Youth in Dairy MOOve into 21st Century

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

Today’s guest post comes from Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champion and Holstein Youth Mentor Tom Pearce

For better or worse and bordering on an obsession, the mobile phone has become our more useful “left” hand. Ask yourself – How often do you see a young person these days with a firm grip on their mobile device? Right -Every spare second! And what are they doing with it? Chances are if they aren’t writing another text message in record time they are using some form of social media!

The Holstein Youth mission statement is “To attract and develop the next generation, providing a sustainable framework for the future of the Australian Dairy Industry”. We believe the best way to do this and connect with the majority of the younger generation who are holding on tightly to that smartphone is through Social Media

When Charles Darwin said in the 19^th century – “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change” I don’t think in his wildest dreams he would have envisioned the phenomenal level of technology in the 21st century

Social Media is often described as “revolutionary”, and those resisting the change are being left behind, fast! While Holstein Youth has had a social media presence for some time it is only in the last 6 months or so we have really “jumped on the bandwagon” so to speak and started to milk it for all its worth to boost our online presence and audience. Not only are we trying to connect with the dairy community we feel our content is relevant and of interest to the wider community.

So what has Holstein Youth been doing in this space?

Facebook –

www.facebook.com/holsteinyouthaustralia

Our most active platform now with 581 “Likes”, that has seen a weekly page audience peak at 8000+ and our most popular post reaching 3000+ Facebook users worldwide. Some of the statistics are truly amazing! While our main audience are Australian’s, others include from the USA, Canada, New Zealand and as far afield as Pakistan, Ecuador and Egypt to mention a few! We endeavour to keep the page updated regularly so our audience can see Coming Events, Photo Albums, Interesting Facts, YouTube clips, links to other competitions and Sale + Show Coverage (proving quite popular for those who can’t attend the event). Being an interactive platform we invite comments from our audience with our “Guess Who” and “Caption This” photos. It is interesting to note that the most successful “posts” are the one’s our audience can relate to and share an emotional connection.

The caption ‘Should have been a “Cow’ asaki’ had 816 Likes and was shared 333 times on other Facebook pages

Twitter –

www.twitter.com/holsteinyouthau

Twitter is the newest social media platform we have ventured into. Yes Holstein Youth has joined the conversation (don’t roll your eyes it’s definitely worth looking into, it may be a lot more than what you expect).

And while Twitter is not for everyone and may lag behind Facebook in terms of users, the number of users is however rapidly growing. We believe it is important to be in the space as Twitter tends to capture a different audience. All Facebook posts are linked to Twitter and then able to be “retweeted”.

YouTube –

www.youtube.com/holsteinyouthtube

The YouthTube competition was inspired by a number of Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champion videos that showcased their industry to the wider community via Youtube. All entries into the YouthTube competition have been uploaded to our YouTube channel for the whole world to see. And going by the statistics YouTube is telling us those videos have been seen, again mostly by Australian’s but other views have come from countries like Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and Costa Rica amongst others! The Holstein Youth team has a few more videos in the pipeline but we are definitely looking forward to uploading this year’s entries into the YouthTube Competition to continue to showcase our Aussie dairy industry to the world. Any video uploaded to YouTube can then be shared on Facebook and Twitter and potentially join the Petersen Brothers movement and go “viral”

What’s next for Holstein Youth

It doesn’t stop there the Holstein Youth team is looking at embracing another social media platform, Instagram. All we can say is watch this space!

Using Social Media will also play an integral part in promoting next year’s Holstein Youth Conference which will coincide with the Holstein Australia 100 Year Anniversary Conference in Queensland.

So long as the Holstein Youth team has an internet connection we can update our social media wherever we are in the world, it truly is so easy! On the other hand it is a little hard to measure our success on social media in terms of page “likes”, twitter “follows” and video “views” equally more young farmers on the land or new Holstein Australia members, but you just never know. By using Social media we can provide constant reminders to our audience and it may just be one of the pieces to the puzzle in attracting and retaining youth in Agriculture. Through using visual and interactive content we might just get a few people to stop and take notice in this fast paced digital world.

