- We're here at Blighty on a dairy farm
with Lachlan Marshall, who runs the farm with
his brother and his wife.
And there's some very special things
we want you to ilsten to in this.
Tell us about the history and how you came
to be where you are now, mate.
- Yeah, we moved here in 2006 from southeast Queensland.
We moved down here because of the feed security
that water bought this region.
Land was affordable for a couple of young blokes
to set up an operation and sort of strive out on our own.
I'm a fourth generation dairy farmer.
We moved down here and we began grazing cows,
and doing the seasonal grass-fed system.
But very quickly, as effects of the drought moved in,
and then followed by the Murray-Darling Basin plan,
we saw the reliability on our water yield
drop from 87% to the low 50's.
And it became very expensive to grow feed.
- So 87% means that in 87% of the time
you'll get your allocation. - Yes.
- Now it's half the time. - Yes.
So imagine you've gotta run your car
from here back to Canberra, but I'm only
gonna give you half a tank of fuel to do it.
And you've still gotta get to Canberra otherwise
I'm gonna take your job off you.
- We don't particularly want to go back to Canberra.
[Laughter]
- I wouldn't either.
So we saw it as a huge hurdle that could end
our dairying aspirations in this region.
- And you've done research all over the world.
You go overseas quite a bit.
You bring a researcher in, what do you call him?
- Our nutritionist.
- Nutritionist, four times a year he comes here,
you Skype a lot with him-- - Yep.
- you're connecting with people all over the world.
- Absolutely.
- So you've done a hell of a lot of research--
and you had to change your plans
because of what you found with the water.
- Yeah. so, our business is built on science.
We don't make a move unless we can find scientific data
that backs up a decision that we're looking to make.
We came up with this system which has allowed us to grow
twice as much fodder, with half the water.
So what that did was, we saw the Basin Plan
coming into implementation, what was going to happen,
and we made a decision to move to this system,
to get ahead of the impacts of the Basin Plan,
and make ourselves even more efficient.
- So you're now a cropper, but everything you grow,
you harvest here, and you process it here
to feed your cattle. - That's exactly right.
We grow cereal crops now, in the winter time,
and we grow maize in the summer time,
because it's the most efficient user of water.
Corn for sileage and we feed it all back to the cows.
So what we're doing is we are taking that crop,
we're value adding it by putting it back into our animals.
- So you're basically value-adding grain
by making it into milk?
- Yes, correct, correct, that's the principle,
and we use good science, and research
to found all of those practises on.
And we use our local environment here,
our natural environment, to benefit our animals.
These cows don't produce milk, unless they're happy,
and healthy, and comfortable.
- Sounds like Brad Fischer.
- It's the exact same process,
the exact same process that's involved.
Our family's mantra's always been
quality milk from contented cows,
and has been for generations.
And unless the cow's happy, healthy and content--
- Pretty close to your heart, eh?
- Very close to our heart.
It's everything that our family
has stood for, for a long, long time.
- What do you call this feed area here,
is also just like Brad has got,
sprays on it to keep the cows cool.
- Yep, sprays in here to keep the cows cool,
which all come on on a thermostat
and make sure the cows are never hot.
The cows all have a collar around their neck,
which monitors-- - Get a load of this.
- monitors their movement, their temperature
and their rumination, so how much they're chewing.
- You can tell through your wife's computer connections
with that, that sends it back every what, 15 seconds?
- Every 15 seconds that's downloaded back.
- Every cow?
- Every single cow, all 900 of them.
And we can tell if that cow's temperature drops,
her movement drops, and her rumination drops,
we know that there's something
not right with that cow, she's unwell.
- So before you can actually pick it up,
as an experienced farmer, before you can
actually pick it up this will tell you.
- The system tells us, and what we're able to do
is treat the cow proactively, with the cow version
of a panadol say, rather than have to wait till she's sick,
and really unwell, and then have to use antibiotics,
and drugs to treat an ailment.
- And you can tell when the cow's
coming into calve, and all the rest of it?
- Or when cows are on estrous.
We can tell by their movements through the pedometer.
We can tell how efficient our ration is,
that we're feeding the cows by the rumination.
So effectively, the computer system is watching
the health and well being of our cows 24/7.
- And tell us about the importance of the environment
to you and how the environment
actually helps you, and you help the environment.
- Any farmer anywhere in agriculture worth his salt,
knows that you can't work against your environment,
that you have to work with your environment.
Agriculture is the environment and farming
working together in harmony.
I can't fight my environment, I have to work with it.
We need each other to prosper.
