Hello Farmer: VFF Horticulture president Emma Germano grows for it

A STRONG work ethic and ability to think laterally are paying off for this horticulture leader, writes SARAH HUDSON.

In charge: New Victorian Farmers Federation horticulture president Emma Germano on her family’s farm in Gippsland.

YOUNG gun. Rising star. Wunderkind.

These are terms used to describe Emma Germano. For good reason.

Since returning to her family’s 120ha mixed vegetable and livestock farm in Gippsland’s Mirboo North in 2010, Emma has gone on to complete a Nuffield scholarship, fight the Federal Government’s backpacker tax in her work with the Victorian Farmers Federation (next week she officially takes over as president of the VFF’s horticulture group), all the while diversifying the property with a farm shop, ­introducing export markets and livestock opportunities.

And in April she launched her new business, a social media app called Hello Farmer that is “like Uber for vegetable farmers”, linking backpacker employees to farmers and providing templates to ensure that employment is legal.

“What’s the saying? If you want something done, give it to a busy person,” said the 32-year-old.

“Saying no is not one of my strong points.”

The family business — recently branded “I Love Farms” — was started by her parents, Laurie and Maria, in 1979, on land first farmed in 1945 by Emma’s grandfather Salvatore, who originally had a mixed potato, sheep and cattle business. Emma is now operations manager.

DIVERSE SPREAD

WHEN Emma arrived back on the farm in 2010 the focus was on vegetable crops, which continues today, but with more diversification.

Emma said to her parents’ credit, they had allowed her the freedom to introduce ideas on the farm — even if they knew they wouldn’t work — so she has learnt by doing, and admits she has learnt from her mistakes.

I Love Farms produces 50,000 head of cauliflower a week for five months of the year, on 30ha, from mid-February to mid-July, sold to the wholesale markets and a major supermarket through an intermediary.

The Germanos also grow about five varieties of potatoes on 30ha, yielding about eight tonnes/ha, and sell direct to packers and processors.

“When I first came back to the farm, Dad was selling to the wholesale market and I said ‘I can’t believe you put so much effort into growing the crop and you don’t follow the supply chain or have control of the price you get’,” Emma said.

“I thought we’d sell to Woolworths and that would fix everything.

“But I’ve now realised what might be right in theory isn’t right in practice. Now, I just don’t agree with the duopoly so we are trying to sell as much stock outside as possible, with more into the wholesale markets, where I have good relationships with wholesalers and making sure they’re doing the right thing by us.

“In 2010 I wanted to be a big grower and wanted to look for investment to grow the vegetable side, but now we prefer to diversify. We want to be nimble and change with the market forces.”

GROWING PAINS

EMMA said when she returned to the farm she even convinced her father to grow winter crops of cauliflower, which ended up losing them money.

“I dig in my heels and Dad just gives me the opportunity and when I’m proven wrong he just says, ‘Oh really love’.”

In 2014 Emma completed a Nuffield scholarship, looking at export opportunities for primary produce, which last year saw the family send their first consignment of cauliflower overseas, and about 25 shipments to date.

“It’s another one of those ideas good in theory, but may not work in practice because we’re a small grower, but there could be opportunities to work with other growers in the future,” she said.

Another of Emma’s ideas has been to establish an on-farm shop with an honesty box — an idea inspired by her Nuffield scholarship.

The farm produces about five crops (including tomato, zucchini, cucumber and pumpkin) in their market garden, and buys other crops from surrounding farms.

“It really has the potential to get bigger and we’re already starting to do boxed deliveries through Facebook.

“I love it because it’s about talking directly with the consumer about how food is grown.”

She said the idea for diversification into sheep and cattle started initially as a business opportunity, but has been a bonus in providing a rotation to ensure soil health.

As opportunistic beef buyers, throughout the year — but particularly in the non-growing season of winter — the Germanos will buy mixed breeds to fatten and sell.

“We’re also looking at my uncle’s dairy herd as a beef opportunity,” said Emma, adding they could stock considerably more but they were in the process of finessing the model.

BAA MADE

THE family has a flock of 60 self-replacing Dorper-cross sheep, with a view to using their meat in the on-farm shop, while last year they opportunistically bought 800 lambs at 12-15kg and fattened them, selling at 25kg carcass weight.

“The challenge with intensive vegetable growing is rotation.

“Our land has been saying to us it’s sick of brassicas — we’ve had issues with clubroot — and so we’re looking to make sure we get our rotation right,” Emma said.

“In the past I would have said the land has to fit to our business model, but it’s the other way round now. It just doesn’t work like that.”

I Love Farms has two fulltime workers, about 12 seasonal staff and two part-time professional staff, as well as Emma and her parents.

Emma said as her profile in the horticulture industry grew, so did her concern about using contractual labour.

“Again, I learnt the hard way and I was right in theory, but not in practice, when we didn’t use the contractor and we lost crop after my family were out there picking 40,000 head of cauliflower.

“It was a disaster.”

The Germanos began employing backpackers, which led to Emma’s work with the VFF, and eventually led to Treasurer Scott Morrison slashing the proposed tax rate on working holiday makers in Australia from 32.5 per cent to 15 per cent.

On the back of this work, Emma has now launched a new app, called Hello Farmer, a free resource linking farmers to backpacker labour, but with a fee for those who need help with paperwork.