Green Gate Farm in Albury is a school with a difference, teaching TAFE students about agroecology in a hands-on environment.
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Since 1989, the 190h certified organic farm has supplied the Albury-Wodonga region with a range of produce, including lamb, pork, eggs, honey, mushrooms and a variety of vegetables.
On Saturday, head teacher Rob Fenton will be the first guest speaker at the SCPA South Coast Field Days at Cobargo.
In his presentation, “Some People I Know Just Have to be Farmers”, Mr Fenton will discuss how to transition into sustainable, small scale farming.
“Some of my students inherit farms, but for the others it can be incredibly difficult to work up the capital to buy land and get a farm operational,” he said.
“These are passionate people, who really are farmers at their core, but are struggling to get land, so it’s about looking at some of the other options available.”
Of the thousands of students who have passed through Green Gate Farm over the years, most are city based people, rather than generational farmers. The biggest obstacle they face after they complete their education is access to land.
Mr Fenton has previously held forums to connect current and aspiring farmers with each other, in the hope of fostering land sharing or leasing agreements.
“Land sharing is positive in theory, but can hold risks for both sides,” he said.
“Setting up a farm is very time consuming, a new farmer requires a long term lease to establish themselves.
“But for land owners, long term agreements are risky because the farm could fail or family or financial troubles could come up.”
Another complexity that faces small hobby and retail farms is the issue of scale.
Mr Fenton said many people walk into the retail farming business wearing rose-coloured glasses, with too much focus on the lifestyle and not enough on the business model.
“It’s an issue of scale, many people think they can just scale an industrial farm model down to their project size, but that’s not a viable business strategy,” he said.
“If you do that you will be tripped up by finances and tight commodity margins, you need to take a fresh approach to your production.”
As a former industrial scale farmer, and after many years of trial and error, Mr Fenton has developed a functional business plan for Green Gate Farm.
“Retail farms need to focus on customers and meet demand on a weekly basis, we can’t sell 100 lamb chops one week and then none the next,” he said.
“That is what sets us apart from industrial farming, we need to produce a consistent amount of produce all year round that caters directly to our customers needs.”
The South Coast Field Days are being held at Cobargo Showground, Saturday and Sunday, September 23-24. Visit southcoastfielddays.com.au, for the full program.