Declan Patten gears up for 2025 International Dairy Week

Finding a niche in the dairy industry has seen Declan Patten travel around the world and back. Now director of IDW, he has brought his learnings back home.

Many kids dream of being a big-time football, cricket or basketball star while a select few want to be the coach.

For farmer’s son Declan Patten, it’s a good analogy. While the children of many dairy farmers want to make a living from milking cows, young Declan had his sights set on the “coaching” side of the dairy industry.

“I grew up on a dairy farm in Gippsland — my Mum and Dad had Holstein cattle. That’s where I discovered my love of industry. But I never wanted to milk cows,” Declan said.

“I had a passion for cattle genetics but I wasn’t handy around the farm like other farmer sons.

“So I found my niche, which was investing in cattle, without the milking side.”

Declan Patten Director of International Dairy Week on his property at Glengarry. Picture: Zoe Phillips

It is a niche that has taken the International Dairy Week director around the world and back again. Aged 23, Declan packed his bags and headed to the United States to work on one of the Midwest’s top dairy farms — Butlerview Farm in Illinois near Chebanse, about an hour’s drive south of Chicago.

“For five years, I had the opportunity to live in the US and work with some of the best genetics businesses at that time,” Declan, now aged 36, said.

“It fuelled the passion — working in the US, having access to the world’s best genetics: I thought ‘how am I going to capitalise on this?’ That’s when I really started to dive into the Australian industry, investing a lot of money into embryos, bringing them to Australia and we have auctions once or twice a year.”

Declan now juggles several roles — not only operating Lightening Ridge Genetics but also a 10 acre Gippsland farm at Glengarry. But he’s best known as the director of International Dairy Week, which kicks off on January 18.

“I remember as a young kid, the Australian industry would look to North America and some of the best farms would make 80 per cent of their money from genetics.

“In Australia, most farmers make 90 to 95 per cent of their money from milk. My business is different because I make 100 per cent of my money from genetics, so I’ve been able to live out that dream.”