FIFTH-GENERATION Bathurst dairy farmer David McKay, who called it quits on the industry three years ago, says he has no regrets.
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Recent news that many Australian dairy farmers are being paid less for milk than it costs to produce it, has only reinforced Mr McKay’s view that he made the right decision.
Consumers across the country have rallied to support Australian dairy farmers, apparently refusing to buy low-price home brand milk and instead forking out for the more expensive milk.
Bathurst buyers have joined the campaign, with Bernardi’s IGA store manager Geoff Bottom telling the Western Advocate this week that premium milk sales were “going through the roof”.
While Mr McKay welcomed the support for farmers, he said low prices were nothing new in the dairy industry.
“It’s always up and down, the dairy, it’s a tough industry,” he said.
The $1 a litre milk being sold in major supermarkets may be making a huge dent in the profits of dairy farmers, but Mr McKay said these stores were also the industry’s biggest customers.
“They’ve kind of pushed the other brands aside with their own discounted brands,” he said.
“People have to produce more milk to get enough money because of the cost of production.”
He says he doesn’t know what the answer is for the country’s dairy farmers and plummeting milk prices.
Friday marked three years to the day since a truck picked up the last of Mr McKay’s dairy herd from his 800-acre Evans Plains property.
“I think I made the right decision. The lifestyle and the economics and the season helped push the decision,” he said.
Mr McKay was working alongside his family, brother Sean and their late parents Bruce and Margaret, at the Evans Plains dairy when he decided to move from dairy to beef cattle.
“It’s having to work seven days a week [with dairy cattle] ... it’s easier to run beef cattle,” he said.
“There’s a lot more work with dairy than beef cattle, you’re always chasing your tail.
“You’re not turning over as much money, but it’s an easier life.
“I’m glad I’m out of it. It’s given me a lot more free time. I don’t have an anchor around my leg any more.”
The property had been in his family since his great-grandfather Hugh McKay started the dairy in the 1880s.
At the peak of their dairy business in the 1990s, the McKays produced more than one million litres of milk annually.
