Information and Articles

Hobby farmer Fadi from NSW won the first prize in our competition celebrating the launch of Farmstyle Insurance earlier in 2022.

Here, we share Fadi’s story of becoming a small farmer and his thoughts on managing the risks on his small farm.

Fadi is an IT professional from Sydney, who bought a 26-acre hobby farm in Tallong, in the Southern Tablelands of NSW, in partnership with his brother two years ago.

When you run a small farm in Australia, you need to be prepared for increasingly regular severe weather events due to the La Nina and El Nino weather patterns.

Severe weather events such as floods and storms (during La Nina years) and drought and bushfires (during El Nino years) are risks that have become a certainty in Australia.

Farmers and small businesses in rural and regional areas are urged to be cautious, particularly when buying heavy machinery, following a spike in scams targeting the agricultural sector this year.

When I was a kid, all my relatives grew their own vegetables - my parents, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles. But I was never interested in any kind of gardening (and I didn’t particularly like to eat vegetables anyway). Things have changed a lot since then! 

Greater Sydney Local Land Services has launched a series of online resources to support small farmers during self-isolation.

The Big Shift for Small Farms podcast and “From the Ground Up – marketing fundamentals”
video series include a broad range of expert advice and information for growers and producers
running a variety of business from industry experts and their farming peers.

Birds can be a pest around the horse property as they search for sustenance, fouling water and feed-bins and spreading weed seeds in their droppings. The presence of grain in horse feeds encourages larger numbers of birds, which can take a toll on trees and newly sown crops.

However, evidence gathered from the Integrated Pest Management for the Horse Farm report (2007), demonstrated that birds may also affect the incidence of intestinal parasites on the horse farm in ways that are both positive and negative.

Designed for the dedicated farmer, grow hobbyist, or passionate plant lover, The Rural GROWtunnel offers an enclosed cropping environment that provides protection from wind, rain, hail and intense sun.  This is particularly important in a world where climate change is making weather patterns less predictable and harder for growers to plan their crops.

Article as seen in the November edition of Money magazine by Susan Hely.

Questions: What is the smartest way forward financially for us given that Clare will not be working for some time? Should we invest in shares, buy an investment property or focus on paying down the mortgage? What is the best way to buy land, build a house and set up a hobby farm?

Names: Clare and Michael

Status: Married and expecting a baby.

If you have a small farm and are looking to expand, there are various ways you may be able to achieve that. Business expansion for small or lifestyle farmers can take place in many forms, including: 
1.    purchasing additional land;
2.    agistment;
3.    share farming; or 
4.    leasing additional farmland. 

The threat of fire is a year-round risk in Australia. However, for anyone living on – or managing – a small farm, a long hot summer and the onset of the declared fire season is the time to be proactive and to prepare for bushfires. 

Having a fire management plan in place to protect your property, machinery, livestock and especially your loved ones is the best defence against bushfires and grassfires.