Dairying in Australia

Abstract

The highly developed dairy industry in Aust ral ia has evolved in a little less than 200 years. Indeed, the original cattle, 2 bulls and 5 cows, arrived with the Firs t Fleet in May, 1788. Although the breed was not specified, it has been assumed these were Cape cattle, as later reports described cattle in the colony with widespreading horns, humps, and thin tails. Thus, dairy breeds as we know them today were brought to Austral ia some time after 1788 (8). The first report of the presence of dairy breeds was in 1805, when an Alderney bull was sold in New South Wales for £50 (8). By 1861 the dairy cattle population in the colony had increased to 197,332 from 155 cattle of all types 25 years before (4). The importation of pedigreed cattle (Ayrshires, Jerseys, and Friesians) began in the 1850's and the first Austral ian herdbook (Ayrshire Breeders' Society) was published in 1892. By 1918 there were herdbooks for the 5 major breeds now popular in Australia, viz., Friesian, Guernsey, Ayrshire, Jersey, and Austral ian I l lawarra Shorthorn (AIS) . The latter was developed in Austral ia and is said to be the only major new breed of dairy cattle developed anywhere in the world in the last 150 years. Around 1825 several families in the I l lawarra District, on the south coast of New South Wales, started a scheme to improve the standard of their cattle. The major breeds were the milking strain of the English Shorthorn, the Devon, and the Ayrshire. The present-day Austral ian I l lawarra Shorthorn shows the deep-red color of the Devon and the udder conformation and upturned horns of the Ayrshire. I t is alleged that Friesians, too, were used in developing the breed, to increase milk production, but it is difficult to obtain unequivocal information on this point. Even in 1875 there was still tremendous variation in type but in the early 20th Century the breed had reached a degree of uniformity to jus t i fy its recognition as a new breed; the first herdbook was published in 1905. An AIS cow produced in 365 days, 32,522 lb milk with a 5.0% milk fa t test, which was a world's record in 1924 and remained so for the next 20 years (8). In 1805, Dr. John Harr i s built a dairy on his land, granted by the Government of that time, and there milked a herd of 9 cows. Today the headquarters of one of Austral ia 's largest dairy companies, Dairy Farmers Cooperative Milk Co. in Harr i s Street, Ultimo, Sydney, occupies this area (4). Dairying as an industry was born in the 1820's when dairy herds began to appear in the I l lawarra District of New South Wales within 80 miles of Sydney. As pack_horse and small sailing vessels were the only means of transport to the Sydney market, the only salable dairy products produced at this time were butter and cheese (4). The industry slowly spread southwards to Bega on the south coast of New South Wales and northwards to the Hunter River districts (4, 7). By and large, until the 1880's dairying remained a local industry, in that it catered for a local city or town market (7). Expansion to the area which is extensively used for dairying, the Northern Rivers area, did not occur until 1890, when low prices for cane sugar forced settlers to change industries. Today, dairying is one of the principal pursuits in the Coastal country from Queensland to the Victorian border. In Victoria, the history of the development of the dairy industry followed a similar pattern. However, the expansion to Victoria's great dairying areas, viz., Gippsland, the Western District, Northern Irr igat ion Areas, and the Northeast, did not occur until the 1880's. In Queensland the industry before 1900 was confined to the Darling Downs and the Moreton districts in the vicinity of Brisbane, whereas in South Austral ia limited areas of suitable country precluded rapid expansion until irr igation became widespread. In Western Austral ia the development was considerably handicapped and retarded by physical environmental factors of low fert i l i ty and high clearing costs; consequently, the industry did not begin to develop on any scale until af ter 1910. Technological developments such as the introduction of the centrifugal separator (1881) and the Babcock test for milk fa t (1890) led to centralization of manufacture of dairy products (7). Refrigeration was introduced in 1883 and this resulted in an expansion of the export market for Austral ian butter (7). Reports indicate that exports began in the 1830's; in 1844 butter and cheese were exported to the