Friesians and Herefords make a good mix at Meadows

"Mess either of those up, and you can't get the result you're after, it's as simple as that," Trevor said.

The principle has served him well for steady expansion across the past five decades, after starting out with a small herd of 40 Friesans bought from his brother Max in 1967, on 32 hectares. Today, Trevor milks 200 cows, with land acquisitions over time taking him to 142ha.

Trevor has always used Friesians, with annual milk production per cow sitting at about 7900 litres.

"They have good feet and legs, good, sound udders, good butterfat at about 4.6 per cent fat content, and last many years. Longevity is huge, because it costs a lot to produce a heifer," he said.

Trevor keeps his cows for eight to nine lactation periods, with half the herd calving in autumn, and the other half in spring.

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Cows are artificially inseminated with Friesian semen, with a well-bred Hereford bull from Max then used to mop up any not in-calf, running with the herd for two cycles. Herefords are chosen for easy-calving purposes.

"We usually get about 60pc success with the AI, then about 35-38pc are in-calf to the Hereford," Trevor said.

Male Friesian calves are sold to local producers as bobby calves. Hereford-Friesian calves are either kept and grown for beef, or sold to Max or son-in law Glen Pitchford, who join them to Hereford and Angus bulls, respectively.

While the crossbred calves are a good income stream, dairy remains the main focus, and their nutrition is down to a fine art.

The milking herd grazes on clover, ryegrass and cocksfoot pastures, strip-grazing a different paddock each day. Cereal hay is supplied each night and morning, with Trevor also growing about 500 bales of silage annually, fed out during the drier months.

In the dairy, cows are fed either triticale or barley grain, with a mineral supplement containing copper and zinc.

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"Once the cows stop producing milk, they stay in one or two paddocks for two months, then two weeks before they calve again, we bring them back in and feed them a lot more," Trevor said.

Two weeks before calving, cows are put onto a lead feed concentrate, from Hills Farm Supplies in Mount Barker.

"It's very important to lead feed the cows prior to calving - we used to have a lot of problems with milk fever, but this concentrate gets the herd's rumen functioning properly to produce milk," he said.

MEADOWS dairyfarmer Trevor Thorpe operates with an 18-a-side herringbone dairy, which he thinks is the best way to operate if only one person is milking.

"We used to have an eight unit double-up setup, but when you double up, you have hoses everywhere to clean up, and you need multiple people," he said.

"With 18-a-side, all the units are utilised, and it's easy to do the job with just one person, and can get done in 75 minutes or so - it's all about utilising manpower.

"I don't know too many dairies around the place that would have just one person milking for that many cows (200 cows)."

Trevor acknowledges there are a number of robotic dairies through SA, but his preference will always be for herringbone setups.

"Hopefully I'm not old and broken and can't see the future, but I think our setup suits how we want to run things here," he said.

Trevor runs Rillamead with sharefarmer Peter Saint, son Warrick and grandson Daniel, but said there was no obligation for the family to continue it into the future.

"People say family trusts are wonderful, I think that's trying to make the younger ones fulfil the dreams of the older ones - you want people to be themselves and enjoy what they're doing, and that doesn't necessarily have to be farming," he said.

"As long as the person running things has a good vision for the future, that's all that matters."

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