The 'Australian farm' generally conjures images of vast landscapes with thousands of sheep and cattle, and hectares of wheat.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 35 seconds 4 m 35 s Daylesford farmer, Danny Kinnear on farming with just five acres, two calves and 40 chooks. Download 2.1 MB

But does it need to be that big?

Twenty-six-year-old baker Danny Kinnear, from Daylesford in Victoria, has just five acres, two calves and 40 chooks.

He doesn't have an off-farm job and makes his living purely from what he produces on his acreage.

'Danny's Farm' has been profitable for two years and Mr Kinnear said, the secret was value adding.

"By turning our eggs into custard tarts and friands we gross $15 per egg and net around $10 as pure profit," he said.

"By contrast your average supermarket dozen free range eggs for $6 grosses only 50c an egg."

Mr Kinnear also recently crowdfunded the conversion of his sister's old horse float, into a food van.

He raised more than $7,000 and is currently learning how to weld, with the help of wwoofers (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms volunteers), YouTube lessons, and advice from the local men's shed.

Mr Kinnear recognised that his way of farming did not feed many people, in contrast to conventional farms.

"But it will give me a foothold to take the next step in growing more food by providing financial security for the farm," he said.

Seasonal fruit friands made from produce at Danny's Farm. ( Supplied: Danny Kinnear )

Defying the traditional farming definition

Mr Kinnear challenges the convention that, in order to define yourself as a farmer, you need to be specialised and have a lot of land.

"For me a farmer is someone who makes their living by producing food from the land and so, by this definition, I am a farmer."

Mr Kinnear believed there was a common feeling in agriculture that you needed to 'get big or get out'.

"I wanted to be able to farm in a way that focused on growing and raising the best quality food rather than the cheapest," he said.

"Basically farming is really tough, if you want to make any money farming you pretty much have to grow a lot of food or you have to value add.

"I'm a young farmer and I don't have a lot of money, to grow a lot of food was pretty much out of the question."