By ROBERT WHITE

IF ever a couple was needed to play a role in an advertising campaign promoting the dairy industry, John and Vanessa Sharman would be ideal for the lead roles.
The young couple farm at Shady Creek, about 15 minutes north of Yarragon in Gippsland.
They have been on their 70ha property for just over 12 months are wishing they had taken up dairying 10 years before.
That’s an impressive call when you consider John is only 37 and Vanessa, 33.
But so keen are they on their new venture that they would encourage any other couple considering milking cows to take the plunge now, rather than waiting.
“We knew nothing about dairying when we started but there is so much information available and so many people willing to help,” said Vanessa.
“We would certainly encourage anyone who is considering a move to dairying to have faith in the industry and give it a go.
“We just wish we had done it 10 years ago. We would be so much further ahead than we are today.”
John is from a dairying background in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales and hated the thought of milking cows.
“Growing I had to do my share on the home farm and I had to milk one day a week, plus a few other jobs,” he said.
But John couldn’t wait for the opportunity to try something new and trained as a mechanic.
This led to a job driving trucks part time and one of his jobs was to collect cattle from the Mossvale saleyards.
Behind the counter at the saleyards was Vanessa. She hoped to one day be a stock agent and auctioneer.
Like in a fairytale, the couple met on common ground and they talked about being farmers.
They married and spent their honeymoon travelling around Victoria on a motor bike. Apart from spending time together, they also had their eyes out for a property to buy.
And they found it. A 440ha beef farm at Glenaladale, near Bairnsdale.
They ran 150 beef breeding stock as well as dairy heifers. They also cropped more than 80ha of oats and triticale but the farm did not pay its way.
The couple started up a small transport business but it meant John was away from home for much of the time.
They coped until their daughter, Tandia, now aged 4, was born.
“I decided when Tandia was two that this wasn’t a family life,” said John. “I never seemed to be home and it wasn’t fair on Vanessa.”
Wanting to make a change and knowing what to do were the challenges to be faced next.
John had seen the green fields of West and Central Gippsland while driving his truck and felt this was the place for he and his family to live.
“We looked at about 30 properties between Yarram and Warragul and then we found this one at Shady Creek,” he said.
It had been a dairy farm but for seven years the owners had run beef.
It wasn’t a case of just selling up and moving in. Firstly they found it difficult to sell the Glenaladale property and secondly, they realised that the best way of making a dollar at Shady Creek was to milk cows.
“At first I thought we were too old for dairying. And anyway, we didn’t know anything about milking cows,” said John. “I knew how to pull a calf and how to put cups on, but that was about it.
“It wasn’t easy to decide to milk cows but in the end, I felt having a family life was worth the effort.”
Drama hit before John and Vanessa first put milk in their vat as a string of issues arose in completing the sale of their Glenaladale property. It almost to got a point of putting the Shady Creek property on the market and seeing which one they could sell first.
Eventually the East Gippsland property was sold and they could concentrate on what was needed to be done at Shady Creek.
They sourced a herd from near Bairnsdale and then fully re-equipped the 12-a-side dairy that remained unused on the property.
Both John and Vanessa praised Murray Goulburn field officers for getting them a start.
John said former field officer David Ross was a great supporter from the start and steered them in the right direction.
“He came in at the very start and reckoned we could make a go of it … and that gave us the confidence we needed,” said John.
They were directed to undertaking a variety of courses and John said the Pastures for Profit sessions under the guidance of the DPI’s Frank Mickan, gave them a better understanding of what grass to grow and how to grow it.
“Then Jo Duffy came up from Leongatha. She was amazing. Nothing was too much trouble,” said Vanessa.
“This is the great thing about dairying. The information is there and people are available to head you in the right direction.”
The Sharmans started out with 135 cows and through a process of culling, are now milking 123 “good” cows.
They aim to lift numbers to around 150 and will continue to operate under Murray Goulburn’s seasonal payment option.
“Seasonal milking has been great for us as we are still at the learning stage,” John said.
He said 150 cows would be ideal in the short to medium term.
“If we stay at around that number then Vanessa and I will be able to handle the job ourselves. And I think we will get the milk we want because we will be able to feed the herd better with smaller numbers.”
There is little doubt that John and Vanessa have been quick learners. As an example, their cell counts were regularly above 300,000 soon after they started. Now they’re down to around 85,000.
“That’s a lot to do with attending the Cups On, Cups Off course,” said Vanessa. “When you don’t know anything, you look for as much information as you can get.”
The couple said they couldn’t be happier with their decision to go dairying. There’s a milk cheque every month (“sometimes it’s not very big”) and the lifestyle suits them as a family.
So what’s the next step? They have done of lot of fencing, they have built a calf shed and there are further moves to update the dairy.
“The next thing to do is to spend a bit of time to de-stress,” said Vanessa.