Month / July 2021

by Action4Agriculture

Leadership is Language – Emma Black and Shannon Speight founders of Black Box Co talk to Dione Howard

In this episode of Leadership is Language- Conversations with Thought Leaders the founders of Black Box Co Emma Black and Shannon Speight talk to Young Farming Champion Dione Howard

 

Black Box Co is a cloud-based software program that manages and compares large datasets, presenting insights in graphical form on online dashboards. It is the brainchild of two northern Queensland women, Shannon Speight and Emma Black. “By simply uploading a file to Black Box, data can be tied together across the supply chain,” Shannon says. “It becomes a decision-making tool that you can execute and it gives maximum insight for minimum effort. It takes the grunt work out of data analysis from fertility to growth to carcass.”

In this interview Emma and Shannon share insights into their first year of business going from:

  • Emma and Shannon working part-time to now having a full time staff of 10 people
  • Zero cattle on their database to having 900,000
  • Zero data points to 15 million data points

Shannon and Emma also reflect on:

  • the value and experience they have gained from their mentors
  • tips for applying for awards
  • what a typical day looks for both of them as business women with 4 children under 6 between them – the negotiables and the non negotiables
  • Importance of self care and what that looks like for them personally

Highlights

When the moons align make the most of it. Shannon and Emma have leveraged key moments in their lives and their strengths

  1. Shannon’s involvement in Northern Genomics Project with the University of Queensland 
  2. Both being winners of the Zanda McDonald Award
  3. Their drive and commitment to being solutions focused
  4. Both living in Northern Queensland
  5. Power of the bottom up approach
  6. Success is identifying a gap and meeting the wants and needs of your customer.
  7. Identify and work with the early adopters

Quotes:

“its not about balance – you are always juggling balls. You have to work out which balls are made of glass and which ones are made of rubber” Shannon

“awards are about taking a giant leap and making the most of the experience. Whilst the award initially recognises something you have done, the follow up and the opportunities are the best part that comes from awards” Emma

“the Zanda Award has been instrumental in changing both our lives. We both had people who tapped us on the shoulder and back us when we applied. On the other hand when you get knocked back for an award it can be just as important as a learning experience. Applying for awards multiple times can make you stronger each time” Shannon

‘do your research when applying for an award, find out what the judges are looking for, ring some-one who has applied before, really put the effort in” Emma

“a good mentor can really challenge you and your thinking” Emma

 

More from Black Box Co in the Media here 

Shannon Speight and Emma Black. Photo credit Outback Magazine 

Biography

Shannon Speight

Shannon is passionate about the beef and livestock industry. Having graduated as a veterinarian from the University of Sydney Shannon has spent extensive time working within the beef industry in various roles. Shannon began as a vet working with live export in North Queensland and then mixed practice in Charters Towers and Longreach.

One of her most recent roles has seen her coordinate a large scale beef genomics project across Northern Australia. This project has involved over 50 properties from Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia and ovarian scanning over 30,000 heifers to develop a DNA suitable for northern cattle with a focus on fertility traits. Shannon was integral in supporting producers with data collection, ovarian scanning and pregnancy testing and providing genomic and production feedback to producers.

Shannon was awarded the Zanda McDonald Award in 2019. The Zanda McDonald Award has been running for the past six years and seeks to highlight talented and passionate young individuals working in the agricultural sector. This highly prestigious Trans-Tasman award allowed Shannon an impressive personal development package that included a trans-Tasman mentoring trip and the ability to get up close and personal with leaders in the Australasian ag sector through the Platinum Primary Producers (PPP) Group.

Shannon has since co-founded Black Box Co an innovative SaaS (Software as a Service) product that ingests raw data across the beef supply chain to inform prediction, forecasting and key production insights. Black Box Co has secured production data on over 900,000 animals and this product is now being trialled with key commercial partners across the beef supply chain.

Shannon is currently completing her Masters of Business Administration through James Cook University and is the chairperson of the Beef Australia Next Generation Committee.

