Adam Spradbury is living the dream after purchasing his first dairy farm at Cohuna late last year.
Photo by
Sophie Baldwin
Cohuna dairy farmer Adam Spradbury is fulfilling a dream he has had since he was a young boy after finally purchasing his first farm late last year.
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Adam grew up in Cohuna, and for a couple of years when he was in primary school, his parents had a dairy farm which ended up leaving a lasting impression on him.
As a teenager, he also spent some time at Elmar Farms at Horefield, which prompted him to fall in love with cows and breeding.
Adam may have grown up, moved away and life may have led him on a different path for many years, but after a marriage breakdown, he decided it was now or never, and he has thrown everything on the line to purchase a 65 hectare farm.
He looked at a few farms around the place, but it was the price of the land and proximity to his old home town that appealed to Adam.
He moved to the farm in October with 20 milkers, 30 poddy calves and 18 heifers he purchased from some random herds.
He is hoping to purchase a few more cows over the next couple of months before he kicks off milking sometime in early April.
“I think a smaller framed cow will suit my farm better, so I am planning on milking Jerseys and some Aussie Reds,” Adam said.
“I am hoping to start off with around 40 cows and work my way up to a hundred, with the possibility of going organic down the track as well.”
Jerseys will be the core of the herd.
Photo by
Sophie Baldwin
To keep a flat milk supply, he will run a split calving herd.
Adam successfully ran a small farm in Gippsland and is no stranger to looking after livestock.
He has always had a house, chickens and some sort of beef herd, although he is currently in the process of offloading the last of his beefies, so he can purchase some more milkers.
One of his Jersey cows is a 15-year-old family pet, and Adam is hoping she will at least get one season in the shed before she retires.
“She has been a great pet over the years, but has only ever had four calves, which is why she looks so young — she used to love eating cypress, which makes cows abort,” he said.
Adam Spradbury is well on the way to fixing up the dairy for his April deadline.
Photo by
Sophie Baldwin
Adam is the first to admit the farm requires a fair bit of work to bring it up to scratch, and he has been busy cleaning up mountains of rubbish, fixing fences and sheds and bringing the 18-aside swingover dairy into working order.
“It was last a working dairy farm back in 2016, so I have had to spend a lot of time replacing rubber ware and electrical wiring,” he said.
“I have a carpentry background and I have quite enjoyed fixing everything up.
“I know it’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I am prepared to give it a red hot go.”
Adam intends to turn the current 11 paddocks back into the original 17 so he can better manage his grazing rotation, something he thinks will be better with smaller more manageable paddocks.
“I have done a heap of spraying to get the weeds under control and I have sown some millet to get some early feed growing,” he said.
“I plan on sowing some lucerne in autumn so I can eventually cut some hay – I want to keep things simple and grow quality feed.”
Some of the recently sown millet is providing some feed.
Photo by
Sophie Baldwin
He has plans down the track for some sort of feedpad, but his main priority will be to get all the basic things up and running first.
“Eventually, I hope to have a worker to help out, until then, I know I am going to pretty busy,” he laughed.
Adam said he would have to prioritise the important jobs for the first couple of seasons and he would milk whatever he could find to get his herd numbers up as quickly as possible — then he would concentrate a bit more on genetics.
“It is a gamble, and I have risked everything to give this a go, but I also feel like I am finally getting to live out my childhood dream, and it feels pretty good,” Adam said.
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