Victorian dairy fund’s herd passes 10,000 head milestone

Fast becoming one of the biggest players in Australian dairy, Prime Dairy is on track to produce in excess of 50 million litres of milk this year.

Agribusiness fund manager Prime Dairy has broken through the 10,000 milking cattle barrier, consolidating it as one of the biggest dairy operators nationwide.

Management have confirmed the major commercial dairy passed the milestone recently meaning it will produce in excess of 50 million litres of milk and approximately four million kilograms of milk solids for the year.

Last year the dairy arm of the Melbourne-based fund manager Prime Value Asset acquired a portion of the famed Tasmanian Woolnorth aggregation, but it also has two southwest Victorian farms in its portfolio.

One of Prime Dairy's Tasmanian farms. Picture: supplied

Prime Dairy senior investment analyst Harrison Stewart told The Weekly Times the fund manager had been working towards the 10,000 herd goal since the purchase of 11 dairy farms at Circular Head in northwest Tasmania four years ago.

He said 85 per cent of Prime’s milking cows were based in Tasmania, with the remaining two farms of 550 cattle at Aringa, between Yambuk and Port Fairy, and 650 cattle at Condah, between Heywood and Hamilton.

“We started the dairy journey back in 2018 with some dairy property purchases in southwest Victoria. We saw an opportunity to buy a large portfolio in northwest Tassie (in 2021) and since then that northwest Tassie corner has been snapped up,” Mr Stewart said.

“There’s been a lot of competition. We’ve acquired, on-sold and traded properties but we’re at the point now where we’re happy with the portfolio we’ve got.

“A lot of investment has gone into (the farms acquired). We bought farms that won’t necessarily breaking records in terms of infrastructure and productivity; they were an assortment of smaller farms that neighboured each other.

“We redesigned them, merged two farms into one — put one dairy in the middle, put some pivots up, improved the irrigation capacity and we’re starting to see the dividends of that now. “This year, we’re ticking over 10,000 cows – it may have not always been the dream but it’s been the north star in the last couple of years. The more milk solids you produce, the lower those costs are — so we see 10,000 as a good spot to be.”

Both Prime Dairy’s Tasmanian and Victorian farms supply Fonterra, which opened with one of the lowest averages this season at $8.60 per kilogram milk solids before stepping up to $8.90 prior to the July 1 start date.

“I think even if Fonterra opened at $10, we’d still be finding points as to why it should be higher (but Fonterra) have pointed to every metric and it’s trending in the right direction,” Mr Stewart said.

“It’s a better outcome than (last financial year), so glass half-full approach.

“You can’t control the milk price. But you can control the cost of production and the milk price can take care of itself.”

Corporate dairy farms often struggle to recruit milkers and farm workers but Mr Stewart said the challenge hasn’t been onerous for Prime on either side of the Bass Strait.

“We went down the visa pathway a few years ago and that’s worked well,” he said.

“We pride ourselves on being a good employer, providing accommodation, above award wages and we try to be flexible working where we can.

“We say we’re an employer of choice in Tassie.”