COUNTRY DANCE to mark 150 years of Tommerup's Dairy Farm
"Five generations have milked cows on our beautiful farm, every single day in the same dairy for 150 years. Giving that up wasn't an option, no matter what the numbers said. It's who we are."
There's two big numbers for Tommerup's Dairy Farm this year – 150 and 25.
150 is the number of years this much-loved, innovative, award-winning boutique dairy farm with a huge heart and run by Dave and Kay Tommerup has been operating on 80 beautiful acres in the Kerry Valley outside Beaudesert in the famed Scenic Rim; and 25 is the number of brown-eyes Jersey cows they have staked the future on.
Being in business 150 years in a major milestone for any operation, but for one family to have farmed the same acreage for 150 years, surviving drought, bushfires, floods, COVID, never ending industry regulation, and more, that's grounds for major applause.
This makes Tommerup's Dairy Farm older than Bushells, BHP, Bundaberg Rum, Brown Brothers, Akubra, Uncle Tobys, Driza Bone and Qantas; all major names, and they are celebrating in the best way they know how, by hosting a COUNTRY DANCE this Saturday!
Tickets are still available Country Dance at the Barn | Tommerup's Dairy Farm (tommerupsdairyfarm.com.au)
Why a country dance? Long before Farmer Wants a Wife, the country dances were the place where love blossomed for farmers and those wanting to snag themselves a farmer. Kay & Dave met at a country dance 30 years ago and for more than a decade it was their Saturday night ritual to head to one of the local dances, then later with the kids in tow. So, what better way to celebrate 150 years of farming than to hold their very own country dance on the farm!
The multi-award winning Tommerup's Dairy Farm is indeed a jewel in the crown of Australia's farming history, however it's been far, far from easy.
"The task of hand clearing his newly selected parcel of land must have seemed like an enormous task when Mathew Horan began to build a life for his family on the property in 1874," said Kay Tommerup. "He could only have dreamt that with his wife Susan, he would create a legacy to be loved and celebrated by his great great great-grandchildren 150 years later, that his hard work to create a home and a farm in those early years, with the most rudimentary of tools, would also create a place where families aside from his own would make memories and build connections over 100 years later. A place that would entwine the history and knowledge of past generations in a beautiful tapestry of agriculture, innovation, and diversification to ensure his selection of property in the stunning Kerry Valley will be the home, the work, and the life of generations to come. This year we celebrate their work, and ours, and the privilege that is living and working on this beautiful property."
Three years ago, Kay and Dave took an enormous leap of faith, believing 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, big leap. They put this faith, and their family's future, in 25 beautiful, brown-eyed 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 across the country.
This sixth generation dairy farm turned its back on mass-production, generic flavours and big-player supply chains. Instead, they mix innovative and regenerative farm practices with old fashioned passion and a genuine love of the land and their animals, to create a rural haven, with the circle of life loved and respected every day.
Add to this the return of their Engineering-qualified son Harry to start an heirloom and biodynamic market garden business, overlay it with the courage to challenge bureaucracy, bullies and bankers, and theirs is a story to tell. "This farm is part of me," said Harry. "I didn't want to work away from the farm knowing that I could be building my own business here, rather than working for someone else." Harry is an innovative young farmer who respects practices of old, but has a vision for the future. He's trialing new heirloom seed varieties, and is undertaking natural sequence farming, increasing soil biology and planting species diversification crops, and deep diving into regenerative farming. Building on what the Tommerup's have been doing, but much more.
Last year the courage and commitment of the Tommerups was rewarded – they won the Australian Farmer of the Year Awards for Innovation. This made their hearts sing, because without innovation, the farm would probably be closed, and not the shining example of regenerative, sustainable farming with heart that it is today.
"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," said Kay who now sits on the Boards of eastAUSmilk and the Queensland Farmers Federation and has been made Chair of the new Agritourism Queensland. "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," said Kay.
It hasn't been easy. Not at all. Kay and Dave made the bold decision to leave milk processor Norco on 2 January 2021 after establishing their own Tommerup's Jersey Girl line of boutique dairy products in 2019.
"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 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."
Now, after relentless hard work, innovation, collaborations and re-creations, the farm has a mantlepiece full of awards, and their produce is highly sought after. To visit the farm is an incredible experience.
"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 and animals are part of their family too."
"When times get tough, as they inevitably do in farming, it's the people that we have developed relationships with that keep us going forward. We love those deep interactions we have with our customers and our chefs. The respect they give our produce, gives us the heart to work through the challenges that we face on a regular basis, and we're so grateful to them. 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."
Back to the 25 Jersey Cows. They all have names - Martina, Brenda, Susie, Tali, Ruby, Sugarloaf, Friday, Rose, Muriel, Margie and more, and yes, they come when called. 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 star including Daniel Groenberg from The Roadvale Hotel, The Embers Chef Simon Furley and Wild Canary's Glen Barratt – all champions of local produce.
