Fourth generation island farmer finds life on the urban fringe challenging

The state government has recently released its long-awaited Green Wedges and Agricultural Land policy, including 20 action items it said would stop the loss of productive land to housing.

Mr Cleeland runs cattle on Pastoral Cove - 200 hectares of prime rural land opposite the Surf Beach settlement.

He's one of many farmers still running agricultural enterprises in Melbourne's outer suburbs and peri-urban fringe.

Mr Cleeland said in recent years, power poles had caused fires three times, and they'd also had issues with helicopters used to check lines and scaring cattle.

"Back in the older days, the State Electricity Commission (SEC) would come in and do maintenance on the power line and these things weren't an issue, now there is no maintenance being done, basically the pole just catches fire they just replace it as required," he said.

If optical fibre links running across the property were damaged, Mr Cleeland said he would be responsible - "if it puts out all the banks in Cowes for three or four days, we are responsible for that too," he said.

"That, of course, makes your insurance more expensive - it's just another worry we didn't have to deal with."

At one stage a sewerage line, which runs through the property, broke and flooded an area of one of the paddocks on Pastoral Cove, resulting in Agriculture Victoria quarantining the farm.

The pair run 180 Angus breeders, with his great grandfather buying land on the island in 1860's.

Mr Cleeland, and wife Amanda, were currently running Three Oaks bulls to breed their own replacements and heifers "that won't fall apart in the Island's harsh summer/winter."

He also said they looked closely at temperament and birthweight, particularly in the heifers.

The Cleelands had been aiming for January calving, to get weaners bigger for the spring sales, but dropped back to February-March to avoid extreme temperatures and heat wave conditions that could happen occur earlier in the year.

About 140 eight-month old calves were weaned on hay and silage each year, then sold through the Pakenham saleyards and privately.

The closure of Pakenham, partially blamed on "urban sprawl", would mean he would have to reassess his options, including AuctionsPlus, he said.

"I have sold at Leongatha, but traditionally I have built up more of a market on the Mornington Peninsula and in the Lang Lang area," he said.

"It's a real shame Pakenham is closing, as a saleyards I could see at least another 10 years of operation."

He said he could fully understand the issues with land tax and rates, as farmers were similarly affected.

In 2009, he said farmers were slugged with nearly a 48 per cent increase in one hit but council eventually agreed on a 20 per cent rating differential.

Council also offered a land management rebate of $16 a hectare, for environmental practices such as planting trees or spraying weeds.

"But both of those things could be scrapped, depending on the council - we have to have a very strong Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) and also the (council's) rural engagement group, which meets every two months," he said.

"That would make cancelling the rebate or differential difficult, but you have to defend that because we are going to have council elections at the end of the year.

"You have to be ever vigilant."

Recently, the VFF and farmers in the shire had to fight off restrictive fencing rules, which would have required them to apply for planning permits.

Every farmer in the Bass Coast would have to apply for a planning permit, if they wanted to put up a standard farm fence.

"It took up an enormous amount of time - they would give us permission to put up a timber post-and-rail fence, but if we wanted to put a an everyday farm fence, or post and wire, we had to apply for a planning permit," he said.

Mr Cleeland said he still believed in the future of farming, particularly with the recent cattle prices.

"You put so much into it, in terms of fertiliser, fencing and all of that, it would be pretty difficult to get up and go somewhere else," he said.

"When we were selling steers at $2500 a head, it was viable - but I don't think its going to go to quite that level and I don't think it's healthy, to be honest.