Dairy farmers Damien and Diane Daniel have managed to stay afloat on their Waaia dairy farm this season with a lot of hard work and personal sacrifice, not that they are complaining - they are happy to be still farming.

Country News first visited the Daniel family in February 2009, after the milk price crash became reality for the dairy industry.

They had just purchased a 40 ha farm and were seriously contemplating their future.

"To be truthful things are not much different than they were 12 months ago," Damien said.

"We are no worse or better off, just personally we are a bit more settled in on the farm. Financially we just have our head above water and with the milk prices stepping up, hopefully we will start to make a few gains."

To stay afloat the couple has had to make some tough decisions, one of which was swapping milk factories.

"Leaving Murray Goulburn was one of the hardest decisions we had to make. In our size enterprise, a cent difference equates to about $10 000 in our pocket and we can't afford to not have that," Damien said.

The Daniels look at their small achievements and use these as inspiration to help them get through.

"We need to look at the little triumphs we do have, like paying off all last season's hay. We now only owe for this year," Diane said.

Bill it's still a stressful time and they still have sleepless nights.

"It's no fun owing people money, and when the phone rings you hope it's not someone asking for money.

"We need to keep getting fodder so we can keep the cows milking to help pay them," Damien said.

The Daniels are currently milking 104 cows and they have 30 autumn calvers to come in.

Damien still milks off-farm at night and their five kids - Bethany, 15, Charlotte, 14, Gabriel, 13, Jessica, 10 and Xavier, 8 - all pitch in and help.

Damien and Diane worry about their kids working so hard and they wish they could spoil them a bit more.

"We would like to be able to do more things for the kids, but we try to spoil them by doing things that don't cost too much money. It gets tough," Diane said.

One of the farming highlights for the family last year was winning the local on-farm challenge.

"Bethany put a cow in the challenge and we had a nice evening out and we were tickled pink when our cow Rose won her section. She won $300 worth of semen."

The Daniels have purchased 40 Ml of temporary water and will be watering up pasture this autumn.

"If we don't buy water we might as well give up. We can start grazing the cows in April and go right through to October and get a lot of fodder," Damien said.

It is obvious the Daniels are a close family and look to each other for support when times are tough.

"There is always somebody worse off than yourself," Diane said.

sophie.bruns@sheppnews.com.au