'I spent a day on a dairy farm. It wasn't just a pretty place to work.'

Thanks to our brand partner, Coles

It was awkward. They were wearing blue. I was wearing blue. But they are a family of dairy farmers, dressed in their trademark colours to show a couple of city people around their world and I am… a ring-in.

"Don't," a wise friend whispered to me before I travelled to the Southern Highlands in New South Wales to meet the Sherborne family, "pretend you know about farming just because you grow a few tomatoes".

Holly with Farmer Grant Sherborne and his kids, Georgia, Sam and William.Image: Supplied.

Obviously, I was offended. Obviously, my friend was right. I knew next to nothing about dairy farms, despite living not far from several on the NSW south coast, about an hour from where Grant Sherborne's family has been milking and breeding cows for a couple of generations now.

So here I am, learning about it, and the difference the Coles Milk Purchase Agreement has made to Grant Sherborne, his wife Jane, sons William and Sam, and daughter Georgia. One of the first things my wellies and I learn, after we've got over the fact that I appear to have come dressed as one of the family, is that there is a great deal more to dairy than cows chomping grass on pretty paddocks.

Although there's quite a lot of that too, the Sherborne farm is on glorious green highland country and as Georgia shows me around the farm acreage, it's not hard to see that, as far as "offices" go, there are many worse places to work.

Image: Supplied.

But oh, how they work. All three of Grant and Jane's adult kids are in the family business now, all with different areas they enjoy specialising in (Georgia shows me an app on her phone that displays different cow stock levels of methane production, for example), all with big plans for the future, and all with the kind of work ethic that makes a solid and reliable return on all that physical, mental and emotional investment very, very welcome.

Coles now has multi-year agreements with 109 dairy farms across Australia. An agreement that, Grant says, has offered his family the kind of security that means backing off and letting his clever kids take over — apart from the apps, Georgia is a Dairy Major and deeply into the science, Sam is an expert in the complicated process of breeding and William is all about the farm's ever-improving machinery — is now firmly on the cards.

After the farm tour, where I learn that all the cows have names, preferences and attitudes of their own, we sit down in the farm office for me to ask Grant about the next generation of farming and Coles.

Image: Supplied.

Tell me about your family farm.

Grant: My grandfather came here in 1930. He probably farmed here through the 1930s and 1940s.

I know there were some sheep on the farm, along with a lot of vegetables like potatoes, cabbage and cauliflowers from the red soil. My father and mother started the dairy in 1961, so the dairy has been operating continuously since then.

Tell me a bit about what an average day on the farm looks like for you and your family.

Grant: Most days, we're up at 4am. We can be at the dairy by 4.30, start milking then and begin cleaning up around 8.30.

After that, we do a lot of work with the cattle or prepare the cows until 2.30pm. Afternoon milking starts at 2.30 and we generally like to be done between 5.30 and 6.

And obviously, that's rain, hail or shine? Christmas and birthdays?

Grant: Yep, that's rain, hail or shine — seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Who gets to decide who has to go out at 4.30 on Christmas Day?

Grant: Generally, Christmas day, we start even earlier just to get done. There's a lot of family that'll come in for Christmas, so we can enjoy the day, and then we usually get back around 3 or 3.30 for the afternoon milking, which tends to be quicker so we can get back home.

You can tell I'm fixated on lie-ins… What time do you have to go to bed to get up at 4?

Grant: Generally, if you're in bed before 9, try and get between seven and eight hours, it's sustainable. At the moment, it's quite easy. The sun's up, we're up, it's a nice morning…

Explain to me, like the city person who doesn't understand farming I am, the significance of this contract with Coles.

Grant: Okay, when we came along to join Coles, the one big thing was they offered a multi-year contract with a three-year fixed guaranteed price. In the past, we were probably on 12-month contracts, very variable and you didn't know what you were going to get after a year.

So with a longer term fixed price, we can budget, plan what we're doing and see there's a future in it. It's a roll-on three-year plan too — every year they announce the multi-year price, so the next year it keeps rolling on.

So, we're always ahead now, and it basically gives you sustainability because we know what's coming in. It also takes, as you would have seen today, around three years from a calf to a cow in the dairy, so it's a three-year cycle.

And what difference has it made to the business?

Grant: It's made a big difference as far as sustainability goes, being able to budget and do a 12-month plan to upgrade machinery or build something new to improve things and create a more comfortable work environment.

Previously, you wouldn't know whether to take out a loan because you couldn't be sure that in 12 months you'd be able to repay it. But now, we can actually take a bit more of a risk.

Do you hope that the kids will stay in farming with you, and has the Coles deal made that stability of succession more realistic?

Grant: Well, I think it's gone beyond hope that they'll stay now — they're already in it because of how we've structured our business, and again, that's since we've joined Coles.

It's given them the assurance that things are going to continue and by doing our budgets, they can see the long-term future of what's happening.

What's the Coles Sustainable Dairy Development Group and how does it benefit you and the other farmers involved?

Grant: The development group gives communication to the farmers and from the farmers back to Coles. We bounce ideas about what's going on. I'm involved in this area and when we get together, either online or face-to-face, with representatives from Western Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales, we can put ideas back through to Coles. Then they can share their ideas and proposals with us, which we can put back to the other farmers.

We know the issues that are affecting us.

I've learned a lot today. Tell me something that would surprise people to know about dairy farming and cows.

Grant: I think it's probably the technology and the science involved in it. There's a romantic view of cows munching grass, and that's all that happens. But actually, you've got to be involved in genetics and nutrition; there's a lot more to it, and the technology around it is changing all the time.

We've had instances where people have thought it's a really dull profession and, within a short time, found that it's just too much for them to handle. So we actually need people who are very, very highly intelligent to come into this industry.

Apparently, wearing the family colours isn't enough.

Find out more about Coles' relationship with dairy farms around Australia.

Feature Image: Supplied.

At Coles, we go to great lengths for our relationships with Australian dairy farmers. It's why we have long-term agreements with over 108 dairy farms across Australia to directly source delicious, Coles Brand fresh milk. Because when you go to great lengths, you get great quality milk. Great lengths for Aussie dairy. That's Coles.