It gives us great pleasure to introduce you to our third University of New England Young Farming Champion Haylee Murrell. We first met Haylee when she won the senior section of our inugural National Agriculture Day Careers Competition in 2017.

Haylee Murrell with her dad and Young Farming Champions Ambassador Costa Georgiadis  

We then invited Haylee to join us as a n intern at the 2018 Sydney Royal Easter Show Primary School Preview Day  and what a star she was

We are very excited she chose to study her tertiary education at UNE and officially join the Young Farming Champions team

Welcome Haylee  ……

Hello! My name is Haylee Murrell and I am a born and bred Gunnedah girl. Living in an area with 80% of its town invested in agriculture, I was always surrounded by diversity and vibrancy of the industry and I am confident this is what sparked my interest in a career in Agriculture.

From an early age I was determined I was going to work in Agriculture, and everyday I am more and more determined and passionate about it. This has been fostered by making the most of every opportunity during my primary and secondary school education and the many, many extra activities I grabbed with both hands to learn from and immerse myself in the industry.

There have been many highlights have helped to cement my decision to pursue a career in Agriculture.

The first one being the people I have met. People have not only been encouraging, they are enthusiastic and excited about the fact that youth are involved in agriculture and that they want to know about the industry. I have learnt more from people in the industry then I have learnt from studying and reading. These people have inspired me and helped pave my way in the agricultural sector. I am in the agricultural sector because I want to meet and learn more off these people and I want to be like them.

For me, educating young individuals about agriculture is such an important area that must occur for agriculture to remain ongoing and for people to understand how vital it is for Australia’s future as well as a huge interest for me. So when I first entered The Archibull Prize National Agriculture Day Careers Competition I had no idea it would lead to me being introduced to a bunch of young individuals doing exactly that, educating the next generation of agriculturalists. I was honoured to be asked after the Archibull Prize awards to come to the Sydney Easter Show as their intern to help teach young students from the Sydney area about where fruit and vegetables come from and how they can grow their own food at home. I took so much away from this experience, especially the joy and satisfaction I felt after helping the kindergartens learn the importance of eating a rainbow of fruit and vegetables everyday. This experience encouraged me to educate other young people and older people about agriculture.

Another highlight on my career journey into agriculture was a recent work placement at the North Coast Local Land Services, which showed me the diversity of careers in agriculture. It allowed me to see the diversity of the landscape and how each region has different problems, pests, crops and farming methods. It was clear to me you can never stop learning about Australian agriculture.

Without the people and experiences in agriculture that I have been involved in my love and passion for agriculture would have not flourished and these are the reasons I want to pursue a career, future and life in Australian agriculture.

I want to encourage all young people to be interested in where their food and clothes come from. I want every young person to have the opportunity to have farming experiences and like me be inspired to follow a career in agriculture