DAIRY farmers are optimistic prices will improve in the second half of the 2012-13 milk season. A wet and cold winter was the precursor for a difficult first half of the season, with farmers disappointed with returns. Peter and Wilma Mackay of Poowong have been supplying milk to Burra Foods for more than 20 years. [...]
GIVE young farmers options and opportunity and they will do amazing things. This is what 2012 Nuffield Scholar and Dumbalk North farmer Damian Murphy believes, and he wants to do something to make these options and opportunities readily available to young farmers. As part of his scholarship, Mr Murphy has designed the Young Farmers Finance [...]
PAUL Hannigan and partner Kylie Irvin seem to live by the mantra, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. The Fish Creek farmers are the South Gippsland focus of the Tactics for Tight Times project, which is aimed at spreading information on how to cope with low milk prices and high grain costs. [...]
FARM sales are gaining pace despite low commodity prices and the high Australian dollar casting an air of caution over buyers. Real estate agents reported some sales in recent months but predominantly little enquiry from buyers. Vendors have reduced prices compared to 18 months ago just to secure sales. Elders is expecting to sell three [...]
CALF exporting can be risky but profitable and Noel Gregg is benefiting from the market. The Poowong North farmer is making the most of his 96 acres, exporting more than 300 calves to China in the last year. After giving up milking when he reached the age of retirement around six years ago, Noel wanted [...]
FOCUS farmers Jon and Lauren Ryan and Alan and Christine Clyne have a problem many Gippsland farmers would like to have – how to keep up with the rate of grass growth. The Newry dairy farmers have plenty of water, but aren’t saturated like other parts of the region. Combine that with the warm weather [...]
MARIAN Macdonald from Jack Creek, author of dairy farming blog: The Milk Maid Marian, has recently gained a new addition to her family. At Easter, Patch was welcomed on to the farm. A dog of working bloodlines, Patch was rescued from St Albans in Melbourne, to become a new family pet. “We like working dogs, [...]
TWO dairying young guns from South Gippsland will head to New Zealand early next year as part of the United Dairy Farmers of Victoria Study Tour 2013. William Colbert from Inverloch and Sally Pate from Leongatha were two of five lucky candidates chosen to take the trip across the Tasman to learn all about our [...]
SOUTH Gippsland is renowned for its rolling hills but for Dave Sutton, treed hills are better than bald ones. Dave may call Inverloch home, but he has transformed an Arawata property. The 15-and-a-half acre farmlet was cleared and sown to pasture when Dave bought it in 1989. In 1998, he began to take planting seriously [...]
A NEW program to help new farmers and others improve their skills and use farm equipment safely has been given a funding boost. A grant from the William Buckland Foundation is assisting Community College Gippsland to extend its new Farming for Beginners program. The weekend workshop program has opened a new opportunity for hobby farmers [...]