The Farmer Exchange is an online agricultural community where Aussie primary producers connect online. It’s about building a place where farmers can help other farmers at a time that suits them, no matter where they live across Australia. 

The Farmer Exchange will provide a central location for our knowledge to be logged, tagged and stored so that is easily accessible and transferable. In doing so, the Exchange will build a legacy library of questions and answers that are created, edited and organised by us – Australian producers.

Currently, nothing like the Farmer Exchange concept exists in Australia. It is a new and innovative way for farmers to instantly connect with other farmers and will be a tool in ensuring we, as Australian producers, shape the future of our industry.

The Australian agricultural sector is moving forward at a rapid pace, facing new and old challenges and opportunities. However, it is how farmers respond to these impending opportunities, and tackle shared challenges that will determine the success of the industry as a whole.

Learning from those that have gone before us is incredibly important to ensure the generational knowledge, skills and years of experience are not lost. Connecting farmers to other farmers, across production systems, across generations, and across the country will give us all the greatest chance of sharing knowledge, growth, and ultimately success.

Current social networks do not have the farmer front and centre of their design and functionality. On other platforms, there is often only one vertical stream of conversation. In a matter of hours (sometimes minutes), a thread can disappear out of sight, making it difficult to continue to engage or find it weeks or months later. The Exchange, built by farmers, for farmers, will connect us in order to transfer knowledge in a way we have not seen before.

ABSOLUTELY NOT! The Farmer Exchange is incredibly easy to use and navigate and for all to use.
A primary reason for developing the Exchange is that we value the immense amount of knowledge, skills and experience in the minds of older farmers and wanted to create a solution that can connect all members of the industry so your valuable insights can be shared and captured.

The Farmer Exchange was developed by the Farm Table and eleven producers from across the country. These farmers were chosen as they:

        
• Represent a range of commodities, ages, geographical  locations and business models
        
• Are considered by their communities as driven and innovative producers
        
• Are passionate about continuous farmer learning
        
• Committed to shaping a positive Australian agricultural industry.

The group includes Lewis Johnston (Broadacre Cropping, Williams, WA), Matthew Young (Horticulture and livestock, Sassafras, Tas), Lauren Peterson (Dairy, Boorcan, Vic), Tegan Bathgate (Beef industry, QLD), Aimee Snowden (Fodder and Agricultural Advocate, Tocumwal, NSW), Josh Small (Mixed Irrigation and Livestock, Deniliquin, NSW), Hugh Landale (Rice and Livestock, Pretty Pine, NSW), David Armstrong (Mixed farming, Junee NSW), Joel Orchard (Market gardener/Food systems activist, Mullumbimby, NSW), Carissa Wolfe (Organic Dairy, Taree, NSW), and Stuart Austin (Hernani, NSW - previously NT).

The Farmer Exchange Pilot has been primarily funded by the Australian Government’s Farm Co-operatives & Collaboration Pilot Program (Farming Together), with the support of AgriFutures Australia and the Farm Table.

It is a not for profit project and is free for farmers to use.

Ongoing development and maintenance will be funded by the Farm Table.

Farm Table is the first truly national platform that brings together the Australian Agricultural industry’s knowledge and connects farmers in a way never seen before.

Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content out there and the frustrations and time taken to find agricultural resources and opportunities, the Farm Table idea was first borne back in 2014. Three years of testing, learning and developing later, the Farm Table 2.0 is set to launch. The vision is to be where farmers feel at home, a one port of call to access the industry’s knowledge and goings-on.
Its central tenets are:
      1. Build: Agricultural resource & knowledge library
      2. Boost: National training, events and grants database
      3. Accelerate Agricultural technology, product & software hub
      4. Exchange: Online agricultural community.

Learn more here

You can access the Farm Table by:

• Going to farmtable.com.au
• Through the Farmer Exchange
• Via your Dashboard

The Exchange is firstly and foremostly for Australian primary producers and aspiring Australian farmers. Members must be over 18.

Professionals in the agriculture and agribusiness sectors are allowed into the Exchange but this is through a separate sign up process and their profiles are distinct from a Farmer Profile, through the Farm Table for Business.

