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The 2018 Archibull Prize has been run and won with Hurlstone Agricultural High School taking out the prestigious title of Grand Champion Archibull with an ornately decorated, sacred-cow themed Archie representing horticulture.
32 primary and secondary schools across New South Wales and Queensland took part in the ninth instalment of The Archibull Prize. Participants included public,independent and catholic schools, selective schools, alternate schools and performing and creative arts schools from rural and urban communities.
The students were joined by Young Farming Champions as they researched their nominated agricultural industry and presented their findings in blogs, infographics and multi-media, and by adorning their Archie – a life-sized fibreglass cow.
Thanks to support from the Aussie Farmers Foundation schools were able to study horticulture, for the first time and Hurlstone Agricultural High School created Brahman: The Sacred Cow as their Archie. “Brahman: The Sacred Cow is a visual investigation of the issues of sustainability and food security in the horticulture industry,” the school said. “Our artwork aligns the nourishment of the body with the nourishment of the soul…. and utilises the visual conventions of religion to celebrate horticulture, specifically, its capacity to sustain our world’s population.”
Reserve Grand Champion Archibull was awarded to Calvary Christian College – Carbrook Senior College, from Queensland who researched the egg and poultry industry to create Le-EGG-O, an Archie with elaborate LEGO figurines. “We went with this idea because LEGO, much like chickens and eggs, speaks a universal language,” the school said. “LEGO is internationally recognised and children from multiple nationalities will demonstrate recognition, be able to read booklets, construct, play, plan and dream. Likewise, poultry & eggs are an internationally recognised food source, with many countries having their own unique take on dishes cooked with chicken or eggs.”
The awards were presented at a ceremony held at Sydney Olympic Park on Tuesday 20th November, attended by dignitaries including CEO of Foodbank Brianna Casey and Youth Off The Streets founder Father Chris Riley.
Watch the winners animation here
You can find a list of all award winners in our Hall of Fame here
This week’s top stories from Young Farming Champions around the country.
Happy National Agriculture Day!
This week we’ve gone all out to celebrate National Agriculture Day in a BIG way, culminating in The Archibull Prize National Awards and Exhibition Day at Sydney Olympic Park on Tuesday.
School students, teachers, YFC and special guests travelled from across Australia to be part of the 2018 Archibull Prize. Mega congrats to everyone involved: all the winners, participants, movers-and-shakers behind the scenes and espeically to Hurlstone Agricultural High School whose Archie “Brahman” took out the Grand Champion Archibull award for 2018. For full coverage head to our social media channels on Facebook and Twitter and look for our hashtag #Archie18
But for YFC, our #AgDay celebrations started earlier in the week when 13 YFC travelled to Sydney for a brilliantly engaging professional development workshop…
Sydney Workshop
Current and alumnus Young Farming Champions gathered at the magnificent Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) Headquarters in Sydney for a workshop. Admiring the wonderful view of the harbour and the bridge from the boardroom of AWI, the YFC attended sessions on understanding and working with different personalities, understanding how policy is developed and refining the elevator pitches. This workshop the YFC were lucky enough to be joined by the experienced management team of Gaye Steel, Greg Mills and Jenni Metcalfe that challenged and brought the workshop to life as well as experts in the policy writing and social media fields.
This workshop also saw a YFC workshop first with 4 Alumni YFC joining via video conference on Sunday for a very special session with the incredible Paige Burton on the effective use and ins-and-outs of social media. This allowed some of our YFC to join from as far away as Wilcannia! Paige shared with the group many of the techniques of ensuring that the reach of the YFC are heard far and wide. We can certainly see how this young lady was named by Impact 25 as on of the 25 Most Influential People in the Social Sector. There will be many products of this workshop on social media this week for the #Archie18 Archibull prize awards.
The products of the weekend were even more accomplished YFC (which is hard to believe considering the rest of the achievements in this weeks Muster) in the arts of social media, pitches, interviewees and #youthvoices of agriculture!
In the Field
Grains YFC, farmer and talented photographer Marlee Langfield has started canola harvest on her property in the NSW Riverina. “I have harvested more seeds than I planted, so I’ve already won!” Marlee jokes! “Very busy times right now, but I’m loving it.” Check out this gorgeous shot Marlee took of her crop earlier in the season:
Did you catch Landline on Sunday? Cotton YFC Alexander Stephens is driver extraordinaire behind the wheel of the cotton harvester in this awesome story on the revival of cotton growing in the Kimberley Ord River region.
Out of the Field
Rice YFC Erika Heffer visited Parliament House in Sydney this week for the Parliamentary Friends of Landcare event, highlighting Local Landcare Coordinators who have run unique projects this year. Erika says, “The highlight was meeting ministers that have an interest in Landcare and hearing Niall Blair, the Minister for Primary Industries, acknowledge Rob Dulhunty, the Landcare NSW outgoing chair.”
