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Back To The AgFutures ForumInterest is growing among Gippsland farmers keen to gain an insight from Department of Primary Industries (DPI) AgFutures forums on the strategic decisions needed for adapting their businesses to changes affecting agriculture in their region. By Department of Primary Industries - 11th December 2009 - Back to News DPI AgFutures Project Officer, Karen Thomas said that as an example this year, Bass Coast hosted three forums, two in June and one in October, that explored the issues of climate and land use changes.
"For our follow up session, farmers wanted to drill down into grazing viability and the growing issue of residential lifestyle properties being developed in land traditionally utilised by grazing industries," Ms Thomas said.
"To address these issues, we brought in two experts, Ross Batten from DPI’s Meat and Wool team and Martin Gill from Bass Coast Shire Council."
Ross Batten told the forum that good farmers are naturally strategic planners that constantly think about outcomes for the future.
He challenged the participants to think differently about the way they operate and crunch their numbers, and said it was possible to make money from farming.
"To do this, you must be fully informed and you need to understand the laws of supply and demand, and market competition."
"A quick example might be a beef shortage and whether prices will go up? In an overseas market this may mean some countries may be forced to borrow more money to buy the beef, but if this is not possible they may choose to substitute with another food source from a different market.
"Farmers that do well understand the risks of income generation, and make fully informed, confident decisions based on facts and information available to them at the time.
"Coping with change requires the ability to separate emotional decisions from business decisions, especially in a bad season.
"This means avoiding being too sentimental about the business enterprise when times are tough, being motivated to farm, always questioning strategic decision making and not being afraid to change," Mr Batten said.
Martin Gill said that Bass Coast Shire recognised the ‘right to farm’ and the need to protect its agricultural industries.
"The fragmentation of rural land through the creation of small rural lots within the Farming Zone and Rural Conservation Zone would be strongly discouraged," Mr Gill said.
The forum facilitated a robust discussion on ways to protect farm businesses in Bass Coast Shire alongside other land uses such as tourism, forestry, timber and extractive industries.
Ms Thomas said evaluation of Bass Coast forums indicated that farmers were very satisfied with them and had called for more opportunities to get together and discuss farming issues.
Details of a new series of AgFutures forums for Gippsland will be announced in early 2010.
For more information on the DPI AgFutures program please contact Karen Thomas on 0488 372 411.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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