Victorian Farmer - Four decades of progress.

A rich history

The evolution of how we are standing up for farmers

Priceless contribution Members tell their stories of advocacy for change

Our strong future Why the next generation is invested in the VFF

VictorianFarmer WWW.VFF.ORG.AU |

NOVEMBER2019

Four decades of progress

CONTENTS

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IN THIS ISSUE

Opening remarks 4 CEO Stephen Sheridan 6 President David Jochinke 7 Vice President Emma Germano 8 Past President Alex Arbuthnot 9 Past President Peter Walsh 10 A priceless contribution – a timeline of the key VFF milestones.

The Business of Farming 10 Never standing on the sidelines

With his family’s support, Geoff Crick has spent a lifetime lobbying to keep agriculture profitable.

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16 Making the transition Evan Campbell has found a strong business model through an Equity Partnership, allowing the farm to pass from one generation to the next.

Right to Farm 20 Delivering a win for farmers Egg farmer Meg Parkinson talks about the buzz from making meaningful change through advocacy.

24 A united voice Gerald Leach discusses the importance of a united front to address land management issues.

Connections with Consumers 26 Advocacy for what’s popular, and what’s not Steve Harrison is using his voice to advocate for sheep farmers, shaping consumer sentiments around issues from drought relief to mulesing.

28 Time for transparency Allan Bullen discusses the challenges and opportunities for transparency in the chicken meat supply chain.

Safety and Farmer Health 30 Well-grounded in safety Leonard Vallance talks about safety at the farm level, from a personal and association perspective.

26 A steep learning curve Luke Rundle brings an outsiders approach to safety, representing the new generation of farmers.

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Innovation for the Future 34 Innovative solutions Sheep and cattle farmer Mark Wootton is fighting climate change at farm level.

28 Changing times David Gibb is a farmer, and an advocate for land use planning, helping farmers secure their future in the face of climate change.

30 VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

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A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Four decades of progress THIS YEAR REPRESENTS Victorian Farmers Federation’s 40th anniversary. I am proud to have been appointed VFF’s CEO last year and to have worked with a team that despite significant organisational change continued to work with and for the membership on a number of challenges from natural disasters to state and federal elections. On review of VFF’s 40-year history there are a number of consistent themes. VFF’s collective community strength for one, a professional VFF team engaged directly with our members and elected representatives across all farms, all sectors, and all Victoria.

It is VFF’s strength through our members that is well demonstrated by VFF’s access to the highest levels of federal and state government from the Prime Minister to National ministers across portfolios such as Agriculture and Transport, and similarly at the State level the Premier, Treasurer and State ministers including Agriculture, Transport, Water, Attorney General, etc. This level of engagement and access by a Victorian not-for-profit is a demonstration of VFF’s effectiveness and how we are regarded as an advocacy organisation.

There are consistent themes as government and government agencies continue to consult VFF seeking validation and help to implement legislation, regulations and programmes. Examples include infrastructure, roads, rail, water, energy, labour hire and wages, OH&S, EPA, land & environment, and animal welfare.

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VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

VFF have, and continue to, work with all industry sectors. VFF’s commodity groups including Grains, Livestock, United Dairy Farmers of Victoria, Intensive Industries, which are the forbears and foundation of our modern day VFF, continue to provide VFF’s collective strength and influence.

A feature unique to VFF is that we support our local communities in times of natural disaster and adversity, whether these be: fire; flood; plagues; storms; drought; and health and wellbeing. VFF has run numerous fodder and fencing programmes; advocated for assistance during locust and mice plagues; for drought support, preparedness and recovery; and community programmes. This community theme is still very evident today.

In addition to VFF’s 40th we have also celebrated and acknowledged significant milestones with the 30th anniversary of Landcare Victoria in 2016.

Landcare was established by a partnership between

by VFF and Vic State Government in Victoria and is now a truly international organisation across numerous countries. Further demonstrating the strength and diversity of VFF is the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show (MIFGS), of which VFF is a 50 per cent partner.

2018/19 YEAR 2018/19 has been a period of significant leadership change, with major succession at Board level including the appointment of two special skills directors, and the appointment of a new management team across the business. The team have also reviewed a number of core business offerings, projects, and support systems.

Stephen Sheridan Victorian Farmers Federation CEO

I am proud that concurrent to this internal rerestructuring the team have been able to continue to work alongside our members while also improving the effectiveness of our advocacy efforts.

Examples, included the team working side by side with members on the St Patricks Day Fire fodder programme through to the State Election Campaign and candidate forums. This campaign then resulted in commitments to be implemented in 2019, which the team then continue to work with members on.

2019 continued our focus on advocacy and services on behalf of our farm community, drought and water being two major issues impacting farmers across numerous sectors and regions from East Gippsland to Northern Victoria to the Millewa. VFF and its partners have, and continue to, achieve commitments for support from both State and Federal governments. Again this demonstrates the themes of VFF working with its local branch

representatives on the ground through to Premier and federal government level.

2019 has seen a number of new challenges arise including the “Aussie Farms” website, vegan protests in Melbourne and corresponding animal activist farm invasions. The VFF and our President were at the forefront tackling this issue, including appearing on national TV to debate activists head-on, through to lobbying for a State inquiry into on-farm invasions. The team and members have worked together appearing at a number of the subsequent hearings across the state advocating for increased penalties for on-farm invasions.

2019 has also brought the Labor government’s commitment to introduce new Workplace Manslaughter legislation. VFF was the only organisation asked to consult on behalf of the farm sector. This legislation will apply to all businesses in Victoria, including farm businesses, and will see the introduction of criminal charges against employers in the event of a workplace death where the employer is deemed to have been grossly negligent.

VFF has been advocating, along with other employer associations, to try and amend the legislation to ensure it delivers positive OH&S change without unintended consequences. For example, in the event of a workplace death on-farm, that a family member will not then also be exposed to potential prosecution for manslaughter.

In addition VFF have been at the forefront of advocating across other new legislation being introduced that will impact farmers. These include Labour Hire Licensing and lobbying for the introduction of an AgVisa. There are also new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations being implemented, which will now apply to all businesses across Victoria including all farm businesses.

These are just a few of the major issues that VFF

has been tackling on behalf of farmers in Victoria throughout 2019.

TO THE FUTURE Looking forward with the advent of new technologies such as social media it is arguable that “everyone can be their own advocate”, and I am asked does VFF have a future?

The past 40 years have seen the evolution of farming technologies difficult to imagine in 1979 that are now common practice. Whether that be advancements in mobile phones, the advent of the internet, genetically modified plants, GPS auto steer machinery, or electronic tagging.

We also now have on our doorstep, technologies such as robotics in agriculture, autonomous vehicles, ‘fake’ alternative protein meats, and consumer traceable product.

Given these leaps in technology it is very difficult to predict the future. As a philosopher once said, “the only true constant is change itself!”

However, it is fair to say that governments and industry have existed for thousands of years whether it be Roman, Ottoman, or Asian empires.

People will still need to eat and be clothed, while their consumer tastes and preferences will change, as will their demands for providence. Technology and industry will also continue to evolve.

So, while there is industry, government, consumer demand, and farmers endeavouring to meet this demand, I believe there will be a role to represent, fight for and serve our farming community. However, the way we do this, the strategies and technology we employ, and the mediums we use to do this will need to evolve.

We will be rolling out new technologies next year to better engage farmers and the community. We will be engaging with members and the broader community to review our strategic plan to ensure we are still meeting the needs of our community. VFF will continue to evolve and ensure our relevance for the next 40 years and beyond.

The breadth of issues VFF tackles at the highest levels of government and industry, and the services we are providing to our members, are not only quite amazing and a credit to the organisation, but a demonstration of our collective strength and relevance..

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT

The Victorian Farmers Federation would also like to acknowledge our previous presidents Miles Burke

1979 1982

Des Crowe

1982 - 1986

Heather Mitchell O.B.E. 1986 - 1989

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Alex Arbuthnot O.A.

1989 – 1992

Bill Bodman O.A.M.

1992 - 1995

Wally Shaw

1995 - 1998

Peter Walsh

1998 – 2002

Paul Weller

2002 - 2005

Simon Ramsay

2005 - 2009

Andrew Broad

2009 - 2012

Peter Tuohy

2012 - 2016

David Jochinke

2016 - Current

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT

AFTER 40 YEARS OF A FEDERATED organisation, it is time to reflect on what the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has achieved, our future direction, and highlight what is so important to the VFF and the wider agricultural industry.

The VFF is different to any other organisation quite simply because of the people – our members. That is why this edition of the Vic Farmer showcases personalities from across the federation. People are the reason why I love agriculture, people are why the VFF exists and people are the reason why I have enjoyed my time as President of the Victorian Farmers Federation.

The VFF comprises of a proud membership. We have members who vary in location, production system, age, gender and background. It is our strong heritage and proud membership that allows us to create well-thought policy driven by our branches.

The VFF has achieved some amazing outcomes over its 40 years. The VFF was front and centre during the grain and dairy industry deregulations ensuring that producers had an open and fair trade and marketing environment. Additionally, the organisation has ensured farmers are protected during the port privatisation in 2016. The VFF has contributed to new mobile towers across the regions to ensure farmers are safe and businesses can adopt new technologies. The VFF is continually calling for better roads and rail to ensure we can get our product to market efficiently and effectively. More recently, the VFF has been critical to the state and federal drought debate in an effort to keep families on their properties. The VFF is

involved in every discussion affecting Victorian agriculture and regional development, and we continue to put the voices of our members forward at every opportunity.

Passion and dedication is the cornerstone of our organisation. It is a massive commitment to pay a membership fee year on year, to attend branch meetings, to sit on a committee or to sit on the board. The staff and executive appreciate the effort of all our members who step away from their own businesses and donate their time, knowledge and experience. It is our memberships who drive the federation in an effort to keep the government accountable, but also to ensure agriculture remains an attractive and vibrant industry for future generations.

The VFF gives me a great sense of pride. I get this because the organisation stands for something, it means the work we do matters and it has an impact. I fear what would happen to our industry if there wasn’t an organisation to look out for our businesses and industry. I wonder what agriculture would look like today if there wasn’t an advocacy body to ensure our voices were heard. This is why it is important that anyone who operates a farming business is part of the VFF family – it really is an essential farming input.

I would like to thank all our members. It is you who is the lifeblood of the organisation that allows us to achieve all we have so far, and what we will achieve well into the future.

Happy 40th anniversary.

David Jochinke President

I’VE ALWAYS LIKENED THE VFF TO THE amazing legacy that’s been left to me as a family farmer.

My parents and grandparents have afforded me an opportunity, and now I’m blessed to call the farm my own. It’s something that I will cherish, as the new generation, for the next 40 years.

This is how I feel about the founding fathers of the VFF, who invested their time, money and energy to establish our organisation . We are the custodians of the vision those original members had, and it is our responsibility to ensure the VFF’s bright and sustainable future.

And we, the next generation, have taken the reigns at what I think is the most exciting time there has ever been in agriculture. Consumers today care about agriculture, where their food comes from and how it is grown and raised. We are an exciting industry with so much potential.

As an organisation founded in political lobbying, we are so fortunate to be at a time when we don’t have to work to make consumers care about agriculture – they already do. What we need to do now is to ensure that our farming community feels supported, to continue to share our stories so that consumers realise that we are

one community with them.

