Podcast Snippet: Dairying To Be Different with Neville & Elaine Haddon

In this Talkin’ After Hours episode Jo & Kate chat to West Australian dairy farmers, Neville and Elaine Haddon. Together with their son Garry, Neville & Elaine run a major …dairy operation in Busselton, milking around 1,300 cows and supplying more than 12 million litres of milk to Harvey Fresh every year.

But despite operating at that scale, the Haddons are still asking questions. How do you grow better pasture with fewer inputs? How do you improve soil health while staying productive and profitable? And how do you build resilience into a farming system facing rising costs and increasingly dry seasons?

Their farm in Warner Glen in the Lower Blackwood has become the place where they explore those questions — trialling multi-species pastures, experimenting with perennial systems, protecting creeklines and encouraging biodiversity, all while looking for lessons that could potentially reshape the way they farm back in Busselton.

In our conversation, Neville and Elaine reflect on their remarkable journey — from Neville partnering with his brother to buy his first farm at just 16 years old, through decades of hard work in the dairy industry, to becoming passionate advocates for healthier soils and more resilient farming systems.

Tune in to the full podcast https://lowerblackwood.libsyn.com/talkin-dairying-to-be-different to hear about the pressures facing dairy farmers today, the realities of running a large-scale operation, and why curiosity and a willingness to try things differently still drives them after all these years.Show More