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I am a proud 6th generation agriculturalist and yesterday was Australia’s inaugural AgDay 

As it happened I had a #agvocacy previous engagement that filled my head space on the day.  Twenty four hours later I used Twitter as my catch-up vehicle

Nice to see this tweet from Young Farming Champion Anika Molesworth captured the hearts and minds of the Twitterverse

 I was keen to see who was leveraging #AgDay differently beyond the #thankafarmer mindset.

Must admit I wasn’t too surprised to see the Farmers for Climate Action team featuring front and centre in the press that changes the conversation

Well done Charlie Prell – The Heroic Farmer Sticking It To The Government, One Wind Turbine At A Time  

On AgDay 2017 you and Costa were my heroes

Costa Georgiadis spoke at The Archibull Prize 2017 Grand Champion Awards. He reached out and spoke to every child in the room. He touched each and everyone of us with his love for the planet, his respect for all the people who come together to ensure we are clothed and fed and his support for youth – the voices of the future

When you go on a big adventure, it may be a very long and windy journey that may not always be fun, and you know the destination is worth the pain and the joy, the key to success is the support team you surround yourself with

Justine Garner’s ‘Its who you know – How a Network of 12 key people can Fast-Track your Success’ is a great resource in helping you identify your team

You will find a diverse group of people will join you on the journey. There will be the hands-on people, the people with big hearts who share you vision and put their hands up to sail the boat with you. There will be equally important people who get on and off the boat depending on how much support you need at that time and their life journey commitments. There will be the people who cheer you from the shore.

Then there are the people who see you a free ride to their destination. When you wake up to this fact, there will be the “good riddance” brigade.

Then there will be the one’s that shock you. You feel hurt, betrayed even and you spend far too much time ruminating on how and why it all went wrong. Its easy to lump these people into  the Machiavellian basket but more often than not they don’t see how much they have hurt you.Its important to wish them well and raise a glass of champagne to the loyal and highly valued crew that gently remind you.

Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination

and if there is any one who thinks this post is “pot kettle black” I am truly sorry if I hurt you

May we all have the strength 

Imagine a space where people opposed to modern livestock farming, vegans and farmers could have transparent and respectful conversations.

Such a space has been proposed to me by a vegan who has been reading and commenting on my blog for a number of years as well as contacting me by email with questions about modern dairy farming

Graeme has proposed that he set up and help moderate a Facebook page that is tentatively called Connecting Vegans and Farmers for Meaningful Conversations.

In Graeme’s words here is some background and insights

In recent discussion with some folk who live on farms, I’ve noticed a couple of interesting things.

Firstly, some people have some rather weird ideas about what veganism means in food terms. Secondly, many of them feel very upset and frustrated by what they see as unfair and uninformed attacks on their livelihoods.

And lastly, there is a widening gap between many people who are adopting “veganism” and farmers.

Now, I am still implacably opposed to much of modern livestock farming, but equally I think we absolutely need and depend on farmers. I have no answer to the basic conundrum of how to have an Australia that doesn’t farm animals while also having an Australia where our rural sector thrives. Maybe it isn’t possible.

Anyway, cutting to the chase, I am interested in doing a sort of experiment. I am thinking of creating a Facebook group for both farmers/rural folk and vegans to participate. I am also not necessarily proposing that it be purely a “vegan” thing, as I am very partial to ‘reducetarianism’ philosophy  as well

The aim is not to change people’s views, I want people to be able to share ideas, thoughts, philosophies and develop a mutual respect for each other’s values and opinions

 Farmers might post photos of their farms, vegans might post favourite recipes.

Questions can be asked, and answers offered from all sides. People may share their ideas about their perceptions of the “rights or wrongs of things”.

I acknowledge the fundamental problem in doing this. To overcome this, I would like a couple of moderators from both sides of the fence to help manage discussions that could get out of hand.

The  Vegan Healthy Living group I mentioned to you once before has been great. We talk about stuff, share ideas, and do not shame or abuse anyone. And there are plenty of non-vegans in it.