My vision for the future is one where consumers are standing by our sides, and advocating with us, a future where we are all

working to make agriculture more financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable. This will be the future for all of us.

Emma Germano, VFF Vice-President

Spring Is Sprung – Flowers Victoria gets the word out on #BUYLOCAL Early morning on Sunday 1 September, Melbourne was greeted by an incredible pink sunrise and 150,000 tulips along the banks of the Yarra River which seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Behind the magic, we at Flowers Victoria, Joost Bakker, Piet Bakker, Seafarers, Riverlee and Melbourne Market put in countless hours of work to make this event happen. Quickly word spread and thousands of locals and travellers alike spent their morning picking tulips, bulb and all, in every colour you could expect a tulip to be. Across the city people could be seen carrying bunches of tulips in recycled paper bags emblazoned with the slogan #BUYLOCAL. The question on everyone’s lips was “why are you doing this?” and so we spread the message.

We want consumers to know where the flowers they purchase are from, and where possible support Aussie farmers. But at the moment consumers do not have a choice in what they purchase because cut flowers are not required to be marked with their country of origin. Like fresh fruit and vegetables we are seeking for flowers to have similar “grown in Australia” labelling.

Talking to the public, many of them agreed that they would like to be able to make the choice, but what steps can they take to try and buy local while country of origin labelling is still yet to exist for cut flowers? We have suggested consumers ask their florist where the flowers are from, as a good florist would be well across what season flowers are grown in and whether they would be able to be grown in Australia at this time. As well as being an incredibly enjoyable day for ourselves and the public alike, it was a highly successful day of campaigning with great coverage across Channel 7, the Herald Sun & the Age as well as a series of online publications such as Broadsheet.

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

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PAST PRESIDENTS

Leading the way

Where we are today

PAST PRESIDENT ALEX ARBUTHNOT REFLECTS ON THE VFF’S LEADERSHIP IN THE PAST, AND TAKING THE SAME LEADERSHIP ON ISSUES THAT WILL SUPPORT FARMERS INTO THE FUTURE.

PAST PRESIDENT PETER WALSH REFLECTS ON THE PRICELESS CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE VFF IN SUPPORTING FARMERS.

LOOKING BACK, I BELIEVED BACK THEN, AND I still believe, that Heather Mitchell is one of the best presidents the VFF has ever had. She was very articulate, and she contributed so much to the industry.

I always stood to support her. If there is one thing my father taught me, it was to never say no to an opportunity. I never aspired to rise in the ranks of the VFF, but when the opportunity arose, I was persuaded to put my hat in the ring.

When I joined, the VFF, like other farmer organisations, ran on mostly an economic agenda. The environment was simply not an advocacy issue. I always felt that pests, weeds, soil erosion and salinity were issues that were affecting farmers. So, when I was president, I supported these issues. When fronted on whether the VFF should support a topic, I would

FORTY YEARS SEEM TO HAVE GONE VERY quickly. A lot has happened over that time in the Victorian agriculture sector and it is timely to ponder what would have happened if there hadn’t been a Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) to put the agricultural and rural issues on the political agenda.

It seems like a never ending battle, and it is, because farmers make up an increasingly small percentage of the Australian population. This fact amplifies the importance of a collective voice to shift the political debate and fight against competing interests.

Without the VFF taxes would be higher, red and green tape would be more prevalent and we wouldn’t have many of the export market opportunities we enjoy today.

It was the VFF and NFF that were the first ones back in the door after John Hewson lost the unlosable election in 1993 to convince John Howard of the need to continue to pursue a bold tax reform agenda. Tax reform at this time was essential to eliminate the high indirect tax burden on the export sector and improve our international competitiveness.

It was also the VFF and NFF that worked with the Cairns Group of nations and Canberra to ensure trade reform was on the political agenda. A strong lobbying effort and trade policy capacity ensured agricultural exports were a key focus in free trade negotiations.

Importantly, FTAs were followed up with the detailed import protocol work that has meant improved opportunities in our export markets; including Lamb into the United States, dairy into China and horticultural products into East Asia and South East Asia. Many of our horticultural products are being sold into countries they didn’t have access to 15 or 20 years ago thanks to that work. Export markets have been

always ask: “Is this an issue that affects farmers?”

The VFF has a history in environmental matters. Firstly, supporting Victoria’s Salinity Program. Also, its leadership role in launching Landcare. In the early 1990s, we thought it would be great to set a goal of achieving 2000 groups nationally by the year 2000. When the New Millennium came around, we exceeded our goal three fold: we had 6000 groups. I’m very proud of the role that the VFF with Heather Mitchell and Premier Joan Kirner played in launching Landcare The VFF now has an amazing opportunity to continue to lead. We have a history of organising protests, shutting them down before they got out of hand, and negotiating behind the scenes to support the interests of our farmers.

For a farmer to reach out to the VFF it’s a big

Alex Arbuthnot (left) pictured with former Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

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“In the early 1990s, we thought it would be great to set a goal of getting 2000 groups by the year 2000. When the New Millennium came around, we had 6000 groups.” step, and we need to support them. Whenever a farmer used to write to VFF, I would jump into my car and go out and visit them. Then when I met with a minister to discuss an issue, I could say: “I’ve been there, I’ve seen the problem. Why don’t you go out and see for yourself as well?”

My vision for the future is that the VFF will continue to listen and engage with farmers, and to lead. What we need to lead on now is making the industry carbon neutral. I want my region in Gippsland to be the first carbon neutral farming region. Then we can go out and market that overseas. I think we can hit our export targets, while moving towards carbon neutrality. I know that we can achieve those goals, within the economics of running our farms. That is what the VFF’s role needs to be in leading these changes. We have to be at the forefront.

The future of the farm is going to be different.

I think the word agribusiness is probably a better one than farming. There is international money flowing onto our farms, and we as the VFF need to develop service actions that attract international companies to become members.

What is it we can offer them?

We need to find answers to these questions. I know that we will. We have a very good president and team, and some top people who are coming up the ranks. I am very optimistic about the future.

Go Victoria agribusiness and farming.

The strength of the farm lobby over the past forty years has been its ability to employ good policy and research staff to compliment the political cunning of its farm leaders.

critical in staving off the dominance of the Australian supermarkets and ensuring adequate competition for our agricultural products.

Who could forget the port dispute of 1998.

The VFF and NFF, led by Donald McGauchie, played a pivotal role, with funding from the Farmers Fighting Fund, to get improvements in work practices on the wharfs, our gate way to the world for exports. It is disappointing that with the lease of Port of Melbourne by the Andrew Government port charges are increasing dramatically and those hard fought gains are being lost to increased charges.

Again it is the VFF and the other farmer organisations that have worked tirelessly to ensure that farmers keep the diesel excise rebate. A number of Treasurers over the past 40 years could see a quick grab for revenue by taking that away. The might of the farm lobby and country MPs motivated by the farm lobby have always acted quickly whenever a Treasurer has dollar signs in their eyes, explaining the political disaster that would result.

The strength of the farm lobby over the past 40 years has been its ability to employ good policy and research staff to compliment the political cunning of its farm leaders. Andrew Robb got his start at the NFF and look at his outstanding contribution to Australian agriculture, and indeed, society generally.

Hundreds of outstanding staff have worked at and been trained at the VFF and no column from me would be complete without acknowledging the contribution that Clay Manners made to the betterment of farmers in Victoria over many years of loyal service. VFF members, leaders and staff remain advocates for Victorian agriculture, regardless of where life takes them.

Happy 40th and may there be many more for everyone.

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

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VFF TIMELINE

HISTORY OF THE VFF

1890’s

1920’s

1930’s

1940’s

1950’s

1960’s

1970’s

1990’s

2000’s

2010’s

1890

1925

1933

1940

1955

1966

1975

1982

1994-2004

2002

2017

Pastoralists’ Union of Victoria and Southern Riverina forms

PAV forms Graziers’ Association of Victoria (GAV)

VWWA voted to call for bulk handling

Victorian Branch of Australian Primary Producers Union formed in Warrnambool

Flower Growers Group established

VWWA lobby for unity of Victorian farmer organisations

GAV and VFU meet to discuss merger

Start of the farm tree movement in Victoria

dismantling statutory marketing bodies

UDV became part of the VFF.

FTLA becomes Landcare Victoria Inc.

1907

1927

1943

1967

1976

1985

Victorian Dairyfarmers Association (VDA) formed.

VWWA transferred location from Birchip to Flinders Street Melbourne

VWWA purchase 24 Collins Street and commence construction of Farrer House.

VDA and Dairyfarmers (VDU) merge to become United Dairyfarmers of Victoria (UDV)

Fair Go Rally

Pastoralists’ Association of Victoria (PAV)

Grain Elevators Board Victoria created

1928 Formation of the Victorian Wheatgrowers Association

1934

1938 Victorian Wheat and WoolGrowers Association formed

1949 VWWGA purchase 4 storey building at 26-28 Collins Street Melbourne

1968

1979

VWWA merge with APUV to form Victorian Farmers’ Union

UDV, GAV and VFU merge to form Victorian Farmers’ and Graziers’ Association.

1968

1986 VFGA is renamed to become Victorian Farmers Federation

1986 VFF and State Government form Landcare (Heather Mitchell and Joan Kirner)

1998

1989

Merger of VWWGA, Flowers Growers Group and Australian Primary Producers merged to create the Victorian Farmers Union

1985 MILESTONES OF VICTORIAN AGRICULTURE

1980’s

Bob Hawke declares decade of landcare

2007

1890s

1912

1937

1940

1957

1960

1970s

1981

1990

1997

2000

2010

Cream separators invented -Superphosphate utilised

Closer Settlement Scheme created to open up rural Victoria

Victorian Egg Marketing Board formed.

Soil Conservation Authority formed

First container ship launches

Vertical integration of chicken meat industry begun

Britain joins European Economic Union.

New housing for chicken meat birds implemented

Development of Cattlecare and Flockcare along with Peak Industry Council

Establishment of Gardiner Dairy Foundation

Pork industry move to phase out sow stalls

1914

1939

1940s

1959

Government Inquiry recommends Hen Quotas be phased out and Board number reduced

Chicken meat breed released

Focus shift to irrigation efficiency - No til agriculture develops

1998

2010

Stubble retention introduced in Walpeup

1960s

2002

Bulk handling of wheat successfully implemented.