Thank you Tom and well done Holstein Youth

You can follow Tom on Twitter @progressivetom

You can see his entry for the I love Ag competition “Meet Tom Pearce the farmer who puts the Cheese in your Cracker” here

Say yes to Buy Australian Grown

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

The pointy end of the Archibull Prize program is ready to begin

All the schools now have their cows and their paints and their industry resources

They have done their entry survey

Soon they will know who their Young Farming Champions and Eco Champions are

Now it is time to share with them what our call to action is and what we hope they will understand and will need to make wise choices about as consumers and decision and policy makers

Did you know this?

And that’s just the cows!

Imagine the amount of land!

The people!

The infrastructure!

Supporting business!

The technology!

It takes to get your dairy products from cow to consumer!

These are only a handful of questions and they are only for one area of agriculture.

We all have to eat and that alone means that agriculture is not only important but vital.

Every Australian wants

Affordable
Safe
healthy food
food produced in an environmentally friendly way.

Every Australian wants their food produced by people who care

A passion to link consumers with producers … to promote public understanding of farming, and the interconnectedness of health and nutrition and the agricultural sector … is the driving force behind Art4Agriculture.

The quantities of grain, pork, meet and cotton to feed and clothe Sydney are staggering and they only hint at the full story.

It’s staggering enough to discover you need 8,000 cows to produce the ice-cream Sydney consumes every day

Sydney consumes 300,000 kg of pork enough for 3 rashers of bacon per person per day

Enough grain to produce 32,000 loaves of bread

Enough hens to lay 800,000 eggs

Sydney consumes over 600,00 kg of beef and lamb

We could make 1 million pairs of jeans with the amount of cotton Sydney uses every day

Yet whilst Australian farmers look after more than 60% of Australia’s landscape

and produce 93% of the food we eat

Believe it or not only 6% of our land is suitable for planting the food we eat.

What outcomes does Art4Agriculture hope to achieve

We see success as an exciting, dynamic, innovative and profitable agri-food sector supported by all Australians

We see success as an appreciation of Australian farmers producing healthy, affordable, environmentally friendly and safe food translate into consumers taking that little bit of extra time required to seek out Aussie produce

We see success as young people getting excited about careers in Agriculture

How can one COW educate one SCHOOL about the WOOL INDUSTRY?

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

We all have to eat and that alone means that agriculture is not only important but vital.

Every Australian wants affordable, healthy food produced in an environmentally friendly way.

Every Australian wants their food produced by people who care

This year our signature program for schools, the Archibull Prize is rolling out in three states and we will be following the journey live via the students’ blogs.

Over the next few weeks we will be introducing you to each of the schools taking part via their blogs and we invite you to follow them and encourage them with your comments and Tweets (hashtag #archibull) and shares on Facebook.

After all this isn’t easy

Could you turn a cow into a sheep?

Well 12 schools like Model Farms High School have this task and they are relishing the challenge

We have initially been challenged by the thought of connecting our cow to the farming commodity of wool.

After all, wool means sheep, and sheep are not cows……………

There will be some serious brainstorming to come to look at this issue.

Brainstorming and big ideas

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

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Follow the Model Farms High School Blog “How can one COW educate one SCHOOL about the WOOL INDUSTRY?” here

See and hear the students introduce Archie to the school here

BTW this is one school who definitely knows Cotton Wool doesn’t come from Sheep

Archie Has Arrived

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

Reblogged from Trangie Central School ARCHIBULL Prize 2013:

The students and staff of Trangie Central School were very excited with the arrival of Archie on Tuesday. Archie found her-self in the staff room ready to be unwrapped and introduced to the school and community, unfortunately for Archie but fortunately for the district, it has been raining so we were limited to only introducing Archie and taking photos indoors.

2013 Archibull Prize Schools announced

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

Art4Agriculture and our supporting partners are thrilled to announce that 44 schools across three states are participating in the Archibull Prize in 2013.

