How 20 Jersey cows gave the Tommerup Dairy farming family inspiration to change the way a traditional milking farm was run
Twenty Jersey Cows. That’s all it took for Kay and Dave Tommerup to take an enormous leap of faith and believe their farm in the Kerry Valley in Queensland’s Scenic Rim could stand alone as a place of extraordinary, independent produce and experiences.
It was a big leap. But fortunately, it paid off.
They put their business faith, and their family’s future into 20 beautiful, brown-eyed Jersey cows that produce the richest milk. Milk where the cream floats to the top and sits there like a crown.
It’s milk from which Kay makes hand-rolled butter infused with red gum smoked salt that’s demanded by top chefs and spoken of in hushed tones of secrecy across countess commercial kitchens.
Covering over 80 glorious hectares, this sixth-generation dairy farm has mixed innovative farm practices with old-fashioned passion and a genuine love of the land and its animals, to create a rural haven, with the circle of life loved and respected every day.
Overlay this with the courage to challenge bureaucracy, bullies and bankers, and theirs is a story to tell.
This week their courage and commitment have been rewarded – they have been named of one of just 18 in the Australian Farmer of the Year Awards for 2023.
What makes Kay’s heart sing, is that they are one of three finalists in the Innovation category.
Without innovation, Tommerup’s Dairy Farm would probably be closed, and not the shining example of regenerative, sustainable farming with the heart that it has today.
Passion speaks at Tommerup Dairy farm
“The focus of everything we do and every experience we offer, is our dairy, our farm, and our desire to build a farm business that can be taken on by our children, and their children on this beautiful property that’s been farmed by Dave’s family since 1874,” outlined Kay who now sits on the Boards of eastAUSmilk and the Queensland Farmers Federation.
“This is a dream that’s been abandoned by so many farming families across our nation because it’s just so hard to realise.
“Not only are there extreme natural conditions to manage, but there are also overly dominant supply chains, bureaucracy and big corporates that run the sector, as well as outdated laws and regulations. Through this and more, Tommerup’s Dairy Farm has survived.
“We’ve gone from a dairy farm being propped up by tourism dollars, to a dairy farm leveraging the benefits of agritourism to add higher value to our farm product and now we have a legacy for future generations,” added Kay.
Easy. Not at all
Kay and Dave made the bold decision to establish their own Tommerup’s Jersey Girl line of boutique dairy products in 2019. They had previously been supplying the former Logan and Albert Co-Op.
“Like so many others, our journey into agritourism came as a survival tactic for the farm. With three generations living on the family property, and Dave and I have just started our own family, dairy deregulation in 2000 came at us like a freight train.
“The dairy should have closed – the numbers told us so. But numbers can’t beat passion, or respect for family and tradition,” expressed Kay.
“Five generations have milked cows on our beautiful farm, every single day in the same dairy for over 100 years. For Dave, giving up that tradition wasn’t an option, no matter what the numbers said. Dairy farming is not his job, it’s who he is, and it’s who our family is.”
“Luckily, farmers are masters of taking something they have and moulding it into something they need. There are a few things that can’t be fixed with a bit of baling twine or fencing wire. Fixing this problem, however, was going to take more than twine.”
Dave said the change wasn’t easy for him. “There are so many family traditions linked to everything I do. Most farmers are highly innovative, they have to be to survive. It’s a matter of whether they have the financial resources, knowledge and confidence to get where they want to be.”
Six long years after deregulation, Dave and Kay took over the family farm. It was at rock bottom.
“All savings were gone; the maintenance and capital investment had been non-existent since deregulation. We not only had to find a new income stream to combat the ridiculously low milk prices, we had to rebuild,” Kay added.
“I wasn’t born in the region, so had relatively new eyes and could see the beauty and uniqueness of life on our farm, often taken for granted by those who’ve only known this life. For many farmers, the idea that their daily life could be interesting to visitors is… quite a stretch.
“When your confidence is diminished from years of being ‘just a farmer’ and at the bottom of the supply chain, it’s hard to realise that what you do has worth to others,” Kay contemplated.
