Goulburn Valley farmer Luke Almond on dairy prospects in 2024

Luke Almond is a dairy survivor - having worked in different regions and sectors to achieve his farming dream. This is his story.

Rentvesting is a popular homeowning strategy, where you rent a property to live in that’s right for your lifestyle, while you own an investment property that’s right for your budget.

You could say that Luke Almond has developed the dairy version of the rentvesting strategy.

The northern Victoria dairy farmer recently made his first entry into farm ownership, having purchased a farm outside of Cobram with his wife Kelly.

Although Mr Almond is the owner of his Cobram farm, he uses a share farmer to do the majority of the milking and labour on the Victorian property.

Meanwhile, he crosses the border to works for a larger, different dairy farm near Finley, which is his primary job under a share farming arrangement.

“When I was 12 or 13, I didn’t think I’d be a dairy farmer — seeing what my parents went through with high interest rates. But then when I left school, I started to see there was the opportunity to work outdoors, have a bit of independence,” the Fonterra supplier said.

“You’ve got to think outside the square if you want to get a foothold in dairy.

The arrangement I’ve got may not work for everyone, but it works for me.”

Both the Victorian and NSW farms supply Fonterra.

According to Dairy Australia, the number of dairy farms nationally has declined from 6000 a decade ago to only 4000 now.

Mr Almond said fresh thinking was needed.

“People talk about the debt on property often but a lot of young farmers have to also pay off the debt on their herd. I paid off the cows during the covid years, it was tough work, but I was meticulous about paying it down and now this arrangement is working well,” he said.