Murray region Local Landcare Coordinator Erika Heffer and Local Landcare Coordinator from Bland Temora in the Riverina Britt Turner
Cotton YFC and founding member of Farmers for Climate Action Anika Molesworth spoke with ABC Radio National this week, tackling the question “How can farmers adapt and innovate to ensure the future of farming and our agricultural land?” Listen to Anika’s interview here.
Beef YFC and our current Aussie-in-Canada correspondent Kirsty McCormack presented for a 4H group in Brandon, Manitoba last week. She shared her insights on Young Farming Champion and Archibull Prize programs as well as the Australian beef industry and its challenges. Well done Kirsty!
Grains YFC Keiley O’Brien has been featured in this week’s Allied Grain Systems “Mates in Grain.”
Well done to Cotton YFC Alexandria Galea who was named a finalist in the Queensland Ministers Emerging Leader Award for innovation leading to profitability and sustainability. Finaists and winners were celebrated at Wednesday’s AgFutures Innovation and Investment Forum in Brisbane.
Congratulations to YFC Anika Molesworth on her win in the NSW and ACT Regional Achievement and Community Awards on Friday. Anika took out the Prime Super Agricultural Innovation Award. Well done!
Huge congrats to Wool YFC and Wool Technical Coordinator Sam Wan who is up for the title of Elders Employee of the Year. Kudos Sam!
Exciting international news for Beef YFC and stud Limousin cattle breeder Jasmine Green and husband Hayden from Summit Livestock. Jas and Hayden’s cow Summit Meadowgrass was named “Limousin Miss World” in the world Cattlemarket.net championships. While Jas stayed home to keep the stud cows fed and watered, Hayden travelled to Farmfair in Edmonton, Canada last week to receive the award. Summit Meadowgrass was nominated to represent Australia after winning supreme exhibit at Sydney Royal Show earlier this year. Incredible achievement, well done Jasmine!
Cotton YFC, agronomist and farmer Emma Ayliffe had a special visit from ADAMA Agricultural Solutions head office representatives (who’d just popped in from Israel!) and local managers last week to receive her Runner Up Young Agronomist of the Year award. Top job, Emma!
Over 30 entries were received in our National AgDAy
Careers Competition from primary and secondary schools in both rural and urban
environments. We even had entries from the Charters Towers School of Distance
Education and the Port Augusta School of the Air.
Students were asked to identify their interests and
favourite subjects, imagine an agricultural career, research the educational
pathway to that career and play with LEGO!
This year we teamed with Career Harvest and Aimee Snowden from LittleBrick Pastoral who designed 12 LEGO figurines illustrating agriculturalcareers. Students then had the choice of crafting their entries around one ofAimee’s characters or designing their own.
We were blown away with the LEGO figures returned to
us! There were animal welfare officers, farm architects, florists, robotics
engineers and heavy vehicle mechanics just to name a few. In all 22 unique
careers were identified.
Considering the quality of the entries it was
difficult to determine the seven finalists but here, in alphabetical order only,
they are:
Frederick Herrmann from Yanco Agricultural High School who chose to be an architect to design and construct rural infrastructure
Hamish Maclure from Yanco Agricultural High School who described in great and exacting detail the life of a stock and station agent (which suggests he has spent more than one day at the sales!)
Joshua Carpenter from The Henry Lawson High School who envisaged a career as an agricultural teacher – and one who returned to his home town of Grenfell to teach
Molly McCreadie from Gwynneville Public School who also chose to be a farm architect
Paige Brown from Yanco Agricultural High School who wants to be a wool classer
Sienna Banks, also from Gwynneville Public School who chose an animal welfare officer.(This was a popular profession with at least three students choosing it!)
Tom Ramsay from Charters Towers School of Distance Education who chose to be a contract musterer.
The judges also made special mention of the entry from
Eliza Friend from Frensham School Mittagong
Congratulations to all students who entered the
competition and designed LEGO characters to show us the broad world of
agricultural careers.
Our winners will be announced at The Archibull Prize Awards at Sydney Olympic Park on November 20th 2018
Special shoutout to Career Harvest who have donated the iPad minis as prizes
This week’s top stories from Young Farming Champions around the country (and globe!)
In The Field
Cuteness alert! Central Coast farmer, entrepreneur and YFC Tim Eyes and his partner Hannah have had triplets! Triplet goats that is… and they are absolute kid perfection:
Tim says, “Our triplets are from one of our two boer goats. I wanted to get goats after my trip to South Africa.
“They live in the paddock at The Food Farm with our free range chooks and our maremma guardian dog. One kid is female the other two are male. I’m looking forward to some of the highest consumed red meat in the world.”
As part of his role as a YFC, this year Tim’s involvement with the Art4Agriculture Archibull Prize program saw him build an incredible relationship with students at The Lakes College on the Central Coast, who are part of Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets program. Recently Tim was the lucky winning bidder of a mural painted by The Lakes College students, in conjunction with Losty and Mercy College, which raised money for Aussie Farmers. Congratulations Tim!
