YOUNG producers are facing more hurdles than ever before on the fickle road to farm ownership.
Land prices are continuing to climb and older farmers are hitting retirement age at a rapid pace, but the government is not making it any easier for the next generation to enter agriculture.
Recently, the State Government terminated its funding for the $10,000 First Farm Grant, and placed restrictions on their 2011 election promise to exempt young farmers from paying stamp duty on the first $300,000 of agricultural land.
Victorian Farmers Federation president Andrew Broad said treasury had "butchered" the scheme, phasing the exemption down to zero once the purchase price rises above $400,000.
The Coalition had originally promised to exempt stamp duty (of $13,070) on the first $300,000 of land for farmers under 35, but guidelines that released later on revealed tight restrictions, essentially encouraging people to purchased cheaper, smaller blocks of land.
The government has committed to outlaying $3 million annually to stamp duty exemptions for Victoria's next generation of farmers, but just $480,000 has been handed over since July 1 last year.
That is in direct contrast to first-home buyers, who pocket $7000 individually (on properties up to $750,000) and $444 million collectively over the next four years.
"It's absurd. It's a betrayal," Mr Broad said.
Another concern with the scheme guidelines was that it excluded farmers from receiving the exemption if they were part of their parent's family trust, which already owned a farm.
"It is very common for young farmers to be part of the family trust," he said. "This ruling makes it that much harder for people to go out on their own."
Serpentine mixed-producer Prue Addlem could not agree more.
The 27 year-old was devastated when she heard about the $400,000 threshold placed on the stamp duty exemptions.
At the moment, she is working on her parent's farm, but has been looking at purchasing her own broadacre property in the Loddon Shire and run it as part of the family operation.
"I would love nothing more to run my own farm," she said.
"But to be viable and make a profit in broadacre cropping, I need to purchase a property more than 400 hectares and that costs a lot more than $300,000.
"What the government really is doing by placing a threshold on the exemptions is encouraging young people to buy hobby farms, which is not going to keep them in the industry."
She said the stamp duty exemption as it stood would allow her to buy just 121ha or one title of an entire farm.
"I just can't make money off that size," she said.
"The government needs to remove this threshold and encourage farmers to think big and that's not what's happening at the moment."
Ms Addlem said the State Government should be encouraging the next generation of producers in any way possible.
"If I can save $15,000 on stamp duty, I can put that straight into livestock and capital expenditure - it gives me a bit of a head start," she said.
The VFF is currently lobbying the State Government to reassess the $400,000 threshold.
However, Agricultural Minister Peter Walsh says the claims made by the VFF that the State Government had not done enough to support young farmers were disappointing.
"Our commitment to a stamp duty exemption scheme for farmers under 35 was doubled from an original commitment of $6m to $12m," he said.
"The program will be reviewed at the end of 12 months and we will consider revising the rules if the money isn't going out the door."
Mr Walsh said if a farm is worth more than $400,000, farmers could still access the exemption scheme if they place separate titles on the blocks of land.
"This government has proven it is committed to assisting young farmers to purchase their first property, through the exemption scheme and an expansion of the Young Farmers Finance Scheme," he said.
"The annual budget for that concessional loans scheme will be increased by 50 per cent from $15m to $22.5m over the next five years.
"We also allocated an extra $1.2m to the First Farm Grant after discovering the former Labor Government had not forward budgeted for it to continue."
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