Students from Theodore Public School welcome “Archi Cotton”

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This year Art4agriculture has been lucky enough to get significant support from the Australian government to expand the Archibull Prize and offer a primary and secondary school complementary program stream in Natural Resource Management (NRM). This gives us a wonderful opportunity to partner selected primary schools with both our young farming champions and our young eco champions.

The funding provides for a pilot program, with a successful outcome underpinning the chance to roll out the NRM stream nationally.

To integrate the pilot into the program, we have divided the 2013 Archibull Prize into 2 streams ( Program A and Program B)

Program A ( added NRM focus )

Students are asked to consider what it takes to sustainably feed and clothe their community for a day. They will explore a food or fibre industry with the support of both a Young Farming Champion and Young Eco Champion with a stronger focus on NRM.
This will require the students to also consider how farmers work with natural resource management professionals to protect Australia’s scare natural resources and share this as part of their learning.

You can click here to see this wonderful Prezi that tells you what the Archibull Prize is and how it works

Cash Prizes on offer

Best blog $500
Best Video or PowerPoint $500
Best Cow $500
Overall winning school (Program A) The Archibull Prize $1000

Program B ( traditional program)
The secondary schools undertaking Program B will be participating in the traditional Archibull Prize experience, where students are asked to consider what it takes to sustainably feed and clothe their community for a day. They will explore a food or fibre industry with the support of a Young Farming Champion.

Cash Prizes on offer

Best blog $500
Best Video or PowerPoint $500
Best Cow $500
Overall winning school (Program B) The Archibull Prize $1000

The winners of program A and program B will then be eligible for an additional $1,000 prize money as judges determine which is the Overall Winning School for the 2013 Archibull Prize.

Our 2013 schools are

· Arndell Anglican College

· Avoca Public School

· Barrack Heights Public School

· Bega Valley Primary School

· Boorowa Central School

· Bowral Public School

· Caroline Chisholm College

· Chifley Primary School

· Clermont State High School

· Corpus Christi Catholic High School

· Cranebrook High School

· De La Salle College Caringbah

· Eden Marine High School

· Eden Marine Primary School

· Elizabeth Macarthur High School

· Gunnedah High School

· Gwynneville Public School

· James Ruse Agricultural High School

· Jamison High School

· Junee High School

· Junee Public School

· Kiama Public School

· Matraville Sports High School

· Menai High School

· Model Farms High School

· Northlakes High School

· Nowra East Public School

· Nowra High School

· Rockhampton Grammar School

· Rockhampton State High School

· Shoalhaven Anglican School

· Shoalhaven High School

· St Bridgets Public School

· Theodore Primary School

· Theodore State School

· Trangie Central School

· Tuggerah Lakes Secondary College Berkeley Vale Campus

· Turramurra High School

· Vincentia High School

· Vincentia Public School

· Winmalee High School

· Yeppoon State High School

Let the games begin

Wool is my future. Join me and make it yours

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

My name is Cassie Baile and I am a fifth generation sheep farmer from Bendemeer which is a village of 485 people on the Macdonald River in the New England region of New South Wales.

The road to Bendemeer

I am 22 years old and lucky enough to have grown up on a farm with the wide open spaces of paddocks and the familiar surroundings of horses, dogs and sheep

I have many fond memories of running around in the shearing shed, helping to draft, drench and watching the shearing. We always had few pet/poddy lambs at the house after lambing. It was a great joy to care for them and watch them grow into sheep.

One of my most memorable recollections was heading with Dad to check on and/or muster the sheep. I would have been happy to do this every day, 365 days of the year. It is all the wonderful memories and farm life experience that have fuelled my passion for agriculture and in particular the Wool Industry.

Following the completion of Year 12 at New England Girls’ School in Armidale, New South Wales, I studied and gained my professional Woolclassers’ Certificate in 2009 through Tamworth TAFE.

Following my successful selection for an Elders Traineeship in May last year, I have been provided with on-going support and training from my mentors and the Elders team and this has allowed me to progress to my career pathway in the Wool industry.