When setting up a profile, we ask questions to validate the member as fitting into these categories, including postcode, DOB, and farming interests. We also have a ‘report’ function, where users themselves can report uncommon/unfriendly/off topic behaviour to admin. This will help ensure all conversations remain on topic and members involved in the Exchange are here for the right reasons.

When signing up to the Exchange, members are bound by our Rules & Guidelines. They are intended to help foster high quality, friendly and respectful interaction and ensure that members are all in here for one reason – the betterment of their farming businesses and the agricultural industry as a whole. We reserve the right to permanently deactivate user’s accounts who breach our Exchange community rules or have provided misleading information in their profile. Read more about the Exchange Guidelines here.

There is no doubt about it, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are incredibly powerful social media platforms and can be helpful in accessing farming information and connect with others. We too are users of these platforms and members of private Facebook Groups specifically created around farming topics and groups. We seek not to reinvent the wheel but build on it and create a service for farmers that has us at the centre of it, something truly ours.

We see the advantages in joining the Farmer Exchange as follows:

There is no doubt about it, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are incredibly powerful social media platforms and can be helpful in accessing farming information and connect with others. We too are users of these platforms and members of private Facebook Groups specifically created around farming topics and groups. We seek not to reinvent the wheel, but build something that pulls the most useful parts and create a service for farmers that has us at the centre of it, something truly ours.

We see the advantages in joining the Farmer Exchange as follows:

• Other platforms run their own business model, which can change at any time. We want to create something long-term and sustainable and build a legacy of Q&A for farmers, by farmers.
• On other platforms, there is only one vertical stream of conversation. In a matter of hours (sometimes minutes), a thread can disappear out of sight, making it difficult to continue to engage or find it weeks or months later. Recalling information on the exchange is our key point of difference.
• We split things into separate categories or sub forums to make it clear where certain topics should be discussed, you can easily see the newest posts as well as popular posts.
• Our search functionality is superior and assists in finding topics you need again quickly
• The Exchange is for primary producers to exchange knowledge on their production systems, their businesses and our industry. It does not sit within another social media platform where we can be constantly distracted and more focused on personal conversations.
• We have an upvote and downvote system. This means higher quality answers, as voted by us, are seen towards the top. It assists in filtering by allowing the most useful answers to come to the top.
• When farmers search for a question on Google, posts in private Facebook groups are not found, so even if there may be an answer out there, it is difficult to find the answer you want, when you need it.
• Many of our older farmers and younger farmers are not using social media platforms, particularly Facebook. We want a place just for us, for all of us, irrespective if you are on social media or not.
• Many farmers we have spoken to are unsure of the validity of information they receive on other social media platforms as their profiles are often hidden and are unsure of who they are speaking to.
• You are able to create a professional profile. This profile is also completely private to the site, so members aren’t worrying about people seeing their personal profile and pictures of their kids/holidays/cats.
• In the Exchange you can thank farmers for providing great questions and great answers.
• We are a community. No bullying. No trolls.

  Farmer Exchange Guidelines

Signing up to the Farmer Exchange will let you get the very most out of the community and enable you to help shape the future of the industry. Upon signing up, you can create a personalised profile so the information you see is relevant to you, customised dashboard, you can start earning points [Link to incentive structure], you can chat directly with other farmers, comment, ask questions and answer questions.

In addition, signing up to the Farmer Exchange also signs you up to the Farm Table. The Farmer Exchange is just one part of the Farm Table. As a member of the Farm Table family, you have access to your own personalised dashboard, where you can save your favourite resources, events, grants and articles for later and have things right there at the click of a button. Learn more about the Farm Table here.

We have a wealth of knowledge to share farmer-to-farmer, but we cannot discount or undervalue the wealth of experience and expert skills in the broader agri-service sector and associated industries.

That is why we also invite those beyond the farm gate into the Exchange through Farm Table for Business. Agri members are not able to solicit or directly advertise their business and their profiles are clearly distinct from a Farmer Member for transparency purposes.

As the Exchange is a free service for farmers, this will help ensure the future sustainability of the community as well as ensuring our farming questions do not go unanswered.