More Than A Collection Of Recipes, Cooking With Cows Shares The Stories Of The Farmers, Families And Characters Who Make Up Australia’s Dairy Industry
Rain, hail or shine, life on a dairy farm doesn’t stop.
There are no sleep-ins and chucking a sickie is out of the question! Twice a day, every day, the cows need milking.
For those of us who don’t live the dairy farming life, it’s quite daunting to comprehend. But for dairy farming families, it’s simply part of the gig.
It’s a life built around routine, hard work and, of course, a tonne of love for their four-legged ladies.
It’s also a life Fleurieu Peninsula dairy farmer Mandy Pacitti knows well.
We met Mandy recently when she spoke at Rachel Titley’s Year Of The Female Farmer event in Saddleworth, sharing some of her own experiences of life in the dairy industry.
She also happened to have with her a rather beautiful book called Cooking with Cows, and I couldn’t resist buying a copy.
After spending some time flicking through it, I quickly realised this was much more than a cookbook.
Yes, the recipes look incredible and the photography is stunning, but between them are the stories of the farmers, families and characters who make up Australia’s dairy industry.
An industry, incidentally, with far fewer farmers than it once had.
Fewer Farms, Bigger Herds
The number of Australian dairy farms has been falling for decades, while those still operating have generally become larger.
In 1985, the average Australian dairy herd was just 93 cows. By 2024-25, that had grown to 345, while South Australia had an estimated 174 dairy farms operating, down from more than 1,700 in 1980.
And it hasn’t exactly been an easy few decades for the industry.
Deregulation changed the way milk was priced, $1-a-litre supermarket milk arrived in 2011 and, in 2016, major processors slashed the price paid to many farmers late in the season, after they had already made business decisions based on what they expected to earn.
Add drought, rising costs, labour shortages and volatile milk prices, and it’s easier to understand why so many families have left dairying over the years.
Which makes recording the people and stories behind the industry all the more important.
Inside Cooking With Cows
Cooking with Cows was created to celebrate 10 years of Power of Women in Dairying, bringing together the recipes and stories of the people who have been part of the dairy community along the way.
Recipes have been contributed alongside stories from dairy professionals, award recipients and people from across the industry, with everything from family favourites to tried-and-tested show recipes filling the pages.
Mandy’s story is among them.
She and husband Gino, along with their son Andrew, milk between 250 and 300 Holsteins year-round at Misty Brae Holsteins on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Interestingly, Mandy once thought her future might lie in the arts, with photography and creativity among her interests.
Instead, as she sums up in the book, “I married a dairy farmer, and the rest is history!”
Since then, she’s raised calves, carted hay, gained her truck licence, worked alongside her family on the farm and become heavily involved in the wider dairy industry.
In 2023, she received the Power of Women in Dairying Bette Hall Award for Excellence, Leadership and Achievement.
Telling The Dairy Story
There are plenty more stories like Mandy’s throughout the book, and they’re a good reminder there’s a person, a family and a whole lot of work that goes behind something as ordinary as the milk in your fridge.
There’s also a strong sense of community running through the dairy industry. When one person does well, everyone seems to get behind them, and a win for one becomes a win for the wider industry.
We’ve seen that recently with Mannum dairy farmer Narelle Zanker, who was named the 2026 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award National Winner for her Dairy Adventures business.
Her win has put dairy farming in the national spotlight for all the right reasons, while giving Narelle a much bigger platform to talk about the industry, the people behind it and where our food comes from.
Now, About Those Recipes…
As much as I loved reading the stories, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t spent a fair bit of time eyeing off the recipes too.
The Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins caught my eye straight away, along with Shirl’s Simple Super Tasty Muffins and Glen’s New York Style Baked Cheesecake. There’s also no shortage of butter, cream and cheese, which seems only right.
But I think what I like most about it is that you’ll pick it up for the recipes and end up reading the stories, perhaps knowing a little more about the people behind the milk in your fridge.
Want a Copy?
Cooking with Cows is $40 and can be ordered online, with postage and pick up options available from several locations across South Australia and Victoria.
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