Celebrating Tasmanian Responsible Dairying Award
August 27, 2025
The Grass Fed Difference
October 9, 2025
Our mobile milking bail
and what we have learnt
If you visited our farm in Irishtown, Tasmania, at milking time, you would find our mobile milking bail surrounded by our cows eagerly waiting for their turn for milking.
Our milking bail is a wonderful, no-stress environment. The cows are so chill, so relaxed. It really is quite something.
Unlike a conventional dairy farm where the cows go to the dairy to be milked, on our farm the dairy goes with the cows… our custom-built milking bail stays with the cows at all times, and it moves around the farm with the cows. The whole setup simply gets hooked up to a tractor and pulled to the next paddock on a daily basis.
Our farm at Irishtown was a former dairy farm, the old dairy having been buried by a previous owner, so we came up with an innovative solution to restart dairying on the farm again. A farming tour to Chile in 2017 provided the inspiration for our milking bail, however this is not a new idea with the first mobile milking bail having been built in the UK in 1921 by Arthur Hosier…so by now it’s a well proven system!
It is the only mobile milking set up currently operating in Tasmania.
Mobile milking station on a farm I visited in Chile in 2017, largely behind the inspiration for our setup.
So our cows never leave their paddocks or spend time waiting to be milked in concrete yards. The fact that our milking bail is always where the cows are, has HUGE benefits - more than we could have even anticipated.
The layout of the milking bail means that there is a lot of human/cow interaction, so the cows are extremely quiet and happy to be in close proximity to us. We have numerous cows that love being stroked and patted. Others will come up behind you and give you a nudge to move you out of the way so that they can get into an empty bail! While the cows are being milked, they have access to a salt lick which is full of minerals. That's it. No grain. No corn. No soy. NEVER. EVER. Just cows doing what they are supposed to do - eating grass and living their lives out on a green pasture.
It is so lovely to work with the cows, they’re so relaxed, and easy to handle - just no stress.
Recent studies have shown significant differences in the nutritional value of milk from 100% grass fed animals:
Grass-fed milk, derived from cows grazing on diverse forages without grains, boasts superior fatty acid profiles compared to grain-fed varieties.
According to studies like those by Benbrook et al., it contains up to 147% more omega-3 fatty acids and 125% more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which support heart health, reduce inflammation, and aid metabolism.
It also offers higher levels of antioxidants like beta-carotene and vitamin E, giving it a natural edge over grain-fed milk, which tends to have imbalanced omega-6 to omega-3 ratios and lower nutrient density.100% Grass fed milk also has a creamier texture and yellower hue from natural pigments.
Once our milk reaches the Creamery, it is processed using the traditional method of low temperature batch pasteurisation - which preserves more of these vital nutrients in the milk.
Additionally, we use no herbicides, pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, GMO’s or hormones - our Regenerative Farming follows the Traditional and time honoured techniques of working with nature.
Traditional Farming and Traditional Artisan Processing in our Creamery means we are bringing you the very best taste and nutrition and deep care for our animals and the environment.
From our family to yours
Be part of the change.
Every time you purchase Shakespeare Hills Beef, Milk or Eggs, you’re investing in a food system that prioritises regeneration over extraction. Thank you for being part of a movement that’s making a real difference.
