Tom Farmer would seem to be the perfect choice to head up a major agricultural investment enterprise at Lake Boga.
Handed 9000ha owned by goFARM it seemed obvious the person in charge would need to be a go-getter.
And he certainly is, with the northern Victorian operation a long way from the Queensland cattle farm (1559.3km to be accurate) where Tom started life, showing just how far he has been prepared to go.
Arriving at Lake Boga in September some of the key items on his agenda are infrastructure.
Which has included developing all-weather internal roads, improving farm hygiene and safety, and constructing a high-quality farm hub.
In July last year goFARM paid about $30 million for the 38-farm aggregation, owned by Aware Super – one of Australia’s largest funds – which included approximately 8000ML of water entitlements.
The sale covered organic and conventional horticulture, and cropping land (including Victoria’s largest field tomato grower), a commercial plum orchard and a sheep grazing business.
Spread between Kerang and Swan Hill, the Lake Boga operation was put together across 15 years by VicSuper, which merged with First State Super in 2020 to create Aware. Agricultural asset manager Kilter Rural was the long-term manager of the portfolio.
And now it’s all coming down to the aptly-named Tom Farmer.
Who has been discovering some of the complexities of life in regional Victoria – such as he and wife Alex and their one-year-old son Harry living out of a motel for three months trying to find a rental property.
Then waiting even longer to find just two days of childcare so Alex could start a job as a speech pathologist at Swan Hill hospital.
Tom agrees the business is an appealing challenge. Moving to northern Victoria to start the job has proved a challenge of a totally different kind – mostly the draining and frustrating kind.
He is also concerned about on-farm yields now Harry is walking: “He’s got a real thing for tomatoes, he picks one, has a bite and pitches it; and then picks another and does it all over again.
“When you have a two-year contract with processor Kagome in Echuca for 70,000 tonnes a year, you have to watch that kind of wastage,” Tom explains.
“After that, we have a three-year extension for 35,000 tonnes a year, so even though goFARM is a significant player in the almond industry, with sites near Cobram, Boundary Bend and a new one under development on former dairy country at Shepparton.
“As much as we have been working on the farm, as a business and as a bunch of now locals, we have also been working closely with the surrounding communities.”
That relationship was all about timing. Land purchased just in time for the October floods which swept through the area.
Fortunately for goFARM, Tom explains, only about 200ha of canola ended up under water, so that could have been a lot worse.
Just as fortunately for the rest of the community as goFARM was able to redirect all its machinery assets and staff allocations to helping plenty of others who were doing much worse.
“We spent most of that time moving machinery here and there to help others, which was very important to the team at the farm,” Tom says.
While the floods tested the strength of the Lake Boga community, and Tom and his team prioritised the safety of his staff, neighbours and the broader community through local initiatives.
“We built and strengthened levees and invited neighbours to shelter stock on our land,” he adds.
“It was great to see everyone come together in response to the crisis.
“Now the worst of that is behind us, we have started a conversation with the football/netball club about sponsorship or some kind of support as part of being part of the local scene.
“But I haven’t had time to get involved as a player (plus, being a Queenslander, his game is rugby, although he does recall playing a bit of footy at school) but once we sort out what we are going to do I am sure all 13 members of the team will be happy to get involved in some way.
“I’m pretty sure I will be down there a bit for a few quiet ones and a bit of a yarn with the locals.”
Tomato harvest is winding up this month, and with the farms averaging 110 tonnes per hectare across 700ha was well on target to complete its foundation contracts.
The other big land use is cropping – almost exclusively barley and canola – and Tom says the current land usage will continue for the foreseeable future.
“It’s very different to home, mum and dad run Droughtmasters,” he says. “We used to have a stud but it is all commercial now. They aren’t running on a grand scale these days, about 150 breeders and up to 100 steers being backgrounded, and it’s high rainfall country (almost 1m a year).
“And yes, it’s always good to go home but for young people to try and buy into farmland is a big ask these days, so right now if I ever wanted the family farm I’ll be looking into Lotto tickets as well.”
Since the acquisition, goFARM has split off some of the land and the core property is now back to 5300ha and the new, lean, mean farming machine is exactly what Tom has been looking for – running a big operation for a big operation.
From the family farm he went into agricultural science and then into a career as an agronomist at various points of the Australian compass, followed by the launch of his own agronomy consulting business in Brisbane.
Before getting on the corporate farm ladder as a manager in Bundaberg, from where the next step was Lake Boga.
Where Tom says he is now focused on simplifying the new farming system through creating operational efficiencies and by the strength of the fulltime team working across the aggregation.
“goFARM Lake Boga is focusing on improving the sustainability of the operation and unlocking the trapped value in the portfolio’s land and water assets,” Tom added.
“Which includes that significant investment in farm infrastructure beyond the cost of the land.
“As an agricultural investor, goFARM is concentrated on high growth and transformational investment opportunities to develop investment-grade assets linked to growing global demand for healthy, nutritious food, with a strong track record of improving the productivity and profitability of mixed farming enterprises in northern Victoria.”
The only gap in the program right now is Tom’s schoolboy footy experience and the need to brush it up before the new footy season goes too deep.
