Agroup of Millicent and district primary producers proudly answer to the nickname of “Fat Farmers” as they gather each week in the interest of their physical and mental health.

No strangers to early starts, the dozen or so farmers meet at the Ignition Fitness gymnasium in Millicent’s main street at 6am each Friday.

Bedecked in Fat Farmers T-shirts, they are put through their paces for an hour with a personal trainer.

Fat Farmers started back in 2010 when locals Greg Hean, Ben Wundersitz and Scott Hoyle began going to the gym in Maitland on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.

Having all hit 40 and given up playing footy, they joked about becomig ‘Fat Farmers’, a name that stuck as the Maitland group grew to dozens of towns across regional SA.

With the encouragement of his wife Nicole and Ignition Fitness owner Adam Wiese, third-generation farmer Sam Croser founded a Fat Farmers group in Millicent in 
April.

Mr Croser said the weekly gym sessions were a way of getting farmers away from their properties for a break.

“I am 41 and most of the Millicent Fat Farmers are blokes in their 40s who have stopped playing sport,” Mr Croser said.

“It is about feeling good in body and mind.

“We get out and do something with our mates.

“As well as the work-outs, we have chats.

“We have some social occasions with our families and we have just had a golf day and a pig on a spit.”

Mr Croser said it was a challenging time for those who work on the land, as one of the driest seasons on record.

One of the personal trainers who has been working with the Millicent Fat Farmers has been Jack Haggett.

He completed a school-based traineeship at Ignition Fitness while a student at Millicent High School and is also a member of the Castec Rural Pioneers.

His time with Ignition Fitness is drawing to a close as he has won a scholarship to study and play basketball at a university in the USA.