FOURTH-GENERATION farmer Chris Sharkey said rates in his council were getting out of control.
"They've been going up 10 per cent annually over the past decade," Mr Sharkey said.
He runs a 2000 hectare mixed farming property at Balliang East - and this year he shelled out $25,000 in rates.
Mr Sharkey said the whole rating system was unfair, particularly when recent research by the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) revealed the average farm was paying nine times more in rates compared to commercial businesses in regional Victoria.
"No-one seems to take any notice, but this is the reality we face," he said.
He said a Parliamentary Inquiry in Rating Inequities would help to highlight the issues, but he also wanted to see local councils change the way they reported rate revenue.
"Most farmers have more than one rate notice. I have seven, because they come under my land titles," he said.
Mr Sharkey said this exacerbated the problem, because the council's reporting method suggested there were 1500 farming properties, but in reality there were 412.
"The council says the average farm pays $1900 annually, but that figure is per title - not farm. The average farm pays closer to $8000," he said.
"It just confuses the issue."
If the system changed, Mr Sharkey said the public would have a clearer idea of how much farming businesses paid to rates.
"It would certainly be a step in the right direction."
While the Victorian government has pledged to cap council rates rises at the Consumer Price Index, which was 2.3pc in 2014, Mr Sharkey said councils just had to put their case to the Essential Services Commission if they wanted to avoid this.
"This is not a solution," he said.
"This is a complicated matter. We need to see a full review of the rating system, how it is working and what the problems are with it."