I am in South Australia, and I only ever buy Fleurieu Milk Company milk. It’s a local company supporting Fleurieu Peninsula dairy farmers. Costs a bit more, but I’m just happy to support local farmers and a South Australian company. I buy the “pink” low-fat milk, or the “blue” premium low fat if the pink is not available. It is great for everything - coffee, cereal, baking etc. I buy it at Drakes (SA) supermarkets, but it’s also available at Foodland supermarkets, On The Run petrol stations, IGA stores, and now recently at some Woolworths.
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When I am not able to shop at CostCo for Procal I buy Devondale full cream milk at Coles. I prefer to buy milk that looks to be produced by an Australian company. Devondale is the only option I can find at either Coles or Woolworths. I buy Home Brand when there is absolutely no other option as I assume suppliers are paid more when we buy branded products. Some months ago I emailed Woolworths to find out what companies supplied their milk. I was not surprised that I got no reply. We use a lot of milk, mainly on our home made breakfast muesli.
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No not necessarily. Suppliers have to also include marketing and other fixed costs when they wholesale products. No brand milks don’t have to include such costs when supplying it a retailer which can increase the cost the retailer pays for the product. A higher price paid by the supermarkets doesn’t correlate to more the farmers get.
Milk is sold from the dairy farm to the milk processor at a contracted rate, not matter what packaging the milk ends up in.
For UHT milk:
For fresh milk:
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Hi KAAAAAREN87
Hi-Lo is also available through Canberra Milk - recommended by my nutritionist but in Coles@Jamieson it is snapped up very quickly and is not always available.
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Saputo (Canadian) owns the Devondale brand since they bought Murray Goulburn in 2018.
All the brands source milk from Australian dairy farmers, but Norco is the last of the comparatively larger ones still locally owned, as well as some small regional brands and independents.
This older topic may be interesting for you.
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I buy Paul’s Physical which is used for everything. It is not the calcium at the bottom but added skim milk that makes it seem creamy. My husband has Paul’s Zymil. If I can’t get Physical I try for Norco.
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I buy UHT skim(med) milk. Got used to the taste when I lived a long way from a supermarket. Woolworths or Aldi’s brands usually, occasionally Devondale. I use it mainly on my rolled oats at breakfast, but sometimes in cooking. Plant milks are too high in calories, and don’t have calcium unless it is added to them.
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Dairy Farmers Heart Active. 6 litres a week for tea, coffee, cereal and cooking. Originally bought to help tackle high cholesterol but I think the taste is better (fuller) that other skimmed or semi-skimmed. Interesting this brand has been fully available during the past six months while others have been occasionally out of stock.
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I am allergic to cow’s milk. So when eating cereal or if making a hot milk drink, I use soy milk. The rest of the family also use the same as I do to save buying two different products.
Comparing the contents of various brands for nutritional value and the flavour, our favourite would be Vitasoy Calci plus. However, this brand is one of the more expensive ones so we tend to only buy it when it is on special. On a day-to-day basis we use an Aldi product, Inner Goodness regular Soy Milk which costs roughly half the price of Calci plus.
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We buy WA FarmersFirst Hi-Lo (must be a WA thing). According to their website this is “a new brand created by the Western Australian Farmers Federation (WAFarmers) to help secure the future of the state’s dairy and egg farmers and their industries. Forty cents from the sale of every two-litre container and eggs carton will go back into industry, giving Western Australian consumers a tangible way to support local farmers.” Available at Coles, this is our first choice to support local industry. Breakfast, coffee and tea and if really cold enough, hot chocolate are all better with milk 
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Ashgrove (Tasmanian) non homogenised. We buy 6 litres a week when doing weekly shop and sometimes the cream is so hard at the end of the week I remove it and freeze it to make ghee every few months. I end up with semi-skimmed milk but that’s OK because it is still great milk.
Ashgrove hand rear their calves so I don’t have to feel guilty about them being slaughtered. The females become members of the dairy herd and the males end up in the meat market. This is important for me.
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I try to buy Norco, avoid store brand. I can usually succeed with Full Cream, but have difficulty with Longlife Low Fat*** - have to buy store brand sometimes.
*** Fortunately, we don’t use much.
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Inglenook Dairy - we buy from our local IGA in Geelong. Full cream and skim milk. Tastes better and lasts beyond the use- by date. The milk from supermarket doesn’t always stay fresh by use-by date. We don’t mind the higher cost as it is quality product and we’re supporting a local dairy (Ballarat area).
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Coles or Woolworths powdered skim milk, the only milk I’ve used for the past 20 years at least (except for a brief patch earlier this year when panic buying cleared the shelves of all the milk powder!). I make it up more concentrated than instructed.
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Devondale Full Cream 4 litres per week for a household of 4 adults. We are confident of its flavour and texture, and refuse to buy supermarket “house brand milk” because of the terrible destructiveness of the supermarket giants policy towards the dairy industry.
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It is worth reading this article from Choice about milk pricing and farm gate prices…
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There is another Community topic that shares numerous view points on milk pricing and farm gate concerns. The original ACCC report is also worth a read. Both can be found linked previously in the following:
It’s a long road since the days of regulated pricing and farmer’s cooperatives. Or the milko with his horse, cart and kelpie straight from dairy to your doorstep.
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We have Bass River Dairies, Gippsland Dairy, and Gippsland Jersey that I’m aware of, as pensioners we find it difficult financially to support local but for our milk we buy any of the above and in that order of preference because buying local is important. When we for some reason can’t, we buy ALDI Farmdale full cream.
Because of the way the Big Two supermarkets have treated our dairy farmers in the past we can’t - and shouldn’t! - just forget what they did as soon as the news stop reporting them. Firstly, they never stopped doing those things, secondly they’ve done even worse, and lastly, don’t let the media outrage and calm you by turns - stay outraged, support local, and support local . . .
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