FOR ASPIRING FARMERS

How do you get into farming in Australia?

You get into farming by working on farms, building relationships with the farmers around you, and making a plan that shows you'd run a real business. Then you earn your way on with a retiring farmer, through a lease, share farming, buying in over time, lease to buy or vendor finance.

You need three things

You need inspiration, to know it's possible. You need perseverance, to find the opportunities. And you need a plan, to show yourself and a retiring farmer or a backer that you have a pathway to a successful business.

Access to land and capital are the biggest barriers. Too many people turn away at them and take a job that leaves them unsatisfied.

Work on farms

No one is much good at anything without training, mentoring and experience. Working on a farm, or many farms, is how you put what you know into practice. A strong reference from a farmer about your work ethic will make the people who could back you more confident.

If you can, start farming on someone else's land. Lease a bit of dirt, run a few head of cattle, grow something. It shows you're on your way.

Build relationships

Getting onto a farm is centred on relationships. Start a little black book: every retirement aged farmer you meet or hear about in the areas you'd like to farm, every rural real estate agent, every accountant and succession planner who works with farming families. To them, you're a solution they don't know about yet.

Talk about your vision every week. Help a farmer out for free: feed their stock while they're away, help fix a fence, lend a hand at shearing. Join the local Landcare group. Opportunities come from people who know what you want.

Make a plan

A written plan for how you'll run the farm business is what convinces a retiring farmer you're serious and gives a backer confidence. Start it now, before a farm comes along. When the right one turns up, it's far more likely to go to someone who can have a pitch ready in a few days.

Find your way onto the land

There are several proven ways onto a farm, and each has upsides and downsides:

• A flexible lease. A lower base rent plus a share of the profit, so a bad year doesn't leave you with a fixed payment you can't meet.
• Share farming. You and the owner split the costs and the income, so you both share the season.
• Buying in over time. You buy as much equity in the land as you can afford, and you aim to buy more over time.
• Lease to buy. You lease with an option to buy at a price agreed at the start.
• Vendor finance. You pay a deposit and the farmer lends you the rest, paid back on agreed terms.

Which one suits you depends on where you're at, and on what the retiring farmer is open to.

Be patient and keep going

You may work through many farmers and many local backers, and hear plenty of no's, and it can take years. Each pitch gets you feedback for the next one. A retiring farmer who wants to work with you is a massive opportunity, and you only need one farmer to back you.

The full guide, You Can Own a Farm, is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.

You can build your own plan at cultivatefarms.com/plan.