Paper short abstract:

Few groups in modern society think more intensively about their relationship to the land they work than the modern dairy farmer. This paper seeks to illuminate the ways in which Australian dairy farmers contextualise land, value and identity through their relationship with the land they farm.

Paper long abstract:

The appropriation of land for agriculture in modern post-colonial societies, such as Australia and New Zealand, is commonly motivated by the perception of economic benefit. This is often called 'opening up the land', 'clearing', or even 'settling'. Clearly, as this act of appropriation is reflexive, those who are engaged in this activity are also appropriated by the land to an extent that it becomes a part of their identity to varying degrees, depending on the type and intensity of their involvement with it. This paper tells the story of how a farmer in South-Eastern Australia left the dairy farm his family had held for three generations and presents a discussion of how the farm became a discursive arena in which competing perceptions of value were expressed.

As few modern land users have a more intensive relationship with the land they farm than those in the dairy industry, the decision by his family to leave the land impacted greatly on the farmer at many levels. Indeed, owing to the particular management practices utilised on the farm, family dynamics made this more than a simple economic decision. This paper seeks, through the telling of this story, to explore the reflexive nature of the relationships that form between farming families and their land. It is primarily informed by eighteen months of field work undertaken by the author with dairy farmers in Victoria, Australia, with a particular emphasis on the field work and interviews carried out on the farm in question.