This week’s Young Farming Champions stories from around the country
IN THE FIELD
This week Wool Young Farming Champion and social media superstar Emma Turner will be taking over our Art4Agriculture social media channels and showings us life on a sheep station in outback NSW. Emma’s continuing work on her Honours Research Project into six-monthly shearing of sheep and we’re super keen to find out exactly what’s involved. Keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook pages this week to catch up with Emma and her beloved sheep.
Cotton YFC, farmer and agronomist Emma Ayliffe has finished shearing and lamb marking her first drop of lambs on her farm in Central West NSW.
This week Emma is working with her cotton farming clients to prepare their paddocks for planting next year’s cotton crop.
Cotton farmers are currently adding phosphorous fertiliser to the soil where it is needed, creating rows for planting and furrows for irrigation and preparing their nitrogen budgets.
Farmers predict soil temperature in the Riverina will have reached the required 14 degrees C for planting cotton in about six weeks.
You can find out how a cotton crop is grown here
And because safety is always the most important thing, Emma is also renewing her St Johns first aid certificate this week!
YFC and grain farmer Dan Fox says farmers in his region of the NSW Riverina are very grateful for the 44 mm of rain they received in June, with Dan’s family planting wheat, barley, canola and lentils for the 2018 season.
Dan is looking forward to attending the Victorian No Till Farming Conference this Thursday and Friday. Dan says it’s a great opportunity to learn from and network with other farmers who share the Fox family ethos of No Till Regenerative Farming.
YFC and grain farmer Marlee Langfield is attending the annual Innovation Generation Conference in Wagga Wagga, NSW, this week.
In far-west NSW, Wool YFC and sheep and cattle farmer Bessie Thomas is still hoping for more rain. In an average year her animals would usually eat grass growing in the paddocks but while drought conditions continue, Bessie’s family is feeding their sheep and cattle a mix of grains, seeds and hay every day. This requires driving the feed around to each watering point in every paddock and it’s a time-consuming job that doesn’t allow for much other farm work and maintenance to continue.
YFC Tim Eyes hosted students from The Lakes College at his farm. They dug for potatoes, collected fresh eggs, picked oranges from the tree and milked Joyce the dairy cow. For Tim, who has entertained children both in mainstream schools and at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, hosting the TLC students was an enjoyable and eye-opening experience. Read the full story here
OUT OF THE FIELD
Next Monday YFC Anika Molesworth is flying to Argentina! She has been invited by the Argentine Minister of Agriculture and Uruguay Minister of Agriculture to visit farms, run workshops with young farmers, and give presentations on global agricultural challenges and opportunities.
This program coincides with the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, and part of her brief is to collaborate with young South American farmers to prepare a report for the Ministers on the vision of strong and resilient farming sectors, enabling young farmers, and promoting future industry leaders. Anika will be working with Australian Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud and visiting farmer groups to discuss collaborative relationships between countries and tackling the industry’s big challenges. Happy travels and have fun, Anika!
YFC Nellie Evans, Wool YFC Adele Offley and YFC Dr Steph Fowler are going into schools in Young, NSW, for the Kreative Koalas program where they will be engaging with students about SDG Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption.
Youth Voices Leadership Team Chair Dr Jo Newton is sharing her leadership journey with the First National Real Estate FN squad. FN Squad is designed to bring together the First National’s under 35-year-olds for training and networking. Good luck Jo!
PRIME CUTS
Anika Molesworth has been accepted into the 2019 Homeward Bound program – a 12 month leadership program from women in STEMM to work on environmental issues and increase their strategic plans, visibility and skills development. It brings together women from all over the world, giving them personal coaches and platforms to broadcast their topics of interest. The program culminates in a voyage to Antarctica in November next year, to visit research stations, meet with scientists, and learn about climate change in this incredibly fragile region of the planet. Congratulations Anika!
Grains YFC Dee George has been announced as a state finalist in The Victorian Rural Ambassador Awards. Congrats Dee!
Grains YFC Calum Watt is a state semi-finalist in the agricultural section of the Western Australian Young Achiever awards for 2018. This week Calum was in Darwin for the Northern Food Futures Conference in his role as an AgriFutures scholarship holder, hosting a panel discussion about opportunities in the northern region. Well done Calum!
LIFETIME HIGHLIGHTS
Beef YFC Prue McCormack and Wool YFC Dione Howard are both completing their final veterinary studies exams at university this week and we wish them all the best!
Cotton YFC Casey Onus has just finished her Master of Business Administration. What a fantastic effort, well done Casey!
#Youthvoice18 #YouthinAg #ArchieAction
