In this edition

Latest news

• Network Outage Review panel to meet at Mirboo North
• Horticultural Netting Program: applications close 8 April

Events, programs and workshops

• BBQ and chat with a mate: Raglan
• People management, planning for success: Hamilton
• Farm Business Resilience workshop series: Rochester/Elmore – final 2 workshops
• Weed information sessions: Tongala and Rushworth
• Ag Vic at Farm World: Lardner Park
• Calculating carbon for sheep and beef producers: Benalla
• Planning your recovery: Beaufort
• A BBQ masterclass for Gannawarra men: HALT on tour in Gannawarra
• Ag Vic at East Gippsland Field Days: Bairnsdale

Resources

• Making sense of carbon and emissions for Victorian farmers: webinar recording
• After the Flood: stories of farmer recovery and resilience podcast season
• Feeding livestock 'how to' videos available
• Farm Fitness Checklist
• Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool
• My Climate View

Agriculture recovery support for farmers

• Technical information and decision-making support
• Emergency Recovery Victoria
• Rural Financial Counselling Service
• National Centre for Farmer Health
• Health and personal wellbeing
• Farm Business Resilience Program

The Network Outage Review panel will be at Mirboo North on Saturday 23 March and Sunday 24 March to hear from the community and businesses on the impacts of the power outage following the 13 February 2024 storm event.

The review panel is chaired by Rosemary Sinclair, the former CEO of Energy Consumers Australia, with panel members Gerard Brody, the former chief executive of the Consumer Action Law Centre, and Kevin Kehl, a former electrical engineer and executive leader at Powerlink Queensland and Energex.

The Review will provide the Victorian Government with identification of best practice systems, resources and technologies for managing extended outages, and the need for industry wide adoption to support rapid restoration of power to Victorian homes and businesses following storm events.

Direct input from the community, businesses and stakeholders, including through public panel meetings and written contributions will be considered by the panel, as will input from the Australian Energy Market Operator, Australian Energy Regulator, Energy Safe Victoria, the Essential Services Commission, and other regulators.

Location: Baromi Centre, 38 Couper Street, Mirboo North

Time: from 10 am to 3 pm, with panel presentations at 11 am and 1 pm each day.

A copy of the panel’s terms of reference is located here: Power outages (energy.vic.gov.au).

For further details, please email networkoutagereview@deeca.vic.gov.au

Grants of up to $150,000 are available to eligible producers of commercial horticulture crops, excluding wine grapes, to purchase and install new netting over established production areas. The program now includes a self-installation allowance if you wish to self-install netting.

Applications close 8 April 2024.

For more information about the program visit the Horticultural Netting Grants for Victorian Horticulturalists page on our website.

This program is delivered by the Victorian Government on behalf of the Australian Government.

People management, planning for success: Hamilton

Beef producers are invited to a free farm business success workshop with Helen Chenoweth, Agriculture Victoria Business Resilience Officer.

People management can be challenging if you’re not up to date with the right information.

Helen will cover important aspects of employment such as recruitment, legal requirements, wages and superannuation to set you up for success.

Get all the tips and tools to create a productive, positive workplace culture, how to attract and retain staff and how to deal with conflict. Helen will also touch on where to start with succession planning and farm safety.

Location: Agriculture Victoria Office, 915 Napier Road, Hamilton

Date and time: Tuesday 19 March, 10 am to 2 pm

More information: email Chris Blore or call 0428 155 781.

Farm Business Resilience workshop series: Rochester/Elmore – final 2 workshops

Do you want to build a stronger, more productive farm business?

Agriculture Victoria has a free workshop series to help you build more resilience in your farm business. You will leave each face-to-face workshop with new skills and an action plan to achieve your business goals.

It's not too late to join the final 2 workshops in this series. Details below.

Location: Pine Grove Fire Station, 2691 Whinfield Road, Lockington 

Remaining workshops:

Workshop 3: People success – Thursday 21 March, 9 am to 12:30 pm

Dairy Biosecurity and Business Resilience Officer, Helen Chenoweth, will deliver a workshop on managing people on farm, succession planning and farm safety.

Workshop 4: Climate risk and Natural Resource Management – Tuesday 26 March, 9 am to 12:30 pm

Seasonal Risk Agronomist, Dale Grey and Dairy Biosecurity and Business Resilience Officer, Helen Chenoweth, will deliver a workshop on understanding and identifying climate risk and natural resource management on farm.

Register here for the workshops. 

More information: email Elizabeth Alsop or call 0457 838 537.

Weed information sessions: Tongala and Rushworth

Are weeds currently impacting your farm? Come along to a weed information session and hear from presenter Jim Castle of Castles Environmental.

