Ravenhill Pastoral to host WA dairy farmers in Narrikup for Western Dairy’s annual Dairy Innovation Day

Dairy farmers from the across WA will converge on Narrikup property Ravenhill Pastoral on May 11 for Western Dairy’s annual Dairy Innovation Day. The State’s biggest dairy conference is in its 23rd year and is expected to the attract up to 400 farmers and industry representatives to the farm. Since taking over as owners and operators of Ravenhill Pastoral in 2013, Ken and Bonnie Ravenhill have transformed the Narrikup farm into WA’s biggest dairy supplier. It produces 16 million litres of milk annually and boasts the only 100-stand rotary in WA. After a morning tea to start the day from 9am, attendees will be welcomed to the event by Western Dairy chair Robin Lammie before an official opening and then the Ravenhills will be thrust into the spotlight. They will talk through the decisions they made in 2016 to scale up with a clear vision, how they managed a smooth transition through amicable discussions within their family and the importance of clear communication and leadership. “Ken and I have been to many inspiring Dairy Innovation Days in our time where we have walked away afterwards and thought ‘how could we apply a similar practice to our own farm and make it work?’,” Ms Ravenhill said. “Our hope this year, is for visitors to our farm to have that experience and consider scaling up or down, what has worked for us, and applying it to their own business model.” A mantra of “gradual improvement” has helped the Ravehills to upscale their operations over the past decade. “We make tiny improvements to suit us and our business that may not even be noticeable until two or three years down the track,” Ms Ravenhill said. Later in the day there will be time for updates about trends and forecasts will be provided and a talk about the adoption of the Australia Dairy Carbon Calculator will be carried out before the Ravenhills talk about what the future might hold. After lunch a tour of the property will be conducted and then farmers will be encouraged to get off-farm for the night to attend a gala dinner at the Albany Entertainment Centre. To register for the Dairy Innovation Day on Thursday, May 11 or buy tickets for the gala dinner, visit https://bit.ly/41VVXIL.