Prices skyrocket as farmers look to expand

In February, a 259-hectare (640-acre) block in Lillimur South in the Wimmera sold for $6820 an acre, which broke records for the district and was a 42 per cent increase off nearby land sales in 2019.

In the following weeks, a 125-hectare (308 acre) lot at Lower Norton, south-west of Horsham, fetched $4800 an acre, while a 129-hectare property in the Kalkee Plains, also in the Wimmera, sold for $5450 an acre.

In March, 179 hectares near Ararat sold for $23,582 a hectare or $9550 an acre.

In the same month, 252 hectares between Marnoo and Wallaloo sold for $15,569 a hectare or $6300 an acre.

A 347-hectare property at Miga Lake set a Wimmera record, selling for $19,140 a hectare or $7750 an acre.

Murra Wurra farmer David Jochinke has been vocal in his criticism of increasing rates for farmers and believes Victoria's rating system needs an overhaul to be more equitable to its farming communities.

"What we see in the Wimmera is a large amount of area and a small population trying to maintain that area," he said.

"It is a balancing act. What we are calling for is two things; in the interim, the burden on each segment shouldnt increase as budgets are delivered and we would prefer that the burden remains the same across all categories.

"The system is using the correlation of land equals capacity to pay. Our argument is you don't charge a mechanic on how many spanners they have on their capacity to generate income, you cannot farm without land, land is our spanners."

The Victorian Farmers Federation Stakeholder Policy and Advocacy advisor Charles Everist said the big concern farmers would face was massive rates increases following property valuations.

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Mr Everist pointed to the Horsham Rural City Council, which put out its draft budget for consultation earlier in the week and would see farm rates rise by an average of 10pc based off a 27pc total farm valuation increase for the shire.

Mr Jochinke said he would lobby the council to look at alternative rating systems.

"I would like to see that the council acknowledges that they are between a rock and a hard place at the moment and that they are fully engaged to look at alternative models to the current system because it is currently unsustainable," he said.

"We acknowledge that it is a challenging thing to be in local government, but if they are going to put forward budgets like they are then they also have to acknowledge that the system is broken.

"They have to come up with a better system, because quite frankly the current status quo is unacceptable."

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Victorian Farmers Federation Grains Group councillor Ryan Milgate farms near Minyip.

He agreed that local government rates were a big concern for farmers.

He said the 1.5pc rate cap introduced for Victorian local governments could have been better implemented.

"We'd like to think that 1.5pc is a rise for each category, so rather than 1.5pc across all ratepayers and farmers get a 10pc rate rise, we'd like to see everyone share the burden," he said.

"No one's against paying rates, what the issue is is the rates are just jumping so much every year.

"We're talking 10pc this year, there was a similar rise last year, a similar rise the year before."

He said in isolation, a rates increase should be manageable, but the cost of insurance and other overheads were also rising.

The skyrocketing property prices also did not change the earning capacity of the land.

"That piece of dirt is still the same bit of dirt it was five years ago in most instances - it hasn't really changed what it is - but the value's gone through the roof," he said.

Mr Milgate said the VFF had engaged with local governments.

"It's just the whole system - we really need to go back to the drawing board," he said.

"We're working with a system that comes from 150 years ago and time's moved a bit from there.

"We don't want to see these rate shocks year after year."

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