I floated this idea on the Vegan Healthy Living page and received generally encouraging responses. One lady said “I’d love to learn more about farming in Australia from Australian farmers, both animal farmers and crop farmers. I think that would really inform my ethical choices and conversations with others.”  I also got supportive words from a director of Vegan Australia, so I think the group would attract enough vegans to provide input and info. It would also be open to all members of the community to join too

What do you think? Would you, or anyone you know, be likely to join? Or even be a moderate?

PS, I had this rather thought-provoking comment on my page today from a young bloke who I think lives on a dairy farm. Good words from a very young fellow.

“I don’t think any of us are angry, I’d say we’re more passionate and frustrated because out of the blue there’s all these people coming out saying that Dairy is bad that we rape cows, that we kidnap their calves, that we conduct bestiality with our cows. It’s a strange feeling when your whole way of life is being ridiculed by people who have no to little experience on how a farm works today, things may have been different 30+ years ago (I wouldn’t know as I wasn’t around). But the thing is if you go to a farm and see how it works you may have a better understanding of what we are all about”

Personally I think the idea has significant merit and I have seen many Facebook pages where people do respect each others differing opinions with some interesting outcomes. What do you think?

Yesterday thanks to NSW Landcare I was able to share my journey to join the movement to empower our youth to create the future we all deserve

It was definitely a lifetime highlight to be sharing the stage with two Young Farming Champion alumni Josh Gilbert and Anika Molesworth. There were a number of requests from the audience for access to our presentations. My blog opens this opportunity to share part of my story and my key messages from the presentation

 

All of us are in this room because we share a special affinity with the planet and its future.

The question I would like to ask you is

How do we harness others who share this same passion? And when do – What is it we want our movement to do?

I know what I want us to do. I want us to invest in our youth

My mission is to build a community of collaborators with visionary leaders in schools, in government, in farming industries and in business to set up our youth now for the future.

Investing in our youth will secure the future

E

Collaboration is the key to success. If we exclude perspectives, we limit possibilities.. . We need everyone’s talent and voice if we are going to create a better world.

And if we are going to drive change and a new era of collaboration in agriculture – it’s going to take a lot of courage. We are all going to have put our hard hats on and be in it for the long haul.

I have a burning desire to provide opportunities for our young people to thrive in business and life

 Youth are the future of agriculture.  Investing in our youth will secure the future

Because I know that this will

• make a difference to young people,
• Make a difference to rural Australia,
• Make a difference to agriculture and
• It will make difference to the future of Australia itself.”

I am excited that today you have given me the opportunity to share my journey to join the movement so together we can empower young people to create the bright future we all deserve

I am a 6^th generation dairy farmer. I come from a long line of dairy farmers. I was lucky enough to grow up on a mixed farming operation at Cowra in Central NSW.

I spent the first 25 years of my career as a community pharmacist.

This gave me opportunities to

• Gain business acumen
• marketing experience
• consumer insights
• capacity to build strong customer/business relationships

Returning to the farm in 2001 I was excited by the science and technology. I love the genuineness and the camaraderie of people in rural and regional Australia

However  I soon realised I had a very limited world view of agriculture beyond the dairy industry and our farmgate. I am very confident I am not the only Australian farmer in this situation. I could see huge opportunities for our farmers to gain the business acumen. marketing skills and consumer insights, I had in pharmacy. And pivotally the capacity (AND DESIRE) to build strong consumer/producer relationships

It’s not easy to build farmer/consumer relationships these days is it. Unless you set up a stall at the farmers markets the modern supply chain model means farmers and their consumers are getting further and further apart

So, we must come up with innovative ways to close the loop, reach out and share our stories

Australian agriculture hasn’t been traditionally good at sharing its story. Has it?

Yet Australian farmers have a great story to tell

We live and farm in a complex landscape, and by world standards it is a hard and unforgiving landscape.But Australian agriculture adapts.

• We innovate
• We research
• We manage for best practice environmental and animal wellbeing outcomes
• We care for our communities and for the opportunity to provide the best food in the world to the people of the world.

