Melissa Joy and Cultivate Farms team up to support future farmers

AgriFutures Victorian 2018 Rural Woman of the Year Melissa Joy (formerly Melissa Connors) has teamed up with Cultivate Farms to design a series of events, connections, farm consulting services and practical advice to help those new to the industry to avoid costly mistakes and enjoy their farming experience.

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Cultivate Farms CEO Amy Cockroft said the Regenerator program covered the large and diverse area of regenerative agriculture which could "mean different things to different farms".

"Anyone who's committed to regenerative agriculture isn't just going in with the conventional farming methods," Ms Cockroft said.

"It's really about keeping the soil in good health and seeing what you can do to return a lot of nutrients to the soil as you go along so that the farming can be sustained over a long period.

"I think conventionally we've sort of done a lot (in Australia) of ploughing and fertilising and taking everything back to bare earth, whereas in regenerative agriculture, we'll look at doing things like planting cover crops for when you're cropping and then returning some of that back to the soil as tillage.

"And when you're looking at cattle grazing, you actually do it in what's called pulse grazing or crash grazing, where the animals will come in and they will just graze small pockets of land really intensely and then move on.

"So it actually mimics the way that kangaroos used to move through the land and sort of graze it all out and then move on to the next one and the next one."

Ms Cockroft said the program, which Cultivate Farms would run alongside Ms Joy, was designed for people new to farming.

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"A lot of people move onto land not necessarily knowing the best way to look after it, and it can end up costing them quite a bit of money if they're not doing it properly because you just make mistakes," she said.

"So 'Regenerator' is really about connecting people with experts in their field, helping them to put together a farm plan so they can know how much to invest in, how to get a return on the land and then also return it to health and increase biodiversity on the land if that's their values as well."

Ms Joy said she had learnt through her own experience how costly those early mistakes could be when starting out on a larger property.

"I was so excited about living on acreage, but I didn't really know what I was in for," she said.

"I thought it would just be a 'bigger' suburban block, but there's so much more to it than that. Whether you have five acres, or 500, there will be something in this program that everyone can learn.

"Plus the supportive environment will help you make friends and connections with others in your local community with similar experiences."

The farm management program will include four consulting sessions with specialist farm advisors, social events, monthly workshops with like-minded farmers and specialists, and field trips to working farms to meet people that have already established successful farms in the region.

By the end of the year, participants will have written a farm plan that is specific to their own farm vision and will have benefitted from the expertise of agronomists who can guide their plan.

Those interested in the program can contact contact@thisfarmneedsafarmer.com.au for more information.

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