Farming in the Davenport blood
• Third generation Telita farmers Kirsty and Ryan Davenport with their children Lincoln (4), Weston (3) and Isla (2).
By Taylor Clyne
May 13, 2020
Watching their three young children grow into confident little farmers appreciating the lifestyle and land as much as they do is just one of the highlights of living on the farm say Ryan and Kirsty Davenport.
The third-generation farmers help run Telita Dairies; an 800-hectare property in the green undulating hills of Winnaleah and Telita focusing on beef, dairy and cropping.
A lot has changed since it was purchased by Marie and Peter Davenport in 1983 growing from a 95-cow daily milking operation in a four aside herringbone to a 50-unit rotary, milking 600 cows and another 25 swing over herringbone dairy milking 250 cows next season.
“The business has six family members currently working on the farm, not including the kids who are becoming quite helpful with cow shifts,” Kirsty said.
After share farming for Trevor and Nita Hinds at Ringarooma, Ryan’s parents Alan and Rosie purchased their own farm at Dairy Plains, before going into partnership with Marie and Peter in 1996.
The partnership purchased “Parry’s” 20-hectare farm next door and built a rotary dairy; since then expanding to two dairies, beef and growing potatoes, lavender, parsley and poppies.
Farming is in the Davenport blood and it’s no surprise that Ryan returned home from college to work fulltime, bringing with him his lovely wife Kirsty.
They both started working full time for Rosie and Alan in 2013 and completed a diploma in agriculture.
“Moving out from town took a little bit of adjusting on my part,” Kirsty said.
“Farming was not a career path I had considered; I had a lot to learn. Ryan even had to teach me how to drive a manual car,” she laughed.
No sooner had they married the couple had three gorgeous children, Lincoln (4), Weston (3) and Isla (2).
“Our children love the farm; they are asking everyday if they can go to work. Once upon a time the newborn calves were the scariest animals around, now the kids are running a kilometre down the drive to help Nan shift the yearlings!
“We might see three new farmers down the track,” they laughed.
Of the work the pair say they love the variety of jobs.
“Every day is something different. We never go a day without learning something new.
“Soon we will be drying the cows off and installing new gates, yards and a better washing system in the herringbone dairy, so we can increase the herd to 300 just in time before calving season.”
The Davenport family have nominated Legerwood’s Ben Fulton and Estelle Smith to feature in the next instalment of the Advertiser’s Farming Families Feature.
The continuous feature will aim to spotlight our special agricultural sector through the next generation's eyes.