Posted by on
10/01/2025
The capital investment environment in Australia is shifting, with traditional large family farms rapidly evolving into sophisticated, world-class agribusiness leaders.
And supporting this growing number of significant farm businesses is a fresh challenge Dee Commins is excited to embrace, with this highly capable ag specialist recently joining Rabobank’s Melbourne team.
Dee, who grew up in Victoria’s high country, is a senior manager of Major Agricultural Clients (MAC), namely, clients with large-scale and often complex lending requirements.
While Dee supports some of Australia’s largest operators across Victoria and Tasmania, she believes that for the majority, family farming remains at her clients’ core.
“A multi-generational large-scale farmer has the same likes and dislikes as any farmer – and they’re equally proud to be contributing to, and growing, a family operation.”
Remaining involved in her family’s Angus beef cattle operation, based between Omeo and Swifts Creek, Dee enjoys first-hand appreciation of agriculture.
In fact it was while showing cattle at the Melbourne Royal Show as a teenager that a graduate banking pamphlet piqued her interest.
“I always saw my future in ag, however I was curious about opportunity beyond the farm gate,” she explains. “I am naturally drawn to analytics and data, and banking represented a nice blend of all my interests.”
The path to Rabobank
After gaining a commerce degree from the University of Melbourne, Dee embarked on an eight-year graduate banking career, living and working in Albury, Deniliquin, Geelong, Melbourne, Shepparton and Launceston.
“These years gave me exposure to a variety of communities, businesses, and commodities – and coming from a small bubble up in the hills, it was incredibly valuable.”
Leveraging her solutions-driven mindset, her next venture was launching and scaling a start-up business, focussed on filling working capital gaps for farmers.
Over five years, Dee and her business partners built a business and systems servicing the capital needs of farmers outside the scope of traditional structures – growing to ten employees in the meantime.
“Launching and maintaining a start-up was high adrenalin, and an exciting challenge, yet ultimately I knew when the time came to step out and focus on something new.”
Armed with learnings from her banking career and start-up, Dee then spent a year home on the farm, upskilling and digitising the business.
“To return home with so much knowledge and inspiration was empowering – we confidently adopted technologies and software such as Xero, Farmbot, Optiweigh, and AgriWebb to improve business efficiency whilst making it easier for me to contribute remotely.”
Having the lived experience of guiding her own family’s farm into the digital age, and adopting systems and processes to allow for increased scale and efficiency through the use of data was, she believes, the perfect segway into her Rabobank role.
The Australian agribusiness sector is in safe hands
Dee’s experience and knowledge now culminate in her recent Rabobank MAC appointment.
Here, she can continue to apply her critical thinking to help clients navigate the often unique and complex challenges of some of Australia's largest agricultural operators.
“In a bank focussed solely on farmers, in a high-performing team dedicated to supporting high-value transactions, there is nothing more exciting than helping a client achieve their goals, and the MAC environment is dynamic and challenging, which I love.”
“High-value transactions are complex with a lot of extra, and very specific, requirements.”
“The beauty of Rabobank’s Major Agricultural Clients division is that we know exactly what needs to be in place when a client wants to scale and expand – we know the information that needs collecting for the in-depth paperwork required, we’re used to having the conversations with credit during the approval process, and we understand the legal structure post-settlement on large transactions.”
“It’s all that we do, which ensures speed to market, speed to settlement, and a positive client experience.”
With rural land prices skyrocketing in recent years, many farmers have found themselves automatically catapulted into the MAC space, sometimes after just one transaction.
And despite rising land values, she believed operations with scale were not slowing down their expansion intentions.
“My clients live and breathe agriculture – they’re progressive, proactive with succession and enjoy being challenged on their thinking, and as their manager, it’s a fascinating proposition.”
Since starting her role last month, Dee has spent much of her time on the road visiting farmers, and is thrilled to be working back in the regions where she forged her career all those years ago.
“I’ve always loved to travel, and am forever curious about business and progression,” she smiles. “I’m very much looking forward to getting out and about and working hand-in-hand with these exciting large-scale agribusinesses.”
Having now learnt the systems and processes, she’s excited to start 2025 “in the driver’s seat”.
“A lot of producers are going through a transitional phase due to generational transfer, with a focus on scale driven by opportunity.”
“As the average farm debt demographic shifts and large family farms expand, these high-value clients require a sophisticated approach, and I believe data and risk management will pave the way for their growth, and I can’t wait to demonstrate my value, and that of Rabobank’s, and continue their success stories.”
I’m a Farmer, Too
Dee is also starting the year strong as part of the “I’m a Farmer, Too” panel session to be held at the Gippsland Red Meat Conference next month.
She will join Jess Knight and Deanne Sykes, both, coincidentally, Rabobank clients, in a discussion that helps highlight the often-overlooked roles of women in agriculture.
The Gippsland Red Meat Conference, of which Rabobank is a sponsor, will be held Tuesday, February 18 at the Riviera Convention Centre in Bairnsdale.