In My Paddock - Kate Burke, Torrumbarry, Victoria.

Check out how Zero Commission Livestock Selling works. Click here for more.

In My Paddock is a new series we will run where we get Agricultural people to write about what's happening on their Farms or in their Ag-related businesses. Hopefully, if we can pin them down, we will get them to write something on a monthly basis.

By Kate Burke - Author of Crops, People, Money & You and Founder of Think Agri.

My paddock is literally just one paddock, 25 km West of Echuca at Torrumbarry (Vic).

It's late winter in my paddock. There's a teenage Barley Crop growing quickly in plenty of moisture and enjoying the recent bout of warmer weather and sunshine.

The soil moisture profile should be enough to compensate for a dry spring if that eventuates. Late-season frost is always a risk here, so Hay cutting is not out of the picture.

It's in a spot that's drier more often than it is wet. The last three years were kind, and this year is ok so far.

It's only been our paddock since December 2019. (I managed to convince my husband it was a good investment).

Owning Land was on my bucket list. As the youngest of six and a female, the option of me being involved in the family Farm at Elmore (Vic) was never on the table. I didn't inherit a Farm, so I decided to buy my own. Land makes money while you sleep, wise elders have known this for years. "Money has a habit of falling out of your pocket, but it doesn't fall out of Land, was a pear of wisdom passed on from Uncle Basil.

But Land has more currency than just money.

Our 287 acres on a treeless plain doesn't look much. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so they say. This paddock on a flat, treeless plain traversed by a line of concrete power poles, surrounded by a crooked fence, is hardly a candidate for a country landscape photo shoot.

This Land means so much more. Behind the years are stories of heart and soul of owners, both ancient and recent.

And then there's our story and what it means to us. A dream to have a name on a title, a piece of Land that is ours. Dirt under our feet. The sense of belonging. To be a landholder, a Farmer. To have what my father had, what my brothers have, a piece of farmland to call my own.

That spiritual sense of guiding growth, sustaining soils, witnessing the miracle of nature and biology. To create and curate from Seed to many Seeds. The miracle of germination, respiration, photosynthesis, transpiration, vegetation, reproduction, pollination, anthesis, deposition, senescence, and maturity. The cycle of plant life.

Capturing water, converting to green matter, collecting seeds that become currency, be it food, fodder or cash.

This is the miracle of Land and our paddock.