Victoria is still home of dairy industry | On the Wallaby

There are 3088 properties where cows are milked - down 374 on the previous year.

The size of the Victorian dairy industry is evident when stacked up against 500 farms in NSW and 300 in Queensland, and, no, we will not run out of milk any time soon, a catchcry of the doomsayers.

Returns at the farm gate are buoyant, but it is other pressures that influence the steady decline.

Dairying tends to be the game for younger operators but the capital required now is far beyond many, particularly with the enormous pressure on land prices.

Dairying tends to be in safe rainfall country or irrigation areas, and the land prices have gone through the roof, as has the price of permanent water.

Permanent, high security water is trading at around $4000 a megalitre. A cool million dollars would be tied up in owning 250 megalitres.

Currently, the price of dairy cattle is being underpinned by the overall cattle market that is at a gobsmacking all-time high.

Then comes the amount of capital needed or tied up in a dairy to milk cows. This is close to a million.

Then comes the commitment to work seven days a week for long hours, certainly not as physically demanding as it was decades ago due to a high level of mechanisation, which also comes with another hefty price tag.

With the increase in herd size, employed labour becomes a factor.

In the past, one person, with the assistance of family, could run a dairy operation but those days are well and truly gone.

And the rub is that good labour with skillsets is difficult to source.

So, is it any wonder that dairy farmers realise their assets or move to, say, a beef cattle operation where it is possible to have a weekend off.