And my on-farm environment, is critical
to the success of this business.
If I don't look after my animals, my soils,
my trees, my native vegetation and wildlife,
my natural environment suffers,
and the productivity in my land decreases.
We are all about handing our farms on
in a better position than when we took them on.
And it's a continual learning experience
for all of us in agriculture.
We've become more efficient with our water,
we've become more efficient with using
bar products from our own system.
So in our instance, we've put a lot of manure
and organic fertilisers back into our soils
to improve the soil health and encourage worms.
- You use every bit of the fodder you make, recycle some?
- Absolutely, we have zero waste in our system here,
all the feed that the cows don't eat as feed is picked up
and fed back to other animals, and if it's not used there
it goes into fertiliser for compost
and goes back into the system.
So our business is built on recycling
and reusing all of the byproducts
from the operation of milking cows.
And you come out here on sunset
and walk into a corn crop and the birds
and the frogs and-- - Here during the day, mate.
- Absolutely, it's amazing.
And what's really, really sad is
because water has left this district, we've seen a drop
in native vegetation and native animals on farm.
So in layman's terms, wildlife has left the landscape
because the water has been taken away.
- Because the bureaucrats have removed the water.
- Absolutely, and they don't view on-farm environment
as a natural environment, which it is.
I have every species of native flora and fauna
that lives along the river system
lives on farm here, and is important to us.
- From what we can work out, the so-called
environment of water is not based on science,
the quantities are not based on measured data.
So you're actually showing the way
in how to look after the environment.
You're actually showing the way
in how to manage an environment and manage a business,
and Murray-Darling Basin Authority is not doing that.
Lachlan, I think we make sure that environmental water
is no longer separated from farm water.
Maybe some specific instances, but generally,
your farm water is environment water,
your conveyancing losses is environment water--
- 100%.
- And so many other things, they're all the same.
One of the things is, everyone knows,
well I think everyone knows, that in Australia
we have long droughts periodically, and they're cyclical.
And in a drought, rivers don't have water in them.
And we've got water just flowing down the channel,
flowing down the Murray River, down the Murrumbidgee River,
and it's a drought, it doesn't make sense.
It goes against science.
- It's an absolute travesty of justice.
It's Mother Nature behaving in a way
that is incredibly unnatural.
- Well Mother Nature's not-- - Well, Mother--
But that river system is being abused.
- Yes. - Is being absolutely abused.
There are outcomes here that benefit
all states along the river system,
including South Australia, there are outcomes here
that benefit both the environment
and productive agriculture, and there are
simple outcomes here that benefit
the economy and local communities.
And what it takes is good leadership,
good science, and clear heads to sit down at a table--
- Integrity. - That's a big word.
(laughter)
- Well, honesty will do, that's a shorter word.
- That's a shorter word, but integrity's hard to come by
when we get start to get into these waters.
- And you're mates with Brad, - I am.
- down at the Southern Lakes. - Incredible dairy farmer.
- Very, very effective dairy farmer,
he understands the plights of what's happening up here,
he also understands, as Jennifer Game does
in One Nation South Australia,
that with sensible adjustments to the water,
South Australia will have more water for agriculture,
New South Wales and Victorian farmers
will have more water for their agriculture,
and South Australia will benefit with more jobs
and more agricultural production and revenue.
- And I think that's critical. - Yeah!
- I that's critical that we find a win
for everybody along the system,
and I think that we use science, technology,
engineering to find better solutions to improve outcomes.
That's the way of the world moving forward.
Our business is built on finding a pathway
that benefits environment and agriculture,
we need to find the simple solutions that work
for everybody, and implement them and move forward.
There's no point moving backwards or arguing about the past.
I think you look at the successive operations
like the Fischers down there and how they've
been able to work with their natural environment
to build such an incredibly successful business.
There's lessons to be learnt there by everybody.
And let's take those lessons and let's implement them
for outcomes that are beneficial for everybody,
and don't impede anybody, including the environment.
- And as I said to Michael McCormack last week
when the Convoy's in Canberra, we will work with anyone,
providing they base their position on facts.
We want honesty, and we want facts,
and that comes with data. - Absolutely it does.
Good science, we need science to come to the fore again.
We seem to have eroded the value
of independent, peer-reviewed science with this plan.
We need to have that restored because
it should be the basis of all good decisions moving forward
and unfortunately it was corrupted
and misused and abused, and we've seen
the validity of it go out the window.
We need to have that restored.
- Facts, restored to nature, and also science.
And above all, honesty. - Yeah.
- Thanks, mate. - Thank you.