You get the impression with Brendan Rea that he’s as happy to be mentoring the next generation of farmers as he is to see a cow milking well in the dairy.
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In his 45-year career as a dairy farmer, Brendan has seen his family farm near Allansford grow from 90 to 1050 milkers, but the WestVic Dairy chairman likes to look at the bigger picture.
“Along the journey, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to mentor a lot of really good young people who have forged good careers for themselves in this industry,” he said.
“That has been a great joy to me.”
It’s the same with his WestVic Dairy role and other industry and community boards and committees.
“I’m a believer that you should get involved and not just be a participant,” he said.
“I got involved with WestVic Dairy because it’s a good organisation that runs great programs and delivers great benefits.”
After seven years with WestVic Dairy, including the past 18 months as chairman and now the chair of Chair’s Council across all eight regional development programs, he remains passionate servicing the different needs of farmers and providing the best outcome from the levy.
“We’re finding a need for a lot of entry-level programs for working holiday makers, but there’s also a growing need around management and employing people.
“There’s also a changing focus of programs to support farmers struggling with the ongoing drought.”
Brendan has benefited from Dairy Australia programs over the years and today encourages his staff to take up opportunities.
“Education is never a burden to carry and it comes in many different forms,” he said.
“It doesn’t have to be formal, you’ve got to meet everybody where they are at and understand that each person learns differently.
“I’ve had some wonderful opportunities to grow my skills and my team’s skills.”
Brendan returned to the family farm run by his father Marcus after finishing VCE, but he studied via correspondence to make sure he got the right education.
Today he remains as passionate as ever about farming. “If you love what you do, you never work a day of your life,” Brendan said.
“I really love getting around the animals and being in the dairy,” although his work as business manager is mainly centred on strategy, sourcing product, finance, administration and herd records “and then asking the operations manager what he would like me to do today”.
The farm has seven full-time staff led by operations manager Cameron McDonald, along with some casuals.
Brendan follows a philosophy of employing good people and not necessarily employing for skills.
“You can teach people skills, but you can’t teach attitude,” he said.
“Having good people helps build a good team environment.”
The farm covers nearly 650 hectares along with some small lease blocks.
“My father was amazing,” Brendan said.
“He was not only a great mentor, but he was very supportive and allowed me to grow the business as he gradually handed over operations.
“He knew how to take an opportunity and he knew how to work hard.”
Brendan has inherited that outlook, though his previous 90-100 hours’ work per week has been reduced to 60-70 hours.
The business is known as Solaris Farms, reflecting the sun as one of the elements along with water and soil that create the basis for the farm to work, and the name of a bar in Tallinn Estonia, Brendan’s wife’s home town.
It was originally a mixed herd, but Brendan loved the black and whites and found Jerseys were “out-muscled” by the bigger Holsteins.
They calve twice a year, mainly late-summer — early autumn, but with a small calving in July to keep cows that didn’t conceive.
“It seems to suit the farm,” Brendan said.
“We’re a lightish soil, so we grow a lot of feed in winter, if we get rain. Summers are very dry, but our winter carrying capacity is normally pretty good.”
Along with the expansion of herd and land, Brendan has progressed from a 14 swing-over herringbone to a 40-unit, and then a 60-unit rotary installed about 10 years ago, and updated along the way with robotic teat spray and a comprehensive reporting program.
“I’m not a pioneer of new technology, but I’m an early adopter if it is shown to be useful and backs up financially,” he said.
The cows average about 35 litres, even in a drought.
“We’ve maintained production,” Brendan said.
“My philosophy over the journey has been don’t make bad long-term decisions to try to solve short-term issues.
“It has always worked out, but we’re certainly looking for rain at the moment.”
His decision to maintain numbers and production hasn’t come cheap.
“This is by far the toughest time we’ve ever had,” he said.
“The 1982 drought was a one-season drought, this has been for two years. We’ve had 2.5 months of rainfall in 21 months.”
“The first year you run down your fodder supplies and cash supplies and the second year you start borrowing money.”
“We’ve had to re-sow 100 per cent of our farm this year because all the perennial ryegrass died.
“That’s never happened before. We’re buying four B-double loads of hay a week, plus we’re sourcing cotton seeds and almond hulls as well as a grain mix.
“The outflow of money to keep animals alive and fed well and producing well is enormous.”
Brendan has always taken a strategic approach to farming.
“A good farmer does it for the right reasons,” he said.
“The reason I do it is because I really enjoy producing a high-quality nutritious product, I love the fact that it’s an outdoors lifestyle that is different at all times of the year, and a love of animals.
“These days a successful farmer has to be a good manager of people.
“I can’t do this without people to rally behind the strategic direction and have the buy-in and enthusiasm to want to do it.”
Over time, Brendan has followed the philosophy of taking opportunities as they arise, continually producing the best possible product, being a farm where people are proud and happy to work, and being a good example of best practice so that the community can see dairy farmers care about their animals, their people and the environment.
He wants Australia to remain self-sufficient in its food supply.
“That’s one of the main things a country can do to protect itself so we’re not at the whims of other countries if things get bad,” Brendan said.
“Farmers are essential.”
DNA writer