Local farming family, Caithness Pastoral Company, headed by Trevor and Carryn Caithness, of Forge Creek, have been awarded the title Beef Farmer of the Year in the Weekly Times Coles 2023 Farmer on the Year awards.
Typically humble and quiet, Trevor was nonetheless pleased with the award, surprised they were chosen over the other two nominees.
“It’s nice to get a bit of recognition for what our region can do,” Trevor said.
The ceremony was last Friday, held in a function room at the MCG, and on accepting the award Trevor had to stand up and give a speech.
“I talked a bit about our farming operation and the terrific people we have working with us who make the day-to-day things possible, and I also acknowledged our long-term relationship with Coles,” Trevor said.
“We’ve supplied Coles for about 10 years and that’s a lot of the basis of the success of our business, the pricing stability in the supply arrangement, which means we can budget around that.
“We’ve achieved capital improvements and soil work to be able to keep increasing our productivity because of it.”
Trevor said the family supplied about 1000 head a year to Coles, including about 700 of their homebred cattle plus trade cattle.
Trevor is also the chief executive officer of the local Gippsland Ag Group and has mentored many farmers in the district.
