Meet Jordan!

Having spent his childhood raising calves in Drouin, his early career servicing farms as an industrial electrician, and then moving into dairy automation, Jordan ‘Gordo’ Berg has always had one foot in a dairy farm. So when the opportunity arose to manage the new Lely Center in Warragul, he jumped at it - showing how diverse a modern career in dairy can be.

“I’ve been around cows my whole life”, says Gordo. “I grew up on a farm in Drouin East. We had 50 acres and raised 100 or so calves a season, and milked a few cows through an old wooden walk-through dairy.”

While he kicked off his career outside of the dairy industry, it always found a way into his work.

“I started out at Cutting Edge Electrical, which is an industrial-focused electrical contracting business, but I worked in a lot of farms there. Then I moved over to Eli Innovation who manufacture dairy equipment, where I installed cow identification and herd management systems.”

Taking his own advice to “never pass up a good opportunity”, he stepped up to manage Lely Center Gippsland when it opened in 2016.

“I really enjoy working with dairy farmers because they’re go-getters. They want to achieve the best they can and they go hard. Lots of them really develop their businesses to be as profitable as possible and to help them do that, it’s a big thing for me.”

As well as managing Lely Center Gippsland, Gordo is also a qualified Lely Technician and supports customers in managing their Lely farms as a Farm Management Services Advisor.

“I enjoy the challenge. Each farmer has a different operation and different questions. I’m always learning something new, going to Dairy Australia and GippsDairy nutrition courses and pasture management courses, as well as the Lely Technician and FMS courses. Expanding my knowledge in the industry and farm operations."

“The last two seasons have been really good, but overall the industry’s had it tough the last 6 or 7 years, with weather conditions and water getting too expensive. Down here in Gippsland it rains more, the grass grows better, so it’s more viable. But nationally there's about 10% fewer dairy farmers than there were two years ago.”

Gordo says that difficulty finding reliable, affordable labour has made things harder for farmers, but he sees things moving in a positive direction - and he thinks technology is helping.

“Less and less people want to work in dairy farms, and technology needs to take up the slack to make life easier for farmers. To keep the job profitable and sustainable. With technology like Lely’s you know exactly what each cow is costing you, and more importantly what each cow is making you. You know exactly what’s going in and what’s going out. It’s easy to calculate the profit margin and make good decisions.

“There’s a more watchful eye on pricing now, and Australians love their milk - about two-thirds of what we produce is consumed locally, which is great. So I see a good future for the dairy industry.

“2020 was our biggest year yet, with the sale of milking robots into farms, and 2021 is shaping up to be even bigger. Our very first installations are still going great guns and customers are starting to come back for their second round of robots after seeing how they’ve performed.”

Gordo keeps busy off-farm too, with a family restaurant in Inverloch that sees him working over summer, and a penchant for skiing and snowboarding at Mount Hotham in winter. Besides that, he’s happiest at home in West Gippsland.

“I like the climate down here, and just being on farms in rural Victoria. I think I’ll be in this area for quite some time.”