Visit a dairy farm on World Milk Day!

Sunday 1 June is World Milk Day, a global celebration of the dairy industry and the vital role it plays in nourishing communities. We’re marking the occasion by collaborating with Saputo Dairy Australia on a brand-new video resource that brings dairy farming to life for children and young people.

We created a special interview with Victorian dairy farmers Pete and Lara Marshman, joined by Lara’s son Jonah — plus VIP guest Maisy the Jersey cow! The Marshman family work on their dairy farm in South Gippsland, Victoria and generously opened their gates for us to answer some inquisitive questions from Leo, a Kitchen Garden Program student at North Melbourne Primary School.

Learn how milk gets from paddock to plate, if cows make good pets and why cows head butt each other!

This video and interview is now available on the Shared Table, our online resource library and community hub.  Alternatively, you can read the full interview below:

Q & A with Pete, Lara, Jonah and Leo

Leo: “Hi, I’m Leo. I have a few questions about cows for you. Why do cows get milked so early in the morning?”

Lara: “If you milk them early in the morning, it gives the farmer the whole day to do all of the other jobs that have to be done before they get milked again in the afternoon.”

Leo: “What kinds of cows do you have and why?”

Jonah: “We have a good mix of animals; we’ve got our Jerseys, our Aussie Reds, the black and whites obviously as well. We like to have a good mix because a well spread out herd is a good one.”

Leo: “Do you have a favourite cow and do cows make good pets?”

Pete: “Yes, we have a number of favourite cows, this is one of them [points to Maisy the Jersey cow]. And as far as pets go, they could make good pets.”

Lara: “But they poo a lot, they eat a lot and it costs a lot of money to feed them.”

Leo: “Do cows bond friendships and relationships with each other?”

Pete: “Yes they do. You can see it in the cows when they come into the yard, and as they go into the shed and they will talk to each other to say who wants to go first.”

Lara: “They have leaders, so the leaders are the first cows that walk out and if they stop, everyone behind them stops as well. They do have best friends and they are often headbutting each other, that’s how they show love.”

Leo: “What does the day in the life look like for a dairy farmer?”

Jonah: “Well, there’s a lot of chasing these animals around on the quad bike, fixing fences, putting fences up, fertilizing the paddocks, making the grass grow for the cows and it depends on the time of year too as well, really. Because you could be turning this (points to grass) and putting new seed in it or you could be cutting it and wrapping it up into bales to feed to this lot.”

Lara: “In the summer time, we have to feed them a lot more from bales because the grass doesn’t grow as well so time is spent feeding cows out in the paddocks.”

Leo: “Does the cow’s milk change in taste and texture between the different seasons?”

Pete: “It does change slightly. So when the cow first calves and it’s got a high lactation, the butter fat and protein isn’t as high as what it is at the end of the lactation. Also the milk can be a little bit tainted by what the cow is actually eating.”

Leo: “Do cows like getting milked and do they get a treat after a job well done?”

Lara: “They walk in the shed happy and they let us put the milk machines on them. Normally if they don’t like something, they kick but they don’t kick when we put the milking machines one, so we don’t think they mind being milked. And I think they also like getting rid of that extra weight every day too, it helps them get around and move around better.”

Jonah: “And the treat that she’s having (points to Maisy’s feed bucket) is what they get while they’re being milked.”

Lara: “And they love coming back out to a fresh paddock.”

Leo: “They seem to spend all their time chewing. How do they digest their food?”
Jonah: “I suppose the simplest way to put it is, they eat it, they swallow it but then if you sit there and watch them long enough you’ll see a lump come back up their throat and they’ll sit there and pretty much spew the food back up into their mouth and chew and swallow it back down again. And they just keep doing that all day and that’s usually a sign of a happy, content cow too.”

Lara: “When it goes back into their mouth as mush, they chew it up some more and it break down their food and then that helps them absorb more nutrients from the food that they eat.” 

Thank you to Saputo Dairy Australia, the Marshman family, Leo and of course Maisy the cow for helping bring this resource to life.

This resource was made possible thanks to our valued partnership with Saputo Dairy Australia (SDA), a leader in dairy production and a strong supporter of our mission to deliver positive food education. SDA is the name behind some of Australia's most trusted dairy brands, including Devondale, CHEER, Liddells, Tasmanian Heritage and Mersey Valley. Their ongoing support helps us continue providing hands-on food education experiences for schools and early childhood services across the country.