The Billing family have been milking cows at our current farm site since 1928.  However, the proud tradition of dairy farming goes back many years and can be traced to both Tasmania (Aust) and England.  The property name "Craiglands" has therefore been with the family for many years.  The business name "Craiglands Partnership" was created in 2001 to not only pay homage to the generations of past family members, but also to allow current and future family members to enter and exit the business whilst retaining a stable and ongoing presence in the industry.

Craiglands is a family owned partnership consisting of Mark and Sam Billing.  However, Mark's parents - Alan and Judy - retain a strong presence within the business despite "retiring" a few years ago.  Mark is the 4th generation to be farming this property. 

Like many farms around our district, the make-up of our stock originated from Jersey bloodlines and various crossbreds.  However, since the late 1960's, there has been a definate and conscious move towards breeding solely Holstein Friesian cows.  In the mid 1980's Mark's return to the farm saw a bolstered effort in using only Holstein Friesian semen through AI.  Some of those bulls were Quantock Josie Starlight (QJS), Ingolston R T Satellite (IOLS), Clinell Raelene Magic (CRIC), Glenjoy Griffland Randy (GLIF) and Carenda Supreme Preston (CSUP).

Our business is very technologically driven.  We were one of the first operations in Victoria to install a rotary platform and we have been early adopters of computer assisted technology in managing both the plant (machinery) and the animals.  We use Westfalia's automatic identifcation system and run Dairy Plan as our main computer programme.  Every animal on the property has a permanent computer record which identifies a vast array of details about her including veterinary actions, nutrition, genetics, feed allowances and production.  These records commence on the day of birth and are maintained for the life of the cow.  In 2006 we installed automatic cup removers and milk meters to each bale on the rotary.

Pastures and feed quality are a main focus of the business, due to the rising cost of purchased feed, and also the impact that nutrition has on a cows genetic potential.  Mark spends a lot of time and effort into making sure that our feed bank - in whatever configuration that may be - always matches the cows needs.

In 2005 we began registering our herd for the first time.  Due to years of excellent record keeping, we were able to register approximately 70 cows as pure breds in our first year, plus a large number of appendix animals.  In 2005 and 2006, we only registered pure bred calves, however in 2007, we decided to register all calves regardless of appendix status in order to speed up the process of registering the entire herd.  2007 saw us classify animals for the first time, and we were delighted that a number of our first lactation heifers scored Good Plus.  One heifer scored VG85 and one of our 4yo cows (Craiglands LuckyStrike 2843) scored VG89 in her first classification.

In 2007, Craiglands Luckystrike 2843, took out Grand Champion & Best Udder (interbreed) at the Colac Show.  In August 2008, she was the donor cow in our very first flush programme.  Further details about this can be found under the "our business....cows" link.

Our business is not content to rest on its laurels, and we are constantly looking at ways to improve through technology, genetics, feed or staff development.  Please refer to other areas of this site for further details about our business.