AgVic Talk

In this episode we hear from Dr Alessio Scalisi, one of Agriculture Victoria’s research scientists based at Tatura. Join Alessio as he discusses his experience relocating to Australia, adapting to life in regional Victoria and how advances in sensing and remote technologies are creating new career opportunities in agricultural research. For more information about the Agriculture Victoria SmartFarm...

The future of agriculture is smart, with on-farm technology leading the way for productivity and efficiency gains. In this episode we hear about the Agriculture Victoria Get into AgSTEM workshops conducted at our research facilities, AgriBio and regional SmartFarms. The workshops are aligned to school curriculum and give students hands-on experience working with technology in an agricultural conte...

East Gippsland bush nurse, Sue Carroll is passionate about her community and committed to ensuring that farmers and farming families are supported by a service that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Join Sue to find out about the Bush Nursing in Gippsland pilot and how it is making a difference and improving health outcomes for farmers and farming families. Visit Smarter, Safer Farms...

Limited experience and training are not barriers to getting into the horticultural industry, as orchard manager, Cliff Bramich, and farmhand, Peter Finlayson, explain. Want to find out more about seasonal work and how to access training? Call the Jobs Victoria hotline on 1300 208 575. Find out if you’re eligible for the Summer Seasonal Harvest Sign-on Bonus.

Fiona Baker, Livestock Extension Officer with Agriculture Victoria provides autumn management tips for pastures affected by bushfires. Fiona discusses key strategies to assist recovering pastures including assessing pastures, when to think about resowing, summer fodder cropping, grazing management and the importance of maintaining soil fertility. This podcast is proudly supported by Agriculture Vi...

Southern Cross Farms’ Development and Water Manager, Peter Morrish, wanted to ensure that all staff were aware of how to maintain and look after the vital irrigation equipment. So, he organised a workshop with the assistance of staff at Agriculture Victoria. Find out more here: https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/farm-management/water/irrigation

Sunraysia’s Grewal family have built their business from scratch over the past 20 years. In this episode Aman Grewal explains the evolution of the business by his father and uncles, which now includes almonds, citrus, wheat, berries and their own flour milling facility. View the Irrigation Management Tool (IrriStat) online course here. Check out the Agriculture Victoria tools and calculators here.

Mallee grain farmer Ian Hastings is passionate about ensuring that everyone who is working in the paddock during harvest knows how to operate the firefighting equipment. However, Ian admits that if you don’t plan for an emergency, practice using your firefighting unit and train your team how to use it, you’re risking lives and potentially wasting a lot of money. High visibility cotton work clothin...

South West organic beef producer Emma Bolding considers on-farm safety to be a non-negotiable aspect of her family business. Through the Farm Safety Rebate, Emma and her partner were able to upgrade the livestock handling facilities on their property improving safety for themselves and others working on the farm. Installation of the new equipment has had immediate health and safety benefits, and E...

Sunraysia dry fruit producer, Stephen Bennett is excited about being in the agriculture industry now with the digital revolution. Stephen is not only using technology already available to farmers, but has a keen interest in robotic technology to improve efficiency gains on his family property. View the Irrigation Management Tool (IrriStat) online course here.

Wimmera grain producer Jason Mellings has made safety an essential element of his business culture. This not only ensures employees and family get home safely at night but being safe also provides business efficiencies. Farmhand Jason Fogg enjoys working at Breaker Day with the Mellings family because the focus on safety ensures that he feels safe and the farm is an efficient and effective operati...

Gippsland sheep farmer, former climate researcher and climate change advocate Nick Blandford firmly believes that Australian agriculture can adapt to climate change. Discover how he is using his knowledge of climate change science to work with his local community and inform his business decisions, ensuring that soil health, emissions and profitability are all integrated in his business model. In t...

