It’s been 20 years since Scott and Regina Harvey started SRH Milk Haulage with one truck and tanker and began carting milk to Dairy Farmers’ production plant at Hexham.

Now they mainly cart for Lions Dairy and Drinks and have 51 trucks and 80 tankers that operate from their sites in Rutherford and in Brunswick Junction in Western Australia.

More than 1.5 million litres of milk are carted every day. 

Their daughter Blair has been working in the business for eight years and is incredibly proud of what her parents have achieved.

She said the business now employed 125 staff and she hopes to one day take over and expand its reach. 

“It’s a great achievement for mum and dad, they’ve worked really hard to make it happen,” she said.“Dad comes in at 4am every morning and sees the drivers before they go.“It’s great to see how the business has grown over the years … I definitely want to stay in this, I’ve grown up in it.”

The trucks pick up milk around the Hunter Valley, Tamworth and Taree and normally take it to Sydney, but sometimes they are asked to transport it to Queensland or Victoria. In WA they pick up from farms around Harvey and Albany.

Next month they will celebrate the milestone with their staff and Murray Goulburn and Parmalat representatives.

Ms Harvey said winning an initial contract led them to WA and once they secured another the venture took off. 

“We picked up another contract [in [WA] and doubled our numbers over there,” Ms Harvey said.

Ms Harvey noted dairy farmers had endured a tough 12 months with a low milk price from July and dry weather causing problems. 

“This year has been tough for them with the rate decrease and the hot weather has knocked them about,” she said. 

“It’s one of those things that goes up and down – it’s jumped down more than I’ve ever seen it in the last eight years.”

“People need to buy branded dairy products, and they need to keep buying milk to support the farmers. “As long as people are buying it there will be people there to make it.”