Lake Hume construction commenced

UDV drought efforts – grants, cattle agistment and fodder drive Water trading – changes to Commonwealth Water Act

Development of the Horticulture Code

1890s drought and depression

Drought

1887 Chaffey Bros introduce irrigation from the Murray River in Sunraysia

1915 Murray River Commission established

1939 Black Thursday fires

1889

1917

the Bacchus Marsh Irrigation and Water Supply Trust was formed

Self-propelled rotary hoe

1891 1903

1918-39

1959

1970s

Cowarr Weir Constructed – Macallister

Pig industry using whey as feed source

Snowy Hydo scheme commences

Dam works for Macallister Irrigation Scheme

Goulburn Weir complete

1945 60 Soldier settlements in Northern Victoria and irrigation storage capacity increased fourfold

1949

1920-26

Early RORO cargo ships

1956 Introduction of wheat levy (check) - Pneumatic broadacre air seeder invented

1970 – 80

1979 Lake Dartmouth construction completed

1979 Unpaid Maternity leave introduced

1980

1987

Egg industry trading quota

1980s Accord, tax reform, bank reform and floating of the Australian Dollar

1983 Australian Concilliation and Arbitration Commission introduced the 38 hour week

1983

Australian Wheat Board privatised

2000

1983 The Wide Comb Dispute was a landmark industrial dispute

RDC’s formed

1911

Lake Eildon construction complete

1990

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

1999

Mabo and Wik determinations -GST introduced

1929

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1993 Victorian Egg Industry is deregulated and Farm Prides was formed as a cooperative

1998 First commercial scale free range chicken brand launched

1995

Dethridge wheel invented - Gas tractors

1989

2009

Industrial Relations Reform Act 1993 introduced

Creation of VicGrain Ltd Murray Darling Basin Cap introduced

1910s

Pykes Creek Reservoir constructed

Waterfront dispute

1993

Ash Wednesday fires

Irrigation settlements at Shepparton, Merebein, Tongala, Rochester, Cohuna and Murray Valley

Farrer wheat released

1991 Irrigation protests

Frozen pork imported for the first time, contested vigorously by industry.

1996 Workplace Relations Act 1996 introduced

1997 Beginning of millennium drought

2000 GrainCorp purchase Vic Grain

2000 Dairy Industry Deregulation

2003 Workplace Relations Amendment (Improved Protection for Victorian Workers) Act 2003 (Cmth)

2006 Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005

2008

2010 Introduction of RSPCA approved chicken meat

2013 Fair Work Australia renamed Fair Work Commission

2017 Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Act 2017

2017

Grain Industry Deregulation MDBA established

Harmonsation of national chemical codes

2009

Country of Origin labelling introduced

Fair Work Australia formed, along with Fair Work Ombudsman

2018

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

11

THE BUSINESS OF FARMING

Geoff Crick pictured with his granddaughter Jade on the family farm.

GEOFF CRICK, WITH THE SUPPORT OF HIS FAMILY, HAS SPENT A LIFETIME LOBBYING FOR THE INTERESTS OF FARMERS, SECURING THE COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF THE FAMILY FARM.

Never standing on the sidelines

WHEN GEOFF CRICK LOOKS BACK ON HIS career as a farmer, he doesn’t think so much of daily passes up and down the field with a tractor. Rather, he remembers long car trips to and from Melbourne, often several times a week, sometimes staying overnight in Melbourne and Canberra.

“It was less than 1.5 hours back then. I was always on the road, going back and forth to Melbourne, while my wife Claudette was running the farm with our young family,” he says.

Geoff made so many of these trips spanning over 30 years in agricultural lobbying. To call him an active VFF member would be an understatement. He served as UDV General Councillor and Treasurer, Victorian Farmers’ Federation (VFF) General Councillor and Treasurer and as National Farmers Federation Treasurer for eight years. He was also chairman of the VFF Farm Business Committee and the Economics Committee. In 2010, he was awarded an Order of Australia for his work, in pushing for changes that have helped make the business of agriculture more viable for the industry as a whole.

“As a single individual, we didn’t have much clout with the government,” he says. “But as a group of individuals, we could ensure that the

people who make decisions take notice of us.

Then they could make decisions that help us remain viable, and remain profitable. We wanted to ensure we had a strong position in society.

After all, farmers play an important part.”

All his life, Geoff and his family have worked hard to ensure the sustainability of the family farm. He was born and raised on the family dairy farm in Blowhard, 20 kilometres outside Ballarat.

He left the farm to go to school, studying accounting, but it turned out that a life outside of the farm would not be for Geoff, even if his accounting background would come in handy later on.

“I found accounting tremendously boring,” he says. “I worked at a number of places, as a salesman and an accountant. But I never really left the farm. I kept working on it with my dad on the evenings, and weekends, helping out with the harvest. When my parents came to retiring age, it was natural that I took over.”

Geoff, alongside his wife Claudette, managed the farm with their growing family sons Darron, Gary and daughter Raeleen. When it came time for their children to take more ownership of the farm, the sons weren’t interested in milking cows, not because of the work itself, but largely on the back of thinning profit margins.

United voice Geoff originally became involved with the VFF as a member of the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria. The United Dairyfarmers of Victoria (UDV) is the collective voice of Victorian dairy farmers, representing its members to governments and industry at state and local levels. As a commodity group of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF), the UDV also provides representation on a broad range of agricultural issues affecting all farmers, not just those specific to dairy.

Regional Rural Water Authorities

Claudette (right), pictured with Geoff on vacation, ran daily operations on the farm so Geoff could pursue his advocacy work with the VFF.

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VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

While working with the VFF, Geoff helped encourage the establishment of regional water authorities, instead of central control. Today, six rural water corporations provide rural water services in Victoria, including water supply, drainage and salinity mitigation services for irrigation and domestic and stock purposes.

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

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THE BUSINESS OF FARMING

“Farming is a business and the major difference between a commercial enterprise and agriculture is our exposure to nature’s elements. We have market volatility as we are price takers not price makers. We have droughts, floods and fires. We need to mitigate and manage these risks.”

The GST and rates A major benefit to Australia as a whole was Geoff and the VFF’s work in lobbying for the GST. As chair of the Economics Committee with the National Farmers Federation, Geoff worked to introduce the GST in a way that would be positive for the economy, and farmers in general.

Today, Geoff is concerned about the rates paid by farmers as matching those in metropolitan areas, despite limited services. This is a stance by the VFF, which strongly support farmers’ rights to differential rates relief under the current ratings system and supports mandatory rates relief on all farmland. The VFF firmly believes a differential rate should be applied to all Victorian farmland. When applying differential rates, consideration must be given to the economic output of the agricultural industry in the local government area.

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VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

“We originally supplied market milk in Ballarat.

But when the contract system was equalised, that didn’t help our returns. Our sons just didn’t see a future in it,” says Geoff.

And so the introduction of the next generation to the farm brought about a change in the nature of the Crick farm business, as they switched over to beef cattle, seed potatoes, and crops like oats, wheat and hay, “the proverbial mixed farm” as Geoff says. His forward-thinking sons, after spending a stint in Europe, came back with an idea to produce free range eggs, leading to the Cricks setting up the first purpose-built freerange egg farm in Victoria.

Diversifying his farm has been one way that Geoff and his family have helped secure the profitability of the business.

“Farming is a business and the major difference between a commercial enterprise and agriculture is our exposure to nature’s elements,” says Geoff. “We have market volatility as we are price takers not price makers. We have droughts, floods and fires. We need to mitigate and manage these risks.”

While diversifying his farm has helped Geoff with his own profitability, his work with the VFF has supported the agricultural businesses of farmers Australia-wide.

His earliest work was in encouraging the merger of the then two dairy industry associations. In 1976, the Victorian Dairy Farmers Association and the Dairy Division of the Victorian Farmers Union merged to form the United Dairy Farmers of Victoria. Geoff served on the council of the original board of the newly united entity.

For Geoff, he recognised that the industry could accomplish so much more if it came together to help the government understand its needs.

“In those days, we saw it as important to have the ear of our politicians,” he says. “They needed to know what was happening in our industry.”

After helping unite the two industry boards, Geoff worked with the VFF to establish the rural water authorities. While water was originally controlled centrally by the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, this central control was challenging for farmers who relied so much on water for their own livelihoods. Farmers worked with the VFF to withhold their rates and pay them instead to the VFF as a trustee. As a result, on 1 July 1992, five Rural Water Corporations were formed with a more localised structure.

“We needed representation by the local people when it came to our water,” he says.

As Chair of the Economics Committee and the S E C Rural Advisory Committee, Geoff and the VFF successfully lobbied government to change the nature of the electricity market. Back when most electricity was coal-powered, Geoff explains, electricity was only offered via two time tariffs, day and evening, regardless of the day of the week. Geoff says it didn’t make sense that farmers paid the same rate on weekends, when most industries didn’t need electricity.

“We needed a better arrangement, so that farmers were using the power on weekends when most industries didn’t need it,” he says.

The result was the introduction of the fiveday time of use (TOU) tariff, which allowed farmers to use electricity off peak, including weekends, at around a quarter of the cost of peak consumption. This is the still the most utilised tariff today.

“It was a great thing,” says Geoff. “We all saw benefits from that.”

A major benefit to Australia as a whole was Geoff and the VFF’s work in lobbying for the GST. As chair of the Economics Committee and chair of the National Farmers Federation Taxation Committee, Geoff worked to introduce the GST in a way that would be positive for the economy, and farmers in general.

Geoff’s family shared the work on the farm, to allow Geoff to lobby for farmers.

“I wanted to ensure it wouldn’t be detrimental to agriculture,” he says. “We were able to ensure it was a tax on goods and services at the point of consumption, and not at the point of production as the Sales Tax regime it replaced. We ensured that agriculture was not disadvantaged in any way.”

Geoff was also involved in simplifying the tax system for farmers with the introduction of the ‘Simplified Tax System’. At one point, all farm equipment had to be evaluated for its depreciation individually year on year, making it quite difficult for farmers to value their businesses and file their taxes. Thanks to work by Geoff, the VFF, and the NFF the government now allows farmers to pool all their equipment, so it could simply be valued as a whole.

Geoff sees this kind of work by the VFF – in ensuring the financial security of farmers – as more important today than ever before. He says that the representation of farmers in society is

“We needed a better arrangement, so that farmers were using the power on weekends when most industries didn’t need it. The result was the introduction of the five-day time of use (TOU) tariff, which allowed farmers to use electricity off peak, including weekends, at around a quarter of the cost of peak consumption. This is the still the most utilised tariff today.”

decreasing as farmers operate on an increasing economies of scale. The Cricks themselves are seeing the scale of farms changing before their eyes. Their 40,000-chook strong egg business was significant when they launched it, but pales in comparison to the 200,000 chooks on some free range egg farms today.

Geoff says indeed most farmers have quadrupled the size of their operations, meaning that a quarter of the people are now responsible for feeding the same amount of people, and in

some cases more people. This leads to fewer voices who can speak up for these important farmers.

The voice of participants in agriculture is going down in terms of a numbers game,” he says. “The role and significance of the VFF hasn’t changed, there are just fewer members now.”

He hopes now that more farmers will see the importance of making those long trips to Melbourne, to ensure the sustainability of the industry as a whole.

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THE BUSINESS OF FARMING

Making the transition EVAN CAMPBELL HAS FOUND HIS WAY BACK HOME TO DAIRY FARMING AND IS MAKING IT HIS FUTURE THANKS TO AN EQUITY PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS MODEL. ALTHOUGH EVAN CAMPBELL HAD SPENT his childhood growing up on a dairy farm in West Gippsland, back then he never quite saw himself as having a career in farming. He enjoyed engineering, maths and science, and when he left the farm to study at the University of Melbourne, he opted for a double degree in Engineering and Commerce.

From Melbourne, he moved even further from the family farm to live in Saudi Arabia, working in the oil and gas industry. There he spent five years in exploration, collecting and analysing samples in potential drills. While it was an interesting

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professional opportunity, he reflects on his experience living as an ex-pat in such a highpressure industry straight out of school. Five years into his overseas stint, it was time to come home.

