She has continued the Jersey stud and dairy operation on Sunshine Farm in northern Victoria, with the help of Todd Brown.
Todd has become a sharefarmer in the business, with the ultimate goal to purchase the farm from Janelle.
“When Niffty was alive we had started to wind the farm down a bit and now we are the opposite and building things back up. It is my dream to see Todd purchase the farm one day,” Janelle said.
She said when Niffty passed away suddenly she didn’t know what to do.
“The first few months were terrible. I had mastitis, sick cows and everything was going wrong and then Todd came along and I am so lucky to have him.
“He is brilliant to work with and if he wasn’t here, I would have sold the farm years ago.”
Milking around 150 split-calving Jerseys on 80 hectares, Todd does the majority of the work while Janelle says she just gets in his way.
“Todd basically runs the show and contributes 90 per cent of the labour, but I still do a fair percentage of checking and calving down the cows and rearing calves,” she said.
The Jersey breed always held a special place in Niffty’s heart, and while at the start of their farming journey the couple milked anything they could get their hands on, as the years progressed they focused more and more on their beloved Jerseys.
In 2021, Sunshine Farm reached its 50-year stud anniversary.
“Initially I wanted to just get to 50 years for Niffty but here we are three years later still going strong — in fact, we are about to lease another 80 acres [32ha] in July and I never thought I would be expanding the business at this point in my life,” Janelle said.
Even though Niffty is gone, his presence certainly lingers on across the farm.
Janelle and the family made the decision to keep the first animal that was born after Niffty’s death — whether it was a heifer or bull.
As chance would have it was a bull and now, three years later, the first and only drop of his calves have been born.
The bull has been sold because he didn’t like Todd and was becoming dangerous.
However, they did manage to get a couple of heifer calves by him — and Sunshine Farm Niffty’s Nellie will certainly have a special place in the herd in a few years time.
In February, Janelle was thrilled to win the Interbreed Intermediate Champion at the Rochester Show with Moonparh Clusto Dawn.
“That was the first cow I had bought on my own without Niffty and my first win, so it meant a lot to me.”
Janelle has plans to continue showing cattle in the future and with Todd having the fitting skills, she is hoping to attend a few local shows and International Dairy Week in the future.
Coming from a dairy background, Todd initially was interested in the cow side of farming, but since working at Sunshine Farm, he has grown to love the pasture side of things as well.
“I love everything about dairying,” he said.
“When I was a kid it was all about the cows, but now I just love being a farmer and I get so much enjoyment from it.”
Todd is getting a lot of satisfaction out of experimenting with different pasture types because he has never had the opportunity to make those decisions before.
With access to water through the wheel and a bore, he is hoping to move the farm away from a perennial grass based system to a 50:50 split with annuals.
“I have 50 head of my own stock which is a good start and I will continue to build stock numbers up.
“When it comes to bull selection, I always look for positive production and components and 110 mammary system. I like a decent-sized cow to work with and they always have to pull their weight in the herd.”
At 29 years old, Todd said sharefarming alongside Janelle had provided him with the perfect opportunity to work his way into what he hopes will eventually be farm ownership.
He already has a 36ha block which is used for fodder production and to run the young stock and dry cows.
“There is always a million ideas and things to change, but I am certainly looking forward to what the future holds,” Todd said.
