By KATRINA BRANDON
FARM World wrapped up for another instalment last month.
The time-honoured event sees the agricultural community gather at Lardner Park near Warragul.
Tinamba farmer Francis Gannon has been enjoying Farm World for more than 45 years.
“I came probably a couple of years after it started,” Mr Gannon told the Express.
“I have come from a farm just outside of Maffra, in Tinamba. I come here to look at what’s available to us and do research and that sort of thing.
“It is great because you can compare the alternatives to what you were looking at, and you can speak to people with a lot of experience in operation and handling, which is well and truly worthwhile. It’d be a shame if we ever lost it.”
Mr Gannon’s family has been on the property since 1906, when his grandfather started the factory in Maffra. Following a change of hands through each generation, Mr Gannon took on the farming challenge.
Now at the age of 78, Mr Gannon no longer runs the farm but has handed it down to his son and daughter-in-law, who run a dairy farm. The two milk some 650 cows, with modernised, highly mechanised systems and multiple staff on the ground.
“We pride ourselves on looking after the land we’ve got, the people we employ, and
providing good, top-quality food,” he said.
“Dairy farming is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to make sure that everything’s okay, you’ve got to look after your animals.”
Looking back at his time on the farm with an old 14-horsepower three-wheeled tractor to what is now being used (a 550-horsepower tractor), Mr Gannon said there has been quite a few changes over the years.
“I’ve seen it all, from the draft horses to the little tractors to the huge ones now,” he said.
“There’s a big difference, and that requires a lot more fuel, a lot more expertise, and all that.”
Keeping up to date with what is going on each year, Mr Gannon said it was important to engage with new products as they come out, as well as with manufacturers, to ensure the work is done more efficiently and safely.
On the current fuel crisis, he painted a clear picture.
“We haven’t had a petrol tractor or truck for 60 years, so we don’t need the petrol, it’s the diesel we need,” he said.
“My son’s mother-in-law, who lives in Sydney with an electric car, asked him whether or not the diesel situation affected him. My son said to her, ‘if I don’t have diesel, you don’t have food’.
“We’re laser grading property at the moment, and the driver uses 600 litres a day. His tractor holds 1800 litres, and if he were to operate it like the farmers up north for 24 hours, he’d be burning about 2000 litres a day. So that’s a lot of jerry cans in the back.
Back at Farm World, Mr Gannon praised organisers for the work done to continue the event.
