Milk Quality Awards 2024: Southwest Victorians farmers win

Amid parched pastures in southwest Victoria, these dairy farmers have been recognised for their hard work and quality they’ve produced this season.

Green and gold is the colour theme for southwest Victorian dairy farmers like Cobden’s Duncan Morris.

The colours usually associated with the sporting glory represent bittersweet success in the region — the green of the green drought on one hand, and the gold of national dairy recognition on the other.

Duncan’s dairy operation, along with sharefarmers Zali and Henry Moyle, are officially in the top 100 dairy farms nationwide.

Announced today, the 2024 Milk Quality Awards feature the Cobden property along with 48 others from southwest Victoria.

Duncan is a director with the unlisted public company South West Dairies Limited and his group of fellow farmers scored highly in the 2024 results.

“Of the 26 farms in the South West Dairies group, eight were awarded this year. That’s pretty remarkable for such a small grouping,” he says.

“It’s a real credit to the hard work of Henry and Zali as well as the many other farmers in southwest Victoria. It’s been a challenging year with the green drought, so this is a bit of good news for many in the area.”

Duncan Morris and his share farmers Henry and Zali Moyle, 2yo Nelly and 9.5 month old Alfie. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Dairy Australia animal health and fertility national leader Zoe Vogels said the results shone a light on the hard work of dairy farmers across the country.

“Australia produces some of the world’s best milk, not just in taste and nutrition, but also in quality,” Dr Vogels said. 

“A low Bulk Milk Cell Count is indicative of good mastitis control. Over the last 20 years of the awards, BMCCs have significantly improved, benefiting cow health, farmer income and product yields, and shelf life. 

“All dairy regions have been challenged by seasonal conditions in the past 18 months, so it is incredible to see these farms achieving consistently high-quality milk.”

The Milk Quality Awards are part of Dairy Australia’s national mastitis control program, Countdown, which started in 1998.

In recent years, the Countdown program has been replicated by both Ireland and New Zealand to bring cell count figures down in those respective industries.