New farmers feel the love

From running a building business and a small beef operation in South Gippsland, to running a dairy farm at Elingamite in south-west Victoria, Ryan and Alysha have dived in the deep end and come out smiling.

It has been a lot of hard work over the past 14 months, but they have been backed all the way and that support — along with their willingness to work hard and learn — has made the difference.

“Everyone has been there for us,” Alysha said.

“We’re really chuffed with the help and support that we’ve had.”

Ryan admits dairying can be a hard industry, but it’s also profitable and enjoyable.

“It’s knowing the right people to call when something goes wrong,” he said.

“Everything you do, you learn, and we’re getting so much better.”

Ryan was raised on a sheep farm near Bendigo and Alysha on a snow pea and beef farm in South Gippsland.

Ryan did a building apprenticeship in Melbourne before moving to Gippsland and starting the building business; Alysha worked in land surveying and civil engineering for 10 years and completed an architectural building design course before working alongside Ryan in the office and raising their two children.

“We were both off farms and wanted to be farmers, but our parents steered us in different directions,” Alysha said.

“There was no opportunity for a family farm … we had to make our own way,” Ryan said.

Self-described high-risk takers, they successfully played the real estate market doing up old houses while also developing the building business, raising calves and growing a beef herd.

They planned to farm beef, but when Gippsland land prices intervened, they looked across the state.

They aimed to leave the building industry before hitting 40. Ryan was 37, Alysha 38 when they took over Elingamite in November 2023.

Ryan had been doing high-end architectural builds, but farming was his real passion.

“I used to say to grandpa, once you get bitten by the bug, you can’t shake it,” he said.

“You’re your own boss and you’ve got a big chunk of land and can be as busy or not busy as you want to be.

“In a job I wouldn’t be able to take the kids to school or cook brekky for them.”

Alysha knew it would be tough, but she was prepared.

“We knew it would be hard work, but we both come from families that work hard. Ultimately, it’s a beautiful lifestyle to raise a family,” she said.

For the first seven months, Ryan and Alysha did everything themselves, but they now have a worker.

“For a start, I couldn’t employ someone because if they’d come to me with a question I wouldn’t know the answer. It was important to us that we knew our farm and system first,” Ryan said.

“It was hard because we had to learn everything,” Alysha said.

“We had the business and financial management skills, but everything about dairy was new.

“We had animal health issues we’d never had to deal with, working with the seasons, feeding the animals, but we applied ourselves and jump at the change to learn and upskill at any chance we could get.”

And that’s where the local community started to raise two new dairy farmers.

It started with the departing farmers, John and Jan Hinkley, and kept going with discussion groups, focus farms, Dairy Australia programs, vets, milk supply managers, genetics companies, agronomists and many more.

The farm covers 291ha and they milk more than 300 Kiwi crosses that came with the property.

Apart from exhaustion in the early days and helping their boys James, nine, and Lewis, seven, to settle in, animal health was the biggest challenge.

“But you’ve got help there — you just have to pick up the phone and call someone,” Alysha said.

“Within the first few days, the vets came here and gave us a full run through on everything we might come across.”

John Hinkley was already there, mentoring them into a new career.

He also showed flexibility, connected the young would-be farmers with their bank manager and kept on staff until they were ready – which only took a couple of days.

“John was there to call at any time. I called him at 5am when I couldn’t get the plant going because there was a safety switch I’d missed and it wasn’t a problem,” Ryan said.

It wasn’t just farming – he helped to set up budgets and took them through management across the year.

“After 12 months, we’ve got a good understanding so he’s stepped back and it’s all on us, but we catch up for a coffee, and he’s always interested to see how the cows are doing.”

Ryan and Alysha think other retiring farmers should follow John’s lead.

“Everyone is worrying about helping themselves to get out, but they should also try to help someone get in,” Ryan said.

“People need to be flexible and look at succession planning to help other farmers coming through. There would be so many young people get into it if there was more help,” Alysha said.

“It’s good to talk directly to the owners to see if there are different options.

“We both put a lot on the table, but it turned out to be a perfect relationship between the seller and buyer.”

They also believe government support such was stamp duty reductions which apply for farmers aged 35 or younger could be extended.

“We worked our guts out and got here as quickly as we could, but we didn’t get any help,” Alysha said.

“That stamp duty reduction is helping generational farmers, not a newcomer.”

Now they are looking ahead with confidence.

The Kiwi cross cows suit the land and are providing good fat and protein and high fertility.

Their first calving season was a big learning curve as was joining, but they emerged with a 92 per cent in-calf rate with their first lot of heifers, impressing their vets.

“The main thing is that we’re paying attention and applying ourselves and when there’s something we don’t know, we ask the questions,” Alysha said.

They are developing a consistent mid-size herd that suits the 50-unit rotary dairy, doesn’t pug the land in winter and has sufficient teat length.

They aim to gradually increase production, but not at the expense of profit and are looking for “one-percenters” to make improvements.

“We started doing chopped silage last year, and we probably got 40-50 extra solids from feeding that silage right through, along with different crops,” Ryan said.

“With the crops, we did better with rape and chicory, with a few turnips and white clover in the mix.”

They are using technology to help with time management.

Collars have been added and the Easy Dairy draft system is being installed.

“We look at anything that is labour-saving or money making,” Alysha said.

Ryan and Alysha hope their story inspires others to consider a career in dairy.

They have been sharing their story on their @westline.dairy Instagram account.