DECEMBER, 2018 ISSUE 98
MURRAY REGION
Lachlan Marshall on the feed pad on his Blighty property.
Big move secures future SOPHIE BALDWIN
THE LURE of cheap land, stability of irrigation and access to multiple milk processors was all it took to entice brothers Lachlan and Adam Marshall from south-east Queensland to the Riverina.
The family was looking to secure its future in the dairy industry and Blighty appeared to tick all the boxes — so the Marshalls moved their operation 12 years ago. “We were looking for a stable future and the opportunity to purchase cheap land and along with water security, we thought this was the perfect place to farm,” Lachlan said.
The family came with 400 split-calving cows and a rye-grass based grazing platform. A decade later they are milking 900 yearround calving cows, three times a day, on a total mixed ration — with a central feed pad the basis of all herd management. “We came here to take advantage of a low cost structure but it didn’t take long to become
a high cost, low efficiency system that we had to change,” Lachlan said. Initially the 160 ha milking platform was a split between perennial and annual pasture; now cereal, lucerne and corn make up the majority of fodder grown. Continued page 14 >
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