In 2008 Kay and Dave opened the farm to a little camping, animal feeding tours, and school excursions.
Tourism and farming go hand in hand
Kay added, “When the Scenic Rim Regional Council saw potential in our ideas and we joined their business development program. Our teacher was none other than the godmother of agritourism herself, Rose Wright. This changed our lives.”
Now Tommerup’s Farm has key strategic pillars – The Dairy, Farm Stays, Meat Sales and Farm Experiences – and they are passionate and highly focused on the future.
Their farm stay includes The Cottage and The Homestead, both built in 1888 and steeped in family history and both booked well into the future with cancellations snapped up within hours.
“In the eyes of our guests, our farm is their farm; it’s a genuine place to connect with the land and the farmers, to with where their food comes from, and to make lifelong memories,” Kay continued.
School group excursions are a particular passion of Kay’s. “We’re creating a connection that will shape their future opinions and consumer choices. And perhaps, they might just see something that draws them to a career in agriculture – bringing a new generation of enthusiastic, passionate people to our industry.”
During the recent drought, when another round of dairies shut down, Kay and Dave dug in, dropped their herd numbers to focus on quality, and launched their Jersey Girl brand.
As Kay speaks about the milk, cream, butter, milk-fed pork and rose veal they produce, her eyes light up even more, because as a micro-dairy – they shouldn’t be surviving, but because of their passion, and support from chefs and customers, they are surviving.
“We now process ALL of our own milk and cream within a micro, on-farm creamery – an investment funded by the success of our farm tourism. We separate the cream in our century-old dairy with an Alfa Laval separator of the same vintage.
“The skim milk is fed to our pigs, and the cream is processed into our award-winning artisan dairy products, including our handmade cultured butter and the long-awaited Farmer Dave’s cream top jersey milk. Every part of the process is done by us, here. Our products are boutique, extraordinary, and command a premium price.”
There’s no wastage on the farm, and the animals are rotated around the farm to have a positive impact on the land itself because the land is part of their family too.
“Whilst we do have a Farm Gate, most of our dairy, pork, and veal products are supplied to high-end restaurants in Brisbane. These chefs have become part of our family. They know us, our farm, and our ethics intimately. Our farm, our story and our produce, is respected and showcased across their menus.”
“It’s really important that we encourage other farmers who might be thinking, ‘we can’t keep doing this’, that we let them know there are other ways to do it,” she said. “When a higher value is placed on products coming from farmers choosing a regenerative journey, it allows more resources to be allocated to those regenerative practices and helps us to continue down that path.
“The whole story, from raising calves right through to working with chefs, schools, visionaries and the organisations creating policy for the future means our role is more than producing products that taste great. We are moving the dial for the future.”
And then Dave said something that makes the penny drop, “Without diversification, we wouldn’t have a legacy to pass on to our kids. They now want to be a part of our business, and the sense of pride this gives me is indescribable.
“I know the history, the stories, the passion, the bloodlines and the farming craft will live on. The life will continue,” Dave concluded.
Back to those twenty Jersey Cows
They all have names – Martina, Brenda, Susie, Tali, Ruby, Sugarloaf, Friday, Rose, Muriel, Margie and more, and yes, they come when called. So do the veal calves who are named after chefs.
There’s Gordon Ramsay (so named because of his strong personality), Jamie Oliver (he was a sweetie), Guy Grossi (it was the dark rim around his eyes that decided his name – those glasses), Shannon Bennett (he had little white socks that reminded Kay of the sneakers Shannon wore on MasterChef).
And Maggie Beer (there’s been two of her so far), and local chefs of course also star including Daniel Groenberg who headed the kitchens at Kooroomba and is now at the newly re-opened Roadvale Hotel, Simon Furley who is at The Paddock at Beechmont Estate and Wild Canary’s Glen Barratt – all champions of local produce.
The Australian Farmer of the Year awards celebrate the best and brightest in the agricultural industry each year; farmers who constantly strive to improve their business and are finding success in their efforts.
Finalists will be named in six categories – cropping, beef, dairy, sheep, horticulture and innovation. Nominations close at 11.59pm WST, on Tuesday 28 February 2023.
