Koallah Farm’s new range of natural, additive-free milk hits the shelves today as the business continues to grow its trusted paddock to plate operations.

The fully integrated meat producer from just outside Camperdown has launched Koallah Farm Dairy, with full cream, low fat and non-homogenised varieties now available.

Managing director Steven Castle said his family had been dairy farming at Koallah for four generations and the decision to launch their own dairy brand was fast-tracked following recent milk price cuts by large dairy processors.

“We had always planned to expand into dairy products and ultimately the way farmers were treated earlier this year, including ourselves, has just expedited that move,” he said.

“It’s a natural progression for our business though because we are passionate about supplying customers with products that haven’t been manipulated or altered.

“We’re very much about keeping all our production at a sustainable level where the quality of our products is the result of healthy animals that are farmed naturally on pasture.”

Mr Castle said Koallah Farm had engaged the expertise of Inglenook Dairy near Ballarat to process, bottle and label the Koallah Farm Dairy products.

“We currently milk 230 Holstein Friesian cows at Koallah Farm where we are lucky to have very productive volcanic soils that produce plenty of grass and high quality milk,” he said.

“It was important to us that if we were going to market our own milk that it remained as close to the raw product as possible and Inglenook Dairy has delivered that for us.

“We didn’t want any artificial enhancements made to our milk to change how it looked or to make it last longer. Like our meat, we wanted our milk to be as healthy as possible for well informed customers who value natural products and natural taste.”

Mr Castle said the irony was that through minimal processing Koallah Farm had achieved a shelf life of 18 days – well in excess of companies that use additives.

He said as milk sales increased, the company would look to launch cream and yoghurt products as soon as possible.

Koallah Farm Dairy products are available through the company’s retail brand Simply Free Range, which provides an online/home delivery service and operates two wholly owned butcher shops in Mt Waverley and Rosanna.

Other initial stockists include IGA in Anglesea, Gamekeepers in Moorabbin and Piedimonte’s in North Fitzroy.