In mid-June, when the days are shortest and it can be a relatively quiet time for dairyfarmers, Cowbank organised an educational tour for our clients. The goal of the tour was to look at Sustainable Low Cost Milk Production farms - what Cowbank calls 'The Holy Grail'.

We drew up a list of farms where the operators were producing milk this way. The building blocks of low cost and sustainable production can be seen from analysis of core costs and operating costs on a per cow basis, with a close focus on pasture. We plan to put these figures out into our clients' hands as part of our educational promise to our clients.

At Cowbank, we are sure the dairy industry will see an upturn over the next 12 months, and that the recent difficult past has put many dairy farmers in the positive position of knowing everything about their costs, having had to pare them down to base level to survive.

On Day 1 we visited farms in Nar Nar Goon and Colac. Our first host farmer 'produces as much grass as he can, loves feeding cows and hates spending money on machinery'! He believes in operational simplicity and machinery minimization, with a good focus on high production cows, pasture growth to 3 leaf stage over winter and rotation management as well as discussion groups and consultant advice. Cow production is 9,000 lt/cow and cell count is less that 150,000.

At Colac we saw a 240 cow farm with large frame cows being brought up to 10,000 lt/year. A feed pad has been built recently, and pasture is well managed with a consultant visiting regularly.

The evening in Colac was full of debate as the last farmer for the day demonstrated the "CUD" program modelling profitability on his farm. Members of the audience were supporting his models as they have been using the program for a year or two and are convinced that it does "not lie", it is a tool to 'scenario plan' your farm business.

Day 2 took us to 3 farms, starting in Simpson, to Cooriemungle and Woolsthorpe.

Our Simpson farmer is a recent arrival from New Zealand and his focus is on building a high production herd. For him, 'every single cow matters'. He has a hands-on approach and is selecting for high production, with proven genetics. He culls to a plan and the production reflects the herd choice. He is growing the business quickly and must watch asset management.

At Cooriemungle we visited an Autumn calving herd. The farmers here have the philosophy that if they provide plenty of food for their animals right through, then the animals will reward them. With Autumn calving, the heifers have 2 Spring seasons to gain weight, setting them up for 600kg+ at calving. Winter feeding is supplemented with feed pad to ease the pressure on pasture, reducing pasture damage and allowing a 'pasture bank' to build for later. There was a very strong message about management of heifer growth and drainage of country so that more pasture can be consumed. This was reflected in the condition of the herd, our group saw a herd of truly beautiful cows.

The Woolsthorpe farm comprises a Bull unit as the conversion from a sheep and beef farm. Our group saw the grazing systems for bulls sorted into weight ranges. The goal here is to turn 12 ton per hectare per annum of quality grass into 1200 kg per ha per annum of quality beef.

Particularly impressive was the organisation of such big numbers of bulls, and the speed with which the property had been renovated. The message for those on the bus was that the beef side of our dairy businesses is incredibly important to our overall profitability.

By Day 3 our group was full of new information, comments, comparisons and new ideas, much developing out of animated discussions over dinner at nights.

We were now in South Australia at Mt Gambier, on a farm of 800 cows where one of the owners is one of our industry's high profile consultants. The herd is Spring calving, they contract out work so that the farm can be run with minimum, but high quality, staff. There is careful management of herd calving and a program for "swapping" cows which are not in calf for the Spring to an autumn calver who provides Spring calving cows in return. Goal is 9,000 lt/cow. Our group was particularly impressed with the very strong alignment of business goals between the owner and the manager.

The final farm, we were truly exhausted now, even though filled with new learning and ideas. The owners are currently operating the farm while the manager is on his sabbatical. They have owned the farm for a year, after moving from New Zealand. The herd of 800 cows was purchased, with heifers purchased at the same time. Quality was the selection criterion, and the goal is to have a 9000 lt herd. The dairy is computerised, these owners want a good team running their business. There is a very great feeling of trust between owners and management on this farm. On the animal feeding side, an immediate goal is to get better pasture close to the dairy, possibly using irrigation. A suggestion from our group was to drill the dryland near the dairy for ryegrass at the autumn break to solve that issue.

Seven farms in 3 days, six of them dairies miking 3200 cows with a constant theme: All had very dense pasture, large framed Holstein cows, fully fed the whole season with tight control of all costs except fertiliser and feed and sound advisors helping them implement the plan.

As our group said their farewells it was clear many new friendships had been made. And the farms that our group are returning to will see some changes, which we want to see reflected in profits as things improve in the dairy industry.