Dairy makes organic inroads

AUSTRALIAN Dairy Farms Group has fasttracked its plans to be the biggest organic milk producer in Australia with the purchase of one of the largest farms in Victoria and a fledgling organic milk formula operation.

The listed company has contracted to buy the Reynolds family property, Yaringa, in southwest Victoria.

It is one of the largest milk producers in the country, supplying about four million litres a year. The price is undisclosed until after settlement has been reached.

The main draw card for Australian Dairy was the property’s organic conversion which is due to be fully certified in October 2019.

The acquisition brings forward the Camper- down- based company’s new supply timetable. It is currently converting all its existing properties to organic, however, they are not due to be fully certified until 2021.

Dairy Farms chief executive Peter Skene said the new 333ha property will allow Australian Dairy to start producing certified organic milk from October next year.

The milk supply from Yaringa is set to boost the company’s production to about 20 million litres a year once all properties are certified.

This compares with total Australian organic milk production of 45 million litres a year.

Mr Skene said the company planned to relocate about 450 milking cows to the new property before building the total herd to about 700.