I have been saying for a while now that our farm needs to sack the boss (me, not Sally, she is too important). So we did it.
A neighbour approached us, he has brains, a serious work ethic, but, most importantly, Brad has a similar value structure in the way he treats people and cows, so he is now the general manager of the farming business Lake Boga Pastoral. Cows will always be the engine room of our business and if they ever just become a number or a unit then we have failed and need to stop dairy farming, it’s so critical that the boss is a cow lover.
I must say I was very disappointed with the lack of redundancy package, and particularly that there was no party, no payout and no long service. But we did get our first proper holiday in five years.
Like so many families through Covid we were run down, exhausted and needed a break. It was a lovely moment to see our chocolate milk on the shelves in a supermarket on the Gold Coast 1500km from our home and to have the store manager tell us that it is an awesome product and he has no trouble selling it.
I am definitely still poking around the farm causing trouble where I can but also I am trying to accelerate my learning in food/dairy processing.
I feel like with Bethune lane dairy we are at a point where our next move is super critical. Our numbers through our MEC (Milk Enhancement Centre) have roughly doubled over the last six months. We are nearly at the point where we have some production capacity restraints and we have to decide do we keep making baby steps or do we jump a big further.
The production restraints are not in milk availability, the MEC is only using 1.5 per cent of the milk the farms total milk production.
The restriction is in the efficiency of the processing we need to make the move from doing things manually to having a proper production line with some automation of the bottling, processing and cleaning. I am currently trying to research the best way to move this forward in a wise and cost effective manner.
In farming, I have always been great at relationships and I have a big network of people I can call on for advice. I have to build that same network in food processing from scratch. Dairy farmers love to share information, food processors however are often in direct competition with each other so they are a bit more secretive.
In the factory, I have had one go to guy that has been amazingly helpful, but I don’t want to be a pest so my intention strategically and deliberately over the next few months is to ask for help from a range of people and to build team capacity both in the MEC and externally.
It is possible to spend years trying to learn skills through trial and error. As an information seeker I’ve always found it quicker to politely borrow other people’s knowledge and adapt it to our situation.
I’m hopeful that by the end of the year we have implemented significant change which will set us up for the next three to five years. I’ll keep you posted!- Paul Bethune is a dairy
farmer from Lake Boga, who operates Bethune Dairy Lane, a family-owned dairy
produce company.
