ON an 80-acre property near Lyndoch, in the southern Barossa Valley, you will find The Dairyman Barossa, a business that is out of this world and unlike most seen in the state.

The award-winning operation is run by Michael Wohlstadt, a passionate farmer who has a diverse range of livestock and produce on his property that is sold to different restaurants and businesses around SA and interstate.

They produce buttercream and buttermilk, free-range pork fed by Jersey milk and grain, oyster mushrooms, milk veal, and will soon be making Italian cheese as well.

If this isn’t impressive enough, they also have exclusive self-contained farm accommodation – The Dairyman’s Cottage, and The Chaff House, which date back to the 1840s – and vineyards on the property as well.

Mr Wohlstadt grew up in Gladstone, in the Mid North, and then moved to Elizabeth, which was where he attended primary school.

He always wanted to be a farmer and although his family avoided encouraging him to do it, he developed an interest from what he described as his second family.

“My parents came from Berlin after the war, and the first place they lived was Gladstone in the Mid North,” he said.

“Family farmers were very welcoming to migrants and I always wanted to be a farmer – (which was) actively discouraged by my parents, and grandparents, in particular.

“My grandfather was a bookkeeper, who thought banking would be a much better choice.

“My parents were the first managers of what is now Lyndoch Hill, previously the Barossa Motel, so I grew up in hospitality, but there was a dairy farm across the road and so that is where I always ended up after school.

“They were like a second family to me.”

Mr Wohlstadt said it was a challenge getting into farming, and he had to work his local government job, which made for very-long hours.

“Getting into farming was very tough, I was 23, interest rates were 18 per cent and bridging finance was 22 per cent,” he said.

“It’s hard to believe that I have now been on this property for 45 years and turn 68 this year, but I still work 70-hour weeks.

“The landholding was originally just sheep only and no vineyard, but with my main interest being milking cows I built the dairy from scratch, and focused on the vineyard when I took a 10-year break from the dairy side of things.”

Mr Wohlstadt has over 80 free-range heritage Berkshire and Tamworth pigs that are fed with Jersey cow milk and local grain that he mills. He said it was most likely the only milk-fed pig herd in the country.

“It’s the way it used to be, on mixed farms, it used to be that people would have a small herd and everything sort of emerged from subsistence farming, and then they’d have a bit of surplus and sell it off and there were small cash crops,” he said.

“One of those things that emerged was to have a small dairy herd and you’d separate the milk on the farm for cream, sell it, typically to Golden North, and what would you do with the skim milk? 
“The pigs absolutely love it and they are waiting for the milk to be poured on the grain, and they find it delicious and enjoy it.

“Pork used to have a great flavour and it’s drifted away from that, and some of the bacon you eat can be really dry and lacking flavour. So I took a punt to see if I could establish a point of difference with the crushed grain too and it worked wonders.

“With the heritage breeds, as the meat cooks the fat keeps the meat moist, so it doesn’t lose the flavour and doesn’t go dry and tough.

“It has led to customers saying they’ve never tasted bacon or sausages like that, and quite important restaurants in the city and Barossa Valley are purchasers of the meat and/or the whole range of products.”

Mr Wohlstadt’s produce can be found at different restaurants around metropolitan Adelaide including Arkhe, at Norwood, Salopian Inn, at McLaren Vale, The Oval Restaurant, and Jolley’s Boathouse. 

It is also found at Lucia’s, and Smelly Cheese, at the Adelaide Central Market. It can also be found in the Barossa Valley at different cellar doors, and Hentley’s Farm.

He also sells his farm’s products at the Barossa Farmers Market and Adelaide Showground Farmers Market, and said that customers who bought his products were looking for something different to mainstream food.

Mr Wohlstadt said another good thing about The Dairyman Barossa was being able to avoid having to travel long distances to transport produce.  

“Our road miles are very low, for example we have a butcher in Kapunda that we work with and our hay and grain is only 5km away that we feed our cows,” he said.

“This is unlike other produce that ends up in the supermarket from factories and goes through several different processes and it loses its freshness.

“If you want to guarantee consistency you need highly managed industrial processes and detecting differences between seasons is important.

“It is actually important to notice a difference in tastes between seasons through taste and texture, as it means that it hasn't been manipulated.”

He said he preferred Jersey cows as they were easier to manage than larger animals like Holsteins, and were the best breed as they provided richer milk.

Farmers around the country have been dealing with drought conditions and Mr Wohlstadt said it was challenging for them as well.

“The drought has made it really tough and like everyone, we really hope it rains soon,” he said.

“I have been fortunate that I have a really committed team on the farm, I used to do it all by myself and to have that support has been great, especially turning 68 this year.

“At this time of year, we would be more confident about the season but we have to be careful of the cost of feed and additional irrigation that is required due to the lack of rainfall.”

The Dairyman Barossa also specialise in oyster mushrooms that are known for their nutty and subtle flavour and are great for stir fry, soups and cooking with roasted meat.

They also create artisan butter, with the secret lying within the Jersey cows and the fresh pasture that they graze in. The butter is velvet in texture and an amazing golden colour.

Moving forward, Italian cheeses and a new outdoor hospitality area with the potential to host weddings and events is on the priority list for The Dairyman Barossa, where everything served will be from the property. 

Mr Wohlstadt said he hoped he lived long enough to see the fruits of his labour.

If you want to stay at The Dairyman Barossa or find out more, visit the website (www.thedairyman.com.au/).