Why Are Australian Dairy Farmers Struggling and What Is the Impact on Their Cows?

We were honoured to be asked to contribute to a special edition dedicated to the work of Deidre Wicks, a scholar and activist whose work we greatly admired. Deidre’s concern for the animals of Australia (and elsewhere) shone through in every conversation we had with her. Her love of and dedication to cows and making their lives better was especially clear. It is with this in mind that we offer this short commentary that reflects on our work done with dairy farmers in Australia. We draw on research we conducted with 21 dairy farmers to consider why Australian dairy farmers are struggling and what the potential impacts of these struggles are on their cows. We conclude with a discussion of the future possibilities of dairy farming.