Emma Black

Emma has always been passionate about the beef and livestock industry since growing up on a property in Western Queensland. Educated at the University of New England, Armidale NSW, Emma went on to work in livestock nutrition consulting followed by meat processing to gain a knowledge right along the beef supply chain. To apply this knowledge, Emma then worked in extension services taking a whole-of-business approach, working directly with beef producers and industry to assist in livestock nutrition, pasture/livestock management, meat quality, business/data analysis and general property management.

Emma has since co-founded Black Box Co, an innovative software that ingests raw production data from right along the beef supply chain, instantly turning it into key insights to inform production decisions, prediction and forecasting. Black Box Co has secured production data on over 900,000 animals and is currently being trialled with key commercial partners across the beef supply chain.

Emma was the inaugural winner of the prestigious Zanda McDonald Award which has provided her with ongoing mentoring and guidance from the biggest movers and shakers in the agricultural industries across Australia and New Zealand through the Platinum Primary Producer (PPP) Group. To further her knowledge and skill set Emma is currently studying a Masters in Business Administration. She is extremely passionate about mentoring the next generation including young producers, university and high school students.

 

 

by Action4Agriculture

Announcing the 2020 Kreative Koalas winners

 

Winning entries, which highlight “amazing creativity, energy and amount of work” include the competition’s first wannabe turtle, showcasing caring for country, and a disco jiving koala who warns our planet is burning 

 

The 2020 winners of the world-renowned schools program Kreative Koalas, where students paint a blank fibreglass koala to depict a sustainability theme, have been unveiled 

 

In a year full of challenges, the winning category entries from the schools illustrate extraordinary talent, determination and effort, said judge and globally-renowned community change expert Les Robinson.

 

“I’m gobsmacked by the amazing creativity, energy and amount of work put into all of the projects,” said Les, adding that the students thought logically and introduced concrete actions for change in their school and community.

 

The winners include St Brigid’s Primary School in Raymond Terrace in the NSW Hunter Valley with their unique “Hunter Bila Guraa”, which scooped the Best Digital Learning Journey prize. 

 

Sitting on a river depicting one healthy, green, tree-lined embankment that turtles need, and one drought stricken burnt side which makes them so vulnerable to predators, his head is decorated with the Aboriginal flag colours to represent caring for country. 

 

The animal, whose name means “Hunter River Turtle” in the Gathang language of the Worimi people, is a koala who wanted to become a turtle and has a large version of the latter painted on his back.

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“The yellow lines coming away from his nose portray him as a warrior, as we have become biodiversity warriors through this journey,” said the students, who also wanted to represent four of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with their entry. 

 

Sporting a shirt literally off a farmer’s back, “Dusty Paddocks”, co-winner of the Best Artwork prize, is the environmental superhero brainchild of Caragabal Public School in Caragabal, central west NSW, who have suffered a three-year drought and were last year featured on ABC Behind the News

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His shirt, donated by a local family, is coated with pot fragments to evoke visions of a parched earth. But it opens at the front to reveal a Superman suit, representing the power that kids have to save our planet.

 “It is about the hope for a better future for their land and their families,” said the students.

 

Annangrove Public School in Sydney’s west are co-winners of the Best Community Action Project with their project to “transform our food systems to transform the world” to help out the hungry, educate others, and reduce their “food footprint”. 

The ongoing legacy of their Kreative Koalas journey sees students hold “Waste Free Wednesdays”, share regular tips on sustainable practices in the school newsletter, and donate eggs and vegetables from a new garden to a nearby community kitchen, who they sponsor.

“The surprising thing for us was how easy it became to incorporate sustainability into our everyday lives, and not just in terms of food,” said the students

 

Raymond Terrace Public School in the Hunter Valley, who are co-winners of the Best Artwork award, came up with a cool koala with a disco mirror ball for a head who jives to “Burn Baby Burn”. 

 

But “Disco Inferno” also carries a grim warning: we will continue to see the extreme and unsustainable effects of global warming, including horiffic bushfires, devastating populations and native species and environments unless action is taken.

 “As the Kreative Koala project evolved, we journeyed more towards the awareness of what was occurring globally with bushfires and responded reflectively to the experiences of Australian communities in 2019/2020,” said the students.

