He grew up in Monaghan, Ireland, on a mixed dairy, beef, sheep and poultry farm, studied dairy at college, and went on to manage farms in Ireland, the UK and New Zealand.
On returning to Ireland and looking to take over the family farm, he decided to take a holiday to Australia, fell in love with the country, and it’s now the place he calls home.
For a while, he managed dairy farms in northern Victoria and farm ownership continued to feel out of reach for Brian and his schoolteacher partner, Myrid.
However, in 2022, they seized an opportunity to purchase a 155-hectare farm in Moyarra, South Gippsland, Victoria.
To move from management to farm ownership required debt to finance the land, equipment and vehicles.
While they always anticipated their first couple of years would be tight, they were keen to get off to the best possible start, so Brian called around to other suppliers in the area, asking for their help and advice.
That’s when a supplier told them about Saputo’s Dairy Investment Rebate (DIR).
The DIR is available to suppliers investing more than $50,000 in on-farm business opportunities, including purchasing a dairy farm, undertaking a major on-farm development, growing their dairy herd or working through succession of the family farm.
The investment support is offered on a year-by-year basis for a maximum of three years and is calculated on the amount of the investment; the amount of new milk solids; and total milk solids supplied by the farm.
For Brian and Myrid, the DIR helped get them across the line.
“We were very, very tight for cash flow and basically had no income for the first two months,” Brian said.
“All we owned was 100 cows and we knew that to be viable, we’d need to be milking 400.”
In addition to purchasing the farm, they needed to buy an extra 300 cows, a tractor and the equipment to run the farm.
They now peak at 500 cows, mostly cross-bred Jersey Friesians, milking twice a day in a 30-unit swing-over dairy.
Brian said applying for the DIR was a straightforward process, with field services adviser Tim Cross coming out to the farm to help them with their application.
They’ve also since applied for Saputo’s Milk Cooling Rebate, allowing them to upgrade their vat from 6500 litres to 15,500 litres.
“The DIR is a great resource for any young farmer who doesn’t have a lot of cash flow coming in,” Brian said.
“That was definitely the trickiest part, but the DIR has allowed us to rapidly expand in an industry we love. You’ve just got to be willing to ask for help.”
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