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Dairy for Schools

Agriculture for schools

The WA dairy industry includes approximately 320 dairy farms that between them produce around 370 million litres of milk per year.

Cows graze on pasture (grass, clover and other plants) and produce an average of over 6000 litres of milk per cow per year. Surplus pasture is made into hay or silage for feeding cows over summer.

Cows are milked twice a day using milking machines.

Insulated tankers take the milk to factories where it is pasteurised (heated and cooled to kill bacteria) and homogenised (where the cream is mixed in with the milk to make it smooth). Western Australian milk is shipped as far as Singapore without needing refrigeration.

Some milk is left plain (called white milk), packaged, then sold in WA or overseas.

Other milk is used to make dairy products that are sold in Australia or overseas.

There are more than 20 local dairy processors in WA making dairy products such as yoghurt, icecream, cheese, flavoured milk, UHT milk, butter and powdered milk.

Western Australian dairy exports are worth over $65 million per year. Our dairy products are particularly popular in Singapore, Japan, China and the Philippines. There is more information about export markets for dairy products in our [Expired]" target="_blank">export publication.

Read more about work the Department is doing that is related to the dairy industry:

• Case studies
  • Farmlets How many cows can you fit on a dairy farm?
• Biosecurity biosecurity means protecting our agricultural industries from diseases and plant and animal pests
• Sustainability we need to protect our natural resources to make sure our agriculture industry has a strong future

Visit other websites related to the dairy industry:

• Dairy Australia (includes a kids section)
• Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme
• Parmalat (includes a kids section)
• Peters and Brownes (includes teacher resources)
• National Foods

Complete these worksheets related to the dairy industry:

• How would you like your milk? (Primary worksheet)
• Bacteria in milk (science worksheet)
• Rewriting dairy history (Society and Environment worksheet)

Page reviewed : February 2006