Learning the tricks of the trade from family
Oakey farmers recognised in milk awards
FARMING has always been a part of Oakey man Darryl Priebbenow’s life.
He learnt the “tricks of the trade” from his father, who learnt from his father before him, who settled at the Silverleigh stud in the 1930s.
“Everyone milked back then,” he said. “But you could only do 10 or 12 (cows).”
The family sold milk and cream and also kept pigs.
“We always had to help out when we were kids and it was my job to feed the pigs,” Mr Priebbenow said.
The decision was made to get rid of the pigs when Mr Priebbenow finished high school and the family went into full milk production in 1966.
Since then, Mr Priebbenow has been making his family proud and milks 180s illawarras.
“It’s a part of me now,” he said of life on the farm.
“It’s hard, constant work, but we like the lifestyle.”
And that hard work has paid off, with the stud winning several milk quality awards.
Most recently, the Oakey couple was named as one of four Queensland dairy farms in Australia in the 2017 Milk Quality Awards, run by Dairy Australia.
Dairy farms were ranked based on the annual average bulk milk cell count across Australia’s milk processing companies.
Dairy Australia’s Kathryn Davis said the on-farm management of milk quality was key to ensuring the competitiveness of Australian dairy in the marketplace.
“Every year the Australian Milk Quality Awards celebrate the great job being done by dairy farmers up and down the country to keep milk quality at
a consistently high standard,” Ms Davis said.
“A low cell count is an indicator that mastitis is well controlled in the herd, improving milk production, cow health and welfare.
“Farmers achieving a low cell count are also financially rewarded with a premium for their milk and significant cost savings on mastitis treatments and labour.
“For example, analysis shows that a farmer milking 300 cows who lowers their BMCC from 300,000 to 200,000 stands to save $35,700 per year.”
Ms Davis said the awards were a unique collaboration across the industry to recognise high-achieving farmers.
Mr Pribbenow said as far as milk quality was concerned, the couple lived on a flat farm, so when it got wet, the cows had a lot of mud to contend with.
“With mud and cows comes lots of disease so we have to be on top of that and I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re picking up awards because it’s a necessary part of our operation here.”
Speaking about the milk industry and prices, Mr Priebbenow said “everyone
would like a bit more”.
“But we’re getting by here and you can do well as long as you’re not carrying a lot of debt,” he said.
“When feed is scarce is when you struggle a bit. The last dry spell we had took us about two years to recover from. You’re spending up all you have to keep the feed up.”
Data for the awards is supplied to Dairy Australia by dairy companies across the country and to be eligible, dairy farms must have data for a minimum of nine months in a calendar year. Monthly averages are then used to calculate the annual average BMCC and the winners are the 5% with the lowest BMCC.
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With mud and cows comes lots
disease so we have to be on top of that and I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re picking up awards because it’s a necessary part of our operation here.
— Darryl Priebbenow