The legacy of a third-generation dairy farm will live on for generations to come after local cousins Doug Wyatt and Brad Teese bought the Dennis family’s iconic 4Real Milk dairy and processing plant at Tamrookum.
Local cousins Doug Wyatt and Brad Teese have a vision that Scenic Rim 4Real Milk will be on every Beaudesert breakfast table, after they bought the Dennis family’s Tamrookum dairy.
The 149-hectare farm has been in the Dennis family since the 1930s, with brothers Darrell and Ray Dennis and their wives Brenda and Rose most recently at the helm.
The 4Real Milk brand was established in 2013 after the family cut ties with Parmalat and Darrell and Brenda’s son Greg garnered a following as outspoken advocate ‘Farmer Gregie’.
The farm currently milks about 180 cows a day, processes unhomogenised milk on site, markets its own brand of cheese and yoghurt and distributes through 300 plus retailers.
Photo: Supplied.
Doug and Brad, respected locals whose families have been farming in the region for four generations, are now hard at work building on the Dennis family legacy.
They are bringing in 160 milking cows from the Teese farm ‘Lyndith’ at Veresdale Scrub and Brad’s son Liam, the family’s fifth generation of dairying, will manage the combined herd.
There is also a runoff farm at Undullah where their heifers will grow on irrigated pastures until they join the Tamrookum milking herd.
They are building on the Dennis’s robotic milking system – the first of its kind in Queensland – adding three Lely milking robots to the four the Dennis family bought in 2010.
Brad, a long-time passionate advocate of the dairy industry, said it was a rare opportunity.
“I always believed there was an opportunity to have local, fresh products people were happy to buy just because it’s not coming from interstate, it’s produced locally,” he said.
“I feel privileged to continue on from the Dennis family and to be able to do this with my son and with Doug – it’s a unique chance you’d only get every four or five lifetimes.”
Doug said the Dennis legacy would remain on the farm as Ray and Rose had accepted an offer to keep living in the house they moved in to when they got married.
“Ray will still have a very active role with the day-to-day operation of Tamrookum dairy and we expect frequent visits from Darrell and Brenda because once a farmer always a farmer,” he said.
“This family has worked harmoniously all their married lives, two families working as one with the greatest respect for each other. It’s such a credit to the family and their legacy.”
