On The Land
13 November, 2024
Project promotes locals backing locals
FAR from the cliche of the nation’s farmer being an old, weather-worn cocky - battling the elements, barely earning a crust, lamenting young folks’ mass exodus to the cities, while international corporations buy up properties – farming is on a ‘next-gen’ resurgence.
At least, that’s the evidence Sam Marwood, co-founder of Cultivate Farms, is seeing with the thousands of young farmers from across Australia registered with his farm succession business.
“We do matchmaking; we spend a lot of time with retiring farmers who don’t have kids, or their kids don’t want to farm, and we match them with a next-gen farmer,” he said.
“We help young farmers develop negotiating skills to take to retiring farmers, or investors, to create a pathway into the industry.”
And it’s a difficult pathway. Recent decades have seen restructures, rationalisations, takeovers, price wars, and lifestyle rural retreats, which has raised the competition – and the price – for available working land.
Yet dairy produced about 8.8 billion litres of milk in 2022-23 and directly employs approximately 33,500 people. It is the third-largest rural industry in Australia generating $6.1 billion in farm gate value.
For Sam, keeping the industry local, and bringing in new generations is a passion.
Unsurprisingly, he grew up on a farm and loves the life, however, when his parents were planning retirement, and were wanting to sell the farm, they “didn’t give me the farm when I wanted it” he said with laughter, admitting in later years:
“I realised, well, my parents probably realised too, I was useless. I would have run it into the ground.”
Cultivate Farms was born to “try and find a way to make ownership possible for the next generation of farmers because it’s too hard, it’s an issue that’s popping up all the time.”
Now Sam has helped develop a new project, FNQ Dairy Pathways, designed to provide a way-in for young dairy farmers on the tablelands.
The project will be launched in Malanda from 18 to 19 November.
Two information sessions over the two days will outline a scaleable investment model to grow the local dairy industry and support people entering dairy farming.
The project is modelled on an “amazing” success story, the Circular Head Farms model in Tasmania, that Sam has followed.
“We were researching all over the world on young farming opportunities, and I heard about this guy Stephen Fisher in Tassie in 2017 or 18,” Sam said.
“I rang him up and he said, ‘Yeah, I did do a town hall meeting, and I got people to invest and I bought a farm’.
“Then two years ago I saw an ABC article and I reached out again and he said, ‘yeah, we own 11 farms now, all with local money’. It was unbelievable and I had the idea of replicating it elsewhere.”
So how exactly, does this project work?
“It’s a land trust, a unit trust, that has legal entity. It has directors, and they’ve got a constitution that says it’s for young farmer ownership pathways, using local investment.”
“Then locals invest their money and no one person owns it all. A next-generation farmer runs the farm as a share-farm deal and their target is to be able to buy the farm off the investors.
“So the question is, how do you unlock local investment. And I’m fascinated by that, because I think if young farmers know there is money on the table, then they will fight hard.”
The project has the backing of the Dairy Farmers Milk Cooperative (DFMC), after DFMC Executive Officer Mark Kebbell heard Sam presenting to a young dairy farmer network in Wollongong.
“It is too expensive for many young people to get started in the industry or buy their own farm but we believe that with the right support and local leadership, community investment can provide new options for people to enter and grow in dairy in FNQ,” he said.
Also visiting the region will be Circular Head Farms founder Stephen Fisher, who kicked off the Tasmanian model. It is now up to 12 locally owned farms with more than 9,000 cows, which have provided career opportunities for young farming families.
Stephen will be helping in the logistics of the how-to, and setting up, and would be part of a Malanda steering committee.
“We chose Far North Qld as the place that dairy farmers, and others we’ve been talking to, have said ‘let’s look at it’,” Sam said.
“But in the first instance, we will discuss succession ownership, property costs - more of the why - then ask the attendees if they have the passion, because you really need passion to see this through. Then they decide what it will look like as a model. It’s very exciting.
“People will say ‘well, there’s no money in farming’ but I say, ‘well, you know how to make money on a farm, you know you know how to structure it, you know how to find people.
“That’s the key point, we need communities. Communities know the answers. It’s about locals backing locals.
“Anyone passionate about the future of FNQ dairy farming – including farmers, business owners or local leaders – is encouraged to come to an information session and apply to be a Pathway Leader.”
Information sessions and BBQ
Location: Malanda Dairy Centre, 8 James St, Malanda.
Monday 18 November, 6pm – 7:30pm
Tuesday 19 November, 12:30pm – 2pm
RVSP: Howard.smith@bega.com.au