Location, date and time:

• Tongala Shire Hall, Tuesday 19 March, 6 to 8 pm
• Rushworth Hall, Thursday 21 March, 6 to 8 pm

More information: email Agriculture Recovery Officer, Elizabeth Alsop or call 0457 838 537.

Ag Vic at Farm World: Lardner Park

Come and say hi to us in the General Interest Pavilion.

Talk to our dairy and animal health staff about farm biosecurity and emergency animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease. Discuss your on-farm biosecurity management plan and pick up a biosecurity sign.

Also talk to our staff about climate resilience and recovery, and farm safety.

Receive a free Health and Lifestyle Assessment from the National Centre for Farmer Health or learn about Q Fever from staff from the Gippsland Region Public Health Unit.

Location: Lardner Park, sites 19-21/47-48, General Interest Pavilion

Date: 22, 23 and 24 March

More information: Farm World 2024

Calculating carbon for sheep and beef producers: Benalla

Join Professor Richard Eckard of the University of Melbourne for a free workshop hosted by Agriculture Victoria to guide you through
calculating emissions for your sheep or beef farm.

The workshop will be delivered in a hybrid format for participants to attend in-person or online via Zoom.

Location: Lakeside Community Centre, Benalla

Date and time: Thursday 4 April, 9 am to 1 pm

Some preparation will be required prior to the workshop, from information and resources supplied following registration.

Register here.

More information: email Kirstie Anderson or call 0437 990 967.

Planning your recovery: Beaufort

A free whole farm planning course for Beaufort district farmers. Share your knowledge, ideas and prepare a new plan for your farm. 

Workshop topics include:

• Farm design and layout
• Soils and land classing
• Pasture and grazing/feed management
• Farm water supply
• Farm business planning
• Adapting to a changing climate.

Location: Beeripmo Development Centre, 1 Lawrence Street, Beaufort

Dates: starting Thursday 11 April and every Thursday for 4 to 6 weeks

Cost: Free; lunch will be provided.

Register here, by Friday 22 March.

More information: email Clem Sturmfels or call 0429 018 879.

Note: an updated Property Identification Code (PIC) is required so a large, laminated map of your farm can be printed. Go to pic.agriculture.vic.gov.au. If you don’t have a PIC, select ‘Apply for a PIC’ or to check your map area select ‘Amend or confirm existing PIC details’. Contact Hannah Manning on 0400 532 595 if you need assistance.

Ag Vic at East Gippsland Field Days: Bairnsdale

Come and say hello to the team at the East Gippsland Field Days.

They'll be sharing the tent with GippsDairy and the Rural Financial Counselling Service.

Talk to our staff about a range of issues including biosecurity, farm safety, climate resilience and ag recovery.

Location: Bairnsdale Aerodrome

Date: Friday 5 and Saturday 6 April

More information: East Gippsland Field Days

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Making sense of carbon and emissions for Victorian farmers: webinar recording

Victorian farm businesses are getting on with the job of growing more food and fibre, while dealing with changeable seasons and weather patterns. We also know that more attention is being paid to the carbon and emissions performance of our agricultural industries and farms.

In this webinar recording, Agriculture Victoria's climate team share some tools and resources they have developed to support the farming communities of Victoria to make sense of carbon and emissions on farm.

Presented by:

• Heather Field, Climate Change Service Development Officer
• Graeme Anderson, Program Manager, Climate Change
• Alison Kelly, Farm Emissions Specialist.

View the recording here.

This webinar was originally presented on Tuesday 27 February 2024 at 12 pm.

More information: agriculture.vic.gov.au/climate-webinars

After the Flood: stories of farmer recovery and resilience podcast season

Agriculture Victoria’s new podcast season ‘After the flood: stories of farmer recovery and resilience’ explores the recovery required after a natural disaster, the support provided and the resilience of Victorian famers, including how different industries are recovering.

Episodes now available on the Agriculture Victoria website:

• Episode 1: From crisis to cash flow with Chris Steele
• Episode 2: Farming through the floods with Murray van der Drift
• Episode 3: Hives in harm's way – navigating future weather events with Natalie Doran-Browne
• Episode 4: On the right track to recovery with Simone Murdoch and Darryl Pearl.
• Episode 5: Overcoming tragedy and shifting attitudes with Brad McEwan
• Episode 6: Many ways to repair with Bianca Jones and Anna McGee
• Episode 7: Active Farmers – building strong bodies and stronger communities with Claire Harrison
• Episode 8: Navigating flooded vineyards with Matt Partridge

The season has been produced by Agriculture Victoria in partnership with the National Centre for Farmer Health #BuildingFarmSpirit program.

