Guest speakers discussed agricultural innovation and stalls featured local products from Kingsdale Winery, Yarralaw Springs Winery, Parkesbourne Produce and Bent Shed Produce. 

The event at the Grace Milsom Centre was organised by Regional Development Australia Southern Inlands (RDASI).  

Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor officially opened the event, saying it was a great time to be involved in the industry.

“Agriculture is at a fantastic place at the moment,” Mr Taylor said. 

“Wool is selling well at about $80 a fleece and few thousand for a good bale, which is fantastic compared to what it was a while back.

“There is also great prices for lambs, and while cattle is tougher, we have little to complain about in livestock agriculture at the moment. It is time to celebrate the industry and its potential.”

But Mr Taylor also said many Australians are completely detached from agriculture these days. 

“I read recently that 82 per cent of Australians have at best a distant connection to agriculture, which is frightening for the industry,” he said. 

“Governments stop worrying about doing things that hurt farmers when too many of the population are disconnected from it.”

He said recent Census statistics showed employment in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industries had increased by 21 per cent in Hume from 2011 to 2016, with registered businesses up from 395 to 478 over the period.

Senior land services officer at South East Local Land Services Matt Lieschke spoke about innovations in the industry, including using IT for ‘smart farming.’

“This includes satellite pasture imagery, recording soil moisture levels and climate data,” he said.

“Information is being collected from about 20 soil moisture probes across the region. These are in the ground and measuring down to 1m in real time. 

“The data this year shows all the action is only in the top 50cm. We have not built sub-soil moisture this year. Having access to that sort of information is important when making decisions at key stages of the year.”

He said the challenge was to analyse such data quickly to improve daily farming decision making.

DPI rural resilience officer Ted O’Kane said he he worked with the challenges farmers faced everyday. 

“It is an interesting industry - it has lots of colourful characters. They are an extremely resourceful and resilient breed of people,” Mr O’Kane said. 

“But lots of circumstances are out of their control, such as pests and diseases and it is often a challenge to get farmers to talk about personal and social problems they are facing.” 

“The ageing farmer population also presents a range of problems - they may be extending themselves physically and they are not always that good with their mental health. 

Other speakers on the night included Mark Hedley from the Australian Wool Network and RDASI chair Mark Schweikert as well as Industry Leadership and Communication Manager at Sheepmeat Council of Australia Kathleen Allan.

Dewsburys Pork kindly donated the pork sausages and Towrang Rural Fire Brigade did the barbecue.