I could see so many opportunities to tell these stories and

It makes good business sense to open the lines of communication and information sharing. Otherwise how to we gain the knowledge and insights to ensure we are delivering what our customers want

This kick-started my new journey of advocacy and education.

One of the most important things I learnt in pharmacy was

YOUR BUSINESS HAS TO BE THE IMAGE YOU WANT YOUR CUSTOMER TO SEE

If I was going to be a story teller for our farm, our farm had to be the image we wanted the community to see

 Winning the Bob Hawke Award in 2012 allowed me to find my tribe – a cohort of people who both shared my vision and who were acting or wanted to act but didn’t have the tools and support networks. This was the start of my bigger, broader journey in agriculture.

I was confident that what I learnt through my Clover Hill Dairies experience and the Bob Hawke award journey could be applied to the broader agricultural context.

Our on-farm success was a direct result of surrounding ourselves with people we could learn from and collaborate with and had on speed dial when we needed them and they had us on speed dial when the needed us

I knew collaboration was the key to successful leadership and the future of agriculture. Together we can build a better food future.

AGRICULTURE needs to learn how to collaborate with different stakeholders.

• Be that with government
• Our urban counterparts
• Our fellow farming industries or
• with our supply chain partners.

 Young people understand the importance of collaboration. What they lack are the skills sets to harness others who need a little push. Our young people want to learn how to influence, and how engage. Our young people want to be confident, independent thinkers

To support them we need seamless professional development programs. Programs that are be flexible, so our young people can dip in and out depending on their life and professional context at the time. Not everybody’s life progresses at the same rate or in the same linear fashion.

 For the past ten years the Art4agriculture team has been collaborating with others who share our vision to invest in youth to  secure the future. Our collaborators come from all walks of life. Philanthropy, government, NGO’s, business and farming industries

We design and deliver programs that

• connect farmers and the community through partnerships between young people in agriculture and young people living in urban landscapes
• using education, art and technology and
• Encouraging and developing dynamic two-way conversations

 

All of our programs are designed to put young people at the centre of the learning experience be they in agriculture or in schools

The Archibull Prize is a project based learning program for schools. It attracts innovative and creative teachers looking for a challenge. And their students rise to the challenge in an awe inspiring fashion.

The Young Farming Champions attracts our best and brightest young agricultural professionals with a burning desire to share their story, their ideas and motivations with their host schools

The program provides them with the skills to share their story with the students. help the students  investigate and reflect on the complex challenges facing agriculture like Climate Action, biosecurity, food and fibre waste and biodiversity. The Young Farming Champions also inspire young people to consider careers in the agriculture sector

What seemed like a straightforward concept at the outset has become a trigger for so much growth and contribution. It lights the fire, then those participants, once sparked, seem to carry their own torch.

Josh Gilbert and Anika Molesworth are shining examples of this. 

I believe in this program. It is such a huge catalyst for change. This is the reason we work with young people –  It’s the perfect place to start

 Imagine, if 20 schools and government agencies and forward-thinking businesses in each state partnered with our farming industries each year

That’s 10,000-young people in each state, that’s 70,000-young people across Australia who could be inspired to be stewards for the landscape and the agricultural sector.

 Investing in  our youth will secure the future

 The world is calling out for us to have a COLLABORATIVE mindset.

The challenge is how do we foster

WE ARE ALL IN HIS TOGETHER.

YOUNG PEOPLE ARE THE ONES WHO WILL CARRY THIS TORCH FORWARD.

Collaboration needs courage. It means taking risks.

It means putting aside differences and finding commonalities.

 Young people do this naturally: they seek connection not division.

 While we teach and encourage we can also learn

 Next time you are faced with a complex challenge, don’t go it alone. Reach out and seek a collaborative, collective solution.

Next time you feel concerned about the future of agriculture, think – how can I support young people to lead the way?

Encourage them to tell their stories, to step up and do a leadership program, to become the voice for the future of the sector

Because they do make a difference.

Imagine if we pooled ideas, resources, and skills across industries and communities?

