By KATRINA BRANDON
A NEW network has been launched for farmers in the Latrobe Valley called Valley Farmers.
Valley Farmers is an idea to get farmers together, from new, old and multigenerational, dairy, beef, pigs, poultry and sheep farmers.
Valley Farmers held their third official networking event earlier this month with about 40 people in attendance. The event was hosted at the Budgeree Hall, with a warm fire pit lit for farmers to gather around and chat.
“(It started as a) phone call a few months ago,” Valley Farmers organiser, Matt Loyd, told the Express.
“A couple of farmers can get together and make farming better for themselves and their families, and have a more productive lifestyle. We had 12 people turn up, and then the next meeting was a trivia where we had 27 turn up.”
During the event, farmers shared a warm meal and ideas about different farm strategies and improvements, listened to a talk by Landcare Yinnar and Yinnar South and held a raffle.
Mr Lloyd emphasised that he wanted to ensure that Valley Farmers stays with farming families, rather than larger corporations.
“With Valley Farmers, the main pillar that we’re trying to go for is we want productive family farms, and recognising that if you have a family farm, you need to have a functioning family,” Mr Lloyd told the group.
“That’s why we wanted to make tonight open to partners and kids, and just really show that you really need all that part of your family to run a really tight-knit farm, I suppose, and a productive farm.
“We want to build our knowledge and capability so we can get more out of our land. We want to promote agricultural careers to people who are thinking of getting into it, whether they’re students or they’re middle-aged or what have you, any time of your life, if you want to get into farming, we want to make sure that’s easy for you, and also focus on the community.”
Bringing the event to life, the National Centre for Farmer Health helped cover the event through the Farm Gate Program. Mr Lloyd thanked the group and highlighted the importance of the program. He said that while local paddocks may seem green, this is one of the worst years on local records for rainfall, forming a “green drought”.
Mr Lloyd also highlighted that a local farm, which has rainfall records dating back to 1903, recorded just 224mm between January and June, 2025 – making it the second driest year on record. The driest was 2007, with only 191mm, which is devastating when the average annual rainfall should be close to 950mm.
