Secrets to success on a 650ha Queensland dairy farm

In Queensland’s renowned southern food bowl, Peter Garratt and his family have been making their milking mark for nearly a century. See their story.

Using budgets, storing fodder and ensuring pastures are healthy are the keys to the Garratt family’s dairy success

Situated at Linthorpe, near Southbrook, in Queensland’s Darling Downs, the Garratt family’s 650ha dairy farm is smack-bang in Australia’s food bowl.

Known for producing high quality fresh produce like vegetables, fruit, beef and cotton – oilseeds, wheat, maize, oats and sorghum also cover its vast acreage.

But when it comes to dairy, the Garratt’s have been making their milking mark for nearly a century.

Peter Garratt, alongside wife Jess, and children Malachi, 16, Jairus, 7, Leviyah, 3, in partnership with Peter’s parents Ross and Robyn, run the dairy.

Currently they run 400-head, 300 of which are milking cows. The family have run Holsteins for generations, which they say are well-suited to Queensland conditions.

Peter, who is the fourth generation on the property, said their next-door neighbour has also been working with them for the past two years in a full-time capacity, while they employ five casual employees for milking work.

There’s also a new generation of Garratts coming through the ranks.

“Our son, Malachi, is rostered on along with three young adults from the area — they’re all completing a Certificate III traineeship,” Peter said.

“When the farm started (in the 1920s), my family had milking cows, crops and pigs,” he said.

Peter said the days of mixed farming are over with a sole focus on dairy providing stability as well as a regular cash flow.

He said the solitary dedication to dairy was also best suited to the Darling Downs area.

Unlike parched Victoria and South Australia, or the flooded NSW central coast, the Darling Downs region hasn’t endured drought and flooding rain in recent times that have engulfed other dairy districts.

The southeastern Queensland region typically receives 650mm of rain each year.

“Summer is generally our strongest season, although we can and do get good rain in winter,” Peter said.

Peter says his Linthorpe farm doesn’t get the humidity that some parts of Queensland experience, given they operate west of the Great Dividing Range and in winter, the temperature can sometimes drop to -2C to -5.

“We are fortunate as we don’t get the humidity that other regions do, as cows find it difficult to handle the humidity.

“This also means that on those hot days there is no impact on the herd, as we provide them with shade, and no issue with our crops.”

Southern Queensland dairy farmer, Peter Garratt. Pictures: Supplied

FEED ROTATION

Summer fodder is grown year-round and paddocks are rotated. The property has a lot of variation in soil types, with black, deep volcanic soils, to chocolate type soils, as well as lighter more porous.

Peter said the benefit to having a variation is they have high levels of essential minerals like potassium and magnesium.

“Due to our land being contoured, we have roughage in the natural grazing land with green feed and the land adjacent we use as cropping country,” he said.

Extensively improving their pastures a decade ago, the Garratts sowed multiple species of grasses in their cropping paddocks.

Peter said the farm boasts 22 cropping paddocks and eight grazing grassland paddocks.

The Garratts use rotational grazing to allow each paddock time to recover between grazing periods.

Peter said the method helps to prevent the herd from overgrazing, soil erosion and assists in building organic matter in the soil.

All the water is sourced from bores with electric pumps.

“Thankfully we have good, reliable underground water.”

“We do have some irrigation for cropping, domestic spot boilers with windmills for cleaning our milking equipment and heating the herd housing areas.”

Looking across their business, Peter said like many dairy farmers the biggest cost is feed.

Contracts for grain and canola meal are annual and he said the big yearly expense is carefully budgeted out.

“Quite easily a third of every dollar earned goes back into feed costs,” Peter said.

“We have been able to scale and continue to do what we do by using silage and bringing the feed to the cows throughout the summer period.

“We plan 12 months ahead making budgets and forecasting to ensure we are securing feed.

“Our ideal position would be to have two years of feed stored at any given time.”

The Garratt family provides supplementary feed daily, with silage the main source of non-pasture fodder.

“Feed is the biggest, single influencing factor on performance,” Peter said.

“Our feed budget is done annually, but we use a nutritionist monthly and part of that discussion is what feed we are going to grow and what feed we have on hand.”

Peter Garratt, alongside wife Jess, and children Malachi, 16, Jairus, 7, Leviyah, 3, in partnership with Peter’s parents Ross and Robyn, run the dairy.

MILK SUPPLY

The Garratts supply Norco, now Australia’s largest dairy co-operative.

Unlike the Victorian market which pays around the $9 per kilogram of milk solid mark, Norco pay an average of more than $12 per kilo milk solids in the 2025-26 financial year.

The Lismore-based co-operative also paid a similar price north of $12 per kilo milk solids in the 2024-25 financial year when Victoria’s main processors were hovering above $8 per kilo milk solids.

The Garratts are approaching their second anniversary supplying milk to Norco.

Peter is an unabashed fan of Norco, saying the co-operative provides more profit than rival milk processors in the northern NSW/Queensland marketplace.

“My position is that within the span of my career, milk price is at the best it has ever been (in Queensland),” he said.

“Paying a reasonable farmgate price gives farmers the opportunity for growth and expansion.”

The cows produce about 10,000 litres per cow a year or on average 32 litres per day.

Peter said their cell counts have been low as their farm has well-ventilated barns to reduce bacterial exposure. The farm’s average cell count clocked in at a healthy 115 for the 2024-25 financial year. He said little change was needed when they made the switch to Norco a few years ago.

“We are always making small changes along the way as we grow, which changes what we need to do,” Peter said.

“We’ve been running much the same system for a long time.

“In previous winters, the cows used to graze on grass during the day and mixed ration at night.

“This year we have split them into two, with the freshest cows being TMR (total mixed ration) — this was done because of herd growth. It also ensures the cows going to grass are able to intake enough dry matter to make it worthwhile.”

The Garratt milking herd are joined with artificial insemination using sexed semen.

Joining is based on natural heats detected with heat detection collars.

Peter said the heat detection technology has proved successful as the collars are more accurate.

“We started with collars back in 2015, fairly early on (when the technology came out),” he said.

“We put them in because it is impossible to monitor cows efficiently across a 24 hour period – it’s really improved herd performance.”

The Garratt’s dairy cows produce about 10,000 litres per cow a year or on average 32 litres per day each.

NEXT GEN

At the cutting edge of dairy technology, the Garrett family’s latest acquisition is a robotic feed pusher, installed this year.

They received $100,000 from the Woolworths Dairy Innovation Fund to introduce an automatic grain batching system, which provides an accurate mix of the right grains that can be tailored as needed.

Along with milk meters and automatic cup removers, in 2015 the family installed automatic dipping and flushing technology.

“We’ve also got an upgraded sprayer for herbicide for weed control,” Peter said.

“The sprayer is set up with PWM (pulse width modulation) nozzles.

“We also have a mobile ID grain feeder – it individually feeds animals who have access to the grain, dependent on their tag.

“The feeder can go anywhere on the farm — it provides concentrate and supplements as needed.”

Looking to the future, Peter said while Jairus and Leviyah are too early for farm work, passing on the reins to the new generation is already looking promising.

He said 16-year-old son Malachi is keen to be the fifth generation dairy farmer on the property.

“He loves the farming lifestyle sharing the same vision as me and wanting to continue in my footsteps,” Peter said.

“We’re always thinking about expansion, and we prioritise what opportunities there are for the future and whether they are immediate or longer term.”

Originally published as Secrets to success on a 650ha Queensland dairy farm