Regeneration: Native seeds gathered from the Girgarre farms. Picture: Kilter Rural.
One of the big investors buying up farms in northern Victoria is Bendigo-based company Kilter Rural, which has an emphasis on caring for the environment and an interest in developing organic crops.
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Kilter Rural — managing a total of about 12,000 hectares, including eight farms in the Girgarre district — claims to have produced Australia’s first large-scale organic field crop of tomatoes in 2018-19 on land near Lake Boga, and has become the largest supplier to Kagome’s Echuca factory.
The company has further invested in farms at Timmering, near Rochester.
“We’re in the fourth year of trialling organics,” Kilter Rural chief executive officer Cullen Gunn said about organics in a cautious tone.
“We had a good crop last year and I think there is a great market for the product.
“But it takes a great deal of skill and diligence. I think that market will grow out over time.
“We have probably spent about $170 million in operating expenditure which has gone into the region, outside of buying assets.”
The company employs about 23 people full-time.
Kilter Rural’s approach to its farm properties includes a commitment to revegetate up to 30 per cent of the land under management with native species of flora.
The Goulburn Broken Indigenous Seedbank collected seed from several important shrub species on Kilter-managed lands of the Australian Farmlands Fund near Girgarre.
This seed from Atriplex semibaccata (berry saltbush) and Maireana decalvans (common bluebush) helps build the genetic diversity of these species’ seed pool held at the seed bank.
Agents of change: The district of Girgarre, which has a long association with dairy, is one of the project areas for Kilter Rural.
Photo by
Cathy Walker
Mr Gunn came from a catchment management background and he is propelling a strong environmental element to their property portfolio.
“If your underlying capital asset is degraded you are losing value,” he said.
“If soils, water and vegetation are degraded you are losing money.
“We are about building natural capital that agriculture relies on. It’s fundamental.”
About 16 years ago the company found an investor, VicSuper, keen to invest in agriculture with four main elements — regenerating agricultural landscapes, which were unloved and under-utilised; identifying environmental or natural capital assets and rehabilitating those; providing for climate change mitigation; and rejuvenating rural communities.
“We are agents of change, and we recognise that can be hard for some communities,” Mr Gunn said.
