Dairy in Gippsland

Dairying is spread across Gippsland, with the Baw Baw, Wellington and South Gippsland shires being home to more than 75% of the region's dairy farms.

Dairying is important to the region’s wealth. It is easily the biggest agricultural contributor to the local economy with over $915 million paid to farmers for their milk. The economic multiplier meant that this translated to dairy being worth $2.1 billion in 2011/12.

(see Chart 1).

Dairy Data 2011/12:

In 2011/12, the Gippsland dairy industry:

• produced 2,129 million litres or 22% of the national milk production;
• grew 70% of the energy needed for milk production from ryegrass pastures;
• had 30% of farms on irrigation systems, 23% of farms in low rainfall areaas and 47% of farms in high rainfall areas;
• supplied milk to > 16 factories including: Alba Cheese, Bega Co-operative, Burra Foods, Floridia Cheese, Fonterra Australia, Jindi Cheese, Longwarry Food Park, Maffra Cheese, Murray Goulburn Co-operative, National Foods, Organic Dairy Farmers, Pantalica Cheese, Pauls Victoria, Tarago River Cheese and United Dairy Power as well as a range of smaller niche market dairy food producers.

Numbers:

Each year, Dairy Australia surveys over 1,000 dairy farms including 190 in Gippsland. For more information, visit the Dairy Australia website and search for National dairy farmer survey report.

Chart 1: Location of dairy farms

Chart 2: Herd Sizes in Gippsland

30% of farms produced 63% of the milk.

Further facts were collected by Dairy Australia during its annual ‘Situation and Outlook survey’ and are available from www.dairyaustralia.com.au