Victorian Farmers Federation will host its annual grain conference at the Horsham Town Hall from 9am.

The conference will include a panel discussion led by incoming federation grains group president and Warracknabeal farmer Ross Johns.

The panel will also include Treasury secretary John Fraser, ANZ agribusiness and regional business banking head Mark Bennett and investment adviser William Richardson.

The panel will discuss the economy, agriculture, and managing farm finances and risks. Mr Johns said the group was excited to have attracted exceptional financial experts to the conference.

“We expect key topics to include succession planning for the future, how to approach banks for lending, and understanding how banks assess farm business equity and risks,” he said. 

The conference will include three other panels with topics ranging from the future outlook for last year’s bumper crop; how to manage on-farm storage; and whether the South Australian grain levy model could work in Victoria.

Mr Johns said the grains group had discussed the idea of moving from an opt-in model of grain levy to the same approach adopted by South Australian growers.

He said representatives from Grain Producers SA would answer questions on differences between the two systems.

“The SA levy system is an opt-out model, as opposed to the opt-in system we use, and we want to have a discussion around the merits and risks of this approach,” he said.

“It would be a challenge to implement a similar model here when we’re already using an opt-in system, but we value having the discussion about the merits of both approaches.”

Other panels will focus on the cost and benefits of on-farm storage.

There will also be speakers from AWB, GrainCorp and Emerald Grain. The conference will mark the end of Brett Hosking’s four year term as group president.