Young farmer, Samantha Mitchell, is now running the family property in the southern Mallee, but she knows there are still plenty of things she needs to learn. That is why she applied to be a part of the Young Farmer and New Entrant Mentoring Program. She has been paired with Andrew Bell, who has been offering her guidance while she works to employee her first staff member. In this episode, they ex...

Gippsland dairy farmer Hans van Wees has been share farming on his current property for 15 years. While it can be expensive to get into agriculture, share farming could provide a pathway for future farmers. In this episode, Hans shares his knowledge and thoughts about the benefits and things to know about share farming arrangements. You can find out more about Hans van Wees in the Milking the Weat...

You don’t have to come from a family farm or inherit property to make a career in the agricultural industry. Tamara Pabst made her suburban dreams of becoming a farmer a reality. She now owns her own farm near Lurg in North East Victoria. In this episode find out how a city girl has ended up becoming a sheep farmer. Find out more about the opportunities and support available for young farmers thro...

Early succession planning and earning off-farm income have been important for young farmers Emma and Tristan as they establish themselves and their farming business. Building their farming enterprise up from scratch has taken hard work and a fair bit of sacrifice, however Emma and Tristan have left no stone unturned to fulfil their ambitions in agriculture. Find out more about the opportunities an...

Everyone deserves to go home at night. For farmer and business owner, Danyel Cucinotta, it’s way more than a line about safety. It is the foundation to how she helps run her family’s egg farm. It’s a philosophy she’s also passionate about beyond her own farm gate. Through the Victorian Government funded Making our Farms Safer project, the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) is providing farm safety...

With a lifelong love of dogs, a passion for rural and regional Australia and a commitment to boosting the resilience and wellbeing for her community, it’s no surprise that Kelly Barnes has made her mark. She’s the recipient of the 2020 Victorian AgriFutures Rural Women of the Year Award, which recognises her innovative working dog training school pilot program that sees dogs not just as a tool of...

Jessie Holmes has years of experience advocating for the Yarriambiack and Buloke shire communities during her time in local government. Jessie explains that good advocacy is being really clear about what your community needs and that you don’t need to be a CEO to be a strong advocate. For Jessie, storytelling is a big part of advocating for Victoria’s agricultural communities. Hear more from more...

Whether it’s as a specialist communicator with government, Birchip Cropping Group, as a consultant, or during her roles on committees and boards like the VFF Grains Group and GRDC Southern Region panel. Wimmera communications specialist and Victorian Rural Women’s Network Scholarship Program alumni Pru Cook talks about being an inspiring community leader and recognises that you don’t need to know...

Jess Knight is a young dairy farmer from Stratford in central Gippsland. Jess tells us about her somewhat unconventional pathway into farming, and how a passion for agriculture and a can-do attitude has resulted in her transformation into a confident farm business manager and community leader. Jess shares her experience and tips for running the business side of the farm and talks about the value o...

We met Sarah McLean a young beef farmer from Purnim, near Warrnambool in our first season. This time she’s back to talk about an incident that prompted her to think more carefully about farm safety and how their family could be doing things better – even as young farmers on a budget. Sarah talks about how making changes to the way you work and setting yourself up to enjoy farming can be just as im...

In this season of the AgVic Talk podcast series will highlight personal stories of people who have overcome challenges they face every day. We will hear from rural women, young farmers, people from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds and agricultural communities on how they recover, grow, modernise, protect, and promote Victorian agriculture.

Brett Findlay is a dairy farmer near Corryong, in the North-East of Victoria who manages a dairy of 400 head. Brett discusses farming in a location where you need to be prepared for variability, both between and within seasons, where it is too expensive to freight feed in, so you have to grow everything yourself. Brett touches on irrigation, the benefits of knowing your optimum capacity and the ad...

Dairy and beef farmer, Chris Nixon talks about when his reliable country in East Gippsland recently experienced a prolonged drought, which included their driest year on record. Listen to find out how he dealt with it, and the long-term changes it has brought for running the property. For more Agriculture Victoria information on dealing with climate variability, you can subscribe to The Break and M...