‘Very emotional’ days as dairy farming family calls it quits after 117 years

Robbie Radel’s voice breaks as he describes his dread of the week ahead — having to watch the last of his beloved milkers being trucked away from the farm his family has owned since 1906.

After 117 proud years of dairying, and four years bottling their milk under their own popular Central Queensland Dairy Fresh brand, the Radel family has made the hardest of decisions, to exit the shrinking industry.

“It is a very emotional thing, these cows are like family. The reality is you spend more time with these cows than you do with a lot of even your best friends,” he said.

“You see them as soon as you wake up in the morning and they’re the last thing you see before you go into the house at night-time.

“They’ve all got their own personalities, they’ve all got their own names and I get quite teary every time I think of the last of them leaving, it’s going to take a long time to heal from it.”

No processor found

The independent Cooloola Milk processing plant had been bottling Robbie’s milk at Dagun, near Gympie, but the factory’s owner is planning to retire and has put it and the surrounding land up for sale.

Mr Radel’s approaches to other dairy processors failed to secure a viable deal.

He was upset that despite the fact Lactalis (Parmalat) trucks drive right past his Coalstoun Lakes farm in the North Burnett, the French-owned company refused his offer to supply them with milk in a market where demand far outstrips supply.

They share a rocky past — Mr Radel has publicly blamed poor prices from Lactalis for the bank “forcing” them to sell their much larger Biggenden-based dairy.

At the time milk was being sold at $1 a litre in supermarkets, and the prices major processors paid to farmers were historically low.

“I spoke with their [Lactalis] field officer who said, ‘Oh yes, that sounds good, yes, the truck goes past, send me some of your test results from the quality of the milk and the volumes,'” Mr Radel said.

“And before I even had a chance to do all that I received a text message from her just saying I’ve spoken with management, and they’re not prepared to take you on as a supplier.

“They drive literally past my gate but would rather drive to Victoria and pick up milk to bring into the Queensland market than pick up someone who has got 117 years of supplying high-quality milk.”

After declining to comment this morning, a Lactalis spokesperson provided a written response this afternoon.

“We were one of many dairy processors that the farmer approached, and we are deeply saddened to hear that the farmer is now closing their dairy farm,” the statement read.

“At the time that the enquiry was made to Lactalis on 17 July 2023 we had sufficient milk to meet our requirements.

“Under the Dairy Code of Conduct we are obliged to publish our Milk Supply Agreements, by 2pm on 1 June and have the Milk Supply Agreements finalised with each of our farmers by the start of the new milk season commencing on 1 July.”

A different Christmas ahead

Mr Radel, who is also the North Burnett Regional Council’s deputy mayor, said he was keeping some of his younger registered Illawarra and Brown Swiss dairy heifers as it wasn’t the time to sell them with the current lack of feed.

He said he was trying to focus on the positives, including spending his first uninterrupted Christmas morning with his children — he has six, aged between nine and 19.

The Radels have drawn comfort from the fact their Happy Valley Illawarra and Swiss Mountain View stud cattle will not be slaughtered and have been snapped up by other dairy farmers.

All up they owned 160 head of dairy cattle.

“We’re in a better position than some who have just had to send their entire herds to the meatworks. I don’t think I could handle that with the emotional attachment that comes to knowing them all by name,” Mr Radel said.

“Knowing their mothers and grandmothers, as many generations back as you want to go. It really is like losing loved ones.”