Can alcoholic spirits made from cow's milk benefit Western Australia's struggling dairy industry?
Alcoholic spirits made from cows' milk might raise a few eyebrows, but farmers say the innovative beverage could help the battling dairy industry.
It could even help find a more sustainable home for the waste product in cheesemaking.
To that end, one cheese and gin maker has begun making a whey-based spirit on his farm in Wokalup, about 140 kilometres south of Perth.
Robert St Duke makes his gourmet cheese varieties using milk from nearby farmers.
He then ferments the watery by-product (whey) from the curds into a liquor base.
It produces a clean, strong spirit — similar to both vodka and gin.
The craft is not new but is being slowly revived around the globe in places like Ireland and New Zealand.
Mr St Duke believes he is the only person in Western Australia making whey spirits and perhaps only the third distiller of the beverage in the country.
He said the concept could help make dairy farming more viable and reduce wastage.
The South West and Great Southern regions are the home of dairy farming in WA.
The industry is important in securing food security for millions of people around the world.
It plays its part in the export market and helps enhance economic growth and employment in rural areas.
But local dairy farmers have been through turbulent times in the past decade, and it has been challenging to generate profits from the pastures.
The farmers have little power when selling their milk to processors and many are only on short-term contracts.
The method of farming has also become more complex due to pricing and climate change concerns.
The industry is not immune to the cost-of-living pressures either and has also seen hikes in energy, feed and water.
And there are concerns about labour shortages and attracting fresh blood to the industry, with many generational farmers unable to get their children to take on their farms.
It is a tough job with 4am starts and milking twice a day.
While some farmers are leaving the industry, others are deciding to stay despite the challenges.
Harvey dairy farmer Dale Hanks has been running his enterprise for three decades.
He is a third-generation farmer with 270 head of cattle.
Mr Hanks was one of the handful of farmers who had their futures jeopardised when Brownes, the state's oldest dairy company, failed to renew his contract in 2016.
"Other processors in the state wouldn't give us a contract either; we were left with no other option than to wind up our business — 350 cows in milk at the time," Mr Hanks said.
It was an extremely challenging time for local farmers in the area.
The dairy was a ghost town for 18 months until Mr Hanks secured a new contract in 2018.
Mr Hanks says it is exciting to have his milk used in such a niche product.
"I think it's a great way of value-adding to a waste product which is the whey that comes out of cheesemaking," he said.
The majority of Mr Hanks's milk goes into mainstream white milk processing, but a fraction is diverted down the road to Harvey Cheese.
"We're getting a premium for supplying Harvey Cheese and that adds to our business."
Mr Hanks encouraged other farmers to seek additional avenues for their milk to boost viability.
"All dairy farmers are looking for anybody who can add more revenue to their product," he said.
The WA whey spirit is the creation of Mr St Duke, a regular award winner for his cheese varieties, who said it was all about ensuring primary industry producers worked together to benefit the region.
"Wokalup – which is 'pull a cow' backwards — is in the Harvey region and has a big farming history," Mr St Duke said.
He said his product was a way to add value to the farming industry.
"There's great scope for a lot of farmers out there who could put it [a distillery] on their own farms and sell it themselves," he said.
Mr St Duke says the whey spirit, branded the Horny Cow, is made sustainably by recycling the cheese waste.
He believes he could in the future make the spirit straight from the milk.
"We need to keep the dairy [industry] here, not lose it to the eastern seaboard," he said.
"That's what it's all about,".
"This could [really help] the dairy industry."
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