They had come after being invited by owner Lawrie Flanagan — who had organised what he called a Riverina Field Day — in an effort to share knowledge and highlight what's good about farming in the Riverina.
More than 50 people toured the modern property — about 80 per cent of them sporting the same navy blue shirt and jeans combo.
Martin Camano and Luisa Olcese won the award for being the biggest out-of-towners. They are from Argentina.
They are working on a Cobram dairy farm and had come to see how different the Finley farm was.
“Our farm is pretty modern, but it's small compared to this one,” Mr Camano said.
“In Argentina we don't have too much dairy, it's all beef, so it's interesting to see all this.”
Woodlawn Dairy has a milking herd of 588 and is rearing about 200 calves on milk every day.
Jorge Massa runs a 700-head farm near Colac and knows the Flanagans through the free-stall barn scene.
“I've put up a barn just like theirs. It's got the same robot and everything,” Mr Massa said.
“I was here a few years ago and I wanted to see what they'd done. I especially want to known how they're going to deal with mice with all the maize.”
Leitchville's Brady Hore, Mayrung's Jack Bunnett and Blighty's Sam Singleton took time away from their jobs to check out the property.
“It's good to have a look because this is where everything is going,” Mr Hore said, referring to the free-stall barns.
Holstein Australia service extension officer Simon Adams travelled from a job in Warrnambool to be there on the day.
Genetics Australia's Andrew Medhurst was also present. He said there were many ways farmers were using sexed semen to diversify their businesses — either into export heifers or beef calves.
“A beef calf can be worth $800 at three months these days, so using the bottom 40 per cent of your herd with beef and doing the other 60 per cent to sexed semen can pay off,” he said.
CopRice's Ellen Fitzgibbon and Beau Lochead also tagged along.
Ms Fitzgibbon said CopRice was there to listen.
“If we can tell our customers ‘this works here, we know someone who's done it’ or ‘that doesn't really work’ then that's incredibly useful,” Ms Fitzgibbon said.
Woodlawn Dairy is managed by Marcel Flanagan and has an 11-person team filled with specialists — such as a calf caretaker and feed mixer.
37°C