The world needs creative, innovative and courageous young people who can connect, collaborate and act. We know that youth may only be 20% of the population but they are 100% of the future. The time is now to let them share their dreams and design the future they want to see.
Well it may not have been champagne but there was plenty of Paul’s nutritious milk drunk and delicious food eaten when we recently launched the Archibull Prize in Kiama and Sydney.
Kiama Mayor Brian Petschler pictured here with Young Eco Champion Renae Riviere (left) Gabrielle Quigley and students from Corpus Christi Catholic School spoke at the Kiama Launch
Students and teachers who attended got an outline of the ethos behind the Archibull Prize program and how it works from me
Then Wendy Taylor the art judge shared what excited and ticked all her boxes for great cow art
A highlight of the Sydney launch was having some of our 2013 Young Farming Champions attend and meet some of the students and teachers involved
LtoR Martin Murray, Ben Egan, 2011 YFC Melissa Henry, Adele Offley, Hannah Barber, Liz Lobsey,Jasmine Nixon and in the front Cassie Baile
YFC’s Martin Murray and Ben Egan with Nerida Walker who is watching some footage of cotton picking in action which Martin just happen to have on his phone (as you do)
Todays guest post is by 2011 Young Farming Champion Melissa Henry who is crazy about wool and her flock of sheep and living and working in rural and regional Australia
This is Melissa’s story
I’m Melissa Henry from Boorowa in South West NSW.
I’m a Young Farming Champion representing the sheep and wool industry. I’m not from a farming background, I grew up in the Hawkesbury District of Western Sydney.
My ram “Mr Wright” – Grand Champion Ram Royal Canberra Show 2013
My first introduction to agriculture was at high school showing sheep and beef cattle and I loved it! Agriculture has opened more doors for me than I ever knew existed. I have been very fortunate to travel and look at the diversity of agriculture both in Australia and overseas. I’ve seen farming systems in Canada (Quebec and Alberta), South Africa and New Zealand.
I completed a Bachelor of Animal Science (Hons) at the University of Western Sydney (Hawkesbury) and a Graduate Certificate in Agricultural Consulting at the University of New England.
At home I have my own flock of naturally coloured Corriedales which is very much a niche market. I established Quebon Coloured Sheep in 2004 which gave me the opportunity to learn first hand what it takes to be a farmer – even if it is at a small scale.
Quebon Coloured Sheep, Boorowa NSW
My fleeces are sold to hand-spinners and textile artists. My wool colours range from light to dark grey, fawn to chocolate. My ram and ewe lambs are sold to other breeders of coloured sheep, and the wether lambs are sold into the meat market.
I love my sheep!
I show my sheep as well, which is a great way of benchmarking the flock and to meet other breeders. I was very excited to recently win the Grand Champion Ram in the Black and Coloured Sheep section at Canberra Royal Show .
What I have learnt from having my own flock is:
You don’t need to own land to own livestock
There are so many people out there who are willing to help you learn – joining a breed or show association is a great starting point
No matter what size your flock is – the management requirements are the same
I wear another hat and that is Catchment Officer for the Lachlan Catchment Management Authority. My role is to deliver natural resource management projects, such as revegetation, waterway protection and farm planning to farmer and rural landholders in the Boorowa and Upper Lachlan region. I also work with community groups such as Landcare and the local fishing club to run local events and field days. The most rewarding part of the job is to work with farmers to achieve their production and sustainability goals by helping them along the way with matched federal and state funding. This funding assists with on-farm works such as fencing and tree planting as well as formal and in-formal training opportunities.
Best part of the job – Boorowa NSW
As a Young Farming Champion going into Sydney schools for the Archibull Prize and talking with others in the city community, a common question I am asked is “what is it like to like in a country town?”
Melissa with students from St Michael’s Catholic School in Baulkham Hills
I have found there are a lot of negative misconceptions in the city about what life in a rural community is like.
I love the open spaces, the quiet, the birds, seeing wildlife almost daily, recognising people when you walk down the street, watching the weather fronts as they move across the landscape.
