Working on our dream

2 posts

Member for

5 years 8 months
Last seen: 07/04/2018 - 09:26
Joined: 07/03/2018 - 11:57

Working on our dream

Hi All, My name is Adrian and I am from Melbourne. My wife and 3 kids are looking at a tree change and wanting to start looking at moving to the bush and starting a sustainable farm for us with a view to turning some profits. We are both realists and understand we cant just switch this on and away we go. We are reading up on forums, blogs and guides for the best way to approach and plan this. I would love for you guys to provide any internet based information to help us prepare a plan and an approach to how we are going to successfully transfer...what I am really interested in is: - Start Up training courses or guides - People's experiences on property selection - Choosing your niche markets - Choosing the crops and livestock based on location - Financing (I think though we will be mortgage free) - Leasing land for livestock grazing Our approach will be to continue our current roles at work (but mostly remote on the farm) with a view to decreasing this as we build our farm up... I would like to make sure that we put in place the plans for us to be successful. We are not looking at starting out big and biting off more than we can chew but maybe looking at a great veggie patch, chickens, goats etc and build as we become more experienced and can expand our Poiret. Any help, advice, experience etc would be very much valued and I thank you for reading my post :) Adrian
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Last seen: 03/19/2024 - 11:03
Joined: 02/28/2011 - 14:19

Hi Adrian,

Welcome to the small farms forum and thanks for the question.

Please see answers below to your questions:

- Start Up training courses or guides. TAFE (or the equivalent in Victoria) often run short farming courses
- People's experiences on property selection. Below are the criteria which I suggest you consider, we also offer pre-purchase farm inspections

  • Water resources
  • Legal requirements
  • Land capability
  • Fencing & likely costs
  • Declared weeds
  • Soil management
  • Stocking rates
  • Pasture quality and grazing management
  • Native vegetation
  • Machinery & farm infrastructure requirements

- Choosing your niche markets. I would sonsider value adding a product rather then a niche market, there are a number of niche markets which are now over supplied.
- Choosing the crops and livestock based on location. This will depend on the geography, rainfall (winter or summer dominant and soil type. 
- Financing (I think though we will be mortgage free). As a rough rule of thumb, if the land area is <50ha it can usually be financed as a home loan and you can borrow up to 80% without mortgage insurance. If the land area is >50ha it will need to be financed as a business loan and you can usually borrow up to 60-70%. For further information contact Alison from Rivendell Finance who specialises in small farm finance.
- Leasing land for livestock grazing. It is an option particularly if you lease some land next to where you have purchased to make the management of the livestock easier.

I hope this has been of assistance.

Regards,
Charlie

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