Tocal Virtual Farm

Tocal is part of the tradition lands of the Wonnarua people. European style agriculture came to the property with the first land grant in 1822 – to James Philips Webber. More detail about the cultural history of the property is available here.

People are an invaluable resource on any farm and probably even more so on Tocal. We have an important role in agricultural education, in our local community, as NSW government facility and as a producer of high-quality beef, eggs, milk and horse breeder.

People, products, services, and ideas flow into and out of Tocal and are influenced by the site and the industry in which we operate.

Nine staff members work full time on the farms. They are supported by up to ten casual staff and teaching staff. They are responsible for students who are rostered on for practical work during term.

These are made up of:

• Dairy: 3 full-time, 2 casual staff members
• Beef: 3 full-time, 1 casual staff member
• Horses: Two teaching staff allocate time to horse management
• Sheep: One teaching staff member allocates time to sheep management
• Numeralla/eggs: Two (full-time Manager and Second-in-Charge) one maintenance + 5-7 casual staff members

The central role of Tocal farm enterprises is to provide the foundation for full time student training, education delivery short courses, industry training and farm visits from schools and the general community and to support DPI research initiatives.

Each week of the student year between 25 and 35 students are rostered onto the various farm enterprises. The students from Cert III and IV Agriculture and Cert III Horse husbandry courses complete a range of practical and skills that support the theory training associated with the course providing a balance between theory and practical skills development.

• Each student will spend 267 hours on the various enterprises during the year. This time is spent under full supervision from College staff.
• Other training areas not included in these hours are farm safety induction training, two weeks at beginning of the year intensive skills training, two weeks skills training for Certificate IV students and the Tocal Agskills challenge.

The following tables summarises the roster hours for 19 practical and skills weeks on the farm enterprises for Tocal students in 2018.

The Tocal site includes offices of the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Local Land Services and Tocal College. Staff and students from these areas amount to around 100 people.

The government also plays a significant role in Tocal’s production and farm decision making.

State government plays a role mainly in compliance matters particularly in relation to:

• administering and regulation of Workplace Health and Safety (WHS),
• irrigation and access to water,
• the Native Vegetation Act & natural resource management in general,
• the National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS)
• biosecurity,
• Award conditions (pay and working conditions) for staff,
• animal welfare,
• food registration, and
• industrial relations.

The federal government influences management of Tocal indirectly including the impact on the economy and exchange rate of government decisions and international agreements and by lobbying for the removal of protectionism. Their direct influence is through compliance issues. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also has the power to influence dairy industry profitability but has not yet exercised this power.

Industry trends, innovation and the social licence of farms to operate are also factors that are people based and can have significant impacts on the management and productivity of Tocal.

Revenues from the farms for 2019-20 Financial year were:

The total farm revenue is a creditable $3,176,649. This income pays for all variable costs of production and some improvements. It also contributes significantly to, but does not cover, all site overheads for the Tocal College farms.