 54 dairy farms operated across more than 20,000 hectares with 48,000 milking cows – producing an estimated 280 million litres of milk, and employing more than 450 employees.

It’s understood the vast majority of the expansion is the result of PSP Investments consolidating its three Australian and New Zealand dairy platforms under the Aurora Dairies banner last year, taking the total number of properties from 35 to 54 across Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.

Aurora Dairies chief executive Ben James said the size and scale of the commitment to Australian dairy indicated an intention to remain in the industry for an extended period of time.

“Aurora Dairies is a committed, long-term investor in the Australian and New Zealand dairy industries. Despite current challenges for our industry, we believe Australian and New Zealand dairy farmers are well placed over the longer term,” Mr James said.

PSP Investments’ Aurora Dairies now carries 48,000 cows across Australia and New Zealand. Picture: File (Zoe Phillips).

“We have a great team of people and that is what makes our business successful. Collectively we have an unwavering focus on ensuring that we have safe, sustainable and productive operations.”

In Victoria, Aurora Dairies has expanded its dairy herd by 2250 cows in about 18 months, growing from 17,890 in 2022 to 20,140 cows this year.

In Gippsland the herd has grown from 11,450 cows across 6200 hectares to 13,700 cows on 7100 hectares, while in the state’s southwest 3660 hectares carry 5800 cows.

Its South Australian dairy herd has grown by 900 cows in less than two years, expanding from 6500 to 7400 cows, despite holding its farmland footprint steady at 3350 hectares in the state’s southeast.

Across the Bass Strait, PSP’s northern Tasmanian dairy operations are now under the Aurora banner accounting for much of the increase in their operation size, adding 5050 hectares and 12,700 cows to their portfolio.

Now a trans-Tasman affair, 7000 cows and 2482ha in New Zealand forms the final piece of the portfolio.

Aurora Dairies has grown to its whopping size after it was initially born in February 2019, following the purchase of Warakirri Dairies 11 farm portfolio. In recent years it paid more than $40 million for the Beston Global Food Company and its four South Australian dairy farms.

In 2020 Aurora also paid $55 million for 2500ha of dairy farms in Victoria’s Gippsland region from Gray Wigg.

Two years later it purchased a further four Gippsland dairy farms as part of Ace Dairy Holdings’ $70 million, seven-farm portfolio.