I now live and work in Sydney, for Elders as a Wool Technical Support Officer at the Yennora Wool Selling Centre. I really love my work and look forward to each day, as there is always something happening.

That’s me in the middle at the Yennora Wool Centre

My Elders Traineeship has given me incredible exposure to the many and varied facets of the Wool Industry including

Ram Sales and Bull Sales, on property and regional sales

Attending sales both on property and regionally, has enabled me to gain extensive knowledge and skills, interact with clients, improve upon my networking skills and also learn how to process sales and complete buyer registrations.

Throughout the past 11 months, I have travelled the state to towns including Newcastle, Dubbo, Cooma and Walcha. Each of these have been a great opportunity to learn more about Ram and Ewe selection, wool characteristics and selling options and also to meet and interact with existing and potential clients.

This year, I was also fortunate enough to attend the Sydney Royal Easter Show to network with sheep breeders and take in all that the Sheep and Wool pavilions had to offer. The Sydney Royal was a great experience, which enable me to see some of the highest quality sheep and wool from all over the country on display.

Farmer Interaction and Networking opportunities

Meeting dedicated and committed wool growing families is an inspiration to me as I know it is to the wool industry and wider community.

My job with Elders allows me to travel meet and network with farmers in either a hands on way through face to face meetings such as attending on-farm shearings and assisting with ram selection at Studs and over the phone conversations. I particularly enjoy meeting and speaking with wool growers at events like the Newcastle Wool Sales and Industry Functions. The positive atmosphere at each of these functions is amazing, with like-minded farmers and employees able to interact in a friendly and supportive environment and build upon as well as share their own knowledge of the wool industry.

It has certainly helped build my confidence and enabled me to become a more outgoing person.

Elders team at Newcastle Client Night 2013

·Auctioneering

Most recently, I have begun auctioneering at the weekly Sydney Wool Sales. This has been a fantastic opportunity for me to learn the new skill of being a Wool Auctioneer and also to improve my communication skills.

Me Auctioneering with Craig Brennan, Yennora Wool Technical Manager

Presentation is very important when you are trusted to sell a client’s wool clip. They are trusting you, as their broker and auctioneer, with their annual income and therefore it is very important to know the client and their product well. Its is very important to present the clip and yourself well, to achieve the best possible price for your client and their product. I also help to prepare for the weekly sale through firstly the lotting of the client’s wool specification, the valuing of the samples located on the show floor and by interacting with buyers in order to gain an idea of how the market may perform that week and over coming weeks, depending on supply and demand at that time. The opportunity to become an auctioneer has been another, very exciting step facilitated by the help and training provided by my trusted mentors within Elders and the industry. Each week I challenge myself to improve my previous weeks’ performance and believe with the amount of support of my mentors, lots of practice and commitment, I have the potential to become a highly valued Wool Auctioneer in years to come.

WoolTrade and Wooltrade Plus

The Wooltrade selling system is an internet-based system trading 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Wooltrade provides woolgrowers with an alternative marketing system for their wool that is complementary to the traditional auction system. The very nature of the Wooltrade system has opened up the Australian wool market across all states, allowing buyers to purchase wool nationally rather than just regionally.

Wooltrade is based on computer technology, but it is also a managed system providing personal support to assist users. The technology used by Wooltrade enables ease of access for buyers who are able to cost-effectively and efficiently buy wool and secure future supply. Source
http://www.wooltrade.com.au/

I have been involved with all of these processes, including selecting suitable lots of wool and listing them for sale on the computer system. These systems assist in both the marketing and selling of wool clips, and help woolgrowers have the flexibility to optimise prices for their wool clip and potentially avoid market volatility and the vagaries of prices on traditional sale days. See footnote

The wool industry has a proud history and plays a pivotal role in providing high quality fibre and clothing to countries all around the world.

