Tim McGlade has always looked at his farm a bit like a vegie garden — if you treat the soil right, it will treat you right.
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That philosophy, developed and consistently improved since changing to biological farming in 2010, has opened a lot of doors for the McGlade family from Scotts Creek.
Tim and his wife Sally were among the founders of Otway Pastures Milk in 2013 and continue alongside the Davis and Whiting families.
The business was built around farms that used home-grown compost instead of synthetic fertilisers and has continued to promote a local product making a positive impact on the environment.
The venture started in 2013 as Green Pastures, a name that stuck for six years before being changed to Otway Pastures.
“Green Pastures has no origin; we’re close to the Otways and it made sense to go down that path,” Tim said.
It started with five farming families. One recently retired and another is planning to sell the farm and decided to leave, leaving the McGlade, Whiting and Davis farms but with plenty of room for growth.
Since the start, the combined farms have grown the business from 1.2 to 1.3 million litres and this year it’s on track to do 3.5 to 3.7 million litres.
The business started over drinks at Ocean Grove when farming friends were lamenting being at the mercy of price cuts and one suggested making their own brand.
Tim admits it was a big risk and subject to a lot of meetings and debates — but he also admits he’s a “shocker” for taking on risks.
“Tony Evans from Camperdown Compost was keen to do something. The criterion was how we biologically farm and compost to utilise all the waste on our farms. At that stage, we were all doing that anyway.”
The McGlades had turned to alternatives as a cost saving measure, and then came to enjoy the environmental and production benefits.
“Our fertiliser bill was going through the roof,” Tim said.
“We started looking at alternatives around 2008 and found out about the waste on our farm that we weren’t utilising and turned it into rich, free fertiliser.”
Today they make all their own compost, only occasionally purchasing back-up supplies. They use a biological spray mix with a lot of trace elements, and nitrogen and some sulphate ammonia if needed.
“We’re trying to look after the soil which looks after the plant which looks after the cows. It’s pretty simple,” Tim said.
“We’ve been doing it for 14 years and I don’t think we’ve put a blend out here in that time. I was a bit sceptical at the start but it’s like a big vegie garden — that’s how we treat it.”
They aim to use all home-grown feed, topped up with a bit of oaten or cereal hay for fibre.
“I try to feed them heavily in the bail for a balanced diet,” Tim said.
They have been successfully trialling summer and winter multispecies crops over the past two years, this year mixing the multispecies with rye-grass for magnificent results.
Although some parts of south-west Victoria have battled a green drought, Tim says the success of the crops could be attributed to the season.
“We’ve had a very dry season with no mud. I’ve never grown so much feed in winter in the whole time I’ve been farming.
“Spring was good, but it has dried off and I wouldn’t be surprised if we started feeding out silage in the last week of November.”
Tim likes everything about farming but the main thing is growing fodder.
“That has always been my passion to look after the soil and grow as much grass as possible.”
After setting up the family-owned enterprise, Tim says they “went all guns blazing” with big launches in Melbourne and Sydney.
Getting a major retailer on board made the difference.
“Coles was first to give us a crack and we got on their shelves in November 2013,” Tim said.
However, that relationship recently came to an end.
“They have reshuffled things and a few local brands got dropped, including us,” Tim said.
“They took over a plant in NSW and made more room for their own products.
“It was disappointing but we were with them for 10-and-a-half years and they supported us through that. We were lucky to be there for that long.”
The partners could see the writing on the wall.
“They dropped one-litre products and then the low-fat,” Tim said.
“We could see we were getting squeezed so we worked hard over the past two years on building up cafes and independent supermarkets. We knew it was going to happen and had been preparing for it.”
While the loss of Coles is a blow, Otway Pastures supplies many independent supermarkets and speciality stores in Melbourne and has a major distributor in Sydney.
The brand inspires loyalty.
“Once we get a cafe, they nearly always stick with us,” Tim said.
Sungold manufactures the Otway Pastures milk.
“They contract pack our milk and use any excess in their factory. It’s a good deal for both.”
As the farms have grown, so has milk production, meaning a lot of excess milk goes to Sungold.
“We’ve still got room to grow. It would be wonderful if more farmers came on board.
“We have such a good agreement at the moment that we’d be mad to leave it, but you never know what’s down the track. If we got too big, we’d have to look elsewhere or at building a factory.”
Although the excess milk is subject to price fluctuations, Tim and his partners continue to enjoy the independence of their own brand.
“Dairy farmers, like all farmers, are price takers, not price makers,” he said.
“This idea came about to try to be price makers, to try to get a bit extra by having your own product, and it has worked for us.”
Tim grew up on a family farm five minutes away from his current home. He and Sally bought that farm in 2002 from his parents and currently use it to run young stock and for hay and silage.
All up, the McGlade family owns about 325 hectares across three properties at Scotts Creek and lease about 100ha near Camperdown to grow more feed and run beef.
They milk about 380, mainly Holsteins, with a high stocking rate.
“There’s an area about 60 acres that we don’t milk off because it’s too far for the cows to walk,” Tim said. “We use it for young stock, dry cows and silage.”
The herd produces about 9500 litres per cow. The business partners stagger their split calving seasons to make sure they have an even milk flow.
Tim, 57, is also involved in a contracting business with son Jack, while son Billy manages Monk and Sons Contracting.
The contracting business came about because “the boys are mad on tractors” and were helping out early in their childhood.
The busy lifestyle continues for Tim and Sally, who also have daughters Amie and Hannah and 10 grandchildren.
Tim remains buoyant about the future.
“We’ve seen highs and lows but you always see that in farming.”
DNA writer