Lifestyle flexibility makes dairy a great industry to work

BJ Watson, Mount Compass, said working within the dairy industry was a satisfying career especially with knowing how to treat health problems with the herd.

He said job satisfaction was a huge reason why he works as a herd manager.

"You feed the cows well, they will give you lots of milk; you look after the cows health, you don't have health issues; you look after their feet, you don't get lameness; but of course we get all of those issues we do you get health issues, we do get lameness, just like most farms would," he said.

"But it's having the knowledge to be able to fix the problems ourselves - it is just so satisfying.

"I can get a cow that'll walk into our tilt crush almost skipping because she won't put any pressure on her foot and I can get her walking out perfectly and in all honesty, it is one of the most satisfying things to see."

Prior to the rotary dairy his work day started at 1am to get the cows in for the herringbone system.

"My first job here was to just milk cows and do no other farm work," he said.

"I would do all but 9 milkings a fortnight and I did that for the first four to five years.

"Slowly but surely, as I got more comfortable with things, I was given more responsibilities.

"And so I worked my way up to herd manager from that."

He said his role as a dairy herd manager entailed looking after 950 purebred Jersey cattle on the farm.

"In my job role on this farm, now that we're in the new dairy we don't start as early," he said.

"We get there to start at 3:30 in the morning, so you will turn all your lights on and make sure everything's set up correctly then go out and get all your cows from the other side of the farm, and get the whole herd onto the yard."

He said while the cows were walking into the dairy they were setting up the next area for the cows to go.

"Once we milk the cows they can walk straight out to the next yard we want them to go in," he said.

"Once the main herd has been milked, we milk our treatment cows to ensure their milk doesn't get put into the vat.

"Any cows that may be lame, any issues with calving or have had antibiotics in their system don't get milked with the main herd."

He said the main herd of 480 cows would get through the dairy in about an hour and a half and the treatment cows would take about half an hour.

Mr Watson said the vat was tested every single pick up and if it was to accidentally happen, the whole vat would be dumped without compensation.

"Once all the cows have been milked, we treat the treatment cows," he said.

"Once they're treated and on their way - we clean up which is a case of hosing down the dairy and putting an automatic wash through the whole milk plant which consists of either an alkaline or acid wash.

"We are lucky enough to have a flood wash so when we are cleaning the dairy, the flood wash is cleaning the yards."

He said after that was all done, they'd go and have breakfast and plan what was important for the day.

"Usually it will be attending to animals - where I deal with all lameness - we have our own tilt crush - and I deal with health issues as well," he said.

"Doing it after the milking and breakfast is done means I have plenty of time to allocate to it and I am in no rush.

"Once all of the health checks and treatments are complete I go out and do farm maintenance."

He said maintenance in winter was mostly on pivot irrigation.

"Or I attend to the calves if there are any unhealthy calves the calf rearers notice," he said.

"By about then it'll be 1pm and that'll be my general day to day.

"But we still have things that will throw the day out like storms which can throw the schedule out of the window - but for the most part, it's pretty scheduled around here."

Afternoon milking sessions start cupping up at 1:30 and track through until 3:30 and Mr Watson said the whole idea of a 1:30 milking was to ensure staff left by 5.

"We found in our Herringbone system it was taking 4.5 hours to milk the cows," he said.

"So as soon as the milking was finished, people were taking shortcuts to rush out the door, especially towards the end of the week.

"It seems to be a much happier working environment for all involved now."

He says if you work with animals, they don't work to a schedule so you will still have curveballs from day to day and it's also seasonal.

"We do all our own silage harvest in house," he said.

"We grow all our own silage, wrap all our own silage, grow all our own grains, so obviously once it comes to that time of the year, it becomes your main duties.

"For me, it's milking and sorting out health issues and then everything else will be put on a back burner while we're doing those seasonal jobs."

Mr Watson said he worked in the dairy industry when he was about 21 but loved his weekends so left the industry for 14 years.

"But I came back to it about 12 years ago and I reckon it was later in life when I decided dairying was what I wanted to do from then on," he said.

"I was probably about 30 when I decided to chase the lifestyle the dairy industry can offer.

"I honestly fell in love with it from day one of my return."

He said 80 per cent of his job was on the job learning but he credits watching YouTube to teaching him hoof trimming.

"If I haven't watched 500 hours of people doing that, I'd be surprised," he said.

He said he had also been to training days with vets to learn hoof trimming.

"Even the young ones that we get in, a lot of them have zero experience but we get them on and put them through a two year traineeship so they get a broad idea of farming," he said.

"We've had a couple of young girls come through and have pushed into the vet side of things - so it's a good stepping stone too."

Mr Watson said besides wet weather gear, workboots and gumboots - there was no expense to start a career in the dairy industry.

"It's attitude - if you've got a keen attitude to learn and work, you'll get a job anywhere in this industry," he said.

He said the dairy industry was definitely a lifestyle choice.

"I have the luxury where if there are any family commitments during the day and it doesn't matter what time that event may be on, I have the ability to leave work to go to that social engagement or whatever it may be, and come back without an issue," he said.

"From a family and lifestyle point of view - I think it is honestly one of the best jobs in the world.

"The freedom that goes with it is absolutely amazing."

Mr Watson's greatest achievement was to take the dairy from a silver production award to a gold award after eight years.

"One year I literally gave 100pc to the entire herd and we made the gold production awards for Jersey Australia," he said.

But like any job there is always a down side, he said calving paralysis was the worst part of his job.

"I cannot stand (it) because you cannot pick it's going to happen and then when it does happen, it is a massive amount of work to try and get that cow back to full health," he said.