Farm Business Resilience

EastAUSmilk has been assisting our members in creating ‘Farm Business Resilience plans’ and applying for the subsequent Drought Preparedness grant which offers up to $50 000, or 25%, towards new permanent infrastructure to help improve drought resilience. Some of the recently approved projects include drilling bores, installing tanks, troughs, and irrigation, as well as feed storage such as haysheds, silage pits and commodity sheds.

The Farm Business Resilience Program has been on offer to Queensland farmers since 2022 and has seen a considerable uptake of farmers applying for the drought preparedness grant. While 25% does not seem to go far towards something like a centre pivot irrigator, which will currently set you back the most part of $200 000, it is of great benefit to anyone already planning to implement an eligible project. EastAUSmilk’s goal within this program is to limit the amount of paperwork that our members need to complete by themselves and assist with the applications as much as required to ensure as many of our members as possible have access to this funding.

Our contract for this project is set to run out at the end of June this year, however the grant will continue to be available as long as there is funding behind it. We have continued to have good uptake of the project with 18 farms involved between July and November 2023, and 7 to date since then. Not all of these farms have applied for the drought preparedness grant, but have completed resilience plans which can assist in providing an overview of the business as well as being a step ahead for any future grant applications through QRIDA, as the majority of grants will require a resilience plan on application.

Now is a great time to think about completing a farm business resilience plan, whether you are interested in applying for the drought preparedness grant or not, there are plenty of other benefits to having one on hand. Drought Preparedness applications must be approved before any project can be commenced and this includes paying for materials or equipment, however, applicants are able to pay a deposit if necessary.

By Letisha Johnson, eastAUSmilk Project Officer