 EVERYTHING WE NEED TO WORK WITH IS RIGHT THERE. ALL THE BUILDING BLOCKS TO CREATE A BRIGHT FUTURE

 It is an absolute bonanza of opportunity.

You can read Anika’s presentation here

 

 

This is my latest blog for The Australian Farmer. The blog has been inspired by a number of people in agriculture I have spoken to and some thoughts from Irish Crime Writer Tana French

I have seen so little of Agriculture beyond my farmgate and the industries I have been involved in let alone just how much does urban Australia get to see

“Sometimes the landscape is red sometimes its green No matter what it is its always beautiful” Emma Turner Stanhope Station via Ivanhoe 

Farming in a Complex Landscape

While reading about Australia’s role in international agriculture I came across this quote from Professor Andrew Campbell:

“If the world was your farm, Australia is not your best paddock,

in fact there aren’t many worse.”

 Professor Campbell is the CEO of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and, rather than being derogatory, the comment was actually a backhanded compliment to the success of Australian agriculture. Professor Campbell points out Australian farmers must contend with poor soils, one of the world’s most variable climates and precious little surface water on top of our usual droughts, fires and flooding rains. Yet despite the challenges, Australian agriculture continues to thrive, all of which makes me reflect on the complexity of our landscape. Like Irish novelist Tana French, I too wish I knew more about Australia.

“I wished I knew more about Australia.

I thought of red earth and sun that hit you like a shout,

twisted plants stubborn enough to pull life out of nothing,

spaces that could dizzy you, swallow you whole.”

Tana French

 Tana French’s perception of the Australian landscape is very different to my reality. My family farms dairy cattle on the rolling green hills of Jamberoo, south of Sydney, where the rich volcanic soils and reliable rainfall allows us to graze six cows to the hectare, and where I can see for miles across the Pacific Ocean. I know I am biased but it probably is one of Australia’s best “paddocks”.

Another paddock is the Fitzroy Basin in central Queensland, the biggest beef growing region in Australia with 2.6 million of the 25 million national herd running on its rich brigalow-belah landscape. The clay soils of the brigalow belt are incredibly fertile and grow a large bulk of good quality cattle feed, but the rivers of the region drain to the Great Barrier Reef, meaning extra challenges for agriculture.

“The rangeland grazing system of the Fitzroy means cattle are the

biggest contributor to sediment runoff into the reef, which means

the fragile soils have to be carefully managed to maintain ground cover,”

Bronwyn Roberts, Bar H Grazing

 

Rivers of another type support farmers and graziers in south-west NSW where water flow has been regulated by man. South of Menindee Lakes a pipeline running along the Darling Anabranch provides water for thousands of sheep. The hardy merino has adapted well to this harsh and often dry environment to produce some of Australia’s finest wool.

“The NSW rangelands are a beautifully complex ecosystem and

this makes for very diverse methods of farming.

We should embrace and encourage that diversity,

as that is a great strength in our community,”

Gus Whyte, Wyndham Station via Wentworth NSW

 When it comes to complex and challenging landscapes it’s hard to go past the wheat belt of Western Australia. Sandy soils with low organic matter, declining rainfall and one of Australia’s major environmental concerns in dryland salinity make this a hard place to earn a living. Yet Western Australia produces half of the country’s wheat crop and does so through innovation and research, such as revegetating with saltbush and producing drought tolerant crop varieties that allow more grain to be produced from less land.

“WA Wheatbelt farmers are innovative, but the challenge here is

not only to keep our farms productive, but also to keep our farmers

for they are our best land stewards.

Adaptive agriculture will be critical for the region’s farming future,”

Richard McLellan CEO Northern Agricultural Catchments Council

 We do indeed live and farm in a complex landscape, and by world standards it is a hard and unforgiving paddock, but Australian agriculture adapts. We innovate and research, we manage for environmental outcomes and we adopt best practices in animal welfare. We care for our communities and for the opportunity to provide the best food in the world to the people of the world. Despite the complexity and the challenges this makes me very proud to be farming this particular paddock.

