STORIES WE LOVE
They asked out loud for a farm, and the district answered
By Sam Marwood
Story from ABC Rural, 10 August 2021
Every now and then I find a story that shows exactly what we're about at Cultivate Farms: real people finding a way to keep a farm working and bring someone new onto it. I share them here because seeing it done by others makes it real. Here's one I love.
From ABC Rural, 10 August 2021: "Young sharefarmers send out urgent call for help, then social media, rural listeners come to rescue", by Angus Verley. Read the full story at abc.net.au.
Why I love it
A couple with a baby daughter had been sharefarming on the Great Ocean Road for fifteen months and built a herd of more than fifty cows. Then word came that the farm was being sold, and they had six weeks to be off it. Without another sharefarm they'd have had to sell the cows and leave dairying altogether.
So they said so. They put it on Facebook and they talked about it on rural radio. The response was overwhelming and the messages kept coming. Out of that came a sharefarm with people who wanted to farm the way they do, up near Shepparton, about five hours away. She says they're aiming to lease a farm and own one inside ten years.
Why it matters for towns like ours
Aspiring farmers get told to be patient and wait for something to come up. Nothing on the market had what these two needed, and they had six weeks. What worked was telling people plainly and publicly what they had and what they were after. The offer came from somebody who heard about it, not from an advertisement. Every district has farms needing a person and people needing a farm, and most of the time nobody says a word.
One step you could take
Write a few lines saying what you've got, what you can run, and the sort of arrangement you're after. Then tell everyone who'd listen: your vet, your milk hauler, the local radio, your own page. Read how finding a farm starts with relationships in our You Can Own a Farm guide.
I share these stories because each one shows it can be done, by ordinary farming families, in places like yours. If you know a story like this, or you're living one, I'd love to hear it.