Schulz Organic Dairy have been at the forefront of organic farming since 1972. Across three generations of dedicated farmers, Schulz has been producing the highest quality milk from a single herd of healthy Friesian and Jersey cows.
The story of how Schulz Organic Dairy began all starts with Hermann Schulz, who fled from East Prussia to West Germany in 1945, where he started his career as an apprentice farmer. After finding love and marrying in Hamburg in 1954, Hermann and his new wife, Marlis, migrated to Australia in pursuit of greener pastures.
In 1970, Hermann and Marlis purchased some acreage in Victoria that was known as Clancy’s Hill. They worked hard to scrape together enough money together to purchase the 244-acre dairy farm in Timboon. Along the way, they’d grown their family to include three children. From 1972, Hermann and Marlis, together with their eldest son Michael, ran the farm as biodynamic and as the farm grew, it changed to organic certification.
During the early 1980s, farmers were seeing low returns in dairying, and Australia was simultaneously importing millions of dollars of specialty cheeses from Europe. Hermann wanted to figure out a way to enhance the Australian dairy industry, and a comment by the president of the United Dairy Farmers spurred on an idea to start producing cheese! Hermann and Marlis hired an old retired German cheesemaker, Hans Siegfried to help them in their new venture and after three months, he sat his cheesemaking license and began building his own farmhouse cheese factory in Timboon – Timboon Farmhouse Cheese.
After many years of successful cheese manufacturing, in 2000 Timboon Farmhouse Cheese was sold to National Foods who continued to work at the site till 2008. At this stage after working in various cheeseries around Victoria and experimenting alongside his grandfather Hermann, with milk, cream and cheese, Simon decided to restart the family cheesery and Schulz Organic Dairy was born.
They are based in the small township of Timboon, in south west of Victoria, approximately 20 minutes from the famed 12 Apostles – and area which receives some of the highest rainfalls in the state, which makes the pastures rich for grazing. Set on 1044 acres of extremely fertile land Schulz use organic farming principles to enhance the vitality of the soil, grass and animals, which means the land is chemical, hormone and pesticide free.