Dairy Support

The demand for milk increases with population growth every year yet the number of dairies in Australia is reducing. On the mainland this is from forces of climate change, economies to scale and the availability & cost of water. More milk for this domestic market is coming from Tasmanian dairy farms. For these farms to ramp up production they’ve needed to milk off every acre, bring in more supplement feed and winter the cows off the dairy when the cows are not lactating. This is a shift away from traditional self-contained systems.

A dairy can either truck cows to feed or feed to cows. Riverlea Farming helps with both.

Our dry autumns with water added can grow a power of fodder for dry cows in the winter. We winter graze 900 cows each year on the sandy ground and often feed straw back onto the same paddock is was baled from 150 days earlier.

The demand for our surplus straw bales has grown beyond what we can supply from our own farm. This created an opportunity to supply dairies from a network of other local farms. We now run multiple balers during the straw season. Our fodder supply model is transparent from vendor to end user. We are paid for a baling service only and we only supply with forward contracts. We do not speculate on markets. Should the vendors wish to hold inventory we provide a baling service. Should the end user wish to re-enter the market we can refer them. 90% of trade is by forward contract. Our model adds some stability to a market that has in the past seen unrealistic expectations at either end of the supply chain throughout the year.

If you expect to have surplus straw this harvest, we’d be grateful for the opportunity to market it. If you are interested in securing some fodder for next winter, please contact Ben to discuss ben@riverleafarming.com.au.