With his wife Jean and three permanent employees, they aim to milk up to 450 cows at their peak at their dairy at Mount Jagged, on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Before the period of drought and low milk prices hit, the couple were milking more than 500 cows and had recently bought the neighbouring property, moving from a 12-a-side to a 24-a-side herringbone dairy.

The industry downturn proved too much to handle.

"The drought and low milk prices coincided with us taking over the new property - it all happened at once," Rod said.

"With the downturn, we had to cut herd numbers back and sold a lot of heifers and cows, which isn't helping us now."

Rod, an executive of the Fleurieu collective bargaining group, was previously affiliated with Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, but made the switch to Parmalat midway through last year to capitalise on the company's choice to pick up direct supply on the Fleurieu.

He said the motive behind his switch was the belief they would eventually see better returns.

"We are on a contract system with Parmalat so we know what we will get for the whole year, rather than the step-up system we had with WCB," Rod said.

"It creates better certainty."

The Walkers opt for split calving so they are able to keep herd numbers fairly stable throughout the season, with AI used for the entire herd and heifers mated to sexed semen.

They export some of their heifers, which adds to their profit portfolio, and since most of the herd is registered, the family is assured a premium for export cattle.

One of the biggest changes at Cloverlea Dairy in the past five years has been the establishment of a feedpad next to the dairy which Rod attributes to reduced feed wastage on-farm.

"Before we had the feedpad, we were just feeding silage out in the paddocks and probably getting about 25 per cent to 30pc wastage," he said.

"Now that has reduced to about 10pc feed wastage."