Treechangers and those new to farming will get a chance to meet experienced farmer mentors at This Farm Needs a Farmer’s (TFNAF) field day in Bendigo on Easter Saturday, 11 April.
This year the field day will partner with the Victorian Farmers’ Market Association and will be run at the Bendigo Community Farmers’ Market during the town’s Easter festival.
Melissa Connors, founder of TFNAF, says connecting with farmers’ markets was a natural fit and there would be several other field days throughout 2020, all linked to a regional farmers’ market and in towns with significant numbers of treechangers and artisanal producers.
Melissa, who was the 2018 Victorian AgriFutures™ Rural Women’s Award winner, says this year she is also bringing experienced farmers and first-time farmers together in an exercise she calls ‘shadow farming’.
“People can purchase time to get themselves on a farm with a farmer and experience first hand whether that type of farming is what they want and can do,” she says.
She adds many of the first-time farmers have moved from Melbourne to regional areas and are particularly interested in sustainable and ethical farming. “Some already have an idea of what they want to do; we encourage them to work with the land they have — not to fight the land and the conditions they have.”
For experienced farmers, some of whom have retired, it is an opportunity to pass on decades and generations of knowledge.
Pictured: AgriFutures 2018 Victorian Rural Women’s Award winner Melissa Connors has announced an exciting new partnership for the second ‘This Farm Needs A Farmer’ Field Day
