FEATURE
A glass and a half for Mark
Photography: Andrew Bain
When it comes to the dairy industry, the glass is more than half full, it’s a glass and a half for Mark Griffin DipAgri’14 “I love dairy. It’s a great way to grow wealth quickly. I think there’s so much opportunity. It’s crucial to the Tasmanian and Australian agricultural industry. It provides such a strong cash flow from a business point of view, giving you a reliable, low-risk income.” Mark’s family has been farming at Moltema, in the Deloraine area in Tasmania since 1845. The original mixed enterprise of sheep, cropping and dairy now has a singular focus on dairy. “We’ve chosen the enterprise that is most suited to our land and gives us our most profitable outcome. It’s been a great move. We have an average rainfall of 950mm and over the last 15-20 years we have been able to double the land’s productivity with centre pivot irrigation. We just match our milk production curve to our grass growing curve to keep our cost of production as low as possible.” The results speak for themselves. Milking 900 cows, producing 5.5 million litres per year, Mark’s high-quality commodity has been recognised as one of the top five dairy farms in Tasmania, and included in the top 100 in Australia for milk quality for the past five years. Mark loves what he does. “Whatever you do, you have to love it. The stigma of dairy not being a chosen career is out of touch. You have to work in an industry before you form your beliefs around it. I think dairy has a lot to offer. We manage a very intense system. I love working with animals in the low stress environment we’ve
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