Dairy Farming in the Wet Tropics

This article was written in late 2017 following a trip to Australia to learn more about the economic and environmental sustainability of their dairy industry. The trip was generously funded by the Richard John Memorial Trust and inspired me to successfully apply for a Nuffield Scholarship

The phrase “Australian agriculture” brings certain scenes to mind; merino sheep and vast beef stations, helicopter wrangling, the brush of a shirt cuff, stained with red dust, across a sweating forehead. When dairy cattle are imagined it is in the temperate grasslands of Victoria and Tasmania; a British family farm interrupted with kangaroos and gum trees.

Few people outside of the industry realise that north of the tropic of Capricorn cows graze tropical grasses five feet high, farmers battle against the ceaseless encroachment of the rainforest, and milk is produced to the chorus of rainbow hued birds, under the beat of the fierce southern sun, and the battering rains of the wet season.

Cows shelter from the tropical sun

Queensland is a vast state, and on my travels, I found it to be the subject of ridicule and suspicion from those living in areas of denser human population and less extreme conditions. Cairns is a three- hour flight from the state capital of Brisbane, far enough away that it feels disconnected from the main hubbub of trade and culture, far enough away to demand its own local milk supply.

I arrived in Cairns after a week in Victoria; block calving systems, high efficiency, a strong emphasis on grass utilisation and financial benchmarking. There the sky had been leaden and grey, the traffic frantic on the commute to Melbourne, and the waves ferocious as they thrashed against the southern coast, beating their icy path from Antarctica. In Cairns the air was warm with the balm of the tropical sun, and the road ran next to fields of bananas and sugar cane.

An hour inland- away from crocodiles, and shoals of flying fish, and boats making their way to the dive sites of the Great Barrier Reef- lies the Atherton Tablelands, the centre of the dairy industry in northern Queensland. The Tablelands are several degrees cooler than the towns on the coast, more sheltered from the battering of cyclones, and have an undulating terrain where the rainforest has been cleared for agriculture.

On a white hot spring day I met the Daly family, who own and manage Our Way Holsteins. At first glance the cows and business bear a strong resemblance to a traditional UK family farm breeding pedigree Holsteins; the cows are genetically indistinguishable, semen being purchased from the same progeny companies that supply the northern hemisphere.

The Dalys own a herd of 280 Holsteins, grazing a home block of 305ha, some of which remains as rainforest. In common with the majority of Australian dairy farms, cows live outdoors all year round. Some farms- particularly in the south- conserve grass as silage or hay, but in the tropical north all forage was consumed from the ground. Young calves are kept indoors until large enough to be turned out in groups; chaperoned by donkeys to reduce the risk of attacks from the packs of feral dogs that have made their home beneath the rainforest canopy.

Ryegrass is planted as an annual crop; during the hottest months it withers and dies, and fails to compete with the indigenous grass. These tropical grasses are tall; some stalks brushed my shoulders, and pose difficulties with allocation and residuals. Conventional plate metres fail to calculate its dry matter, and when temperatures peak cows choose standing in the cool of the trees above eating. To compensate for this the herd is moved in late morning on to fresh grass in order to encourage grazing.

Indigenous tropical grass

In order to achieve high yields the cows eat a mixture of wheat, maize, rape, and minerals in the parlour, and transition animals are fed on a waste product of the cotton industry.

Paddocks, ringed with concrete cow tracks to resist the forces of the wet season, back on to the rainforest, which poses its own risks. Cattle must be sprayed every three weeks to protect against dangerous ticks, and a myriad of poisonous plants can endanger animal and human health. Farming here is not for those who do not relish a challenge.

While Victoria and the southern states produce a large volume of milk products for export, the industry in Queensland is predominantly focussed on producing milk for domestic supply, with limited choice of buyer. While families like the Dalys have concentrated on improving pasture management and maximising milk production, other businesses have diversified in order to beat the monopoly of the liquid buyers.

One such business is Mungalli Creek, a biodynamic dairy that has grown from selling just milk 17 years ago to now manufacturing a range of products including feta and ricotta cheese, yoghurts, and lactose free products. Driving around the Tablelands I find that their branded products are a common sight, flanked by sister brand Misty Mountains, which sells Channel Island milk, some of it from farms that are in organic conversion and will eventually supply the main product line.

The emphasis at Mungalli is on sustainable farming practices and providing opportunities for the local labour force; but it is also a real commercial venture, with an annual turnover of $12m and yearly growth of 10%. The CEO speaks to me of developing new products as we tour fields of chicory, peanut- family legumes, and medicinal herbs.

Legumes

At the main farm there is a café selling local crafts alongside Mungalli products and a range of meals. Outside customers can walk past the biodynamic hen flock, and watch the cross bred cattle grazing. In keeping with the ethical approach to farming, the business has a rehoming scheme for hens, and bull calves are provided with new homes through an “adopt-a-bull” initiative. Local people have fully embraced both opportunities, and the supply of older birds and bull calves fail to meet demand.

Mungalli Creek dairy herd

The Atherton Tablelands are a hidden treasure in Australia’s long list of attractions, and its dairy industry is a unique iteration of that which we see in the temperate world, adding its own tropical challenges to those faced by all farmers. In a country where the dairy industry has been deregulated, there are no subsidies, the climate is extreme, and the distances travelled by inputs and outputs vast, farmers have had to build resilient and dynamic businesses in order to survive. Whether that is through maximising production, or by telling a unique and marketable story, the Dalys and Mungalli Creek show that cows can produce milk, even in the sweltering heat and soaking cyclones of the Australian tropics.