Munbilla Dairy joins Fleurieu Milk family
The latest supplier to be welcomed into the fold at Fleurieu Milk Company as a supplier is Munbilla Dairy at Hindmarsh Tiers.
Hindmarsh Tiers is located centrally on the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula, nestled in beside Myponga where Fleurieu Milk’s operations are based, and just south-west of Mount Compass.
Owner Jeffrey Green – “just like the colour”, he explains – could not be more happy with the new partnership, which offers confidence and the promise of sustainability to his farm’s business operations.
“Other than that, there’s the feel good part; it’s certainly great to be supplying a company that’s local, creates economic activity and jobs, and all the other bits that go well in our region,” Jeff says.
Jeff, who is partial to a Fleurieu Milk flavoured milk, has watched Fleurieu Milk Company grow into a household name over the years, with a wide base of loyal customers right across South Australia and immediate brand recognition.
“They’ve done a great job to start that from scratch,” Jeff says.
“I pulled in at the new X Convenience servo in Victor the other day and at the pump there’s a screen that comes up with a story.
“I lift up the handle, and there’s Bazz talking about Fleurieu Milk! It was like, ‘there’s Barry!’ Jeff says with good humour.
Jeff comes from old farming stock: his parents had a property on the Marrabel side of Kapunda in South Australia’s mid north when he was a boy in the 60’s. Very early in the piece they moved from cropping and a small herd of dairy cows to the more viable dairy area of Meadows, and there they continued dairying for 25 years.
Jeff completed his education at Urrbrae in 1980, and moved onto the farm at Hindmarsh Tiers in the mid-90s. He remembers Munbilla Dairy being just one of countless dairy farms located in the area at the time, and one of several on his very road alone. Over the years, the challenges facing the dairy industry took their toll, and now, there are just three in the entire area. All supply Fleurieu Milk, Jeff reports proudly.
Munbilla Dairy is an irrigated dairy farm, which allows for quite consistent milk production all year round. Jeff farms Friesians, and calves about 300 cows a year, producing around 2.5 million litres of milk annually.
Operations are spread over two blocks, the first, a 239 acre parcel which is irrigated and where the dairy is located, and the second, a 330 acre farm purchased in 2011, where the non-milking cows can have “a holiday” and where the calves are birthed and reared.
Jeff is supported in the business by his partner Mandy, who has a job off-farm but shares his passion for the country lifestyle.
The Munbilla team comprises of Jeff, Russell, Ash and Hayley, who all work together to get the jobs done!
In terms of off-farm interests, Jeff reckons he’s “a bit boring”.
“I’m a bit like a lot of farmers – my farm’s my farm and my interest as well.
“I’ve grown up with it. It’s always been there all my life.
“I enjoy the lifestyle and the mix of work; to be able to work without having to drive somewhere every day, to do your own thing as a farm owner to an extent.
“I like the machinery, and the mechanical side of it – tinkering in the shed – as well as the cows.
“You’re not doing the same thing all day every day.”
