Farmer sees potential in dairy industry
IT WAS through Government’s assistance that I am able to continue doing small subsistence dairy farming with 30 cows which is slowly growing.
This was the lived experience relayed by the 42-year-old grant recipient, Shawn Scott, residing in Delainavanua, Natovi in Tailevu.
“This is my fifth year in the dairy industry but it started back during my dad’s time who used to do beef farming,” Mr Scott said.
“My elder brother then took over the farm and started dairy farming with just four cattle without any assistance from anyone and it grew from there.”
“I used to be an electrician and my brother was an engineer on a ship but he left his job as he got really sick and my mum’s health was also not good so I had to take over the responsibilities of the farm,” he added.
“We started this business in 2010 but I started helping him five years ago and out of the 168-acres of freehold land, we have about 88-acres grazing land,” he further added.
Mr Scott said that he received the Government’s assistance for the first time after Tropical Cyclone Winston where he was able to make a shed and get the paddocks fenced which was a helpful boost to the farm.
“I received a thousand pine posts, 19 coils of barbed wire and 12 coils of goat wire and with these materials, we were able to do our boundary lines properly which stopped the cattle from going outside,” he stated.
“About $15,000 was contributed by the Government in 2016 to build our dairy shed. We got rid of the old wooden pine posts and used metals and concrete which is much stronger and better now.”
“At the moment, I am able to milk up to 80-litres and 15-litres goes to the calves, and the rest are taken to the chilling centre in Waidalice, so by the end of the week I am able to get over $600 which is a big help for us,” Mr Scott explained.
He added that with that income he can continue to do other things such as bring in diggers to do proper drainage and continue expanding the shed to his expectation.
“We had a milking machine rigged up but the consumption of power and the manpower needed for the machine was more than our cattle so we had to bring up our stock to 50-60 heads so that the machine is viable for use,” Mr Scott said.
“At the moment we are doing it manually for 30 cattle and there are only three of us working on the farm so once we finish our shed then we will start to replace our stock too.”
“We get $1.03 per liter and the Government subsidy adds on to that which then increases the amount to $1.20 per liter and I get cattle feed as a subsidy as well,” he added.
Mr Scott said that when he started with dairy farming, he used to spend about $26 to buy a bag of dairy mesh but now it is only $6 as the Government pays most of the amount.
“This is a big help from the Government side to the dairy industry where small farmers can survive and I am grateful to be a part of this assistance,” he said.
“When you feed the cattles molasses with the dairy mesh, it boosts them into giving more milk and my best jersey cow gives 10 litres of milk every morning.”
“In the next five years I want to have 150 herds of cattle to be milked in the dairy shed and I would really love to see that along with having few houses (built) for the workers too,” he added.
Mr Scott said that if more people showed interest and effort in dairy farming then there was a possibility of reducing the dairy import bill as dairy was a commodity which was not affected by anything, even COVID.
Besides, he said “you get a weekly stable income to not only support your family but to do more”.
“Tailevu area is mostly wet and we can’t cope with the water coming into the farm so I am slowly trying to get that out with the help of the Ministry of Waterways,” Mr Scott said while highlighting the challenges of operating a dairy farm.
“There is salt water also coming in and flooding the lower part of the land so we have planted mangroves to counter that and I have requested for a chilling centre to be opened in this area so that more farmers can get into dairy farming.”
“As an individual, you have to love whatever job you do and give it your full time and commitment in order to see success and anyone joining the dairy sector will not regret it as it will always provide a steady income and you are your own boss,” he added.