If you, too, are proud of our Australian paddock I encourage you to become involved in the inaugural AgDay to be held on November 21. I specifically encourage you to get involved in the photo competition, which aims to put consumers in touch with the real faces of Australian agriculture. See the website for details.

 

 

 

 

 

When I was young and naive about trees and their habitats, I planted this lemon scented gum in my front garden. Not the smartest thing I ever did, not only are they not native to my little piece of paradise they grow very big, have a deep root system and this tree is sitting on a rock bed.

Thirty five years later its thriving as you can see. It has been the subject of many photo wow moments. Every day I celebrate both its beauty and its resilience.

This tree reminds me of this quote from leadership coach Zoe Routh

Real growth takes persistent effort, in spite of what feels like lack of progress. We need to keep testing the edges of our ability. Little experimentations, trial and error. Lots of error.

It takes courage to keep trying, because the risks are real: we can get hurt. We can fail. We come right up against our limitations, feeling them press down on us like suffocating barriers.

In days gone by, we perceived the farmer as somebody who wore many hats –  part veterinarian, part climate forecaster, part accountant and part soil biologist, amongst a long list of other jobs. But the reality of contemporary agriculture is so much more than this Jack- or Jill-of-all-trades stereotype.

Farming is a highly specialised scientific field. There is a vast integration of technology and advanced research into the science of agriculture, which enables high-quality, safe and sustainable food to be produced for our nation and beyond. Today’s farmer has an extensive network of experts who can supplement and enhance their farming business to ensure the safety and sustainability of their product and their land.

Quoting the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”, the same can be said about farming. A successful farmer is not alone on their land. They have a web of professionals. In fact, there is a national and international web of professionals who support farmers.

More than 1.6 million people work in Australian agriculture. Farmers today understand and appreciate that 82 per cent of these people are not on farms, but are in careers that support the farm gate.

Here are just a few examples:

• A Western Australian wheat grower can call upon research scientist Calum Watt to understand how future varieties of wheat will be more drought tolerant.
• A Tasmanian dairy farmer can consult with agronomist Dwayne Schubert to discuss how precision agriculture can reduce fertiliser use.
• In the Riverina, another agronomist Emma Ayliffe helps take the latest cutting edge cotton technology from trials to the paddock.
• In Canberra, Laura Phelps works with the Australian government to develop policy to benefit agricultural exports, and in Brisbane Kirsty McCormack markets Australian beef to Asia.
• Farmers in Cambodia who learn from PhD student Anika Molesworth can benefit from the agricultural knowledge developed here in this sunburnt land.

Agriculture is a complex web of professionals that are contributing to a greater whole and supporting the farmer on the land. Agriculture is full of exciting and dynamic careers and there is a role for everyone in the sector.

Let’s invite the best and the brightest into this web of professionals.

NOTE

This blog is a reprint of a blog I wrote for The Australian Farmer found here

My next blog in this series will reflect on the complexity of the Australian farming landscape

What comes to mind when you think of the Australian agriculture landscape

Are you like author Tana French

I wished I knew more about Australia. I thought of red earth and sun that hit you like a shout, twisted plants stubborn enough to pull life out of nothing, spaces that could dizzy you, swallow you whole.

or like me and think of lush green hills and rolling valleys and black and white cows full of milk making their way to the dairy

Australia is a vast place this quote from Andrew Campbell Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) is very sobering

“If the world was your farm, Australia is not your best paddock, in fact there aren’t many worse” – Andrew Campbell.

 

Day after day, alone on the hill
The cow with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know her
They can see that she’s just a fool
And she never gives an answer

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in her head
See the world spinning around

Well on the way, head in a cloud
The lady of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears her
Or the sound she appears to make
And she never seems to notice

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in her head
See the world spinning around

And nobody seems to like her
They can tell what she wants to do
And she never shows her feelings

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in her head
See the world spinning around

She never listens to them
She knows that they’re the fools
They don’t like her

The fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in her head
See the world spinning around

Ht Lee and apologies to The Beatles

Another photo moment from the Cows on the Hill 

 

This is my recent blog for The Australian Farmer