My career in the Wool industry is allowing me to surround myself with inspirational people who are generously giving their time to mentor me. It is opening so many doors and I am committed to giving back by sharing my story with next generation and hopefully inspire other young people to join me and ensure a bright future for the Australian wool industry

You can watch Cassie talk about her career here

Footnote

About 85% of wool sold in Australia is sold by open cry auction. ‘Sale by sample’ is a method in which a mechanical claw takes a sample from each bale in a line or lot of wool. These grab samples are bulked, objectively measured, and a sample of not less than 2 kg is displayed in a box for the buyer to examine. The Australian Wool Exchange conducts sales primarily in Sydney, Melbourne, and Fremantle. There are about 80 brokers and agents throughout Australia

About 7% of Australian wool is sold by private treaty on farms or to local wool-handling facilities. This option gives wool growers benefit from reduced transport, warehousing, and selling costs. This method is preferred for small lots or mixed butts in order to make savings on reclassing and testing.

About 5% of Australian wool is sold over the internet on an electronic offer board. This option gives wool growers the ability to set firm price targets, reoffer passed-in wool and offer lots to the market quickly and efficiently. This method works well for tested lots, as buyers use these results to make a purchase. About 97% of wool is sold without sample inspection; however, as of December 2009, 59% of wool listed had been passed in from auction.^] Growers through certain brokers can allocate their wool to a sale and at what price their wool will be reserved.

Sale by tender can achieve considerable cost savings on wool clips large enough to make it worthwhile for potential buyers to submit tenders. Some marketing firms sell wool on a consignment basis, obtaining a fixed percentage as commission.

Forward selling: Some buyers offer a secure price for forward delivery of wool based on estimated measurements or the results of previous clips. Prices are quoted at current market rates and are locked in for the season. Premiums and discounts are added to cover variations in micron, yield, tensile strength, etc., which are confirmed by actual test results when available.

Another method of selling wool includes sales direct to wool mills.

Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wool

Moo Baa and Cotton….How out of touch is the next Gen?

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

Today’s guest blog comes from Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champion Liz Lobsey who was very excited to not only have the opportunity to share the story of Cotton recently at Moo Baa Munch , she also got to speak with both the Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Sid Sidebottom about her favourite topic agriculture.

Liz Lobsey shares the experience ……………………….

I was given the fantastic opportunity last Thursday to head to Corinda State School in Brisbane to speak about Agronomy for Cotton Australia at the Moo Baa Munch.

Firstly I will be upfront and say, defining agronomy, and making it sound like the best job in the world is a little harder then I first thought.

The Cotton Classroom (right at the front gate)

The Moo Baa Munch is organised by Agforce QLD and each industry is invited to host a site and speak about what their industry involves to high school and primary school students and why it is an exciting career prospect. I must say, even I learnt things that I didn’t know, so I can only imagine what the school students brains where like by the time they had visited the very numerous and highly diverse exhibitions.

The field to fabric process which was a joint presentation between Cotton Australia and AWI was fantastic. My favourite question was ‘So where does cotton wool come from?‘ Definitely a question the 4 of us did not expect and definitely stunned all of us.

Being involved in this collaboration between the wool industry and the cotton industry at Moo Baa Much reminded me of a question recently posed by Lynne Strong, farmer and Art4Agriculuture program director in a recent blog. Why can’t industries work together?

The thing I learnt from this joint field to fabric presentation, was just how successful agriculture can be when we do work together and what a great return on investment for all stakeholders.

After all once cotton is picked and the wool is shorn and the processing of the end products is almost identical, just different terms are used.

Cotton wool???

I was absolutely shocked that a lot of primary school students actually do believe that cotton actually comes from a sheep. It’s a bit like people thinking that milk comes from a bottle and meat comes from the shelf at the supermarket.

It’s a little scary to think that the people who buy our products are so disconnected, and they are passing this disconnection onto their children, who will pass it onto their children, and the cycle will only continue unless agriculture engages and debunks myths like these now. That’s why programs like the Moo Baa Munch and the Art4Agriculture programs are so extremely important.

What was very powerful for me as a young person with a career in agriculture and working with school children through Art4Agriculture in 2013 and 2014 was the the cotton industry and the wool industry had done their research and recognised the smart way to handle the challenge was tell the story together.

