Dairy toolkit

The South Australian dairy industry has a long history of producing quality products. Our milk has a record high level of butterfat and protein, crucial to economical manufacture and processing into dairy products.

In 2022–23, the SA dairy industry produced 474 million litres of milk from its 65,000 cows, bringing over $341 million in farmgate revenue.

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Download high and low resolution images from the image gallery. Please ensure you credit Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) when using the images.

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Infographic

This infographic provides a visual representation of key information on the dairy sector including:

  • major export products
  • major export markets
  • figures and statistics on production amounts and values
  • sector credentials and attributes.

Dairy infographic (PDF 1.4 MB)

Video

Transcript

[Text]

The Department of Primary Industries and Regions acknowledges and respects Aboriginal people as the State's first people and nations.

We recognise Aboriginal people as traditional owners and occupants of South Australian land and waters. We pay our respects to Aboriginal cultures and to Elders, past, present and emerging.

[Music]

[Narrator] South Australia is home to producers of some of Australia's highest quality milk and dairy products. Our dairy industry in South Australia began in 1837 with the arrival of the first European settlers.

South Australia's dairy industry encompasses 3 main regions stretching from the southeast through the central zone to the Barossa mid-north area.

Today South Australia is home to nearly 200 dairy farms with almost 65,000 cows. South Australia's dairy processing is diverse. We have a long history of producing high quality dairy products including fresh drinking milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream and butter. Our dairy industry ranges from large commercial milk processors to niche producers and world-leading artisan cheese makers.

There are around 40 licensed dairy processors in South Australia showing strong growth in recent years fuelled by the expansion of overall milk processing, specialist boutique processors, and an increased demand for premium quality products. Our local industry has an internationally recognised safety record with safety and quality programs overseen by Dairy Safe South Australia, a statutory body acting at both farm and processing plant level.

South Australia's clean and green environment features abundant sunlight, rich soils and pristine water sources.

South Australia's forging an international reputation for the quality of our cheese with organic farming and biodynamic dairy production becoming more popular and several artisan producers winning globally-recognised awards.

Dairy products from South Australia are used throughout Australia and around the world including the key export markets of China, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Indonesia.

[Music]

[Logo]
Government of South Australia
Department of Primary Industries and Regions

Transcript

[Voice over] South Aussie with Cosi.

[Cosi] Welcome back folks. The dairy industry here in South Australia is an absolute rip snorter and every single year it produces about half a billion litres of this stuff. it is liquid gold the beautiful cows of South Australia absolutely nail it and the dairy farmers do an amazing job and every time we buy milk made in South Australia or dairy products we're keeping jobs right here in South Australia.

I've swung past Myponga to visit Fleurieu Milk. The Fleurieu Milk Company has been around for ages and the cool thing about their setup is the cows that get milked are just over there so this truck has just bought milk from the dairy to unload it here at the factory to bottle it for you guys and when I say it's just there have a look at this, it is literally just there.

[Andrew Curtis] There's 180 dairy farms right across the state and milking about 70,000 cows.

[Cosi] That's a lot of cows and they're looked after by dairy farmers who just love what they do like Bazer.

[Barry Clarke] Been a dairy farmer all my life. You're outdoors um you've got cattle with you they're really good to get on with um much better than people most times.

[Andrew Curtis] Something that's really important to our industry is sustainability you know we have been here for generations our farmers have and they want to be here for the next generations.

[Cosi] These cars behind us are very special, in fact they could be the most special cows in the whole of South Australia. Why because some of these calves their mother was a cow called Have Not and she was from the US of A. She sold the other day for 1.9 million dollars. That's right your mommy's worth a truckload. So what happened? This dairy bought some embryos from that cow Have Not they then brought them over to Australia put them into another cow who, had the baby and that's some of these babies.

Hey how much milk do you reckon they get from one cow per day?

[Barry Clarke] The cows that are here with us at the moment they're Holsteins they probably average around about the 25 28 litres per day per cow.

[Cosi] Something we can all do for the dairy farmers and all farmers here in South Australia is be very very aware of something called Foot and Mouth Disease.

Now luckily we don't have it here in Australia at the moment but it is in places like barley Indonesia and South East now if that was to come into Australia it would devastate our farmers and more importantly it would devastate the ladies behind me the livestock of SA.

[Dr Mary Carr] The most likely way for Foot and Mouth to end up coming into a country is through meat products bring brought illegally into Australia.

So we're asking all Australians and all travellers coming to Australia to make sure that they leave everything in the country of origin that is a meat product. Those meat products if they happen to be contaminated and were fed to animals can cause the transmission of disease. The other thing that's really important is to clean your clothes particularly your boots and shoes that making sure there is no mud on them and that they are clean to present and show to the biosecurity staff at the airport as well.

[Cosi[ To keep South Australia free of diseases like Foot and Mouth, Lumpy Skin Disease and all these nasties is very very important.

You might be watching this and thinking to yourself well this is no interest to me because I'm lactose intolerant well don't worry astronauts cause the good news is so many of the Fleurieu Milk products are actually lactose-free including all of these chocolate milks strawberry milks, banana milk their yogurt range, all lactose free.

The other thing I love about Fleurieu Milk if you're coming anywhere near Myponga is you can come actually into Fleurieu Milk and actually buy some of these products so it's made out the back you can purchase it just here.

The power is in your hands South Australia next time you buy a dairy product I ask all of you guys to make the very easy decision and flip it over make sure it come from South Australia because if it comes from anywhere else put it down choose a South Australian product that keeps the jobs right here in this state and keeps those girls employed.

Scorecard report

Find detailed information on the food and wine sectors, see Industry scorecards.

Page last reviewed: 01 Sep 2017

 


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