“That’s when I had my quarter-life crisis,” he jokes. “I didn’t want to be an ex-pat for the rest of my life. My siblings and friends were all settling down, buying a house or starting a family. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do long term, but I knew I wanted to be closer to home.”

So, with that, Evan made the move from the oilfields of the Middle East back to his parents’ dairy farm in West Gippsland. An opportunity had

come up to work as a farm hand for six months while someone was on parental leave, so he got to work.

“It was a chance to see if I liked working on a farm,” he says. “I didn’t want my parents to get to a point where they needed to sell the farm, if myself our one of my siblings had never even tried it.”

It turns out, Evan did like farming. After his sixmonth stint, he went on to do a Certificate IV in Agriculture remotely, where he was able to learn more about the theory behind dairy farming.

“I had some idea how dairy farming was

done, but with the formal training, it was good to find out why they did the things they did. I’m a curious person, so I like to know the why,” he says.

As a farm hand, Evan worked under the supervision of share farmers Dean and Rebecca Turner. Because he wasn’t a farm business owner at the time, he wasn’t able to directly join the Victorian Farmers’ Federation (VFF) dairy arm, the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria (UDV).

Thanks to the Young Agricultural Professionals (YAPs) program, however, he could take part, and was able to quickly benefit from the VFF’s programs.

His biggest benefit was taking part in the 2017 Gardiner Foundation New Zealand Study

Tour, organised by the UDV. After going through a rigorous application process, he was selected as one of six forward-thinking young farmers to go to New Zealand and learn about different dairy farming practices.

This was where Evan first learned about Equity Partnerships. Although quite common in New Zealand, they are rare in Australia. An Equity Partnership is where multiple parties come together in a new business. The percentage stake of each partner is determined via individual contributions, which can be in the form of land, cattle or machinery.

The partnership operates day-to-day like any other farming business, but with the idea that the partners can strategically work together

Advocacy on Free Trade International trade agreements, advocated by the VFF on behalf of farmers, have proven vital in ensuring the sustainability of Evan’s business. Deals with China, Japan, Korea, and current discussions with the European Union, will have a big impact on Evan’s business.

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THE BUSINESS OF FARMING

Workplace Advisory Services

Even (centre) is transitioning into the business with his parents Noel and Ann Campbell (left) and their share farmers Dean and Bek Fincham-Turner (right).

Gardiner Foundation UDV New Zealand Study Tour Thanks to this study tour, Evan learned about the equity partnerships. Taking place in February annually, the tour allows emerging industry leaders to learn from New Zealand’s innovative dairy farmers and industry professionals. During the eight-day trip, participants tour a variety of farm systems and technologies, dairy research centres, and advanced processing facilities. Applications open annually for farmers aged 18 to 35, who are actively involved in the Victorian dairy industry. The 2020 tour is funded by the Gardiner Foundation.

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as a team, rather than each partner operating individually. Usually, each partner can opt to increase or decrease their ownership over time.

It’s an ideal model for farmers who are looking to slowly phase down out of their operations, while other farmers are looking to either enter the industry, or grow their assets gradually, without having to make a huge upfront investment.

Therefore, Equity Partnerships were an attractive model to suit the situation for Evan, his parents, and their share farmers. Dean and Rebecca had a long-term partnership with Evan’s parents, and with their own plans to expand, it would be difficult for Evan to get involved without risking some of their share or upsetting that relationship. While his parents were slowly winding down, they still relied on the income from the farm, and Evan was in no situation to purchase the farm from them.

“I was keen to go to the next level and have some ownership, but there wasn’t really an opportunity at the current farm,” says Evan. “My parents, Dean, Bek and I ran a whole bunch of numbers and scenarios, evaluating risk versus reward, and the Equity Partnership model seemed like the best fit,” he says.

When a neighbouring farm became available for lease just next to the family farm, they saw the opportunity to apply the Equity Partnership model to practice.

Evan’s parents, Noel and Ann – as well as Dean, Rebecca and Evan – entered into an equity partnership as Redan Partners (an acronym

As he is running a small business without its own HR department, the VFF has proven vital in helping Evan with employee relationships. All VFF members can access two phone calls per year to help them with questions about employees, as well as additional tailored advice, from experts in farm employment, at a heavily discounted rate.

of their first names), and jointly leased the neighbouring farm for four years. They were able to simply use the equipment from their current farm, saving them an additional capital investment, while also benefiting from the economies of scale in two larger operations, shared among the three parties.

They all contributed milking cows to the new business, with Noel and Ann contributing 60 per cent, Dean and Bek parents 30 per cent and Evan around 10 per cent.

By working together, they help each other out when others take days off or are on vacation, without hiring too much help. “We all have a better work/life balance,” Evan says.

Now into the third year of the Redan Equity Partnership, Evan says it’s proving to be the solution they were looking for. They were even chosen as a Focus Farm by GippsDairy, where they have monthly meetings with a support group consisting of fellow farmers and service providers.

The group helps with monthly decision making, and discuss the pros and cons of the model, and what could be taken and applied to other Australian farms in similar circumstances. “If the model proves successful, there could be lessons learned for the wider community,” Evan says.

The potential for the Equity Partnerships to be applied elsewhere is proving increasingly important, with Evan and his family witnessing the changing scale of the industry. From an average herd size of 100 cows 30 years ago, that number has jumped to around 300 today. Evan

says this creates a huge barrier for entry for anyone looking to enter the industry.

“If we want the next generation to get into farming, how can we expect a farm worker to save enough to buy that many cows, or a farm?” Evan says. “There has to be another way. With this model, a new entrant could start with 50 cows one year, grow to 70 the next, move up to 100 the next, etc. It provides a gradual way of building equity and getting into the industry.”

When farmers approach retirement, Evan explains the model also allows a slow transition out of farming.

“A lot of people want to transition out, but they don’t want to go from milking hundreds of cows one day, to none the next,” he says.

He points out that having one party who is looking to exit the industry is an important part of this model. If all parties are looking to expand, it makes it challenging, as there could be competition for share.

The NZ study tour that taught Evan this model

is only one benefit that Evan and his family have received as members of the UDV and VFF. His father has a history in advocacy, and as a result Evan says he appreciates all the work the VFF does behind the scenes in supporting the industry.

“I don’t think most people appreciate everything that goes on behind the scenes to support us,” he says. “From trade deals to regulations, advocacy is so critical in this industry.”

After all, it was thanks to the work of the VFF and UDV that Evan was able to make a life for himself back home, and he is now reliant on the work of the groups to ensure he has a sustainable future. He encourages other farmers who want to see change to get involved with the VFF, either to join if they aren’t current members, and for current members to get more involved.

“If you want to change something, you need to be involved. The only way to make change is to be a part of the discussion.”

Young Agribusiness Professionals (YAP) Evan could first become involved in the VFF, thanks to the YAP. Established in 2006, the YAPs division of the VFF is focused on 18 to 35-year-olds involved or interested in agriculture or agribusiness.

It provides members with personal development, career growth and network development opportunities.

While primary membership of the VFF is focused on farm owners and operators, the YAP welcomes members from all facets of the industry including farm workers from small and large farms, bankers, scientists, processers, exporters, traders and students.

We make super surprisingly straightforward Prime Super is proud to congratulate the Victorian Farmers Federation for its 40 years of support for our farmers – the backbone of Australia.

We’ve partnered with the VFF since our early days and looked after our members’ hard-earned super ever since – so they can get on with what matters most. We’re a profit-to-members fund, so we have our members’ interests at the heart of everything we do.

If you would like to find out how to grow your super, plan for retirement, or have any questions about superannuation, speak to your local Regional Manager, visit our website, or give us a call.

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RIGHT TO FARM

Delivering a win for farmers EGG FARMER MEG PARKINSON SAYS ONE OF HER FAVOURITE THINGS ABOUT FARMING IS THE BUZZ SHE GETS WHEN THE INDUSTRY RALLIES TOGETHER TO MAKE MEANINGFUL CHANGE.

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MEG PARKINSON IS A FREE-RANGE EGG producer based in South Gippsland. After the deregulation of the egg industry in 1994, Meg’s eggs were the first to hit the shelves in South Gippsland.

“We were the first people to sell packaged up free-range eggs above the counter in South Gippsland,” Meg says.

Meg’s farm produces eggs under the name Annie’s Free-Range Eggs. The family-owned chook farm has been producing free-range eggs in this capacity since 1993 and has built a reputation for having deep knowledge of the egg industry as well as a passion for both chooks and good food.

Much of Meg’s motivation for working in the farming industry is because she is producing not only something people like, but something that people need. “There is nothing more important than food and eggs are fundamental in this,” she says.

While Meg is busy running the egg farm, she also dedicates a lot of her time to representing the farming industry. “I really enjoy all the representation side of things. What keeps me doing it is the feeling you get when you get a win for farmers. It’s a great buzz,” she says.

A lot of this advocacy work is carried out with the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF). “I represent the VFF on a number of committees across many different farming issues,” Meg says.

Meg joined the VFF in 1994, and she says membership is an absolute necessity for farmers.

“Why wouldn’t you join? It’s absolutely central to the work that we do. It’s the body that deals with government and ensures that we are heard,” she says.

She has held a number of different roles with the VFF, including Deputy President for three years and Vice President for two. In this role, Meg worked across a number of different farming issues. “I did more than eggs, it was agriculture in general, water, land management. I represented the VFF on a number of different committees and really enjoy the committee work,” she says.

Meg is passionate about animal welfare and has been on a lot of committees to represent farmers on this issue. “I’ve been on

“Cage farmers spent millions to comply with the new requirement and now there is government conversations around there needing to be a new system, rendering that investment completely useless.

The egg industry needs to supply eggs across a full range so that people have the full choice. It’s terribly arrogant to tell the consumer that they can only have one product.”

both the State and Commonwealth Ministerial Committees representing the Victorian Farmers Federation and National Farmers Federation on animal welfare issues,” she says.

She is currently on the committee that is reviewing the new poultry code. During the 2002 poultry code review, Meg was involved in ensuring that farmers were represented in the policy development phase. Although she notes that while farmers spent millions of dollars meeting the new requirements that came into place in 2008, there is now conversations taking place to change the regulations again.

“Cage farmers spent millions to comply with the new requirement and now there is government conversations around there needing to be a new system, rendering that investment completely useless,” she says.

The egg industry needs to supply eggs across a full range so that people have the full choice, Meg says. “It’s terribly arrogant to tell the consumer that they can only have one product,” she says.

Another issue that Meg has worked on is the mulesing. “Animal rights activists hate mulesing, but I would lay odds that many of them have not seen a sheep suffer with fly infestation,” she says.

Meg uses the metaphor of going to the dentist in that it isn’t something that you want to do but

Plug the Pipe Meg has been a member of the VFF since 1994 and says she has been a part of so many big wins for the farming industry over the years. She recalls the Plug the Pipe campaign, whereby the State Government proposed to run a water pipe from the northern irrigation area of Victoria to Melbourne.

“We marched from Alexandra Gardens to the Parliament steps. It was astounding to see all these people clapping us. It was evident that people really care about agriculture,” Meg says.

