Most people file dairy farming under “not for me” before they’ve thought about it for more than a second. Early starts, hard yards, cows that need you at 4am, and a family that’s been at it for three generations so there’s no way in unless you were born into it.
Mikayla Killeen would have agreed with you. She grew up on a beef farm in Gippsland and wanted nothing to do with farming, beef or otherwise. As a teenager, it just wasn’t her thing.
Now she owns 220 acres and milks around 230 cows. She hadn’t touched one until the day she and her husband took over the farm.
So what changed?
Why she got into dairy
Mikayla and her husband weren’t chasing a farm-life dream. They were thinking about their kids, wanting space for them to run around and a life with a bit of flexibility built in. They were also thinking about money, where to put it and what to build with it.
So they ran the numbers. They sat down with a farm consultant and an accountant and worked through the figures and the business plans, and what came back was clear. This wasn’t just a nice lifestyle. It was a solid investment that also let them be around for their kids. Financial sense and family time, the two things they were weighing up, and the farm gave them both.
What the work looks like up close
As an owner, Mikayla spends very little time in the milking shed. Her job is coordination and the higher-level stuff.
She builds the sowing plan so there’s fresh pasture for the herd, and makes sure enough hay and silage gets made over spring to feed the cows through autumn and winter when the grass runs thin. She meets contractors about mating plans, works with vets on herd health, pays the bills, sorts out HR, looks after the staff and keeps everyone connected to the local community.
It’s a business, and a fairly complex one. Operations, finance, people. The cows are one piece of something much bigger.
What the hours are really like
The biggest thing Mikayla got wrong before she started was the time. She pictured long hours, every single day, no breaks.
Not really, as it turned out. Some stretches are long, sure. But there’s plenty of room to get off-farm, see friends, catch up with other farmers. She runs the business around her kids and does most of the day’s jobs with them along for the ride, which she counts as a privilege most jobs can’t offer.
Careers beyond the milking shed
This is the part that catches people off guard. A career in dairy doesn’t have to mean milking.
“There is a place in the dairy industry for almost any interest,” Mikayla says. “There’s so much research and development happening at the moment… it doesn’t have to be milking cows.”
If you’re into tech, there’s a pile of it here, from automated milking systems to the wearables tracking each cow’s health. Mechanically minded? The machinery side alone could keep you busy for a career. And the science end, animal nutrition and pasture genetics, is moving quickly right now.
Where to start if you’re keen
Mikayla’s advice is simple: start with what you’re into, then go find the people already doing it. Most regions have a dairy team, hers is GippsDairy, and there are young dairy networks across the country whose whole job is helping people work out where they fit.
She won’t pretend milking is for everyone. It isn’t. But she’s five years into a career she never saw coming, in an industry she keeps describing as welcoming, and the kind of work that can stick with you for life.
“It’s definitely not somewhere I ever imagined myself, even five years ago,” she says. “But I’m so glad we made the change.”
Want to learn more? Check out Dairy Australia’s profile here and find out more about careers in Australia’s dairy industry here.
