Cream of the crop

By Lachlan Ellis

Two local farmers have won a state award, being named Young Growers of the Year – and will face off against farmers from across the country for the national version of the award in June.

Brothers Joe and Dominic Boratto were named AUSVEG VIC’s Young Growers of the Year at a dinner held on 29 April, for their work at the family’s company, Bacchus Marsh’s Boratto Farms.

Both men said it was a pleasant surprise to win the award.

“We’re definitely pumped, and surprised to win it. I wasn’t expecting us to win it, and was surprised to be nominated to be honest,” Joe told the Moorabool News.

“I think it’s a real honour and a privilege. A lot of hard work has gone into it, we’re really proud. We went in without any expectations at all really, so it was a nice surprise,” Dominic added.

A recent innovation that might have caught AUSVEG’s attention, Joe said, is the implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a system which has allowed Boratto Farms to decrease the amount of insecticides it uses, by encouraging natural predators to control pests.

“We’ve definitely been doing more and more with IPM, over the last couple of years we’ve probably halved how much insecticides we use with IPM. We’ve planted borders around the farm of flowers, to encourage beneficial bugs to breed up and live in the flowers, and they come into the crop from there,” Joe said.

Boratto Farms also recently hosted part of the International Spinach Conference, with over 100 people in the agriculture industry visiting to view different varieties of spinach growing in a trial environment.

Being named Victoria’s Young Growers of the Year means the Boratto brothers have also been nominated for the Australian Young Grower of the Year award, the winner of which will be announced during a dinner at Hort Connections in Adelaide next month.