While there was a lot of community support, it wasn’t until the VFF got involved that it really started to take off, Meg says. The hard work of the VFF was a success, and the government shut the pipe after the day it opened.

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RIGHT TO FARM

RIGHT TO FARM

Meg Parkinson joined the VFF in 1994, and she says membership is an absolute necessity for farmers.

A united voice AFTER HALF A CENTURY IN AGRICULTURE, GERALD LEACH DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATING A UNITED FRONT FOR FARMERS AND EXPLORES THE CURRENT LAND MANAGEMENT ISSUES FACING VICTORIA.

“Often with the most impactful policies it bottles down to a word or two that needs to be removed or adapted.”

Native vegetation regulation Meg recalls work around native vegetation with the VFF. “The State Government wanted to pass legislation that meant trees could not be removed from farms. So, if a farmer wanted to plant grain, and the paddock had trees on it you would have to go around them,” she says. But with the work of the VFF, this legislation was never passed.

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the long-term outcome will be much worse for the sheep, she says.

Part of what interests Meg about policy is that it is necessary to go through regulatory impact statements with a fine-tooth coomb. “Often with the most impactful policies it bottles down to a word or two that needs to be removed or adapted,” she says.

“With policy, you need to be able to sit down and work through the documents, it’s a matter of stopping things and removing a word to ensure that farmers and the impact it may have on their work are considered,” Meg says.

This is evident in the work that Meg has done with the cruelty to Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. “The VFF enables us to have relationships with bureaucrats and politicians so that we have an opportunity to make our case and make substantial changes,” Meg says.

Although Meg says the industry doesn’t get much time to celebrate its wins. “We have all this great stuff happening but often it takes three to six months for an outcome and in the mean time we have usually started advocacy work elsewhere. So, we rarely pause to congratulate the wins that we do achieve,” she says.

Meg also set up, and subsequently ran for 15 years, the free-range chicken meat standards in Free Range Egg and Poultry Australia. Although this is a different organisation to the VFF, all chicken meat farmers who free-range their birds follow these standards.

Gerald Leach serves on the policy council of the VFF.

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RIGHT TO FARM

Gerald has been involved in agriculture for 54 years. He believes the VFF is instrumental in strengthening the farming industry by uniting farmers and creating solidarity. Gerald now serves as on the policy council as a leader in land management. He says a key land management issue currently facing farmers in Victoria is mining and gas extraction on agricultural land. Through the VFF’s work Gerald believes that the government and mining groups are now considering the farmers perspective far more than in the past and although work remains to be done the situation has vastly improved. He says that the VFF has been extremely active in bushfire management and according to experts this year is predicted to be a particularly bad fire season. The VFF was a key contributor to the Black Saturday bushfire royal commission and since then has helped to implement change. He says that the VFF is still working on creating a greater awareness to the overall damage that fires cause to farmers, including land, livestock, equipment, and crops. He says technology and innovation are rapidly evolving in the farming industry and he is excited to see where it takes the future of agriculture.

At the government level, Gerald says that land use planning affects the right to farm, and has been a big issue for land management in recent years. The VFF has strongly advocated for farmers’ rights in the context of land use planning, and its impact on agricultural production.

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WHEN HE BEGAN WORKING 54 YEARS AGO, Gerald Leach never imagined his farming career would someday lead him to Baku, Azerbaijan on the request of the United Nations (UN). But in June 2019, that exact scenario played out.

Gerald, alongside Dr. Kathryn Rodden and Agriculture Victoria Program Manager Michael Reid boarded an international flight to Baku to accept a United Nations Public Service Award for their work with the Victorian Rabbit Action Network (VRAN).

“It was a great honour. I became the chair of VRAN directly through my involvement in the Victorian Farming Federation (VFF) and the VFF’s interest in plant and animal management,” Gerald says.

VRAN was established in 2014 with the purpose of connecting landowners, community groups and government agencies, to collaborate on sustainable rabbit management techniques.

“I joined the VFF because I think unless farmers stand in solidarity then we are bound to be fragmented and weakened.

The aim of the federation is to create a united voice and strengthen the position of all farmers.”

But long before the creation of VRAN, Gerald’s journey in agriculture began on a farm in the Sunraysia district, a region that covers northwestern Victoria and southwestern New South Wales.

“I grew up on an irrigated horticulture property and came back to work on the family farm at Walpeup after I finished school,” Gerald says.

“Producing food and fibre to make people healthy and comfortable was a challenge that I really enjoyed.”

Gerald now identifies as a third-generation farmer who runs a sustainable operation in the Mallee region, in northwest Victoria with his wife Louise and son Dom. “I specialise in dry land farming, otherwise known as rain-fed farming. We have a self-replacing

Merino sheep flock and cross our secondary ewes to White Suffolks for meat production, as well as cereal crops like wheat, barley, oats, and rye,” he says.

Gerald attributes his longevity in the industry to his passion for innovation and the way advancing technology is assisting farmers to create a more sustainable future.

“We’re seeing great advances in the sustainability of agricultural production.

Technology is changing the future of the industry and assisting farmers in all aspects of their operation,” he says.

“For example, using GPS to auto steer tractors and Radio Frequency Identification to electronically trace sheep makes livestock management far easier. We look forward to further development of virtual fencing so we can control grazing and avoid pressure on the most vulnerable parts of a paddock.”

Having seen the impact technology has had on farming, Gerald says he is optimistic about the future.

“In my lifetime I’ve probably seen more technological advancements in agriculture than what there has been in history previously. It’s amazing, the mind boggles at what might be around the corner,” he says.

Gerald is a long-serving member of the VFF and now sits on the policy council, as a leader for land management issues.

“I joined the VFF because I think unless farmers stand in solidarity then we are bound to be fragmented and weakened. The aim of the federation is to create a united voice and strengthen the position of all farmers,” he says.

Land management encompasses some of the more complex issues in Victorian farming according to Gerald, such as sustainability, fire issues, pest control, as well as mining and gas activities.

“One major project I’m currently working on is pushing for the appropriate regulations of mining and gas extraction from farmland. Through the VFF we are working with the government to achieve more appropriate access arrangements that respect the position of the farmer,” Gerald says.

“There has been considerable progress with

The VFF has worked long-term on fire preventative issues, putting a submission into the Black Saturday bushfires royal commission.

this since we started to lobby for change. The government and mining industry are now listening far more to the farming sector than they used to.”

Among the positive change Gerald has driven through the VFF, he says that his biggest disappointment has been the failure to convince government to adopt the VFF’s policy position on native vegetation clearing regulations.

“The government’s ill-informed strategy of continually tightening regulations in response to continued loss of native vegetation fails to achieve its objective. If the VFF’s policy of a more appropriate and realistic offsets policy was adopted, farmers would be incentivised, at no cost to government, to replace degraded native vegetation with more sustainable biodiverse stands.”

Through these projects and others, Gerald’s work with the VFF is shaping the future of Victoria’s agriculture industry. But with the Summer quickly approaching, a core focus of his role is managing the risk of bushfires.

“It’s a dry year so experts are predicting that it

“The government’s ill-informed strategy of continually tightening regulations in response to continued loss of native vegetation fails to achieve its objective. If the VFF’s policy of a more appropriate and realistic offsets policy was adopted, farmers would be incentivised, at no cost to government, to replace degraded native vegetation with more sustainable biodiverse stands.” will be a very bad fire season,” he says.

“We have worked long-term on fire preventative issues. We put a submission into the Black Saturday bushfires royal commission and since then we’ve worked with government agencies to implement the recommendations that came out of that royal commission.”

According to Gerald, the VFF has been heavily involved with raising the awareness of the holistic risk that fire poses.

“In a fire there is a lot more that can be lost than a house. On agricultural properties things like livestock, supplies, equipment, and crops are all at major risk of being destroyed,” he says.

“I think we’ve made significant progress in

getting the government and fire agencies to better understand the risk of fire to farmers and their properties.”

With the fire season approaching and multiple land management projects in the works, Gerald says that is more important than ever for the VFF to advocate for farmers and drive change.

“We are working hard to spread awareness of the farmer’s perspective to the government and people in the public. When we unite together through the VFF our voice is stronger and it becomes easier to drive change,” he says.

“While we have a fair share of challenges to work through, overall the future is looking bright for the industry.”

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CONNECTIONS WITH CONSUMERS

“Mulesing is a critical part of animal welfare. It’s done to prevent flystrike, which ultimately affects the welfare of the sheep. Certain areas can do without it, but in some environments, it is necessary, depending on their pasture production. For sheep farmers that do mules, it’s pretty rare not to use pain relief.”

Advocacy for what’s popular, and what’s not

FROM DROUGHT RELIEF TO MULESING, COMMERCIAL SHEEP FARMER AND OWNER OF BINDAWARRA MERINO STUD IN EAST GIPPSLAND, STEVE HARRISON, HAS USED HIS VOICE THROUGH THE VICTORIAN FARMERS’ FEDERATION TO SPEAK UP FOR HIS INDUSTRY. STEVE HARRISON, COMMERCIAL SHEEP FARMER and owner of Bindawarra Merino Stud in East Gippsland, says he can’t imagine a life other than farming. Since his youth, he was lured by the sense of freedom that comes with the profession.

“I’m lucky enough to be living the dream,” he says. “My father and his father before him were farmers. Farming is a good business model and, apart from the seasons, I can do anything I like at any time I like, whether that’s fixing a windmill or chasing a cow.”

Steve purchased Bindawarra in 2011 with his wife Lisa. Their stud farm is located between Sale and Yarram. Bindawarra was started in Omeo in the High Country of East Gippsland by the Toland family.

When the chance to purchase Bindawarra arose, the Harrisons saw it as a good opportunity, and moved the business to their own property, where they have resided for over 20 years.

As with any dream, however, there are the downfalls. For Steve, some of his biggest challenges

Steve was recognised for his ongoing efforts with the VFF’s Des Crowe Award.

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are drought, and consumer awareness of pain relief around mulesing. Steve hasn’t been shy to stand up for farmers, through his work with the Victorian Farmers’ Federation (VFF). He has become an authority on sheep farming and a voice for many of the farmers.

This includes so many who are doing it tough as a result of dwindling rainfall. He has met with politicians, including Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and various state politicians to discuss how the drought is impacting Victorian farmers, particularly in the Gippsland region.

In July, Steve was recognised for his ongoing efforts with the VFF’s Des Crowe Award. The honour recognises someone who has served and represented the farming industry over and beyond their call of duty. He has actively campaigned to politicians, showing them firsthand the problems being experienced in his beloved Gippsland region.

“This has never been about myself, drought is about everyone who is affected. To spend an hour

with the Prime Minister is certainly an amazing experience. The drought has taken up a lot of my time, but from a personal point of view, it has been a good distraction that has allowed me to take some time away from the farm and the problems associated with ongoing drought conditions on my property. Drought advocacy has probably been one of my biggest achievements so far,” he explains.

As Vice President of Wool Producers Australia and a VFF Livestock Councillor, Steve is active in the wool producing sector, an industry he has been part of for all of his life.

In recent years, Central and East Gippsland, together with the northern Mallee region, have been among Victoria’s worst affected by ongoing drought.

“In East Gippsland, we’ve been sitting on 300mm of rain a year for the last three years. Prior to that, we were achieving averages of around 520mm per year.

