Rural
17 October, 2023
Wimmera farmers provide key info
Wimmera farmers have provided valuable insight into the changes in farming practices, future priorities and key challenges in the Land Management in the Wimmera, Rural Landholder Social Benchmarking Report 2023. This is the fifth landholder survey...
Wimmera farmers have provided valuable insight into the changes in farming practices, future priorities and key challenges in the Land Management in the Wimmera, Rural Landholder Social Benchmarking Report 2023.
This is the fifth landholder survey for Wimmera CMA with project partners Southern Cross University and Charles Sturt University, with survey results contributing to a national project by the Soil CRC, “Surveying On-Farm Practices Across Australia”.
Wimmera CMA chief executive David Brennan said survey results helped the CMA understand key issues facing farmers so they could submit project and funding bids that would have the most impact and relevance for the region.
He said it also provided an invaluable insight into property and regional-scale issues that mattered most to farmers.
“This knowledge from the grass roots also helps us strengthen the partnerships we have with the farming sector, which is really important when we are working on environmental projects, particularly on private land,” Mr Brennan said.
The survey is Australia’s longest running research project of its type, and has revealed that over 90 per cent of farmers feel personally responsible for maintaining the productive capacity of their soils - having the ability to pass on a healthier environment for future generations was reported as their most important value - a result consistent with national studies.
Eighty-nine per cent of farmers surveyed said they were open to new ideas about farming and land management, with 33 per cent considering themselves "early adopters".
The rise of input costs, increasing herbicide resistance in weeds, management of pest animals and over-abundant native plants topped the list of survey respondents’ property-scale issues.
This is compared to the 2016 report which listed the top three issues as concerns about the impacts of drought and changing rainfall patterns, how pest plants and animals affected profitability, and the on-farm impacts of poor management on public land of pest plants and animals.
At a regional level, key concerns in the 2023 report included absence of important services and infrastructure, water security, and public opposition for standard agricultural practices such as GMs, animal welfare and pesticides.
In 2016 the top three concerns were the impact of reduced water flows on healthy rivers, streams and wetlands, reduced opportunities for recreation as lakes dried out, and decline in soil health.
Soil CRC Social Benchmarking Study for Rural Landholders leader Dr Hanabeth Luke presented the final report which included other findings, such as that farmers' use of technology has also changed in the past five years.
The key sources of information, support and education for farm management practices remain supportive of newspapers, Field Days and websites, with older farmers are more likely to access traditional information sources such as newspapers, while younger farmers are more likely to access online and social media sources.
Other top sources of knowledge were other farmers, their own knowledge based on their own experiences, followed by independent agricultural consultants, agronomists or stock agents.
In the previous survey, short courses and podcasts didn’t rate a mention in information sources leading to practice change.
In this year’s survey, both were rated as important sources of knowledge on implementing many “best practice” farming methods, indicating that early adopters are likely to be using podcasts as a primary information source, and be less likely to need local evidence of success before trying something new.
Key points
- Survey respondents self-identified by landholder type as follows: 58% full-time; 17% part-time; 8% hobby; and 17% non-farming landholders.
- The most common land uses are sheep for meat or wool (63%), cereal cropping (62%), legumes (50%) and native vegetation (46%).
- Of full-time farmers, 79% of respondents live on their Wimmera property.
- The median length of family land ownership was reported as 57 years, with a mean of 63 years.
- The majority of full-time farmers (86%) were male, with a median age of 62 years.
- On-farm practices showing a significant increase in the past five years include planting legumes, maintaining at least 70 per cent groundcover, no-till or minimum till, and soil tests to understand soil conditions.
- Practices such as planting trees and shrubs, fencing areas of native bush/grasslands to manage stock access and removing trees show a decline