The Lakes College students are kicking huge goals with the 2018 Archibull Prize and this week they are even taking their Archie on a tour across drought stricken New South Wales to further raise money and spirits for Aussie Farmers. This is an inspiring group of students worth watching! Read more about it below in our Archie Action section.
The Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth (RASC) is a confederation of over fifty leading national and regional Agricultural Show Societies, Agricultural Associations and Research Bodies working in twenty Commonwealth countries.
Steph and Lucy both received scholarships from the Agricultural Societies Council of NSW to travel to and attend the event, which is designed to give delegates a taste of the agriculture industry in the host country while providing a forum for discussing mutual successes and challenges in agriculture around the world.
Lucy also tagged along on the pre-conference tour which showcased local attractions, farms and food production facilities. “It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to network with people from around the world who face the same problems and successes we do here in Australia with our country shows,” Lucy says.
Read more about the conference program and itinerary here
The Cowra Guardian covered a story on Steph’s trip here
Safe and happy travels Lucy and Steph (pictured below)!
Grains YFC and 2018 Narrowmine Showgirl Keiley O’Brien is featured in this week’s Behind the Sash series, sharing her story, love for rural Australia and “demonstrating that the perfect showgirl is who you are and not a sterotype.” Listen to Keiley’s great interview here.
Prime Cuts
It was an exciting day at the University New England Graduation Ceremony last week with YFC and YVLT Chair Dr Jo Newton receiving the Young Distinguished Alumni Award. You can watch Jo’s address, where she encourages everyone to “pay it forward” at this link. Well done Jo – what a year this amazing young woman has had.
Western New South Wales based YFC, Farmer and Researcher Anika Molesworth has been announced as a headline speaker at the Rotary District 9520 (which covers the corners of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales) Conference in April 2019.
Lifetime Highlights
It’s been a huge few weeks at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW, for some of our YFC who have finished studies…
Congrats to Grains YFC Keiley O’Brien (Bachelor of Agriculture and Bachelor of Business), Cotton YFC Casey Onus (Masters of Business Administration), and YFC Jasmine Whitten and YFC Emma Turner have both submitted their theses.
Mega Congratulations to Cotton Young Farming Champion James Kanaley who married the love of his life Jessica Skilbeck yesterday in the Riverina
Archie Action
With The Archibull Prize 2018 National Awards and Exhibition Day fast approaching, it’s all action on the Archie front!
This year’s Archie artwork finalists from schools across New South Wales and Queensland have been announced and their life-size cow artworks will start making their way to Sydney for the National Awards in just a few weeks time. Read all about it here to see which school’s Archies will be displayed at the Awards and at the 2019 Sydney Royal Easter Show. Well done to all the students, teachers, school communities and Young Farming Champions involved!
Two inspiring young woman have been announced as the guest speakers for this year’s Archies. CEO of Foodbank Australia and self confessed “huge fan of the Archies” Brianna Casey, and councillor for the City of Sydney and former Deputy Lord Mayor, Jess Miller are both incredible advocates for agriculture and change. It is with great excitement that we look forward to sharing the day of our national awards ceremony with them.
And in the meantime, make sure to get your votes in for your favourite Archie in the People’s Choice Award – voting closes November 12th!
As many finalists head to Sydney, a very special Archie from The Lakes College is taking a looong detour with its creators – heading west to Mudgee, Coonamble, Brewarrina and Bourke – and raising money for drought affected farmers and communities.
Sixty-three students from Father Chris Riley’s Youth of the Streets program will be fixing fences, feeding cattle, running games for rual kids and hanging out donated groceries vouchers. Their amazing Archie – which students have turned into a giant money box – is going along for the rie. And when you drop a coin into the metal bucket inside, it chimes like raindrops on a tin roof.
“From the head to the hide, let’s bridge the divide”
Teacher Amy Gill says their Archie is all about courage, generosity, learning from past mistakes, looking forward and creating change, while the drought relief convey is a tool for education and a celebration of what farmers do, a symbol of support and recognition. Read more about the ethos of The Lakes College Archie here.
Its gives us great pleasure to announce the following schools in NSW and Queensland have been selected to display their Archie Artworks at The Archibull Prize 2018 Awards and Exhibition Day and at the 2019 Sydney Royal Easter Show.
Gwynneville Public School
Little Bay Community of Schools
Malabar Public School
Beaudesert State High School
Calvary Christian College Snr Carbrook
Granville South Creative and Performing Arts High School
Hurlstone Agricultural High School
Irrawang High School
Kellyville High School
Kinross Wolaroi School
Moss Vale High School
Picnic Point High School
The Henry Lawson High School
Bombala High School
The artwork judge has made her decision the People Choice closes on 12th November. Make your choice here
Congratulations to all the schools involved in The Archibull Prize 2018 you have done your school and agriculture very proud
