When the only son of a farming family decided to leave his parents' dairy business it triggered a feud between father and son that lasted years. It was not until the family farmhouse caught fire that the men had cause to reunite and make amends.

Tim Marwood had grown frustrated over a lack of a succession plan and not knowing whether he had a future on the farm.

Mixing generations of family and business is never easy — especially when no one talks about plans for the future.

Mr Marwood's family had been farming dairy cows in South West Victoria for decades, starting with his grandfather at Nullawarre.

His father, John Marwood, later built his own dairy at nearby Brucknell and was one of the first farmers to milk a cow an acre in the 1970s.

The third generation of the Marwood farming family, and the only son, Tim spent much of his childhood washing up in the dairy after milking and stacking square bales on the haystack.

Key points: