UK dairy farmer and Nuffield Scholar Joe Delves at the Dairy Research Foundation Symposium in Kiama
Over the years I have been on lots of dairy industry conference committees and I must admit I often found this a very frustrating exercise. VERY FRUSTRATING
Why you ask?
Well in today’s world if you genuinely want to farm for the long haul you have to get everything right. By everything right I mean farms in the 21st century have to be socially acceptable, environmentally friendly as well as financially rewarding.
Up until the Dairy Research Symposium conference in Kiama last week the dairy industry totally shied away from discussions about relationships with their value chain partners and customers. Dairy farmers it seemed (or so previous conference committee members I had worked with thought) didn’t want to listen to anybody talk about anything beyond the farm gate. It was cows,cows,cows.
So to hear the Chairman of Dairy Australia get up at the dinner and say he and the CEO of Dairy Australia thought the conference was the best conference they had ever attended and the reason why was in particular the social content of the program made my heart sing.
One of the speaker highlights was UK Farmer and Nuffield scholar Joe Delves who farms in the south east of England.
I had the pleasure of hosting Joe for a day when he was in OZ in early January. Joe is all personality and his presentation truly resonated with everyone in the room
Lets have a look at some of the insightful things Joe had to say
The biggest thing that influences my life is my attitude to myself and my dairy business. Unknowingly I have built the business around my values
Joe on values
On goal setting
On sharing
On being honest about yourself
On value chain thinking
On being business focussed
On being business focused
On Consumer relations
Appealing to your customer is not as simple as you think and just what are we trying to achieve?
On whingeing
Appreciate what you have in your own backyard
On attitude
Attitude is everything
On self reflection
You can listen to Joe talk to Radio National Reporter Sarina Locke here
Insightful words from a young leader.