Feeding livestock 'how to' videos available

A series of short ‘How to’ videos that work through key considerations for feeding livestock are now available on the Feeding Livestock website.

The calculations are ‘back of the envelope’, easy to follow and can be readily adapted to a range of feeding scenarios for cattle or sheep.

In the 4 videos, Livestock Industry Development Officer Nick Linden demonstrates how to calculate ‘what to feed’, ‘costing out your feeds’, ‘how much to feed’, and ‘estimating animal performance’.

• ‘What to feed’ looks at the key considerations in choosing supplements for stock by calculating their requirements and the energy density of feed against its cost.
• ‘Costing out your feed’ shows you how to make sure what you’re feeding to your animals is the most cost-effective option.
• ‘How much to feed’ looks at getting the balance right in developing a feed budget by avoiding the pitfalls of too much or too little feed.
• ‘Estimating animal performance’ covers the calculations to use in determining what level of performance you can expect from your cattle in comparing a couple of different feed stuffs.

The videos have been produced as part of Agriculture Victoria’s 2022–23 Flood and Storm Recovery Project.

Farm Fitness Checklist

The Farm Fitness Checklist helps farmers assess where their business is at currently, and to identify areas and opportunities to strengthen their farm business.

It covers subjects including people management, skills and training, business planning and financial performance, emergency management, infrastructure, water supply, natural resource management, risk management, succession planning, off-farm activities and more.

Download the Farm Fitness Checklist from the Agriculture Victoria website.

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A range of support measures are available for farmers who have been impacted by natural disasters. Information about these measures can be found at agriculture.vic.gov.au/floods. For any urgent animal welfare needs, please contact 136 186.

Agriculture Victoria is working with Victorian farmers and industry to prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters (including floods and storms) through delivery of technical information and decision-making support services to help farm business recovery including: 

• Grazing, cropping and pasture management
• Irrigation and horticulture system rehabilitation 
• Soil erosion management  
• Land management 
• Animal health and nutrition  
• Farm mapping and planning  
• Water quality
• Weed management.

Farmers are encouraged to contact the Agriculture Recovery team on Phone: 0427 694 185 or Email recovery@agriculture.vic.gov.au.

Recovery support is available for people affected by the:

• February 2024 Victorian storms
• February 2024 Western Victorian bushfires
• December 2023 to January 2024 Victorian storms and floods. 

To find out more, contact the Emergency Recovery Hotline on 1800 560 760 from 8 am to 7 pm, Monday to Friday, and 9 am to 5 pm on weekends, or visit the Emergency Recovery Victoria website.

Have you been impacted by recent floods, fires or dry seasonal conditions?

The Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS) provides a free and confidential financial counselling service to eligible farmers and small related enterprises who are experiencing, or at risk of, financial hardship.

They can help you to access available support, analyse your business situation, negotiate with lenders and develop strategies to improve your financial position.

Find your closest service here or call 1300 771 741.

The National Centre for Farmer Health (NCFH) is committed to supporting primary producers whose properties, livestock or crops were damaged or lost in the floods and storms. There are a number of resources available on the NCFH website to support farmer health, wellbeing and safety.

Managing stress on the farm

Click to read or download this Managing Stress on the Farm book from the National Centre for Farmer Health website. You can also request free hard copies from the website.

It is normal to have strong reactions following a distressing or frightening event and people can experience a range of physical, mental, emotional and behavioural reactions.

There are a number of support services available (listed below) to assist you and your family recover from the strong emotional or physical reactions you may be experiencing.

Are you concerned about your own mental health? Reach out to Lifeline for a safe place to talk on 13 11 14.

Other available support includes:

• Your doctor or local community health centre
• A counsellor or psychologist
• Parentline 13 22 89
• Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
• Nurse-On-Call 1300 60 60 24 – for expert health information and advice (24 hours, 7 days)
• Australian Psychological Society Referral Service 1800 333 497.

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The Farm Business Resilience (FBR) Program is supporting farmers to develop knowledge and skills to improve their farm business and manage the impacts of a changing climate.

The program supports farmers to improve skills and management practices around 4 key areas:

• Business planning and risk management
• Farm finances and profitable decision making
• Managing people on farm, farm safety and wellbeing
• Climate adaptation and natural resource management including soil, water, crops and pastures.

More information about the Farm Business Resilience Program is available at agriculture.vic.gov.au/FBRP or the Our Farm, Our Plan web page for information about the dairy program.

Information about upcoming FBR events is regularly posted on the Agriculture Victoria website.

The Farm Business Resilience Program is jointly funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and the Victorian Government’s Future Agriculture Skills Capacity Fund.

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