I admire the values of country people: genuine, friendly, open, family focussed, dedicated, innovative, passionate about what they do and their communities.
I am inspired by the community spirit, particularly in times of extreme weather events such as floods and fire. Individuals pull together at the drop of a hat to help others in need, from moving stock to making sure that there is food in the fridge.
Jo Newton, Bessie Blore, Melissa Henry, Adele Offley and Cassie Baile
This year I am excited to have the opportunity to visit rural schools in both my hometown of Boorowa as well as Junee. You can visit the Boorowa Central School blog here
Meeting with the Junee High Art4Agriculture Archibull team – what a fantastic group that are so keen to share the positive story of sheep and wool.
Our Australian sheep and wool producers hold a special place in my heart. They care for some of our most diverse farming landscapes and our scarce natural resources. They also underpin our wonderful rural communities like Boorowa. It is an honour to be able to utilize my project management and communication skills to support sustainability within rural businesses and ensure our sheep and wool producers have a profitable future.
Melissa and her oldest ewe ‘Baabra’
I am also very grateful for the opportunity to live in a location where I can fulfil my passion – owning a small sheep stud. I am also grateful for the lifestyle that I am now living. I have previously blogged about why I love Life in a country townhere
And this winter when you are putting your scarf on, think of me and my girls.
As part of their quest to win the Archibull Prize we invite the participating the schools to write a blog which documents the journey of their artwork and their learnings. To engage the whole school community including parents, staff and students within their school, as well as feeder schools and community partners we ask that their blog be a living document and the blog posts are published regularly for public viewing.
Have a look at a small sample of this years student’s blog. I guarantee you will be amazed and very proud of next gen
We ask the students to explore some challenges to feeding and clothing the world and over the next few weeks I am going to share my thoughts ( and those of other fellow Australian bloggers and farmers ) on some of the issues we raise.
Today lets look at the too often overlooked wicked problem that is food waste.
To challenge the students we ask the students to investigate waste and why we waste so much. Scaringly Australians waste 4 million tonnes of food and organisations like Foodbank http://www.foodbank.org.au/ redistribute some of this waste to people in need.
The students learn about and understand how food wastage occurs including poor purchasing choices and then we ask these bright minds to develop strategies to reduce waste.
Blogger Susie Green who blogs at Farming Unlocked recently penned this excellent and highly thought provoking post titled The Real Cost of Perfect Food
As Susie reveals
A significant degree of waste is also occurring as a by-product of our seemingly insatiable demand for fresh produce that looks perfect, has consistent eating quality and is of perfect size and colour. Much of this waste is not even taken into account in the quoted 4 million tonnes worth of waste mentioned above.
Fresh produce that does not meet a required specification is often discarded before it even leaves the field. Perfectly good food is rejected for a minor blemish or for being the wrong colour, size or shape.
Further, growers are having to go to extraordinary lengths to produce this “perfect” produce; investing heavily in complex growing systems and fighting a battle they can never win completely to iron out the “imperfections” of nature. It takes a lot of effort and costs a lot of money to grow the perfect piece of fruit and vegetable. It takes even more effort to grow an entire field of exactly the same perfect fruit or vegetables.
Susie then shares the story of how Australia’s apple growers are tackling this challenge.
Susie’s blog has created quite a bit of discussion including these comments from fellow blogger Ann Britton
and Susie reflects on the challenges she faces on a personal level ( she is not alone is she?)
The challenge lies in how we can collectively make a change. I face a constant uphill battle with my own children (only 4 and 6 yo), who I struggle to get to eat a blemished piece of fruit. I haven’t brought them up that way – it is just somehow a natural trait to look for something that looks nicer. As long as they have that choice, they will pick the better looking fruit every time. Perhaps it does need a very clever marketing strategy. I just hope we can position ourselves to make the change before we reach a situation that is forecast in the following article. http://www.theland.com.au/news/agriculture/general/news/global-food-crisis-imminent/2659947.aspx?storypage=0
What does it say about us as nation that we have the luxury of demanding perfect food at rock bottom prices and believing it is a birth right when 870 million people, or one in eight people in the world, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012. Almost all the hungry people, 852 million, live in developing countries, representing 15 percent of the population of developing counties.
