A dairy family from Dubbo is bucking the negative trend in their industry by value adding to their business.
Steve and Erika Chesworth’s children want to carry the family operation into the future, so they will soon start processing plain milk, flavoured milk and cream on-farm for local and regional markets.
The Chesworths have been dairying in the Dubbo district for about nine years. They moved their operation from the Hunter Valley after the mining industry started encroaching on the region.
Steve Chesworth says both he and his wife come from generations of dairy farmers, and now with two of their children wanting to carry on that tradition, they are looking to expand and diversify their operation.
And so, in the face of almost constantly bad news in their industry, the Chesworths are increasing their investment on-farm, building a small processing plant to supply local and regional outlets.
Steve Chesworth says his dairy herd is, at 800 head, a big herd of milkers; but he says they still operate the same way as a small dairy operation. It’s a family operation run by the family, and that’s all the way down to feeding poddy calves.
As Campbell Chesworth says, «Mum still feeds the calves by hand, the same as when we only had fifteen; except now we have 80.»
Erika Chesworth says she thinks the time is right for a milk processor to put locally produced, single sourced fresh milk into shops and cafes in the central west.
«Our milk will be local, it will be fresh, it will not have travelled hundreds and hundreds of kilometres and it won’t be days old before people buy it.»
This move has been on the table for a few years now. The family has been doing their research and biding their time before they launched into the new operation.
Steve and Erika’s daughter Emma has been travelling around the country, working and getting experience in other milk processing operations and getting insights into milk quality from the milk and produce judges.
Steve says the milk processing will initially account for about 10 percent of their production and they hope that it will build to half, and possibly more, depending on the response from the local market.
But what represents a local market to the Chesworths?
Not just Dubbo apparently.
Erika says they consider anything west of the Blue Mountains as a logical outlet for them, and they are particularly interested in some of the higher-achieving restaurants and cafes in the central west.
And she says the process of developing the new business has been quite uplifting.
«The people we have been working with on this, the consultants, the marketing people, have been so positive – it’s actually been a joy.
«They’ve been generous with their knowledge and supporting us all this time, so we have a good team around us.
«It’s exciting; it’s exciting that the kids want to be involved, and that we’ve been able to help provide for them.»
Source: ABC
