“The benefits have been massive”: The solar energy system saving dairy farmers time and money in Gippsland

As electricity prices have risen farmers have struggled but a Gippsland dairy farming couple have found a way to cut costs and workload with a system they’ll be showing off at the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference in Bendigo in July.

Sandra Jefford and her husband, Wilco Droppert, have been farming together since 2001; they come from dairy farming families and have a passion for organic farming.

They moved to their current farm in Clydebank in 2011 and have 380 cows that are milked year round.

The Gippsland Monitor spoke to Jefford about how they have integrated a renewable energy irrigation system into their farm to reduce energy bills and labour.

The couple moved to Clydebank from West Gippsland, where there is higher rainfall, and so undertook a lot of development work, installing centre pivot irrigation to run water through the property to grow the feed for their cows.

Jefford said that in 2016 “the rainfall sort of stopped. We were pumping a huge amount of water and the energy bills just kept pouring in. I thought, ‘This is ridiculous, we cannot keep paying this much for pumping water’”.

About seven years ago the couple had an energy audit of their property, which gave them ideas to improve water pumping efficiency and lower their electricity bill.

In response they changed the types of motors they used to pump water through the irrigation system and increased the size of the pipes so water could run with less energy input.

“But that only got us part of the way,” said Jefford. “We were still using a lot of energy to pump water, so we developed a plan to generate a large proportion of the electricity we needed.”

A grant from Agriculture Victoria was used to install automation on their pumps and link irrigation activities to solar power. 

“The benefits have been massive. It's significantly reduced our energy bills, it's giving us labour savings of probably about 25 hours a week through the irrigation season, it’s improved water efficiency and it’s reduced our emissions.”

Jefford said if governments want to reduce emissions they should help farmers transition to more sustainable practices.

She is a speaker at the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference 2025 in Bendigo on July 23. The conference will bring together farmers, energy experts, researchers, industry leaders and government representatives to explore the practicalities, opportunities and challenges of renewable energy in agriculture. 

Conference founder and farmer Karin Stark says “farmers are increasingly turning to renewables to tackle the challenge of rising diesel and electricity prices. But there’s still work to be done in making the right technologies available and ensuring regional contractors and services are equipped to deliver”.

The keynote speaker at this year’s conference is Grattan Institute’s Director of Energy and Climate Change Program, Tony Wood.