We own a farm that runs about 100 head of Freisian/Jersey cross cattle and their calves. The farm itself is on roughly 300 acres, which is situated in a valley five minutes out of the Picton township.
We built a milk processing plant in March 2004. The milk is processed according to the NSW Food Authority standards, and it is sold in one, two and three litre recyclable bottles. We purchase milk from farms in Jamberoo as well as Albion Park and Camden. We also produce yoghurt and cream. Visit Our Products for further information about exactly what we produce.
Our milk comes straight from the cows to the plant and then out to our customers. Milk is a bit like fruit; it bruises easily and the quality can be lowered if it is not treated carefully. We are constantly monitoring the quality of the feed and health of the cows to ensure that the milk produced is the best you can buy. We believe these factors combine to create a product that will make “the difference you can taste”.
The drought between 2018 and 2020 resulted in there being no on-farm pasture available for feed and most farmers having to buy it in. Wheat at one stage tripled in price and in fact was being shipped in from Western Australia and overseas. Most farming industries suffered similar sorts of impacts. However, in the case of eggs, lamb, beef and flour (to name a few) these costs were sometimes passed on to the consumer. In the case of milk this was not the case until 2022.
For many dairy farmers this has meant that it is time to sell up and move on. Usually their land is sold for housing blocks. When this happens the entire local community changes. Areas become more developed and less rural. Country life starts to slowly disappear.
We did not want this to happen to us or to Wollondilly. We had already sub-divided some of our precious farming land to pay for a generational family transfer. Enough! We felt it was time to take control.
For us this meant value adding to our raw milk product. Why sell our milk for next to nothing to a big processor when we could bottle it ourselves and start making farming a viable way of life again?
And not just us. If you support us and keep Country Valley milk a success then we can continue buying other local farmers’ milk to bottle and pay them a better price too. That way we can all ensure that the Sydney Basin keeps the rural way of life that you live here to enjoy. If our farms go, so does the lifestyle.