Getting back to you

There have been a few people who are surprised about my post on the Queensland Country Life’s video Get Back to Me. which has attracted almost 30,000 views in 4 days

There have been some strong comments supporting my view and some strong comments from people who don’t feel the same as me. See post here

There has also been a lot of emails and Twitter DM’s of support. Sadly those people have said they are not game to openly support me on twitter for fear of other farmer twitter backlash.

There was also this from Rural Leader Online

From Radio National with great feedback in this article from video creater Ashley Walmsley and farmer extraordinaire Georgie Somerset

The Art4Agriculture Young Farming Champions are also discussing the video on their internal Facebook page with the majority also strongly supportive of the video concept.

So I would like to take this opportunity to put my reasons into context.

Eight years ago I was lucky enough to meet a marketing guru who at the time was a consultant for Dairy Australia. Her name is Vicki Surwillo and we worked on a number of projects together including putting together a very extensive image library for Dairy Australia (who at the time had no images). See previous post here.

Vicki was an amazing mentor to me and taught me a great deal about marketing and image and the importance of being the image you want your customer to see.

That advice started me on the path that has seen Clover Hill Dairies get international recognition for the work we have done behind and beyond the farm-gate which has now also resulted in a number of major opportunity approaches to market the Clover Hill Dairies milk brand directly to the public.

Her advice also saw me connect with a lot of other people in the supply chain who could also mentor me

I am also very lucky to farm in a very peri-urban environment with the community scrutinising our farming practices every day.

Why is this lucky – well I get customer feedback every day, good and bad and that allows our business to understand community values and adapt our business to meet those expectations when we can

Art4Agriculture also offers me the opportunity to engage with the community on so many levels and again get that pivotal consumer feedback.

Today I had conversations with two people at MLA, some-one from the pork industry, Sophie Davidson and Angela Bradburn from Cotton Australia, 5 people from Dairy Australia, Milk Maid Marian, a fellow dairy farmer and boutique milk processer, a marketing consultant, Ask an Aussie Farmer’s Ann Britton, three young farming champions, two young Eco champions, my local council’s economic development officer, my lawyer, a journalist, three teachers involved in the Archibull Prize, Victoria Taylor ( Art4Agriculture comms manager) Kirsty Blades, Art4Agriculture’s Event Director, my graphic designer James,  a school teacher who wants to bring his students to the farm on a school excursion and answered 45 emails from people right across the supply chain.

Every single one of those people loves and appreciates Aussie Farmers. I know this because they tell me. Not everyone is as lucky as me and gets to have those conversations

So today I take my hat off to Queensland Country Life because ‘Get Back to Me’ has resonated with one hell of a lot of farmers who aren’t as lucky as me

Me I would rather watch this to be reminded how awesome our farmers are

or this