Dairy farming families across WA's South West have made Masters their livelihoods.
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00:00Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear masters, happy birthday to you.
00:12We've basically been milking cows on our farm for 135 years.
00:16The last 50 or so has been under masters.
00:19The volume of milk produced has shrunk a lot.
00:22The number of farmers has gone from a couple of thousand to 100 in 40 years,
00:28but in the last 20 years it's probably gone from 500 to 100.
00:31That rate's got to really slow down and the farmers in there today need appropriate reward
00:38for the amount of money they have invested and the work they do.
00:41Being the fifth generation I've kind of grown up with it,
00:44so there's always kind of support and encouragement to get involved.
00:48The pride I will take going into my career as well,
00:52to be able to support the family name as well as continue into the future.
00:56The old man's always said kind of pasture growth is an important base to have in our farming system,
01:01so to be able to get my head around that initially,
01:05and then I guess the technology that's all coming to the front is exciting
01:12and also a challenge in itself to get my head around that,
01:15but keen to see where it will all go and make milk going forward.
01:22I think what Masters has always done is produce a really good quality milk that people love,
01:26so whether it's white milk or chocolate milk, strawberry milk, iced coffee, mocha,
01:31so producing really consistent, great tasting milk
01:34and then embedding it in occasions that the consumers just remember.
01:38In the 50s we went from horses to mechanics,
01:41and more in Harrison's time it's more the technological advancement
01:44as far as heat detection and all that kind of stuff with electronic chips in cows.
01:51Yeah, it's pretty incredible, the advancement in technology,
01:55GPS's and self-drive tractors and all that kind of stuff.