Finding a new lease of life on

BY SOPHIE BALDWIN

JANELLE MCDONALD might have lost her husband Neville (Niffty) three years ago, but he still lives on in the day-to-day management of their Kyabram South dairy farm, particularly when it comes to the breeding side of things.

She has continued the Jersey stud and dairy operation on Sunshine Farm in northern Victoria, with the help of Todd Brown.

Todd has become a sharefarmer in the business, with the ultimate goal to purchase the farm from Janelle.

“When Niffty was alive we had started to wind the farm down a bit and now we are the opposite and building things back up. It is my dream to see Todd purchase the farm one day,” Janelle said.

She said when Niffty passed away suddenly she didn’t know what to do.

“The first few months were terrible. I had mastitis, sick cows and everything was going wrong and then Todd came along and I am so lucky to have him.

“He is brilliant to work with and if he wasn’t here, I would have sold the farm years ago.”

Milking around 150 split-calving Jerseys on 80 hectares, Todd does the majority of the work while Janelle says she just gets in his way.

“Todd basically runs the show and contributes 90 per cent of the labour, but I still do a fair percentage of checking and calving down the cows and rearing calves,” she said.

The Jersey breed always held a special place in Niffty’s heart, and while at the start of their farming journey the couple milked anything they could get their hands on, as the years progressed they focused more and more on their beloved Jerseys.

In 2021, Sunshine Farm reached its 50-year stud anniversary.

“Initially I wanted to just get to 50 years for Niffty but here we are three years later still going strong — in fact, we are about to lease another 80 acres [32ha] in July and I never thought I would be expanding the business at this point in my life,” Janelle said.

Even though Niffty is gone, his presence certainly lingers on across the farm.

Janelle and the family made the decision to keep the first animal that was born after Niffty’s death — whether it was a heifer or bull.

As chance would have it was a bull and now, three years later, the first and only drop of his calves have been born.

The bull has been sold because he didn’t like Todd and was becoming dangerous.

However, they did manage to get a couple of heifer calves by him — and Sunshine Farm Niffty’s Nellie will certainly have a special place in the herd in a few years time.

In February, Janelle was thrilled to win the Interbreed Intermediate Champion at the Rochester Show with Moonparh Clusto Dawn.

“That was the first cow I had bought on my own without Niffty and my first win, so it meant a lot to me.”