It’s great when the rain comes at the right time, but if we get a lot of summer rain, it isn’t really beneficial.

The message there is that recovery is going to take years, even when it does begin to rain,” Steve says.

As rainfall creeps to just over half the usual average for the region, the number of sheep at Bindawarra has also halved. “I’ve been a sheep farmer all my life. I usually run around 10,000 sheep, but due to drought we’re now down to below half that,” he says.

This pattern has been consistent for many other areas of the business too, and for other farmers across the whole district. “We went from selling about 100 merino rams, to about 50 this year. That’s typical of the general area, with the current drought.

In the past, we’ve produced 300 bales of wool in a year, this year we may be lucky to produce 100 bales, because this dry weather has been going on for so long. Up until a few months ago, we had been feeding stock daily in containment areas for

The VFF have been active in advocating drought relief for farmers. In 2018, advocacy by the VFF led to the Victorian Government’s committing $25 million in expanded relief arrangements for farmers dealing with drought in parts of the state. In October 2019, the VFF was also successful in the advocating for a further $32 million in drought relief for Victorian farmers

Removal of grazing permits

In 2017, 83 per cent of merino lambs that were mulesed were given pain relief.

about two years. But trying to maintain their body condition comes at a cost, and in our case, it’s wool production.”

While drought relief for farmers is a popular topic consumers have rallied behind, the topic of mulesing is far more controversial. This hasn’t stopped Steve from stepping into the conversation, with the push for mandatory pain relief during mulesing, but also helping consumers understand the need for mulesing.

“Australian farmers lead the world in best practice. We’ve been doing best practice for years but some consumers are not educated on what it takes to be a farmer,” says Steve. “Some sheep run on unimproved pasture, where there might only be one or two sheep per acre, so they may be able to get away with an unmulesed sheep. But in high production pastures, where dag incidence is higher, the risk of flystrike increases dramatically for unmulesed animals.”

The VFF has backed the push to mandate pain relief during mulesing, a move that has also been backed by Wool Producers Australia and Sheep Producers Australia.

Draft regulations stipulate that a pain relief product registered for use on sheep by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority must be used during mulesing. If these draft regulations come into effect, sheep farmers who mules without pain relief may face penalties including on-the-spot fines.

Pain relief for mulesing has been commercially available since 2007, with most farmers now using

Drought relief

pain relief when sheep undergo the procedure.

According to a survey conducted by Australian Wool Innovation Limited in 2017, which involved 1200 merino breeders across Australia, 83 per cent of merino lambs that were mulesed were given pain relief.

“Mulesing is a critical part of animal welfare.

It’s done to prevent flystrike, which ultimately affects the welfare of the sheep. Certain areas can do without it, but in some environments, it is necessary, depending on their pasture production.

For sheep farmers that do mules, it’s pretty rare not to use pain relief. Most farmers are already using appropriate analgesics. While most farmers are already doing the right thing, it’s just a matter of tidying it up,” Steve explains.

Although a full mules is not required at Bindawarra, a smaller modified mules is performed.

Flystrike prevention measures involve the sheep being crutched and having a fly preventative spray applied that can last between three and six months.

As a member of the VFF for over a decade, Steve says he will continue to be active to ensure the industry can continue to thrive. “I am always keen to understand decisions made on behalf of my industry and where they came from,” he says. “I want to be at the table to debate or discuss future practices that may affect my farming going forward.

It’s extremely important to be at that table. It’s not always easy because we’re often getting criticised or asked particular questions about why things are or are not done a certain way, but I always ensure I try to do the right thing.”

For Steve, the support shown by the VFF when a local shire planned to implement charges for grazing permits, despite the current drought, was a win for his business and other livestock farmers in the area. “The VFF let common sense prevail and were able to negate those charges,” he says.

Electronic ear tag identification The VFF advocated for electronic ear tag identification for sheep and goats, which is now mandatory in Victoria, coming into effect on 1 January 2019.

“Now every lamb sold needs to have an EID (electronic eartag identification), to ensure traceability. During a recent anthrax breakout in Swan Hill, these electronic tags meant it was possible to trace back all stock affected and the issues was resolved within a very short time,” he says. Thanks to advocacy work by the VFF, In 2016, the State Government invested $17 million in the system to ensure the livestock sector would provide consumers with a lifetime traceability guarantee underpinning biosecurity and market access. The package included $7.7 million in 2017 to subsidise the cost of producers implementing electronic tags, with the remaining funds being used for infrastructure grants, co-funded equipment grants and an education program across the supply chain.

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CONNECTIONS WITH CONSUMERS

Time for transparency

observe farm practices.

Public concerns are heard by farmers and Allan says they are very conscious of what the public want.

“Unfortunately meeting some of these public concerns as well as bio-security expectations and OH&S comes at a cost and I am not sure the public realises there is a cost,” he says.

He says farmers must work towards being more transparent, justifying reasoning for certain actions for bio-security and animal welfare processes to the public.

“Farmers now, whether we like it or not have to justify what we are doing is right. In most cases, of course, if you become a farmer it is because you like dealing with animals and actually most farmers do an excellent job,” he says.

Alongside this shift of an industry under greater consumer scrutiny, is an increase in its commercialisation from the corporate sector.

“At the moment family farms are slowly losing out, it is something that has hit us in a very fast

ALLAN BULLEN, A SEASONED CHICKEN MEAT FARMER, DISCUSSES THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDUSTRY TO BE TRANSPARENT WITH CONSUMERS ABOUT PROCESSES.

Sale of Port Melbourne Allan believes the VFF’s involvement in the sale of Port Melbourne was positive, which led to funding being put aside for agriculture. In a Parliamentary Inquiry in 2015, Victorian Farmer’s Federation president Peter Tuohey outlined the VFF’s position on the sale, ensuring greater transparency and assurances around safeguards were put in place.

Given that the port was built on the back of food and fibre exports, the VFF pushed that rural Victorians benefit from the sale.

Animal activism Allan celebrates the VFF’s role in helping farmers deal with animal activism, advising farmers not to retaliate against activists. Just recently, at a hearing in September 2019 Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) President David Jochinke presented at the Inquiry into the Impact of Animal Rights Activism to ask for farm trespass penalties to be strengthened to $220,000 for individuals and $400,000 for organisations, and $1,000 on-the-spot fines.

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CONSIDERING THE CONSUMER’S PERSPECTIVE is not one that Allan Bullen was introduced to when he started farming.

In his younger days when looking for work, Allan met his future wife and her father Wally Shaw, president of the Victorian Farmers’ Federation (VFF).

He then began working with his future father in law and went on to buy a small chicken farm with his wife. From there, the pair bought a larger farm which expanded over the years to the operation Allan’s son Andrew now runs in Lang Lang, Victoria, growing around 1.5 million bird a year.

Allan’s family chicken meat farm has always grown birds under contract. Throughout most of his life Allen and his family saw consumer connection as the responsibility of the processor that owns the birds.

“Traditionally as farmers we have always taken the idea that we grow the birds, and it is up to the processor to do the sales strategy,” he says.

With increasing public concern about animal welfare, Allan says that perspective is now changing.

“I believe that is old fashioned now, we are being asked because of RSPCA accreditation about animal welfare and bio-security. We are being held up to achieve that and we are now being held responsible if we don’t,” he says With supermarkets looking to address those concerns throughout the supply chain, Allan is using his position with the VFF to facilitate this shift. He has been a member of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) for over 35 years, and is

and very big way,” he says. “We have to take control of our own industry and protect it and the best people to do that are the ones that have an interest in it.

“As the farmer is asked to do more and more eventually it will be unviable for us. The alternative is then to bring in those products from overseas. We won’t see that produce in our backyard and we will have taken a step back in society by doing that.”

Allan says the farming industry in Australia is not perfect, but farmers here have better practices than most other places in the world.

“We need to keep improving and lifting the standard because if we lift the standard then other countries are going to lift up and every little bit we gain is good for the animals,” he says.

“Though I believe we do need to do a lot of work with transparency. I have always thought that if we could get a show on a small TV network to film processes at different farms that would be great way to showcase what we do.”

Disaster Management Allan says the VFF excels in is disaster management in the face of fires or floods. He says the response to Black Saturday or during the Warrnambool fires was second to none. The staff members worked incredibly hard and they understood exactly what farmers needed in a disaster situation.

Mental Health Awareness In the future Allan thinks mental health awareness will be of importance to the VFF, he says even now the Over the Farm Gate initiative, which sees neighbours checking on each other, has a wonderful impact on the industry. He says the VFF knows that farmers need a lot of help and that farmers, industry bodies and government will all have to work together to get people through drought and financial hardship.

Allan Bullen is Chair of the Australian Chicken Growers Council .

currently Chair of the Australian Chicken Growers Council (ACGC), As an industry representative, Allan speaks to retailers like Coles and Woolworths every few months. He is also working on fostering the relationships with retailers who are looking to speak directly with their processors.

“Major retailers have begun to audit farms.

They send the processors out to make sure facilities are up to standard and the farms meet public expectations,” he says. “One of the auditors said to me they audit the farms well enough so they could bring a customer out and they would not be ashamed.”

He appeared before an Animal Activists Inquiry and one of the issues that was raised was that farmers hide behind bio-security requirements, by restricting access to farms.

“People don’t realise if you have a wild bird at home it could be diseased and if you come onto the farm 300,000 chickens could be infected,” he says.

It is Allan’s view that most farmers would allow anyone concerned to come on to the farm and

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FARM SAFETY

Leonard goes on to say that he uses this system on his own farm so everyone looks out for each other at least every two hours.

“We also advocate that people should always do a walk around on the vehicle they are going to operate for the day, checking all the tyres are pumped up, brakes are working properly and that windscreens and mirrors are clean.

Leonard Vallance and the VFF have worked to introduce a safety culture in farming.

Well-grounded with safety LEONARD VALLANCE, A FARMER IN VICTORIA’S MALLEE DISTRICT WHO IS ALSO PRESIDENT OF THE VICTORIAN LIVESTOCK COUNCIL (VLC), DISCUSSES HIS PERSONAL, AND THE VFF’S WORK, IN ENSURING THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF EMPLOYEES ON FARMS. HISTORICALLY, THE SAFETY AND WELFARE OF farm workers has not always been given the same attention as other workplaces. The reasons for this are many and varied. Perhaps one contributing factor is that traditional family-owned farms, having the home and workplace intermingled has blurred the lines between work and home life.

However, modern farming practices, and the work of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) have significantly raised the professionalism and productivity of the industry in recent times, and a corresponding rise in safety has been also a welcome addition to the farming culture.

This is certainly the case with Leonard Vallance, who has been a farmer in the Mallee district near Ouyen for 45 years. Leonard’s father established 30

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the farm back in 1948 and his three sons are now also working on the farm, making this a traditional inter-generational outfit.

It is a mixed farming operation with an area of 9,000 hectares growing wheat, barley, rye, lupins, cattle and sheep. The business also has an engineering arm which enables the production of various types of equipment for both on-farm and off. At the time of writing one of Leonard’s sons was finishing construction of a B-double belly dump trailer set in time for harvest. The unit will be used to cart grain to the local railhead.

