Rural Victoria photos: The faces behind the news in February 2021
From bidding wars to secure farm workers to a dairy couple being crowned Australia’s best farmers. We look through the lens at the last month of news in rural Victoria.
FROM growers’ bidding wars to secure harvest workers to the joy of seeing the wool market improving, and a dairy couple being crowned Australia’s best farmers: February has been a big month for rural Victoria.
Here’s what the last month of news from The Weekly Times looked like in pictures.
And for more stunning rural images throughout the year, follow us on Instagram.
EARLY in the month, Inverleigh sheep and wool producer Steven Wishart was “really pleased” to see the wool market improving in early sales.
He said prices for his Burnbrae Poll Merino stud’s clip were getting towards “a fairer return than where it has been”.
The Wishart family had sold 18.3 micron wool for 1530c/kg, the last of the bales from their main shearing last November.
MOUNT Bolton farmer Kate Serrurier shared with The Weekly Times how she lives a very self-sufficient and anti-consumerist lifestyle.
She thinks more people could learn from the four Fs she lives by: farming, foraging, fossicking and frugavoring.
IN THE second week of the month, fishers spoke out warning of a catastrophic fish kill at northern Victoria’s Greens Lake.
Goulburn Valley Association of Angling Clubs president Roland Huber said the lake was barely two metres deep and all that was needed was “a scorcher” to see thousands of Murray cod and golden perch go belly up.
WHILE the farm may be located across the border, these photos captured for The Weekly Times were too beautiful not to be shared.
Progressive family farming business Merrivale Partnership in the NSW Liverpool Plains region was put into the spotlight.
Kate Gunn explained how over the past 40 years the family had developed a dryland-cropping enterprise that has the flexibility to respond to a range of seasonal constraints, particularly the increasing run of hotter and drier summers over the past decade.
AN INDUSTRY-led plan was revealed to boost production of pomegranate and capitalise on demand that currently outstrips supply.
There are fewer than 500ha of pomegranates planted in Australia, however most of the trees have not reached their full potential, meaning domestic demand is largely met with imported produce.
THE latest Farm magazine was released, shining a light on a Gippsland family’s innovative practices to streamline their free-range egg operation.
From solar-powered chook caravans to a super-efficient coolroom, Kumi and Kelvin Slade showed us how they make their small, sustainable Willow-Zen Free Range Eggs operation a success.
FARMERS trying to pick their crops found themselves locked in bidding wars with other growers to secure workers for harvest.
Tom Panna, from stone fruit growers Mattina Fresh, said they found themselves paying “well and truly” above the award rate of $24.80 an hour.
“In some circumstances we’re paying up to $40 per hour,” he told The Weekly Times.
WILL Bennett told The Weekly Times why he switched to a subscription model to sell his farm’s free-range pork after dabbling in farmers’ markets — and never looked back.
Pig and Earth Farm in Kingston have been doing the monthly boxes as part of a community-supported agriculture program for almost three years but Mr Bennett said things really picked up during last winter’s lockdown.
IT WAS a busy one towards the end of the month for shearing contractor Darcy McCarthy and his team who packed the 800th bale of wool for James Hamilton at his Bradford Hills property near Maldon in Central Victoria.
And they expected to get up to 850.
FEBRUARY finished on a high, with Victorian dairy farmers Matt and Alli Reid being crowned The Weekly Times Coles 2020 Farmer of the Year.
The couple from Carlisle River, near Colac, in southwest Victoria, were recognised for overhauling their dairy business to extract maximum returns.
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