MILKING cows is a profession. If you doubt that, key in the name Clover Hill Dairies into any internet search engine.

A corporate-style brand dominates the left-hand corner of the page and drop-down menus are spread beneath a banner picture of Holsteins grazing lush rolling hills.

Your eyes immediately move to the heading titled "Our Vision."

At this stage, you could be forgiven for forgetting the website is for a family owned and run dairy farm.

It is this professional, clean, green and enticing image that joint owner of NSW-based Clover Hill Dairies, Lynne Strong, has been working hard to develop.

"You have to be what the consumer wants to see," Lynne said.

"Increasingly, customers are providing feedback to supermarkets - they want to know more about the products they buy.

"So what the product is, where the product is grown, and who grows it, is becoming more important to the consumer.

"Our website is our shop window for our brand, and aims to educate and engage the community and prospective customers.

"Our website lets people know who we are, what we do and how we think.

"They can then see if it aligns with their thinking."

Drawing on extensive experience as a pharmacist in the retail sector, Lynne said marketing had the same principle everywhere - consumers form lasting impressions in the first seven seconds they enter a shop, or in this case, drive on to a farm or visit a website.

"Image is so important. It needs to be created and it needs to be actively managed," she said.

"Your marketing focus must be on the consumer and what you can provide to the consumer that adds value to them, and will make them want to choose your product over all the other options that they have in the supermarket."

Situated in the rolling hills of Jamberoo, near Wollongong on the NSW South Coast, it is hard to imagine that maintaining this image can prove difficult.

Lynne, her husband Michael and son Nick run two farms: the home property and a newly acquired leased farm, known as Lemon Grove Research Farm, closer to Jamberoo.

Both farms are immaculate.

The registered Holstein herd, comprising 450 milking cows across both farms, graze on the plentiful kikuyu pastures.

The business supports five full-time (including partners) and five part-time employees.

Admitting that while the Clover Hill Dairies brand was yet to deliver a higher price for milk, it had opened industry doors.

The Strongs were recently approached by a processor interested in purchasing their milk and using their operation as a marketing tool.

Other opportunities have included involvement in trials testing the health value of their milk.

Results showed their milk had "very high levels of nutraceuticals" and this is something the Strongs will look to market.

Back on the farm, every detail of production is documented, along with natural resource management goals and achievements.

Last year, the 200-head Clover Hill herd produced 170,000kg of milk solids with a feed conversion efficiency of 1.7 litres per kilogram of dry matter consumed.

Cows each consumed an average 3.6 tonnes of supplementary feed last year, with the 50ha effective milking area stocked at four cows per hectare.

Production goals for the Lemon Grove Research Farm include 840kgMS/cow, 10kgMS/cow less than Clover Hill.

In 2005 the Strongs switched to milking three times a day in a bid to increase production.

Within the first two weeks, production lifted 30 per cent. It has since dropped 5 per cent but has stabilised.

Even when milking drops back to twice a day - during hot weather and times of farm development - Lynne said the extra milk tissue the cows had developed ensured production always remained higher.

Cows consume an average 25kg of dry matter per day with a grain to pasture ratio of 2:3. Fresh milkers produce an average 45 litres each day.

Clover Hill Dairies is the more intensive of the two operations.

All cows calve at this farm and remain there for the first 100 days of milking.

After that, provided they remain healthy, they get transferred to the flat country of Lemon Grove Research Farm.

The Strongs calve all-year round - easing off in January and February because of the heat - and supply milk to Dairy Farmers.

It is this high production, combined with the Strong's environmental practices, that won the family the NSW Landcare Primary Producers Award last year.

Describing the win as a "highlight" of their farming journey, Lynne said some examples of their environmental work included re-vegetating creeks, improving farm access for stock and machinery to avoid crossing water courses and limiting the nutrient run-off into water ways.

Every member of the Strong family works to their strengths. Nick looks after farm operations, Michael is in charge of the herd and Lynne looks after business development and marketing.

If there is something they do not know, they call in the experts, whether that be a nutritionist, environmental expert or a graphic artist.

With this in mind, Lynne has used her skills and "ability to find money" for projects to assist the entire dairy industry.

Developing the concept of Picasso cows, an industry-driven project that takes dairying into schools by encouraging students to decorate their own cow statue, as well as moving the Cows Create Careers project into NSW, Lynne wants to ensure the industry is viewed in a positive light. "My aim is to make the dairy industry a sexy place and a place where people want to be," she said.

She concedes that issues such as animal welfare and climate change have, in some cases, put dairy into the spotlight for the wrong reasons, but insists that even small changes will help the industry's overall image. Lynne's plan for the industry is similar to what her family has rolled out for their business.

Her dream would be an industry where consumers understood, appreciated and valued dairy farming and dairy products. On the flip-side, farmers would work closely with consumers to promote their product.

Perhaps like the Clover Hill brand, an internet search for the term "dairy" would generate the same reaction - that of a professional, clean and green industry and most importantly, an enjoyable way to live.