Another recently completed engineering project done by the Vallance family involved fitting an Australian-built boom to a spraying machine imported from the United States. These projects

are in addition to the regular maintenance and repair of all the farming equipment. Moving to the topic of on-farm personnel safety, Leonard says the VFF board made an undertaking that whenever it addresses farmers at public forums or meetings, farm safety is always on the agenda.

“We always make the point to farmers that they need to be looking out for themselves, family members, employees and neighbours,” he says.

“One of the best things you can have is a fairly rigid timetable with on-farm activities during the working day with check-in times every two hours.

So everyone checks in for smoko and lunch or even a quick text message with a thumbs up emoji.

“You can do this with your neighbours also if you know they are working on their own.”

“One of the best things you can have is a fairly rigid timetable with on-farm activities during the working day with check-in times every two hours. So everyone checks in for smoko and lunch or even a quick text message with a thumbs up emoji.”

Leonard Vallance on mulesing:

“I wouldn’t say every farm vehicle in Australia is roadworthy but they must at least be safe to operate in the farm environment.”

Leonard says he tries to instil this into his employees so that ideally it becomes a cultural thing where they check things over automatically before starting work.

“It’s usually the simple things that you find during a walk-around that can be easily checked and rectified before any damage is done,” he says.

Another important aspect of farm safety Leonard touches on is the safety of visitors.

“We don’t have a lot of visitors into our farmyard because we’re a fair way out of town.

But you don’t allow people to enter into your workspace unless they have a valid and prearranged reason to be there.

Another rule Leonard enforces, notably at harvest time when there’s a lot going on, is that all vehicles must be parked in a line in a designated area.

“This way everyone knows they’re not going to get their vehicle backed over by a machine, especially in the dark.”

Safety measures in the cattle yards include a special design of the yards that provides for a complete separation of workers from the animals under all circumstances.

“The cattle yard is probably the most dangerous place on a farm, simply because cattle are unpredictable animals – even the quiet ones,” Leonard says.

Another safety issue in the paddocks arises due to the possibility of tall equipment such as fold-up air seeders and tippers coming into contact with powerlines.

“During hot days the powerlines sag and it’s easy for a machine to contact them if the driver is momentarily distracted,” Leonard says.

A number of personnel protective equipment

The VFF has had a strong role in promoting best practice in mulesing.

“For a long time mulesing has been a controversial issue in the wool industry and it has now entered the wider commentary on animal activism and animal welfare in general,” Leonard says.

“The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) made an assessment of industry practice which showed between 90 and 98 per cent of farmers were already using pain relief for the animals to reduce the pain involved during mulesing.

“In addition, we did a verbal survey amongst our livestock councillors and they confirmed that every one of the mulesing contractors was administering pain relief. So for the VFF it was a ‘no-brainer’ that this was industry best-practice and that we should be getting ahead of the curve by mandating it. The government was due to revamp the animal welfare legislation so it fitted in well with that.

“The pain relief also leads to higher productivity due to quicker recovery after mulesing which is another reason why farmers are using it,” he says, adding that pain relief methods for other surgical procedures on animals such as castration, earmarking and dehorning also need to be addressed.

“The current method is to drug the animals but that is dangerous and doesn’t have a good animal welfare outcome because it’s slow to take effect and the animal doesn’t recover quickly.”

Leonard says the general expectation is that these changes will occur as delivery techniques develop to a commercially acceptable type of delivery system.

“Industry is investing producer funds to enable these changes in the future which could provide industry with far better ways of providing good animal welfare outcomes that also enhance productivity,” he concludes.

requirements for people working on the Vallance farm include wearing hi-vis clothing, safety eyewear or sunglasses, enclosed footwear and always carrying drinking water.

“Farm safety is all about having a safety culture that everyone working on farms is across at all times,” he says. “It’s something everyone must do.”

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FARM SAFETY

A steep learning curve LUKE RANDLE HAS LEARNT ALL HE KNOWS ABOUT DAIRY FARMING IN THE LAST SEVEN YEARS. HAVING A FRESH PERSPECTIVE MEANS CRITICAL ISSUES SUCH AS ON-FARM SAFETY ARE ALWAYS FRONT-OF-MIND. LUKE RANDLE IS AN EXCEPTION. AT A TIME WHEN many people are leaving farming, he has carved out a career in dairy farm management, despite having had no farming background while growing up.

“I had nothing to do one school holidays and a family friend asked me if I wanted to help out on a dairy farm,” says Luke, who grew up in the small country town of Briagolong near Maffra in East Gippsland.

“I absolutely loved it and at the end of my first week the owner of the farm offered me an

apprenticeship in dairy production. I realised that’s what I wanted to do – I basically fell into it.

“I worked a few different jobs on farms while I was studying and finished up with a diploma in dairy farm management,” Luke says. “Then five years ago I started working on this farm that I now manage, and two years after that I was offered the managerial role.”

Luke says he continues to enjoy the diversity and challenges of the role and finding better ways to do things. The farm runs 670 head of dairy cattle comprising cross breeds of Jersey, Holstein and

Swedish Red breeds. The farm’s business plan is based on once a year calving for each cow which means high fertility of the animals is paramount.

“I can’t really see myself doing anything else,” he says. “It doesn’t really feel like a job – I get up every morning and do what I love doing.”

As for what he finds most demanding about the role, Luke describes managing staff as by far the biggest challenge.

“We do a pretty good job of it but sometimes just when you think you’re on top of it, everything goes pear-shaped.”

Instilling a high safety culture with his staff is of utmost importance to Luke Randle (far right), a dairy farm manager.

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Asked about his views on the current state of the dairy industry in Australia, Luke says it is in a phase of rapid change in order to become more efficient and productive.

“Everything kind of changed around it and the dairy industry got left behind,” he remarks. “So now it’s scrambling to catch up with society and everything else.

“It’s a lot harder now to be a dairy farmer due to the higher standards you have to meet, which obviously comes with extra costs for the likes of labour and upgrading of infrastructure and capital works. On top of this are the challenges for agriculture caused by the economic climate not being great.

“It’s pretty tough but I think the progressive farms will adapt and do well while some of the smaller ones will drop off – I think that’s the natural way these things happen.”

Luke goes on to outline what he describes as the advantage he had by not growing up on a farm, in that he had no pre-conceived ideas or rigid mindsets on how things should be done.

“I think I was lucky due to the fact that everything I have learnt was best practice and what the industry was advocating for farms to be doing. So I was able to incorporate these practices into the operation rather than, alternatively, what my family had been doing for the last 50 years.”

Luke also says this has enabled him to see the farm from the outside looking in, as someone from the general public would when they drive past the farm, which has influenced a lot of the farm practices and policies.

In terms of other public relations measures for the broader dairy industry, Luke says enlightening people to the plight of the industry has been a positive outcome of recent measures such as the rise in the price of milk in supermarkets, more so than any financial advantage.

“We’re careful not to have lame or sick cows in roadside paddocks,” he says as an example. “It’s not a matter of hiding things, but we don’t need to put these things that could be erroneously perceived in a negative light out there for public fodder.

“I think everyone should be doing this – it only takes a few extra minutes to plan what you’re doing and to just think about what random people

Luke requires rollover protection on all quad bikes and mandatory helmet wearing.

driving past might perceive from what they see.

Anything we can do in this way I see as beneficial for our farm and the industry as a whole.”

Moving on to the topic of workplace health and safety for farm employees, Luke says he enforces a number of initiatives to help ensure the safety of his staff.

“We have rollover protection on all our quad bikes and mandatory helmet wearing,” he says.

“Any breach of this rule results in instant dismissal with no questions asked.

“We also have a 25km/h speed limit on-farm for the quad bikes and we recently bought a Suzuki Vitara car to remove the need for employees to use quad bikes for certain tasks like handfeeding calves or getting the cows in.

“I aim to ensure safe work practices are adhered to at all times and always try to plan ahead and analyse each situation rather than rush into doing something that may be unsafe. I

try to get everyone to look at what they are doing from a safety perspective – building a culture of safety that hopefully becomes second nature to everyone.”

In other farming matters, Luke says he values the work of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) because he simply doesn’t have time to stay abreast of all that’s going on in the industry.

“I’m busy here on the farm so I’m happy to have other people who are more invested in the various issues working for me in the background to protect our interests.”

All up, instilling a high safety culture into his staff is of utmost importance to Luke.

“The last thing I need is to have to ring someone to tell them their loved one is injured or worse, not coming home.

“When it’s all boiled down our employees are our business – without them we don’t have a business.”

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33

INNOVATION FOR THE FUTURE

Innovative solutions SHEEP AND CATTLE FARMER MARK WOOTTON IS LEADING THE WAY TOWARDS FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE AT FARM LEVEL. FARMERS ARE GOOD AT UNDERSTANDING THE paybacks of any capital investment, says Mark Wootton, when explaining his engagement with fellow farmers on the challenges they are now facing.

“I’m not a climate scientist, and I don’t know about the different theories, but we’re risk

managers, that’s what we do, manage risks.

Whether it’s a changing your pumping regime, going to a variable pump rather than a fixed pump, farmers consider the payback over time,” he says.

While Mark may not personally be a scientist, he is well versed in the latest research on climate change. He was Chair of the Climate Institute, which closed in 2017 due to lack of funding. Created in 2005, the Climate Institute shared evidence and ideas about the risks to Australia from inaction on climate change. One of the intentions of the research was to highlight the opportunities that would arise from early action.

A large part of his life was devoted to the Climate

Institute, says Mark. He wryly jokes that his carbon footprint has significantly decreased since the institute closed, as he doesn’t have to travel by plane anymore.

Now, Mark engages through other means, as a member of a variety of different farmers’ networks and collectives – including the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF), Meat & Livestock Australia, and Farmers for Climate Action. He presents at numerous conferences and panels to share his experiences and ideas about adapting to climate change at the ground level.

“As soon as you start talking to farmers about the cost advantages of doing something differently, Mark Wootton (right) planted a 600 hectare forest, and achieved carbon neutrality in 2010.

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they’ll understand. Then afterward they hear: by the way, not only does this make economic sense but it’s also carbon sense. It’s a bonus that it’s not the end of the world if we make these changes.

Farmers are business-people and they need to protect their business,” he says.

“But to implement these changes actually gives a competitive advantage over other people in other countries and other products, we just need to get better at it, and we’re all in the same boat rather rowing the same way whereas if you debate it [the differences between climate change and climate variability], well we’re all paddling in a different direction.”

Mark speaks from the experience of a farmer implementing change on his own family farm, Jigsaw Farms. One such change was a decision to plant an entire forest on their 3,378-hectare property. Mark and his family have been planting the more than 600 hectares of forest since the early 2000s with the intention to offset the methane emissions from their cattle. Jigsaw Farms achieved carbon neutrality in 2010.

“The trees, half of which are native revegetation and half saw log timber, give us a lot of production co-benefits aside from carbon neutrality,” says Mark.

“There’s the shelter that improves our pasture growth because the soil’s warmer, there are higher lambing percentages, and better calving because we’ve got better shelter. We also have amazing biodiversity gains. We started with 47 species of birds, we now have 167.

In 2019, the Victorian government said that by 2030 there would be no native forest logging. Mark says his farm will be ready, with saw logs able to net him approximately $19,000 per hectare when they are harvested in 10 to 15 years.

