Leongatha South’s Benjamin Vagg a Farmer of the Year contender

STAUNCH dairy industry advocate and keen adopter of technology to improve farm efficiency, Leongatha South identity Benjamin Vagg is in line for lofty honours, having been declared a finalist in The Weekly Times 2025 Farmer of the Year awards.

While the awards have six farming categories, one farmer will be crowned the overall 2025 Farmer of the Year, based on last year’s achievements, with the winner to be announced on Friday February 13 at the MCG.

Sentinel-Times last year enjoyed the opportunity to inspect Mr Vagg’s new milking setup featuring eight GEA dairy robots, with other current and retired dairy farmers also paying a visit, excited to learn about how the technology works.

It enables cows to learn to come in for milking voluntarily, receiving grain while being milked, with a separate feeding section providing any remaining grain allocation for each animal.

The system gathers detailed information on each cow, enabling monitoring of health and feeding requirements.

The cattle also graze on pasture, visiting different paddocks throughout the day.

Mr Vagg’s willingness to invest in dairy robot technology and the substantial infrastructure requirements to establish the new facility are a strong indication of his belief in the dairy industry.

It demonstrates he is in it for the long term.

However, it’s not blind faith, with the third generation South Gippsland dairy farmer, and Board member of Dairy Farmers Victoria (DFV), an outspoken advocate of the need for dairy farmers to be treated fairly and for positive changes to be implemented.

For instance, Mr Vagg called strongly for virtual fencing technology to be allowed in Victoria.

He and DFV welcomed the State Government’s eventual decision to support that initiative. 

While Mr Vagg won’t be adopting the technology at this stage on his farm due to the establishment of his robotic dairy, he sees lots of positives for dairy farmers in virtual fencing and virtual herding.

Those positives include a reduction in labour and better pasture monitoring and utilisation, not having to put up strip fencing being one of the major time savings.

Mr Vagg has a long-term outlook to innovation, having told the Sentinel-Times he considers it generally takes three to five years for the full benefits of new farming technologies to become apparent as farmers figure out how to use the technology most effectively and overcome challenges that arise.