Susie’s blog has helped kick-start the discussion and is generating great conversations. Will the world talk or act?. That is the decision of every single person who says they care
Last week 10 of our Young Farming Champions went to Cotton HQ at Mascot where they got the inside story on the Australian Cotton Industry and what an exciting story it is.
Young Farming Champions visit Cotton Australia
Cotton is grown on the east coast of Australia from Emerald to Hay. Just love the denim map
Cotton is seen as an opportunity crop by Australian farmers in the regions where it is grown. It is only grown when water is plentiful and when it provides the best return on investment at that point in time
Now 20 years ago the cotton industry was shall we say not feeling the love from the community and getting a bit of a bad rap about its environmental footprint. Well kudos to them wow have they got their act together to address this by using Cotton BMP to guide their farmers to grow cotton in harmony with our natural environment. Cotton BMP is your guarantee of Australian cotton farmers environmental and ethical stewardship with audited processes and traceable supply chains – from the farm to you
Our Young Farming Champions soak up all the knowledge they heard in the CA boardroom from Communications Manager Chris Larsen
Australian cotton farmers have indeed made some big environmental stewardship gains. Check out these very impressive statistics
But they are not stopping there and the cotton industry is building on their success story with genetic modification to amplify pest-management benefits to target even more ambitious gains. Having seen biotechnology reduce pesticide use in cotton crops by almost 90 per cent, Cotton Australia is applying a similar strategy to slash the amount of water needed to grow cotton.
This bold target is, again, relying on CSIRO expertise across a range of agricultural technologies and Cotton Australia has set an aspirational target of doubling the water-use efficiency of cotton crops in just 10 years. See footnote
Cotton Australia’s CEO Adam Kay told the Young Farming Champions
“We already have the most efficient water-use growers in the world, but we are looking to add further to those achievements.”
Cotton Australia CEO Adam Kay with Lady Moo Moo who told all the Young Farming Champions they were all part of the cotton family now no matter what industry they represented
I can tell you they were all feeling the cotton love that saw them all presented with an these superb Australian grown and made Dri-Glow towels and highly appreciative of the Cotton Australia hospitality
Thanks Cotton Australia we all had a great time and we are very proud to be part of the Australian Cotton Family
Learn more about the Australian cotton industry here
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 19th 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?
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 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”.
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.
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.
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 you help make a difference?. Check out this blog from Susie Green at Farming Unlocked
Calling all Aussies the 2013 Rising Beef Champion Steph Coombes who blogged for us here needs your help
Why …………
As the 2013 Cattle Council Rising Champion, I have joined the 5 Nations Beef Alliance Young Ranchers Program. This year the conference is being held in Australia, but I am in Canada…!
I have the opportunity to win a trip back to Australia, but I am competing against people from the USA, Canada and NZ. We had to make videos about our beef industry, and the video with the most hits by June 30 wins.
My video is a parody of the song “I still call Australia Home” called “The Best Beef is Australian Grown”, sung beautifully by my friend Tegan Nock.
I would really appreciate it if you could click the link, view it, and share it with your family and friends.
I hope you enjoy the video, and that everything is going great back home…
This post is a salute to Woolworths. You might just be surprised where they are investing some of their profits.
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.
Yes we all have to eat and that alone means that agriculture is not only important but vital.
Yet agriculture faces new challenges every day, including activist groups who see livestock farmers as the right hand of devil.
The key to debunking myth conceptions about modern agricultural farming practices starts with the education sector. The key to success begins with partnering with the 250,000 teachers teaching the 3.5 million students in the 9,500 Australian schools.
Once we have excited some of these 3.5 million students to consider careers in the agrifood sector, it is imperative that we deliver on the promise in order to retain them. Sadly we don’t do this well enough
Like our individual food and fibre industries, we need a better “supply chain” for young people to develop skills that enable them to engage, grow and take charge of their industries.