Sophie Davidson speaking about cotton processing as part of the joint Field to Fabric presentation with Wool.

Sophie Davidson (education coordinator for Cotton Australia) put these figures to the students we spoke to.

In 1813, the world population was 1 billion.

100 years later in 1913, the population was 1.7 billion.

In 2013 the world population is 7 billion.

For the last 100 years the world population had increased by almost 5.4 billion people and it is only going to continue to increase.

In light of this, the fact that we have 800 graduates at present completing agriculture related studies each year and we have 4000 graduate positions available, is of great concern.

We cant produce food and fibre without farmers and our farmers cant access the latest research and technology if we have no scientists. We cant give our animals the best care if we have no vets. We can optimise the care of our scarce natural resources unless we have soil and plant scientists like me. And that is just the start of a long list of people needed to help farmers produce the high quality and affordable food and fibre Australia is so famous for. Take the wool and the cotton industry just as example. Everywhere in the world it is recognised that no-one produces better quality wool and cotton sustainably than Australia.

Me and Sophie Davidson ( Cotton Australia)

I pose this question to you. What do you think Agforce is trying to achieve though Moo Baa Munch?.

Is it the need the need for agriculture to sexy up its image?
If so do we really need to make agriculture sexy to attract the next generation?
Or, do we simply need to reacquaint them with a very important industry that has been here for hundred’s of years and gets more exciting and more necessary every year ?

These were certainly the questions on the lips of Premier Campbell Newman, who I had the pleasure of meeting.

Me and the QLD Premier Campbell Newman

And its not just Campbell Newman asking how can we make agriculture sexy, this is something that industry has been talking about for quite some time.

Personally I think we should be looking at the first rule of marketing and taking a step back and engaging our consumers and the next generation of agriculture’s potential workforce first and finding out what they really think about agriculture. Once we have this knowledge then we can address their concerns and fix the problems and then we will have a real chance of selling agriculture as ‘dripping with integrity and sexy.’

I was also lucky enough to have a brief conversation with the Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Sid Sidebottom about improving agricultures image, and he firmly believes that something needs to be done, sooner rather then later.

Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Sid Sidebottom

So, it is our responsibility, as professionals, producers and supporters of the agriculture industry to be proactive and engage the public and change their misconceptions. After all can we think of better people to tell our story than the people who grow and produce the products?
I believe that we are at a make or break period for the agriculture sector. Realistically if we don’t do something now to ensure young people see agriculture as an attractive and exciting and innovative industry to work in what sort of future does agriculture have in this country?

What sort of future does Australia have without a thriving agriculture sector?

The Moo Baa Munch was a fantastic experience for me and I am confident all the visitors felt the same. A huge hats off to Agforce for being proactive and innovative for designing and managing the event. Also a big thank you to Sophie Davidson and Cotton Australia for letting me have the opportunity to travel down and speak to students about the cotton industry, learn more about the wool industry, agriculture and the value of successful cross industry partnerships.

It was a great personal and professional development opportunity for me not only to brush up on my public speaking skills but also a fantastic opportunity to engage with the community and share stories about my favourite topic Australian agriculture and our inspirational farmers.

Target 100 announces 2013 Young Farming Champions

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

Target 100 – an initiative by Australian cattle and sheep farmers to deliver more sustainable cattle and sheep farming by 2020 – is delighted to announce its Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champions for 2013

This year we have again been impressed by the high quality of the Young Farming Champion candidates. They have a great breadth of experience and a passionate commitment to a sustainable future for the Australian beef and lamb industry and will undoubtedly prove to be strong and effective advocates

Elise Vale Community Engagement Manager.

The Target 100 Young Farming Champions for 2013 are:

Jasmine Nixon, 24, from Wagga Wagga in NSW.

My passion is agriculture and I am proud to say I love my beef cows! Every day I know that I am contributing to help feed the world – and I also love what I do. Agriculture is an exciting place to be, yes there are challenges but there are also endless different opportunities within agriculture and that is something I hope to share and encourage a new generation to take on the challenge to help feed the world!

