Economically irrelevant - or relevant

For the last 40 years (at least) Moora Farm has been economically irrelevant - in the sense that it has produced little.  

I'm pretty sure that all it's carried over that time is beef cattle - probably steers - farmed on a minimum input basis.  If we assume it has carried about 15 steers and, because of conservative stocking, they've averaged 0.6 kg weight gain per day.  That means the property has produced 3,285 kg of beef per year.  

The last time I sold steers I got $1-80 a live kg.  That would make the annual gross value of production from Moora $5,913.  That's well short of a living for a farmer!

In earlier times Moora was part of a larger property, but that fact alone doesn't improve productivity very much.  

I also understand that the whole Couangalt area was once used to grow oats and hay for horses in Melbourne.  That would be a higher value use - albeit one that requires much higher inputs as well.  

I'm also told that some one remembers flax being grown in the front paddock during the second war - presumably because the normal supply of hemp for ropes was disrupted.

In doing the pasture improvement that we have done, we've been able to consider what the possible productivity of the land might be.  The soil seems good - a mix of grey and red loams.  There are quite a few rocks and some rocky outcrops - but that is where the stone walls come from.  There is not so much rock that it's difficult to work the land.

Of course a major constraining factor is water.  The average annual rainfall is said to be around 700 mm, but we've been more like 450 mm for each of the years we have been there.  Rainfall at this level hasn't stopped us growing break crops of brassica, oats and annual ryegrass - and establishing permanent pastures of perennial ryegrass and phalaris.

I can pretty much justify all that we've done so far simply by its effect on the resale value of the property to another Collins St dreamer.  When we bought it, it was overgrown with gorse, blackberry and briar rose - now it's green and beautiful.  I'm confident I'd get back my 'investment' - were we to sell.

That's not really the point though.  

I'm interested in seeing whether we can make a small 57 acre farm on the outskirts of Melbourne economically relevant.  To achieve that I've got to increase the gross income from the farm very substantially.  

Doubling our gross income doesn't begin to make it relevant - even 10 times doesn't do it.  I think 40 times is really the minimum!  With a gross income of $250,000, there is capacity to cover some costs and provide a return to some investment.

I don't know whether that is possible ..... particularly as I want to do it in a way that is genuinely sustainable.

It's going to be fun to find out !