Currently, we see a number of programs aimed at developing individuals at various stages in life, but many lack the mechanisms to support and mentor and galvanize these people into roles that have meaning within our industries, in the medium to longer term.
There is no point training young people if we then abandon them; believing our job is done after holding workshops and camps for them.
If we don’t continue to develop our young people, we lose a generation of leaders, innovators and workers as they seek opportunities elsewhere.
There will be no-one to take over the farm, or work in our agribusinesses.
Excitingly we don’t have to start at the beginning. There is a great pathway in place. All it needs is more agricultural industries supporting it
This diagram identifies cross industry supported programs whose core business is developing next gen agricultural ambassadors, workforce and leaders
This post is salute to Woolworths who is heavily investing in this space, albeit I am given to understand not as much as they have in the past.
I have spent a bit of time at Woolworths and yes there people who work there who are only driven by $ in the till and $ in shareholders pockets which ultimately mean $ in their pockets.
There also a lot of people at Woolworths who truly care about farmers. I know because I have met them and they walk the talk.
To help to develop and nurture Next Gen Ag Leaders Woolworths run a yearly program called the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship Program (WABSP) offering 24 young people in agriculture between the ages of 18 and 35 the chance to attend
The course is practical as well as theoretical, and covers topics such as:
• Business strategy and planning
• Agricultural value chain
• Successful business leadership
• Business finance
• Logistics and supply chain management
• The role of government
• Understanding retail
• Sustainability and environmental issues
• Personal development
You only have to see what the alumni have to say to see the potential outcomes it can deliver
At Art4Agriculture, an important part of our mission is to link our Young Farming Champions alumni with further opportunities within their industry and beyond to continue the journey of growth and leadership.
We actively encourage our Young Farming Champions to apply for the WABSP
Jasmine applied because she wanted to gain an increased understanding of the end consumer through broadening her industry knowledge and the paddock to plate concept.
Working in the quality control and assurance team at Teys Australia’s Wagga abattoir, which supplies meat products to Woolworths and other major supermarket chains Jasmine was looking forward to learning more about the end consumer and what is trending.
The meat industry is facing significant challenges and there is a greater focus on meeting the demands of the customer and gaining a better understanding of them – this is something that Jasmine feels is crucial to her role and the success of the company.
She saw the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship program is about filling the knowledge gap and learning more about the supply chain and the logistical challenge of supplying fresh food to the nation.
As the Australian farmers face all kinds of unrelenting changes in their environment, there is a need for individuals who are capable of turning strategy into reality.
There is a great “supply chain” for young people to help them develop skills that enable them to engage, grow and take charge of their industries.
Is your industry supporting it?
See Next Gen Ag Leaders Pathway supporting partners here
If you take the time to look you will notice some industries and supply chain partners pop up in every single one or almost.
Sadly the dairy industry is very much missing in action
What about the supermarkets who rely so heavily on our farmers.
Did you see Coles? No I don’t thinks so. But you may have noticed Woolworths directly sponsors 4 of the 7 and has provided support to another two in the past and commits more than $140K per year to its own Woolworths Agribusiness Scholarship Program
Kudos where kudos is due I say
Just before I go Here is another great idea Woolworths from one of our Young Farming Champions Kylie Stretton who has certainly crowd sourced for you here
This post is another in the series. “Success is the journey not the destination and it’s the people you partner with that determine how fast you get there and how rewarding it will be”
This year we have a new concept as part of the Archibull Prize that we at Art4Agriculture are very excited about.
There are a number of high schools like Shoalhaven High School who have partnered with their feeder primary school to help build relationships and provide smooth transitions between primary and secondary school
During the course of Archibull 2013, we (the Shoalhaven High School’s Archi team) will be mentoring Nowra East Public School’s Archi team, as they are our main feeder school and our friends! This is their first year in the Archibull, so we wish to boost their confidence with competing and win or lose, we will still be proud of all their achievements!
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
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.
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.
