The water lure for Ben’s future

NORTHERN Midlands farmer Ben Tait moved from New Zealand to Tasmania for one primary reason: water security.

He was one of three speakers at the Rabobank Agriculture Forum at the Campbell Town Show.

Led by Rabobank area manager Stuart Whatling, the topic of discussion was “maximising water investments for on-farm profit ability and industry productivity”.

Tasmanian Irrigation CEO Mike Sylvester and Les Murdoch from Simplot were the other panellists.

While he has had some form of irrigation, Mr Tait is not yet connected to the Northern Midlands irrigation scheme, as it is still under construction, with water delivery expected to commence in October 2026.

However, he said he would connect his farm – a mixed livestock and crops enterprise – to the scheme once it was operational. “It will give us better surety and enable more storage,” Mr Tait said.

“It would give us the confidence to plan for higher value crops and to finish livestock to market weights.”

“We get very typical comments from other farmers that Ben echoed today about the reliability and high surety of water,” Mr Sylvester said.

“With Ben’s experience of having farmed in other jurisdictions, like New Zealand, and what didn’t work there, and just how far ahead of the curve that Tasmanian Irrigation is as a supplier, it’s really refreshing to hear.”

“Knowing that the breadth and depth of our future projects is going to double what we’ve done, I think it’ll just continue to be a game-changer for the state and a game-changer for operators like Ben and Les.”

There are 10 irrigation projects in development across the state as part of Tranche Three, including the Greater South East, Northern Midlands and Sassafras Wesley Vale schemes.

“There’s a growing level of responsibility that business operations need to have in making sure they do everything to continue to protect their organisation for both a social and environmental stewardship perspective,” Mr Sylvester told the forum.