More than 30 farmers have taken the time to get off their farms in winter to go on a tour into north-eastern Victoria and southern NSW with the proactive farmer collective, the Gippsland Agricultural Group.
GAgG general manager Jen Smith said the research tour included farmers from Warragul to Foster and from Sale and Bairnsdale.
"This tour gives producers an opportunity to get off farm, to connect, to learn from other farmers and each other," she said.
"It also gives them the chance to get off the tools, to stop working in the business and start working on the business.
"So often we get bogged down on the day-to-day jobs that we don't have time to work on the strategy and future direction for our agribusinesses."
The group was treated to a presentation by three farming generations during a visit to the Locke family, Fairview, Holbrook, NSW, who run Merino and composite sheep enterprises.
GAgG members were interested to hear how the enterprises stacked up financially and practically over the last four years and how enterprise mix decisions were made.
"Building the knowledge, skills and confidence of our region's farmers on these tours is the type of activity that will get us ready for drought and unlock the production potential of our region's farms," Ms Smith said.
"Seeing firsthand how other farmers in the north-east navigate and recover from drought and bushfires allows us to harness that knowledge and use it at home."
The visit to the Trevethan grain farm, Howlong, NSW, showed the possibilities of multi-purpose, innovative on-farm infrastructure, and how it gave resilience in the system and capacity to adapt to climate variability.
During Tom Bull's LAMBRPRO business talk, Mr Bull gave an insight into the power of specialisation within a chosen ag pursuit.
He said the chance of foot and mouth disease making its way to Australia was now at 30 per cent and challenged the group to consider their own farm plans to deal with the very real threat to the red meat industry.
Gillian Sanbrook, Bibbaringa, Bowna, NSW, discussed the carbon economy, soil carbon benchmarking and her strategy around biodiversity credentials.
Her regenerative approach to farming in agriculture, and diversification into arts and education, via a revamped woolshed, gave tour participants plenty to think about.
"MLA has set an audacious target for the red meat industry to be carbon neutral by 2030, and these tours provide practical learning, ideas and implementation examples that farmers need to use as tools towards reaching that goal," Ms Smith said.
GAgG chief executive Trevor Caithness said it was interesting to experience the willingness of various farmers to commit to large on-farm infrastructure.
"It might have a long pay-back period for the generation working the farm, but future generations will benefit," Mr Caithness said.
