I’d like to thank outgoing chair Andy Tyler for his leadership, dedication and commitment for the past three years.

Although not a full-time commitment, chairing a successful board is akin to leading a winning team on-farm — you need varied skills, direction and sometimes a mentor.

AGM season is nearing completion with regional offices across Australia having all run their own AGMs.

Unfortunately, this chair report will go to print before we have the outcomes of Dairy Australia’s AGM, held in Moama this year.

It is fantastic we have had the opportunity to host the AGM in the Murray Dairy region and showcase our diverse landscape and dairy systems to a national audience.

I look forward to learning what our new national board will look like, hearing from the great line-up of speakers and discussions post the Feedbase forum.

There looks to be extensive efforts to get silage and hay cut this year due to the fluctuating weather and the good volumes produced in much of the region.

It was great to see the results from the Dairy Farm Monitor Project and to hear “Northern Victorian farmers were overwhelmingly confident in their returns in the coming 12 months”.

With the release of the In Focus 2023 report, dairy in Australia is acknowledged as the third largest rural industry employing more than 3500 people in the dairy industry workforce.

Congratulations to all the recipients of Dairy Australia Milk Quality awards.

Producing high quality milk is something we are particularly good at in Australia. I’d also like to acknowledge those farms who didn’t rate a mention in the top cell count lists.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good we are or how hard we try; stuff gets in the road. On the same note, we can’t all be at the top.

Lastly, I’d like to wish you, your families and farm teams a very merry Christmas. Make the silly season a safe one, purchase wisely, and keep hydrated in the hot weather.

Rachael Napier is the Murray Dairy chair.