Walcha Dairy Farm is the highest dairy farm in Australia

It’s the highest dairy farm in Australia and the only one of its kind in Walcha.

Staff member Kaitlyn Polkinghorne moved to Walcha from Victoria where she worked as a hairdresser.

“My uncle, Leon McCabe, manages the farm. I decided to move and have a change and I’ve been here for five years,” she said.

“The dairy has been here for eight years.

‘’All of our milk goes to Brisbane or Sydney, depends where they need it.

“They distribute it and use it for powdered milk or butter – anything like that.”

The farm produces around 30,000 litres of milk a day.

“The morning starts at about 3am. Someone gets the cows in and they start milking at 4am,” Ms Polkinghorne said.

“We’ve got an 80-unit rotary here, so 80 cows can be milked at one time."

On average. it takes the staff at Walcha Dairy Farm 11 minutes to milk one cow. 

The farm is owned by Peter and Elaine Notman.

“Peter came up here and decided he wanted to produce milk in the Northern Tablelands. He saw a market for it,” Ms Polkinghorne said.

“People thought he was a bit of a nut when he decided to have a dairy here – but he’s done really well here.

“Our cows are funny because they don’t really like the heat and they don’t mind the cooler weather.”

Ms Polkinghorne said the best part of working with animals was that they don’t complain.

“It’s different to what I’m used to but working with an animal, it’s amazing,” she said.

“Just being outside and being with them. Because you’re around them all the time, they follow you and they want to cuddle – I like it here.”

The farm employs five full-time staff.

“We’ve been so lucky to have a great manager in Leon," Ms Polkinghorne said.

“To take in staff with no experience, he really wants to help us to get better at our jobs.”