BONNIE has the right fuel for the working dog
DEVONDALE MURRAY GOULBURN JUNE <strong>2015</strong> 9 A busy life serving a dairy community FAY Sinclair rises at 5.30am to milk her 280- strong dairy herd and come midnight, she is just as likely to be baking a birthday cake for those without a family or finishing the paperwork for one of the many committees she dedicates her spare time and energy to. For Fay, it’s what life in a farming community is all about. “You have to enjoy what you’re doing,” she said. “I enjoy milking cows. I wouldn’t get out of bed at 5:30 every morning if I didn’t.” Fay and her husband, Daryl, are Devondale Murray Goulburn suppliers at Stony Creek in South Gippsland. Healthy cows, rich pastures and modernised infrastructure are the keys to making the farm a productive and profitable dairy business. Their milk is high quality and their young cows are in demand from international dairy producers looking to boost herds from China to Mexico. Closer to home, Daryl and Fay’s remarkable revegetation efforts saw them win the 2003 National Landcare Award. Since then, the total number of trees planted on the farm has topped 6000. Fay and Daryl Sinclair at their farm at Stony Creek in South Gippsland. “We like shade and shelter in the winter, and so do the cows. If the cows are comfortable, they actually give you better production,” Daryl said. It’s this commitment to the bigger picture of their local environment that makes the couple such a special part of the South Gippsland community. Daryl, who prefers to stay in the background, has been president of the local football umpires’ association, helps maintain the immaculate playing surface at the Meeniyan Recreation Reserve, has held various football management positions and has been secretary of the cricket club for many years. For 30 years Fay has been secretary of the Meeniyan Recreation Reserve, has been involved with the Meeniyan Dumbalk United Football Club for almost as long, is secretary of the Meeniyan basketball stadium, secretary of the Leongatha branch of the Cake Decorating Association, teaches baking to local primary school kids and helps out each week at three-year-old kinder in Meeniyan. Apart from all that, Daryl and Fay were inaugural participants in Dairy Australia’s Focus Farmers program, regularly participate in on-farm discussion groups and have mentored young dairy farmers. In their spare time they also managed to raise four boys. In 2011, Fay was honoured with the South Gippsland Citizen of the Year award for her community work. “I do the work because I want the community to go forward and be in good shape for the next 50 years, for our kids. “Small towns are great places but someone has to do the work. If we can keep the facilities up to scratch, then it will survive.” Now in their early 50s, the couple are adamant that involvement in off-farm activities is vital for their wellbeing. Whether it’s helping at the local footy club or participating in a farm discussion group, getting away from the constant demands of the farm is crucial to both Daryl and Fay. “It’s important for any farmer not to be at home all the time. Any person in any industry needs to go outside their own field, to give them an interest,” said Daryl, who had just returned from his fifth Great Victorian Bike Ride. Speaking to other farmers also helps remind the pair what they love about dairy farming and the passion that drives so many in the industry. “You need to go and see other farms. Even for us, it’s still exciting seeing other farmers who are doing things slightly differently It might only be the way they clip a gate, but you think, ‘well, I can apply that on our farm’,” she said. With each gate clipped, every cake baked, every meeting attended and each lap of the footy oval on the mower, Daryl and Fay Sinclair are making their farm and their community a better place to live. Couple heads north to secure their future By SHARON CAIN DAIRY farming was not the obvious choice for Rod Gundrill when he finished high school at age 16. Although farming did run in the family with his grandparents having a dairy farm and his father owning a hay contracting business, Rod decided to complete a roof tiling apprenticeship. That decision was to prove to be a good choice a few years down the track. After marrying his childhood sweetheart, Aleisha, the couple decided to go down the farming path and at age 20, they moved to Gippsland where Rod got his first job on a dairy farm. Three years later they moved to Northern Victoria where Rod took up another position on a dairy farm, until drought conditions proved too hard and Rod found himself wondering if he should return to the trade of his apprenticeship. “In 2009 we decided to move back to Gippsland, bought a house and started our own roof tiling business and that decision got us through the next three years,” said Rod. Although the roof tiling business was going well, the desire to be on the land was never far from Rod’s mind and he accepted a manager’s position on a dairy farm in Yanakie, near Wilson’s Promontory, while We are very family orientated and love spending time together, whether it be helping each other out on the farm or watching the children play sport. ROD GUNDRILL still keeping the roof tiling business. In 2014 Rod and Aleisha were asked if they would be interested in leasing a dairy farm and a herd of cows at Katunga, Northern Victoria. They believed this would be a great opportunity to start their own farming business and live closer to family. “I enjoyed the manager’s job in Yanakie but it was not ideal managing a farm and our roof tiling business at the same time,” said Rod. So the roof tiling business was sold and the couple moved north. Rod and Aleisha started on their lease on the 60ha farm on 1 August 2014 with 75 cows inmilk and 75 spring calvers. The farm is planted in rye grass and shaftal with 75 per Rod and Aleisha Gundrill have made the move from Gippsland to the irrigation region of Northern Victoria. cent in annuals and 25 per cent in permanent pasture. The milkers are currently being fed 5kgs of grain per cow through the dairy and then put out onto pasture. Rod would like to go back to once a year calving in the autumn. “The cows get stressed in the summer with the high temperatures. “I would rather have them dry and sitting in a paddock chewing on some hay. “There is no need to irrigate and waste our water allocation over the Christmas period and with the MG’s flat milk incentive in the autumn, we get paid more for the milk at that time of year so it makes sense,” he said. “I just feel we are better off having that milking window from February 1 to December 1,” he said. Breeding is something the Gundrills are passionate about. “We are not fussy but we do like Brown Swiss and in time we will probably have a cross type herd rather than just one breed or the other,” said Rod. “It all comes down to profitability so that is the challenge for us over the next two to five years to see what breed and what size cows to have. “It is simply a numbers game for the next two to three years. We are just focused on building herd numbers at the moment and then in time we can pick and choose what cows we would like to milk.” Rod and Aleisha have two children, Tahlia, 12, and Nathan, 10, and believe that farming is the best environment in which to raise children. Aleisha is proud to be able to be a ‘stay at home’ mum. “Having this number of cows and this farm size, we are able to do all the things with the kids because we are not putting in the big hours,” said Aleisha. “We do not need two people in the dairy and I am able to take the children to their sports and dance training,” she said. “We are very family orientated and love spending time together, whether it be helping each other out on the farm or watching the children play sport,” said Rod. “Life is pretty much farming and family for us. We don’t employ anyone or have relief milkers which means we are here all the time, but we all enjoy it and it is a different challenge every morning you wake up,” said Rod.
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