It appears my blog last Monday When farmers are their own worst enemy has opened the door for agriculture to have the open and honest conversations about industry image (and how to best leverage the great opportunities when they present themselves) its been wanting to have for quite some .
Source See The Land 16th April 2015 See Footnote
Conversations have definitely started. See Andrew Norris Editor of The Land opinion piece here
I know the sections of the dairy industry and the exhibitors who contacted me are currently 100% committed to working together with the RAS to ensure the Sydney Royal Easter Show provides the best experience for showgoers, exhibitors and the industry.
Well done Dairy Australia, Holstein Australia and the RAS for being quick off the mark. Please dont forget to reconnect with Mike Logan CEO of Dairy Connect who two years ago put forward a brilliant Sydney Royal Easter Show Dairy Experience Extraordinaire strategy that included the milk processors that I believe would be the perfect centrepoint to grow from.
Speaking of the media and the commentary from the journalist who calls himself Oxley the Explorers I smiled at this little titbit ( pun intended)
Source: The Land 16th April 2015 Oxley the Explorer Opinion Page 16
I grew up on a farm and am like Oxley too quite amused by lingo that I hear from time to time. Poor dairy is the focal point this week but our industry is no different to anyone else. Phrases that jumped out at Oxley on dairy cattle show day was cows being described as ‘Oozing dairyness’ and having “silky udders”
North Coast ABC journalist and presenter Kim Honan found herself at the centre of a potential pornography scandal when she dared to post pictures of cow udders she took at a local show on Facebook.
As you can see from this extract from the Dairy Judging Workbook the perfect cow is a multifaceted beast carefully blended from head to toe with her udder attracting 40% of her overall score. What the judge and every dairy farmer is looking for is a cow with an udder that shows characteristics for a high milk yield and a long productive life. The udder is deemed so important that there is even a prize for the “best uddered cow”
Image Source
Now I dont judge dairy cattle but it would appear that ‘oozing dairyness and silkiness’ is a quick summary for all those characteristics listed above.
Kim’s situation reminded me of a conversation I had a number of years with my local council economic development officer. At that time the local dairy industry had put together a very professional magazine to promote local dairy genetics to international buyers
Now for those who have never seen a stud dairy cattle magazine and suddenly see one that features pictures of udder after udder you could understand his first reply. ‘My goodness this looks like cow porn’
Image Source
So when we farmers think about it, its time for mutual respect – it is clear the general public might be forgiven for thinking we say the odd ‘silly’ thing ourselves
On a lighter note this little titbit from The Australian April 17th 2015 in Andrew Mann’s MARGIN CALL column
Dirty, smelly, ‘sexy’
The twitterati were out in force at the GFF but it was a clear no contest
as to who produced the tweet of the day.
In a panel of the nation’s top food processors lamenting about how hard it was to get quality talent on to the land, JBS Australia boss Brent Eastwood remarked how many in
agriculture had “good faces for radio’’, to which Dairy Connect chief executive Mike Logan added by way of explanation that “It’s dirty, it’s smelly, it’s hot”.
It prompted this tweet from the Camm Agricultural Group’s young dynamo Bryce Camm: “Are we talking about the porn industry or Ag sector? Sounds pretty sexy to me!’’
Footnote
Re The Land 16th April 2015 story correction
My blog was written 24 hours before show day. The ‘mystery shopper’ experience was through the cattle sheds not on show day. Show Day is a whole different ball game and the breeders ability to exhibit with as little stress as possible needs to be factored very high on the list of engagement strategies for show day
