Year of the Farmer profile

AFTER 10 years of drought and a horror year of floods, Dehne Vinnicombe is looking forward to a smoother ride – but not without challenges.

The fifth generation Mitiamo farmer’s 1200 acres of land, a shared enterprise with his father Ron Vinnicombe, was swamped during last year’s January deluge and it’s only now they have recovered from the $400,000 worth of damage caused by the natural disaster.

“Our whole farm went under, we lost 22 cows and we couldn’t milk for two days because the cow shed went under water,” Mr Vinnicombe said.

“My wife and kids were evacuated from the property for some time and we just had to deal with a lot of animal health issues following the flood.

“We’ve just about recovered from all of it now but the ground still hasn’t recovered. We don’t have the same amount of feed on the ground that we generally do at this time of the year.”

With the drought and floods behind them, the Vinnicombes, like many dairy farmers, see the carbon tax as an “interesting” challenge ahead.

Some have estimated the tax will cost dairy farmers an extra $5000 per year.

“I think it’s unfair. The thing that annoys me is that I don’t see how we can compete worldwide if the other countries aren’t doing it,” Mr Vinnicombe said. “The other uncertainty is the world market, on which 90 per cent of Australian farmers base their prices.”

In an expanding global market, Mr Vinnicombe would also like to see more local support for Australian-made dairy products.

“Australia makes high quality products and yet supermarkets still sell products from other countries and we have to compete against it.”

Despite the challenges ahead, Mr Vinnicombe is confident his farming enterprise will march on.

The Vinnicombes milk more than 240 dairy cattle and supply their milk to the Murray Goulburn factory at Rochester.