Australian dairy business models: research review and future directions for survival and sustainability

Small dairy businesses in Australia are dying! There is a growing crisis in the Australian dairy industry as small-scale dairy farms, with a milking herd of fewer than 200 cows, have declined from 22,000 in the 1980s to fewer than 6,000 in 2020. What insights can we draw from research for the survival and sustainability of small and medium dairy business models? There is less known about factors that impact dairy farm sustainability; this study aims to address this critical gap in theory and practice. This paper presents a review of the literature and proposes a conceptual model examining the factors influencing dairy business models and their sustainability.