THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THEIR HAND UP

The flier at the hardware store

The couple's flier was still up on the board at the hardware store, curled at one corner.

The relief milker read it every time he came in for fencing wire. He milked on half the dairies in the district, and he'd watched the couple's blue heifers grow from calves.

One Friday he took a photo of it.

That night he made his own: his photo, the herds he'd milked, the calves he'd reared, and a number to ring. Across the top he wrote, Next generation farmers, looking for a farm to buy together.

At the footy on Saturday he asked three of his mates. One worked at the milk factory, one drove a tanker, and one milked over the hill.

"You in?"

They were in. They wrote their own list on the back of the footy fixture and knocked on doors for a month. The stock agent laughed and gave them a few names, the same as he had for the couple.

The farm came from a knock on a Tuesday night. A farmer ready to sell liked the idea of four locals buying his place together and farming it.

They put their own money in to buy that farm together. Then they brought on the people who could make it happen: an accountant, a solicitor and a bank manager who'd played footy with them.

The couple heard about it after it was all done, from the hardware store owner, while they were buying calf feed.

"Did it all himself," the hardware store owner said. "He just loved the idea."

On the way out she stopped at the board. The relief milker's flier was pinned up right beside theirs.

This is an illustration. The district and its people are made up.

You Can Own a Farm is free at cultivatefarms.com/resources.