Mark says the decision to reforest also helped provide additional shelter for his animals.

“In 2006, all our best young stud one year old’s all got shorn in the morning and then we had one of those summer rainfall events and because they had no lanolin on them, they were really exposed for three or four days at least.

“Well we put all the young sheep straight off shears into one of those plantations and we lost none, not one in this weather event.

“So how do I put a value on the trees? Let’s say

probably four or five hundred thousand dollars’ worth of genetics, just one plantation alone.”

Marks admits that these climate smart practise may be difficult for other farmers to undertake. “It’s a 25-year harvest time and that’s pretty hard to factor in, a lot of farmers are on three or five year budgets, I don’t know many farmers beyond five years, and 25 years is a generation. I’m going to be harvesting them when I’m between 65 or 75 years of age.

“Farmers are good innovators on some things but not all things, but it’s always been forestry on one hand and agriculture on the other, but they work so well hand in hand. They’re a net benefit, there’s no loss,” he says.

Though it is the most noticeable, the forest is just one of the initiatives Mark has undertaken to adapt his farm to the changing climate. Another of the both climate smart and economically advantageous practises Mark is implementing is the genetically engineered “bullet-proof ewes”.

“We run a fine wool merino system based around 20,000 ewes. Our aim is to move to a dual-purpose sheep we refer to as a Super Ewe. We’re selecting the sheep for fat and muscle, and through this we increase our reproduction rate, and if we increase our reproduction rate we have more lambs on the ground per mother unit, which means a considerable lowering of greenhouse gases per kilo of lamb or wool, or whatever you’re producing.

“The same goes for beef, and we’re very efficient with our beef output. We run a criss-cross breeding program, using poll Hereford and Angus genetics.

This is to maximise hybrid vigour.

“We’re still a carbon heavy product, but taken that people want to eat meat, and the demand for red meat is only going to go forward, we’re taking the opportunity to lower our impact.”

This is one of the reasons Mark made the decision to reduce his herd, to about 600 cows, and concentrate on the sheep operation.

Mark is also working in collaboration with academics to conduct research to better understand feed efficiency. Mark is simply full of ideas about ways to lower the environmental impact of meat production.

“The higher the value of pasture, the lower your methane output but if you use some of the tannins or teas in your feedlot mix, it you will lower your

methane dramatically and so in a feedlot situation you could lower it dramatically.

Jigsaw Farms has also implemented better energy consumption practises.

“We changed all our pumps bar one to solar.

So, there’s now seven big solar pumps for pushing water out of dams up into tanks for reticulated water systems and that’s all solar based. We’ve got two lots of 9.6 kilowatt panels which run all the feedlot pumps and we’ve just ordered batteries for two houses and for the feedlot, which will be powered by solar,” he says.

Mark is currently involved in a Victorian government energy efficiency program, which the VFF is also driving, intended to help farmers drive down their energy bills.

According to Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes, farmers who want to lower their energy costs can partake in on-farm assessments which will determine whether they are eligible for grants to improve efficiency, while investing in new technology.

Alongside the VFF, Mark is on the specialist independent advisory panel, comprised of energy and agriculture experts, will provide advice on the design and implementation of the Agriculture Energy Investment Plan.

“If you have the ability to change your pumping system or you have a renewable that you’ve put on your milk shed to heat your water or to use a pump that’s a good thing. If those high energy farms get into renewables, which is what they’re doing, then it’s a good way to do it, because the government is paying half, and they go through an assessment process wherein they can learn what they’re using in terms of power and what choices they have to be more efficient.”

When asked about the key challenge facing his farm now, Mark responds that the climate changes are happening a lot faster than he anticipated when he started preparing for them.

“We had systems in place we thought could be adaptive, but its going a lot faster than what we thought, says Mark.

“We’re probably the most effected advanced economy in the world elected by climate change so it’s in our own self-interest that we should act, it’s not just a moral imperative, it simply makes good economic sense to take climate action.”

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INNOVATION FOR THE FUTURE

David Gibb – a second-generation beef farmer – runs Sussex Farm in the Mornington Peninsula

Changing times AS A STRONG ADVOCATE FOR SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES AND LAND USE PLANNING THAT PROTECTS FARMING INTERESTS, MORNINGTON PENINSULA BEEF FARMER AND FORMER COUNCILLOR, DAVID GIBB, DISCUSSES HOW CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EXPORT MARKET CONTINUE TO AFFECT LOCAL FARMERS.

Advocacy As a Victorian farmer, David says the advocacy provided by VFF is paramount.

“There’s no other body to advocate on behalf of agriculture and farmers to governments, whether that be at the local, state or federal level.”

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THE MORNINGTON PENINSULA IS AS WELL known for its food and wine production, as it is for its popular coastline. In fact, 70 per cent of the Peninsula is zoned Green Wedge for agriculture.

It is here, to the south-east of Melbourne, that David Gibb – a second-generation beef farmer – runs Sussex Farm, a prime beef vealer business operating on a 160-acre property on Gibb Road, Red Hill.

“Climate variability is a very real environmental issue. In the Mornington Peninsula, we’ve traditionally been a very high rainfall zone. On this property, from 950mm of annual rainfall, our average is now down to 890mm,” explains David.

In the past, some parts of the Peninsula have received up to 1200mm of annual rainfall.

“In the old days, we’d only supplementary feed

from July/August, but now we are having to start as early as March/April with these uncertain climates.”

Involved in livestock farming for as long as he can remember, David’s family originally purchased a sheep station in the Riverina in the 1890s. “I was raised in farming as a child and I’m still in farming today.”

David went to university to obtain a science degree, majoring in biochemistry and genetics, and did extensive travel, but the lure of the land brought him back. When asked what has kept him in farming for all these years, David replies: “Farming is so multi-faceted and stimulating.

There are so many different things you need to know. As a farmer, you need to be an agronomist, veterinarian, plumber, fencer, general handyman and everything in between. Farmers need to have

a wide skillset and you never stop learning. I’m a keen participant in conferences and farmer discussion groups.

“Between the different seasons or over the course of several years, there are different issues and challenges to overcome. I’ve always kept a diary and I often to refer to it to see what management decisions I’ve made in the past to assist me in trying to find the right responses to the latest seasonal conditions or what the market is doing.”

At Sussex Farm, Angus-Friesian cows are crossed with Belgian Blue bulls. With cows being half beef breed (Angus) and half dairy breed (Friesian), the mothers maintain a great supply of milk for their calves.

There are strictly no hormones or growths stimulants used on the animals. Instead they graze only on the natural pastures at Sussex Farm, which includes Perennial Rye Grass, Clovers and Sub-clovers. Each spring, hay and silage is conserved on the property and then fed to cows the following winter.

In recent times in Victoria, much research has been undertaken into different feedstock that affects the amount of methane emissions produced by cows. At the Ellinbank National Centre for Dairy Research and Development, research is conducted using the site’s herd of 500 cows.

“An enormous amount of research is being done in places like Ellinbank, including how different feedstocks affect the amount of methane produced. There has been a huge amount of work in monitoring feed intakes, including pasture species to reduce methane emissions,” says David.

There’s no doubt that environmental sustainability is a pressing issue, but David asserts: “I think for some farmers, steps to reduce environmental impact have been happening for a long time – it’s just become more mainstream and generally accepted now. In the 1950s and 1960s, governments encouraged landowners to clear bushland to create farmland. On a steeper part of bushland on our property, my father chose not to clear because of the risk of erosion. That was a fairly novel approach back then, but now it would be a routine response.”

Sussex Farm sells directly to Cardinia Meats.

Calving typically takes place during February and March. “I grow them out and send them over the hooks each December,” says David.

After selection has been made, calves are delivered directly to Radford’s Abattoir in Warragul. By bypassing sales yards, double handling is eliminated, along with the risk of bruising. Most importantly, feedback sheets are supplied for each carcass, matched to the management tag, when David inspects the carcasses in the chiller after the kill. The sides of beef are sold to premium butchers in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as a select number of butchers on the Mornington Peninsula.

Quality is at a premium for David, who takes numerous measures to ensure the highest quality product and takes steps to minimise his business’s impact on the environment – but unfortunately, as

“Farmers are price takers not price makers. You can seek to do good environmental things and ensure better treatment of livestock on your farms, but there are no price rewards for that endeavour. Around 70 per cent of Australia’s beef is exported. Beef prices are very much predicated on the export market, which is impacted by what Argentina and Brazil are doing, and how much China is buying, which is all very uncertain.”

David credits the VFF for funding the launch of Landcare Victoria.

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

37

A RICH HISTORY – PRICELESS CONTRIBUTIONS – OUR STRONG FUTURE

INNOVATION FOR THE FUTURE

For National Tree Planting Day in July 2019, the community came together at Sussex Farm.

Landcare Victoria

“An enormous amount of research is being done in places like Ellinbank, including how different feedstocks affect the amount of methane produced.

There has been a huge amount of work in monitoring feed intakes, including pasture species to reduce methane emissions.” is the case for many farmers, these steps often do little to add to the bottom line.

Though David sells locally, he says a major challenge for the beef industry is pricing which is largely dictated by the export market. “Farmers are price takers not price makers. You can seek to do good environmental things and ensure better treatment of livestock on your farms, but there are no price rewards for that endeavour. Around 70 per cent of Australia’s beef is exported. Beef prices are very much predicated on the export market, which is impacted by what Argentina and Brazil 38

VICTORIAN FARMER 2019

are doing, and how much China is buying, which is all very uncertain,” David explains.

“There used to be some arrangements where farmers could group together to negotiate but now it’s individual farmers that have to negotiate with the larger operators – so it’s certainly not a level playing field.”

However, the issue of price-setting is nothing new to the farming industry, says David, pointing to the Australian Wheat Board which was set up during the Depression so that farmers could aggregate their crops and market them at a good price. “But that was dismantled because some people claimed it was uncompetitive. Many of the schemes that were there in the past to give farmers a chance to set their prices and smooth out the extreme swings in prices, have been similarly disbanded.”

Along with running his prime veal enterprise, David spent 20 years as a Councillor for the Mornington Peninsula Shire, serving two terms as Mayor (March 1999 to March 2000, and December 2009 to December 2010). He remains a strong advocate for land use planning that protects farming use and agriculture.

From an environmental sustainability standpoint, David highlights the work of Heather Mitchell – a nurse, farmer, community leader and businesswoman, who became the first female President of the VFF (1986-1989). During her presidency, Heather collaborated with Victoria’s Minister for Conservation to form Landcare Victoria.

“Together, they devised Landcare and for the very early years, the VFF was providing administration and funding for Landcare groups right around Victoria.

That began in 1986 and was a serious environmental initiative of the VFF,” David adds.

A movement dedicated to managing environmental issues, Landcare is something that remains close to his heart. In 1991, David became a joint founder of Dunns Creek Landcare, which promotes sustainable land use on the Mornington Peninsula, particularly in the Dunns Creek catchment upstream from Moats Corner. This was the first Landcare group to be formed on the Mornington Peninsula. David has now been a member of Dunns Creek Landcare for almost 30 years, and continues to volunteer his time to the group, which now involves over 25 families/households in the Red Hill, Dromana and Merricks North areas of the region.

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