Features of a Typical Dairy Farm.

Features of a Typical Dairy Farm

There are about 14,000 dairy farms in Australia, each with an average 154 cows. Farms are family owned and operated with almost all labour being supplied by the owning husband and wife. Most farms are specialist dairy farms, though some farms may also have a small side-line beef operation.

Dairy Farm Tasks

Successful dairy farming involves careful management of the pasture to ensure the cows have the right amount of food at the right time, so that they stay healthy and produce as much milk as possible. Farmers make difficult decisions about how to allocate resources and deal with problems, such as insect infestation, drought, and fire. Over the course of any year, regular equipment and land maintenance requirements must be made. Farmers also arrange for the storage, transportation, purchase, and sale of milk and milk products.

Milking Season
During the milking season the cows are herded from their paddocks twice a day by the farmer who is usually on a motorbike. Small groups of the cows go into the shed to be milked and the rest wait in a fenced area.

The cows return to the paddock after they have been milked and it usually takes around 80 minutes to milk the whole herd.

When the daily milking process is complete, the farmer spends time hosing down the yard and cleaning the machinery with hot water and special detergents to make sure it is spotless.

The farmer milks the cows everyday until they are dried off in May (or earlier if there has been a drought and there is not much grass). Cows are dried off by grazing without being milked and this allows the cows to build up their condition being well prepared to give birth and to produce more milk in the year ahead.

Off Season
From the time they are dried off until August when their calves are born, the cows do nothing but graze. The farmer usually uses these months to carry out maintenance work around the farm such as painting, fixing machinery and fences, building new sheds or barns. Many farmers and their families also use this less busy time to take a holiday before calving starts in spring - and the whole process begins all over again.

Dairy Farm Workers

On a modern dairy farm workers are required to maintain structures and farming equipment. On larger farms specialist workers are sometimes required to tend machines and other automated equipment that mix feed batches. They herd animals into holding pens and attach automatic machines to the animals. Also, they are involved in washing and spraying cows with water, insecticides and repellents.

Keeping sheds clean is necessary to prevent infestations of rodents and insects and dairy farm workers are required to clean and sterilise milk containers and equipment as well as operate the automatic cleaning pumps that clean the pipes and tubes in which the milk travels through.

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