You can read Jasmine’s blog here

Hannah Barber, 22, from Parkes, NSW;

Hannah centre at the 50th Anniversary dinner for RAS NSW Showgirl Competition

Education is the key to ensuring the Australian agricultural industry is understood and supported by our urban cousins and I look forward to a career where I can achieve this, and then come home to the farm every evening.

You can read Hannah’s blog here

Danille Fox, 19, from St George, Queensland;

I see today’s agricultural industry as exciting and challenging and I feel privileged to be a part of an industry which is so vital to Australia’s future. I look forward to contributing to the industry through my veterinary profession and AGvocacy roles

You can read Danille’s blog here

Naomi Hobson, 23, from Georgetown, Queensland

“People will only conserve what they love, love what they understand, understand what they know and know what they are taught,” says Naomi.

It doesn’t matter what your background may be all you need is enthusiasm, a willingness to learn and the ability to say yes to the opportunities that are presented to you and I guarantee a great adventure will be waiting!

After all, as Dorothea wrote…

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold.

Do farmers matter?

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

Farmers in this country are less than 1% of the population and number 10 on Reader’s Digest most trusted professions list.

Above us are ambulance officers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and fireman. Why is this you ask?. The answer is easy. If you are an ambulance officer, a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist or a fireman there would be a time in most people’s lives when you would be reminded just how important your profession is.

With food in abundance in this country there is little opportunity to remind the community just how important our farmers are.

On behalf of all Australian farmers I would like to thank ABC24news who have created this wonderful video to tell our story

A key to helping maintain the momentum is farmers finding their own vehicles to tell their story. Vehicles that help us have two way conversations with the most important people and the white elephant in the room otherwise known as consumers and voters. This is not something farmers in general have the skill sets or expertise for. In the past we have let others tell our story and that has been a disaster of momentous proportions and it is one of the key reasons why agriculture is currently on its knees in this country.

So how do fix this. We can do it. I know because at Art4Agriculture we have found the successful model

Like any idea it’s not the concept but the people who make it work and for agriculture it will be our young people. They are out there. We have a whole cohort of them in Art4Agriculture’s Young Farming Champions program. Our Young Farming Champions are now working side by side with our Young Eco Champions to tell agriculture’s story to our most important audience

What does it take to have young people who can talk like this, who can inspire other young people to follow in their footsteps. What does it take for our young people to be the change that agriculture so needs to have?.

Art4Agriculture has the formula and the results speak for themselves?. Listen to the video.

Follow their journey

THE 2012 YOUNG FARMING CHAMPIONS

BEEF

Sponsored by Meat and Livestock Australia Target 100 program

Stephanie Fowler
Wagga Wagga, NSW

Steph grew up on the Central Coast of New South Wales in a small coastal suburb, Green Point. A decision to study agriculture in high school created a passion for showing cattle and in 2012 she started a PhD in Meat and Livestock Science, with a project that is looking at the potential of Raman Spectroscopy in predicting meat quality.

“When I was growing up I never dreamed that I would end up joining an incredibly rewarding, innovative and exciting industry that would take me across the country and around the world.”

Read Steph’s Blog post HERE

View her video HERE

Bronwyn Roberts
Emerald, QLD

Bronwyn is a Grazing Land Management Officer with the Fitzroy Basin Association. Her family has a long association with the cattle industry in Queensland and her parents currently run a 5500 acre cattle property near Capella.

“I believe consumers have lost touch of how and where their food and fibre is produced. In these current times where agriculture is competing with other industry for land use, labour, funding and services, it is important that we have a strong network of consumers who support the industry and accept our social license as the trusted and sustainable option.”

Read Bronwyn’s Blog post HERE

View her video HERE

Kylie Stretton
Charters Towers, QLD

Kylie Stretton and her husband have a livestock business in Northern Queensland, where they also run Brahman cattle. Kylie is the co-creator of “Ask An Aussie Farmer” a social media hub for people to engage with farmers and learn about food and fibre production.

