Farm Operations Manager - Raglan, Western Victoria
ABUNDANCE FARM IS LOOKING FOR A FARMER TO JOIN OUR TEAM!
We are looking for a person to join our team to help us manage, grow, and improve our farm.
If you have a passion for regenerative agriculture, are driven to improve our natural environment, if you are reliable, responsible, committed and ready to do hard meaningful work, please get in contact with us.
This position requires 5 days a week on average with seasonal variations and pays a base rate of $22/hour for the first 3 months of training. We are also offering quarterly bonuses of up to $2,500 once you demonstrate the above-mentioned traits and can understand, manage, and execute every aspect of the farm independently when needed, as well as committing to a longer term.
FARM OPERATIONS MANAGER
Description:
12 months minimum
Includes an average of 38 paid hours a week
Includes long holidays
Includes periods when acting as sole caretaker having to stay full time on the farm
Up to $2,500 bonuses on top of the wage for meeting quarterly objectives
Accommodation is available in a caravan or shipping container at the farm, local rooms in town can be rented for $100 a week
Includes food to be cooked together
The farm manager is in charge of:
Managing the laying hen business
Manage interns and other workers
Sourcing and picking up pre-waste feed and supplies
Upcycling food to feed our laying hens
Calculating nutritional values, mixing feeds and feeding it to the hens
Harvesting washing, packing and delivering eggs
Communicating with customers
Moving cows to new pasture in a rotational grazing system
The farm manager will also be working closely with Alex and Kali in these tasks:
Caring for fruit trees, fertilizing and mulching
Managing our agroforestry system by germinating, planting, pruning and thinning the forest strips
Beekeeping
Building chicken houses and other infrastructures
Requisites:
Must prove the ability to independently manage the laying hen system as a whole
Have prior studies or learnings related to regenerative agriculture such as permaculture, agroecology, horticulture, farming and/or forestry (this includes self-studies)
The farm manager must have the intention of learning how to manage a regenerative farming system and must be genuinely dedicated to work in regenerative agriculture
Have a driver’s license
Have experience driving while towing a trailer or be willing to learn
Have experience with working dogs or be willing to learn
ABOUT THE FARM
Abundance Farm is a mixed, biodiverse, regenerative, chemical free farm established in 2015 in Raglan, Victoria, on the foothills of Mount Cole.
Our mission is to advance the practice of regenerative agriculture, and the use of renewable energies and resources.
Kali and I (Alex) run the farm since 2015. We are currently caring for egg laying hens, black angus cattle, honeybees, fruit and native trees. We want to continue to grow and improve our carbon sequestration by planting trees and adding more organic matter to the soil through our operations.
Our 900 hens help us rescue 70 tons of food waste per year! We upcycle veggies, fruits, ravioli, tortillas, oils and brewer’s grain and turn it into eggs and compost. We add vitamins, minerals and probiotics such as apple cider vinegar to our chook’s feed, ensuring their health and nutrition as well as producing healthy nutritious eggs.
Our 32 black angus cows are rotationally grazing on 300 acres and help us cycle carbon and nutrients through our pasture as well as helping us cycle and process tree pruning from our agroforestry system to increase the soil organic matter.
We sell our produce through CSA memberships, directly from the farm to our farm members, and to organic grocers in Ballarat and Melbourne.
We have planted 4,000 trees so far and want to continue doing so until we have a healthy agroforestry system of forest alleyways with 20,000 trees.
Our current projects include breeding and brooding cows and chickens, planting and growing trees and other perennials, but also building a post and beam timbercrete house and a food processing facility powered by a 15kw solar system.
OUR OBJECTIVES FOR 2025
100% of our operation, including transport, will be powered by off-grid solar and wind power
We will have 3000 hens and 70 cows on 300 acres of pasture
We will have planted 10,000 trees
We will upcycle 260 tons of food yearly, diverting it from landfill and turning it into eggs, compost, and trees
To apply for any of these positions, please send a recent CV and cover letter to: