Cultivating Futures in Farming Mentor Program

Agriculture Victoria is excited to announce registrations are open for the first round of its Cultivating Futures in Farming Mentor Program. The program aims to develop the skills and knowledge required to run a modern farm business and will assist and support the development of the next generation of farm managers.

The free program will provide young farmers from grain or mixed farming enterprises the opportunity to develop key financial, business and people management skills, with practical tips, tricks, and tools to gain confidence in on-farm decision-making. Participants in this program learn from expert consultants, their peers and mentors to make a positive impact on the resilience of their farm business enterprise to ensure it is sustainable well into the future.

The Cultivating Futures in Farming Mentor Program is provided by Agriculture Victoria’s Young Farmer Project in partnership with Birchip Cropping Group and Pinion Advisory, and delivered through the Farm Business Resilience Program.

The Farm Business Resilience Program is jointly funded through the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and the Victorian Government’s Future Agriculture Skills Capacity Fund.

Program summary

• There will be 2 face-to-face workshops plus 5 webinars. The face-to-face workshops will be delivered in mid-August 2024 and mid-March 2025 in Birchip.
• Topics will include risk management, opportunity identification, people management, leasing and share farming, and natural resource management.
• The next-generation mentee (the applicant) will attend with their mentor (who could be a parent, farm manager, business partner etc). Attendance with a mentor is optional but encouraged.
• One-on-one coaching time with experts is included in the program to aid implementation of plans.
• All participants will benchmark their business for 2 production years with Pinion Advisory’s SnapShot program.
• There is an expectation of work between sessions, such as developing business cases, writing action plans and collecting benchmarking data.

See the attachments for a full program overview:

• Cultivating Futures in Farming program overview (PDF - 222.2 KB)
• Cultivating Futures in Farming program overview - accessible (WORD - 122.0 KB)

Eligibility

To be eligible for the program you must:

• be aged 40 years or under at the time applications close
• be working in a cropping or mixed farm business in Victoria at least 3 days per week for the past year
• have at least 2 years of total on-farm experience
• be an Australian citizen or permanent resident currently residing in Victoria.

Program guidelines

The guidelines provide information on what is needed to submit your expression of interest, selection criteria and what is required of successful applicants of the program.

• 2024 Cultivating Futures in Farming Mentoring program guidelines (PDF - 245.2 KB)
• 2024 Cultivating Futures in Farming Mentoring program guidelines - accessible (WORD - 126.3 KB)

Further information

To learn more about the Cultivating Futures in Farming Mentor Program, contact Tanya Dobrijevic, Young Farmer Coordinator, Agriculture Victoria at tanya.dobrijevic@agriculture.vic.gov.au

Join us in the Young Farmer Business Network Facebook group

Check out the Young Farmer Business Network Website for great farm business information and to connect with farm business experts.

Visit Farm Business Resilience Program for more information.