“The industry has advanced from the images of “Farmer Joe” in the dusty paddock to images of young men and women from diverse backgrounds working in a variety of professions. Images now range from a hands-on job in the dusty red centre to an office job in inner city Sydney. So many opportunities, so many choices.”

Read Kylie’s Blog post HERE

View her video HERE

COTTON

Dairy good for my bones good for my soul

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Clover Hill Dairies Diary

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to the second on our Young Dairy Farming Champions for 2013. We previously profiled Cassie McDonald here

This is the Andrew D’Arcy story …….

My name is Andrew D’Arcy and I am a 5^th generation dairy farmer from the Bega Valley.

I am passionate about the future of agriculture and believe that there are endless opportunities in this industry.I was born in Bega, a beautiful coastal region located on the far south coast of New South Wales.

Bega is a great place to live as it is in close proximity to untouched, pristine beaches, situated a few mere hours away from the capital city and the snow fields, and is surrounded by a vast valley of hills to occupy my leisure time with motorbike riding, surfing, snowboarding, fishing, and wake boarding.

Cow painted by Bega Primary School students in 2007

I was educated at the local primary and secondary schools before I was fortunate enough to be able to pursue further education in agriculture at the University of Melbourne (Dookie campus). Over a period of four years I obtained a Bachelor of Rural Business. During this time I worked in different fields of agriculture such as beef cattle, sheep, horticulture, and dry and irrigated cropping. I believe that this experience allowed me to gain an understanding of how other agricultural enterprises work as well as obtain valuable knowledge that I have bought back to my own property. In 2007, I came back to Bega to work alongside my father, who also was born, raised and worked on the property for over 35 years.

My dad Tom D’Arcy

Currently, together we are both able to work and manage the family owned dairy farm, ‘Daisy Bank’ which consists of a milking herd of 420 cows. We are proud supplier to the iconic Australian brand Bega Cheese.

Recently in mid-2012, after many years of research our family decided to install a Lely robotic milking system. See the robotic dairy working at the Dornuaf farm in Tasmanian here

Currently we are operating a six unit system which operates on a pasture based voluntary milking system. This means the herd are able to move around the farm in a relaxed manner and come into the milking shed based off the desire to be milked, stimulation (cow brush) and feed incentives. The benefits of this innovative system include improved cow well-being, udder health, quicker mastitis and sick cow/illness detection, increased milk production and the opportunity to feed the cattle according to production thus an increased feed efficiency. Additionally, they provide the opportunity for a more flexible daily routine to allow more time to be spent on pasture development, environmental care, and calf and heifer rearing and training. Most importantly, the robotic milking system has allowed for an improved lifestyle, reducing the usual 7 day a week, 365 days of the year, early morning starts required for milking in a conventional herringbone or rotary dairy.

Over the years the dairy industry has created many great opportunities for me. I have been fortunate enough to travel throughout Australia & New Zealand on several different educational tours and conferences which has allowed me to gain a broader perspective on all different aspects involved in the dairy industry. These experiences have allowed me to view how far the Australian dairy industry has come over the past 100 years as well as highlighted the potential for the future of dairy and Australian agriculture.

With an ever increasing world population, the importance and need for agriculture is going to strengthen. This necessary demand will generate more career opportunities with boundless positions within the industry, not limited to farming alone but incorporating other fields such as agronomy, nutrition, marketing, engineering, research, science, accounting, veterinary, mechanical – the list is endless. Currently only 3% of Australians are working within agriculture which has decreased by 20% in the past decade. Additionally, at present Australian agriculture requires at least 6000 tertiary qualified graduates per year however there are only 800 students graduating annually in agriculturally associated degrees. These statistics alone highlight the importance of encouraging new people to get involved in agriculture.

We, the next generation need to be the driving force behind this positive change for the future of Australian agriculture.

Art4Agriculture Chat

Our blog will share Art4Agriculture’s journey to share stories and improve the understanding of modern farming practices so urban and rural communities can work together to ensure the health, wealth and happiness of all Australians.

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