Nothern Melbourne beef producers on way out, due to cost squeeze

Lou Dibella, Donnybrook, sold 34 Connamara-blood steers, 181kg, for $1460 or 806 cents a kilogram at Yea, but says he'll soon be out of the cattle game.

"We have sold to Stockland, they have put a fence around the land and, they will develop it," Mr Dibella said.

'The first titles will be issued in the next month or two and construction will start.

"By next year, they will take over the whole lot and I won't have any cows.

"In 18 months I'll be out of farming, not because I want to, but because there is no other option."

He said he expected to run about 40 breeding cows this season, down from 150 at his peak.

Mr Dibella farms 90 hectares in the Donnybrook area, on land his father bought in 1983.

"The family has always been involved in farming, my father bought his first property back in Reservoir and in the 1950's he bought land in Doreen," he said.

"They started the rezoning process in 2010 and as the years went on, the cost became increasingly high," he said.

"We were running cattle and sheep, we got rid of the sheep, when the development started, because if they got out and they might end up on someone's front lawn."

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Mr Dibella said it had now reached a stage were it was no longer viable to farm.

"So you have the options of either selling up and getting out, or going into some sort of joint venture with a developer."

Mr Dibella said land tax and rates were "prohibitive."

In the 80's the farm was quite profitable.

"We used to have a lot more rain than now and the carrying capacity of that property was exceptional," he said.

"Since then we have had long droughts and it's just not viable any more."

That was coupled with the cost of feed, at $100-120 a bale for hay.

"This year, we had a lot of feed, but you go to the market and cows are $2000-3000, so you are in a Catch-22," he said.

"The urban growth boundary has been extended, and it won't be long before they have to extend it again."

He said over the past 10 years he had carried out extensive improvements to the property, putting in new yards, extra tanks and internal fencing.

He'd also carried out an extensive weed spraying program.

"But not everyone controls it, and its getting worse and worse," he said.

"We spent that money because we wanted to keep going with farming, but we have got people knocking on your door to buy the land and council saying these are what your rates are.

"You get to the stage where you sit back and reflect, that was a bit of a waste of time, doing all that."

To continue farming would mean moving up to 100 kilometres from Melbourne.

"That's not what we want to do, so we'll farm in the back yard and grow tomatoes, or something."

A leading rural planner says the plight of Lou Dibella, and neighbour Tom Montalto, are symptomatic of poor controls on Melbourne's northern fringe.

Plan-It Rural director Annemaree Docking said the pair's properties were within the urban growth boundary and had been for quite some time.

"There has been a distinct change in attitude, from the state government, over the last couple of years, in comparison to when Lou and Tom were caught up in the urban growth boundary alignment," Ms Docking said.

"One can hope that we won't see these things happening again."

She said there was still signifcant pressure on primary producers on the urban fringe, even if they wanted to stay on the land.

"It's not bad country, but some of the land there has been really let go - the writing was on the wall or because landbankers have got a hold of it.

"That constant speculation around the movement of the urban growth boundary creates this situation were landbankers come in, the land isn't cared for, so it's a self-fullfilling prophecy where people say it's not productive."

Ms Docking said the land was only unproductive, as it was not actively being farmed.

"Thats where we have to stop that speculation, there has to be a really supportive and protective policy framework to not only protect that land, but also the productive use of that land.

"You have those sorts of pressures, weed and pest animals, fuel loads and trying to find the neighbour to talk to about fixing the fences.

"But there's no neighbour, because they are corporate and they don't want to collaborate on those sorts of ocmmunity and neighbourhood projects."