THE FARM
GLENDHU DAIRIES
Our Dairy Operation
We have 1,500 dairy cows, divided into three herds which are farmed on 550ha. We also have a 170ha young stock block, as well a 170ha cut and carry block. With 8 employees, including two fulltime tractor drivers, the volume is easily managed with the workload shared across the team. We operate on a 4 on 2 day off roster with no one doing more than one milking a day.
The Milking Shed
Milking occurs twice a day, at 4am and 2.30pm taking approximately 3hours with two people doing the milking. The dairy shed is an 80bale rotary that is well equipped with cup removers, Protrack auto-draft, auto teat spray, a heat detection system (managed by Halter), as well as a meal and molasses feeding system.
Our Free-Stall Barns
Our state-of-the-art free-stall barns are proving their worth and our girls have never been happier.
During winter (2months), our cows will be in the barns 24hours a day, enjoying the cubical latex mattress system, with access to rotating back scratches and an abundance of feed. There are automated scrapers for cleaning, and feed is distributed to the cows via a mixer wagon.
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Aside from winter, the barns are used during the year when the cows require buffer feeding or when inclement weather means they'll enjoy shelter. Happy cows produce more milk!
Technology
Working smarter, not harder is our motto. With technology we're able to manage our time more efficiently while ensuring smooth running across the farm. We use payroll and harvest apps, and to-do-lists for taskings are all available from an app accessible by smartphones.
Halter Collars
Our herd all wear Halter Collars using virtual fencing and high performance grazing technology. This means we no longer need to spend time managing break fences or shifting the cows. The collars also collect and analyse data for each individual cow’s reproduction cycle, rumination patterns, and health status enabling us to be proactive with animal health.
​Glendhu Dairies own a modern, up-to-date vehicles fleet of New Holland and Case tractors with various cultivation gear as well as triple mowers.
Our fleet includes a mixer wagon which is used to distribute stock feed such as straw, soya, grass silage, PKE, and molasses with the addition of milking minerals, to cows in the free-stall barns, feedpad and occasionally the paddocks.
Our Molasses tank fills at an incredible speed making it fast and efficient to load.
We're fortunate enought to be able to produce all our sileage on site including Maize sileage.
​We recently converted one of our runoff blocks into dedicated pasture fields for rearing heifers. This development allows us to raise our young stock in a controlled environment with high-quality grazing, ensuring they’re well-nourished and well-prepared for joining the milking herd. The move not only improves efficiency across the farm but also supports our long-term goals for herd health and productivity.
Calving
At Glendhu Dairies we rear approximately 400 calves every Spring, during the months of July, August and September.
Our calves are all reared on our farm using an adlib system which you can learn more about here >.
