It may be in the heart of the Goulburn Valley’s dairy country, but while Kotta farmer Andrew Christian runs Friesians, there’s not a milking parlour to be seen.
Mr Christian runs about 1000 hectares, in conjunction with his extended family, a livestock and innovative sharefarming operation. He described himself as a “backgrounder”, buying in dairy heifers, which are joined and resold to the local dairy industry, as well as a beef operation. “Once they are six weeks away from calving, we will put them to the market for the local dairy industry job,” Mr Christian said.
A third of the area given is over to an innovative sharefarming operation. His father Ambrose came to Echuca in 1965 to purchase his first farm ‘Pine Tree.’ Later purchases of neighboring properties saw the family involved in the dairy industry for 25 years, albeit at a distance. Mr Christian senior entered into “fair and equitable arrangements” with only five sharefarming partnerships, who eventually transitioned into farm ownership.
Today the properties run 500 head of Friesian steers or European breeds. “They are purchased, kept on good feed and turned off as a fat animal after 12 – 15 months. We treat them, grow them out, join them and can offer them with confidence, that they are one line,” he said. Jersey bulls were used in two joinings, November 1 and June one, for autumn and spring calving.
Mr Christian said parts of the properties are also under crops, under a sharefarming arrangement with brothers Jason and Scott Nichol. “The premise of the irrigated sharecropping arrangement is built on the model my father implemented with the dairy operation some 40 years ago,” Mr Christian said. “It’s built on fairness, equity and communication.’
He said the On Farm Irrigation Efficiency Program (OFIEP) had been the catalyst for the innovative partnership, allowing for the upgrade of rudimentary infrastructure, to best practise fast flood and overhead irrigation. Canola, vetch and wheat were now being grown, on a section of the farm.
OFIEP demonstrated the commercial viability and ability to achieve a triple bottom line of social, economic and environmental outcomes.
“Actively sharecropping in conjunction with the OFIEP can encourage a formidable and very profitable partnership between current landholders and prospective new, young farmers.
“We supply the water, we have done the upgrades, we give them the area and work out crop to crop arrangements, expected yields and prices,” Mr Christian said. “We guarantee the water, from start to finish, and it’s worked well – it gives young people surety.”
