They became an integral part of the history of Northcliffe – a small, southwest town relying on farming and the timber industry for its survival. The original farmland continues to be owned by Daubneys and is today managed by Mathew, his wife Suzanne and their four young children.
Milking up to 950 cows daily, the Daubneys employ many local people from the Northcliffe region to assist in their milk production of almost sixm litres a year. A significant portion of this milk is supplied to Challenge Dairy Co-operative, of which Mat and Sue are members.
Bannister Downs Farm is home to more than 1,500 Holstein Fresian cows, specifically bred to produce the finest quality milk. The herd is hand-reared as calves are nurtured to develop into placid dairy cattle to be milked twice daily in the 90 stand rotary dairy, built in 2000.
The Daubneys focus on milk quality when choosing its dairy herd, as they have high standards and expectations for its raw milk product in order to achieve a wonderful flavour and a premium, fresh product.
What would you say characterises the Australian dairy market at the moment?
Suzanne Daubney: There’s a growing interest from the consumer in knowing what they’re putting on their tables, the origins of their food, additives, methods of production … and this interest is now increasing to include commodities such as drinking milk. Investigative journalism has recently revealed various additives that have been used in drinking milk, bringing awareness to the consumer that there are significant differences among fresh milk products.
According to your website, ‘The family all farm together, blending traditional methods shared over the generations, along with innovative approaches that are continually developing’. How important are those traditional methods and how important is innovation to Bannister Downs Farm and dairy?
Daubney: Traditional farming methods are very important to us, as they represent who we are and how we go about things. We keep a very simple system, with minimal impact on our environment and have done since Group Settlement days. Around 800 acres of the farm remains uncleared, with clusters of trees providing great shelter for our herd as well as ensuring a balanced ecosystem is maintained. We run a low stocking rate and use natural fertilisers where possible, such as lime and dolomite.
Stock management isn’t based on high volume output, but rather a grass-fed system with minimal external feed inputs – crushed lupins from co-farmer, and small mineral supplement to assist lactation management – and our own hay is supplemented at night time.
By accepting a lower milk output per cow, we achieve a higher quality milk, as components (calcium, butter fat, protein etc) are higher because the cows are not at thresholds of high stress due to large daily production. This also removes our need for the use of antibiotics, as our cows very rarely have mastitis or other ailments that can be induced by working on a high output system.
The simple farming system is matched with our milk processing system. We’ve captured one of the most traditional milk processing systems – batch method as opposed to HTST (High Temperature/Short Time) – and adapted it to allow production of up to 10,000 litres per day, with possible expansion existing. The batch method enables pasteurisation at lower temperatures, which we believe to have significant health, flavour and property benefits to our fresh milk.
Our fresh milk has been recognised by all of the top baristas as having outstanding properties for espresso coffee making, and I believe this is because it hasn’t been exposed to the higher temperatures of HTST processing systems.
The system does require more skilled labour in order to manage the batches and ensure continuity of production. However, as we have a team very proud of their product, this isn’t a problem.
We’ve also designed our plant to be able to pipe our raw milk directly from our cows through to the processing equipment, requiring no transportable storage and therefore reducing contamination, time and equipment. We begin processing as we’re collecting milk from our cows, so within two hours of our cows being milked, we can have it packaged and ready for retail shelves.
In 2005, you completed construction of a facility to process your own milk. What made you take that step?
Daubney: Our property is geared up for dairy farming (fencing, water supply etc) and as it’s my husband’s passion, we felt that to survive in the Australian dairy industry long-term we would need to be able to have some control of farm gate price. Vertical integration seemed to be the only means of achieving this.
As you’ve said, your milks and flavoured milks are packaged in Ecolean pouches. Tell us why you chose this package.
Daubney: There’s no taint to the product flavour, as the product is in contact with a natural packaging (calcium carbonate-based). The packaging is also sterile on arrival and only briefly opened for filling and then immediately heat sealed, so potential contamination is reduced and minimal oxygen enters the packaging. The packaging has significant environmental benefits from manufacture through to disposal.
This suggests a strong focus on ‘green’ initiatives. Tell us about your environmental strategies.
Daubney: We’re working towards a carbon neutral status for August 2010 (our original goal). We’ve eliminated plastics from our system at every possible step, importing biodegradable shrink wrap was one of the last items to remove non-degradable plastics from all of our processing systems. We recycle our cartons (where possible) from our customers and they’re either reused for milk packing, or if of poorer quality, used to line pallets or a similar use.
We run on LPG gas, and the electricity that we have to use is all purchased through an offset system from our electricity supplier. We are about to convert to a biodiesel for all of our distribution trucks. When we make purchasing decisions, our priority is to use local suppliers, and then we insist on environmentally friendly choices.
Tell us about the Dairy Lounge Café? Is it important to let people see the milk packaging process? How popular is it?
Daubney: The Dairy Lounge Café has been set up as a marketing initiative, as we knew that people would want to come and see our on-farm processing and also make Bannister Downs a tangible business for the consumer as we invite them to come and visit.
We have viewing windows set up so that all of our processing area is on display, as we’re proud of our standards of care and therefore have no concerns making this visible. We also have the opportunity to explain to people who we are, what we’re doing and why we’re different from other processing companies. They can enjoy the evidence of this with our fresh milkshakes and premium espresso coffees (we have our own cafe manager/barista on site five days a week).
How do you see the future of dairy in Australia in general, and Bannister Downs Farm in particular? Will you be adding to the product portfolio?
Daubney: At Bannister Downs, our emphasis is on quality and this applies to all aspects of our business. Due to this, I’m more interested in producing a smaller product range that we can remain focused on producing to a high standard. We’re just about to embark on our first export venture to Hong Kong, which has been a project in development since January 2008, and it’s very exciting to see this so close to fruition. Our emphasis for the next 12 months is on growing our flavoured products sales and increasing our presence on supermarket shelves in order to reach greater production efficiencies that will be able to fund further development of our plant.
Suzanne Daubney is managing director of Bannister Downs Farm.
Geoff Platt is editor of Dairy Innovation magazine.
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