Representing the regional dairy sector was Glen Gordon, who operates a large-scale, 850-cow family dairy business alongside his brother Drew near Cohuna. Gordon provided lawmakers with concrete examples of how shifting market dynamics have forced local operations to restructure their core management models over the past 30 years. While historical management focused exclusively on maximizing raw dry matter production per hectare, the contemporary reality of the Murray basin means producers must evaluate how much dry matter they can generate per megaliter of water, marking irrigation access as their primary limiting factor.

The structural impact on the region’s productive output has been stark. Since the implementation of the Basin Plan’s water recovery targets, water asset permanent transfers out of the district have triggered a major contraction in local milk supply, forcing smaller family dairies out of business. At its historical peak, the Murray dairy region yielded 3.1 billion liters of milk annually; today, that absolute processing pipeline has dropped to an average of just 1.6 billion to 1.8 billion liters, severely reducing the utilization efficiency of localized factory assets.

To insulate their business from this intensifying input volatility, the Gordon family invested heavily in modernizing their footprint three years ago, constructing a sand-bedded freestall housing barn explicitly tailored for cow comfort and extreme water-use efficiency. However, Gordon emphasized during the parliamentary sessions that infrastructure optimization has clear limits when policy continually restricts raw resource access. Their intensive operation supports 8 full-time staff and drives commercial cash flow directly through 27 separate local businesses—a localized economic engine that cannot be replicated by any alternative regional industry if water costs become untenable.