Chloe Brown wants the world to know that dairy farming isn’t just poo, mud and milk.
As a first-generation dairy farmer in the industry a little more than a decade, Chloe is making her mark as co-creator of Cream of the Crop dairy conference for women, on the DemoDAIRY Foundation board, Fonterra Australia Supply Council and Young Dairy Network leadership team, but it’s her podcast that’s closest to her heart.
Chloe is using her More Than Milk podcast to promote the goodness in dairy and to dispel myths about the industry.
“People usually think of dairy as dirty and muddy and covered in cow poo,” Chloe said.
“The story has always been that it’s a hard slog, you’re out in all conditions, you work big hours and there’s no money in it, but that’s not the case. We can farm however we want to farm.
“No-one is romanticising dairy. Dairy doesn’t get beautiful drone pictures of a harvester taking off wheat. No-one thinks like that for dairy and I want to change that.”
Chloe grew up on a beef and sheep farm at Hawkesdale and when she met her dairy farmer husband Rodney in 2010 didn’t know the difference between a heifer and a steer.
“I was at uni doing biomedical science when I met Rodney, but I wasn’t farming smart,” she said.
She also started courses in nursing and health promotion — never finishing any of them — but finally found her passion on a dairy farm.
The couple sharefarmed with Rodney’s parents, enduring the loss of their first daughter Ashley at one month in 2013.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” Chloe said.
“The survival mechanism for us was to farm; every day we had to get up and milk the cows and do it together.”
They now lease the Brown family farm and have since had two daughters, Charlotte and Eleanor, who share their love of farm life.
Chloe’s industry involvement stemmed from her desire to connect with other people.
“I felt intimidated going to discussion groups,” Chloe said.
“Rodney is not a social butterfly, but I had the desire to meet new people and learn more things.
“I met Renata Cumming and Lucy Collins, both new to western Victoria, and we all wanted to know our roles in the industry and to get to know more people, so we created Cream of the Crop to provide a safe space for women to ask questions and learn about their place in the industry.”
After two successful events, the third Cream of the Crop is planned for 2024.
An invitation to speak about her journey and Cream of the Crop at the NSW Women in Dairy Bale Up conference led to the podcast idea.
“I came home from that thinking why are we not telling these stories — we could do a podcast,” Chloe said.
“If I had someone tell me when we first started that there’s no right way or wrong way to farm, I would have cruised through.
“I wouldn’t have had such self-doubt and we would have made better decisions earlier in the piece.
“The more you know, the better you can make informed decisions.”
More Than Milk was born and has been delivering weekly episodes since the start of 2023, sharing stories from farmers and industry representatives from across Victoria and NSW.
There are no cameras, just a microphone.
“I didn’t want to have people get caught up in what it looks like; it’s just a chat with a microphone and people sharing their stories.”
Chloe aims to focus on the diversity in dairy, in both the people, the jobs and the farming practices.
For example, Chloe and Rodney milk around 8am and 5.30pm to 6pm because it suits their family life.
“We’re lucky with grandparents helping with babysitting, but we’ve set the milking times so I can do the school runs and the kids get to see both of us,” Chloe said.
Chloe says More Than Milk improves her as a farmer.
“You meet people farming from all areas and I can bring information from those conversations back to the farm,” she said.
“I get to see what other people are doing and the more industry stuff I do makes me a better farmer.”
Chloe likes to do the interviews in person rather than on the phone and later returns home to edit and promote them on Spotify, Apple, and other streaming services.
The title was one of the hardest things to decide.
“I wanted to highlight that there’s so much more to the industry than just milking cows,” Chloe said.
“Whatever your passion is, you can do it in dairy. I can show there isn’t just one pathway in, there isn’t just one way to farm, there isn’t one type of person in the dairy industry.
“There are so many fascinating people that undervalue their own stories. I include old people who have been in it for a long time and have that history, new farmers, industry people, anyone with a good story.
“I want to hear the people we don’t hear from. It would be easy to do the loud people we always hear from, but I want to bring in others.”
The first episode had about 900 listens across the various formats, but most average 250 to 300 in the first week and then they continue to grow incrementally.
Chloe admits she has “way too much courage” when it comes to asking questions, but enjoys having her friendly industry chats.
“I have a list a mile long to do,” she said.