Schulz Five-O

There’ll be a lot of noise coming out of Schulz Organic Dairy in South West Victoria this year as they celebrate three generations of regenerative dairy farming.

It’s 50 years since Hermann (opa) Schulz purchased a plot of land just outside of Timboon in 1972.

Hermann was a food innovator – going biodynamic decades before the organic movement took off, he also pioneered on-farm processing – hand-making his own French and German cheeses.

After a swag of awards for his beloved Timboon Farmhouse Cheese he was bestowed with official “Legend Status” at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

Son, Michael, and grandson, Simon, inherited Hermann’s innovative ways – protecting themselves from the predatory pricing of the big milk processors they installed their own bottling plant on the farm.

The premium the Schulz’s received from their home processed milk has been invested into their soil and the health of their cows as well as a range of sustainable packing initiatives and maker partnerships. 

Responding to requests from cafes the Schulz’s came up with refillable milk kegs and after a successful crowdfunder they introduced their wildly successful milk in glass bottles.

Recently a farm café has popped up and plans to launch marinated fetta, cultured fresh butter, ghee and buttermilk gives the impression that there will be a fourth generation of Schulz’s dairying down in Timboon.

You can find Schulz organic milk, yoghurt and cream in our dairy section.             

There’s a mirror to the Schulz family’s story – it’s a bleak tale about our love for a bargain at the checkout.

You may have noticed over the past year the infamous $1-a- litre milk at Coles and Woolies and Aldi has gone up to $1.60 a litre with more price rises forecast.

Back in 2011 when Coles, followed by Woolworths, cut milk prices by a third with the $1-a-litre campaign, representatives like Australian Dairy Farmers Association president, Rick Gladigau, warned it would be a disaster for farmers.  

The warnings somehow got lost in the stampede of customers and $1-a-litre milk became a fixture in supermarkets for the next decade..

Farmers joke darkly about dairying through the 2010’s as being something they did for a hobby. With not enough income to pay their bills more than 1,500 of them walked off their land.

Less farmers means less milk – about a billion litres less since 2015.

The legacy of the $1-a-litre milk era has been the disaster Rick Gladigau and his farmers predicted – Australia is now in the midst of a milk shortage and record prices rises.

And despite the recent record prices the dairy farmers who have survived are still selling up in droves – their sons and daughters no longer willing to take their places in an industry that treated their families so cruelly.

Sometimes cheapest isn’t always best.

Have a great week

Chris

Fair Food is proud to pay fair prices to over 175 farmers, makers and suppliers including Schulz Organic Dairy – happy 50th birthday!