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Co-winners of the Best Community Action project, Medowie Christian School Primary in the Hunter Valley, took a multi-pronged project approach, starting a kindergarten garden and foodway tin drive later.  The students also participated in the OzHarvest FEAST program, through which pupils learnt how to prepare food and cook sustainably. The students’ efforts where featured on ABC radio and in local paper the Port Stephens Examiner. 

“Its just extraordinary what is happening in our schools. I take my hat off to all these committed teachers and their problem solver students. They make us all proud of our education system” says Action for Agriculture program director Lynne Strong

 Martha Atkins from Medowie Christian School shares her Kreative Koalas journey tips and tricks here

 

“The schools were chosen as winners because they started with big global problems, for example hunger. Then they logically drilled down to identify realistic actions students could really do to make a real difference. 

This was backed up with research, and creative reports which were clear and enjoyable to read. 

The projects were hands-on, for instance the ones that involved growing and cooking your own food which is the best way to make a change because you don’t just tell people why, you show them how,” says project judge Les Robinson.

 

The Kreative Koalas school program is one of Action for Agriculture flagship initiatives and we look forward to bringing together the winners for a celebratory event, where the Grand Champion will be announced, when COVID restrictions are lifted. 

See all the artwork finalists here

See all the Community Action Project finalists here

Mega thanks to our supporting partners growing tomorrow’s leaders today

by Action4Agriculture

We have a new name Action for Agriculture and we have snared a highly respected social and environmental justice advocate as new board chair

Action for Agriculture (A4A), the not-for-profit behind world-renowned programs The Archibull Prize, Kreative Koalas,  and Young Farming Champions, is today thrilled to announce the appointment of highly respected social and environmental justice advocate Tanya Jackson-Vaughan as its new board chair.

The addition of the past Impact 25 winner,  to the charity, formerly Picture You in Agriculture (PYiA), brings to the unique organisation the ideal mix of youth, philanthropy, government, industry and grassroots knowledge and experience, said founder and director Lynne Strong.

“Highly respected with a background in philanthropy and tackling some of the major social issues facing Australia, Tanya is a fantastic and extraordinary new appointment for us.

Tanya will help us see how agriculture is part of a bigger picture that shares common issues with other sectors and identify opportunities where we can all collaborate on the challenges that the country faces.

In Tanya, we have someone who can show us how we can harness grass roots advocacy and achieve change beyond the traditional ways that agriculture has done in the past.”

Tanya is a former head of Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS) and a past AFR 100 Women of Influence Non-profit Sector winner. She joins youth representatives Dr Joanna Newton OAM as deputy chair, and Emma Ayliffe, recently announced as the 2021 Australian Young Farmer of the Year recipient, and NSW RAS Rural Achiever winner Dr Dione Howard and non-executive director Dr Jenni Metcalfe 

“Having young people in visible senior leadership roles provides role models for young people to look up to and sets an example for other organisations.

Young people may be 20% of the population, but they are 100% of our future so it’s important young people have seats at today’s decision-making tables.” said Jo.

A4A’s fresh new name and logo greater reflects the advocacy work that the dynamic not-for-profit is continuing to carry out to ensure that youth voices are amplified in all aspects of society, said Lynne.

“There is now a great opportunity to leverage the young people A4A have trained over the years, today viewed as role models and influencers, to ensure youth are heard and that their opinions truly valued, they have the capacity to take action on issues that are important to them and their communities”

A4A is taking a grassroots approach, venturing out and engaging with the wider community, discovering what is important to young people in schools, and acquiring an understanding of what’s important to today’s consumers” she said.

Lynne highlighted that the Agriculture industry was a growth industry increasing its GDP value to the economy by 7% in the last 20 years and now worth close to $67 billion. Agriculture is now seen as a progressive industry and a career with purpose with an increasing number of young people opting to study agriculture-related tertiary courses, and the sector has made a commitment to taking real action to address climate change.

Founded over a decade ago, A4A is a registered charity under the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and partners with the Foundation for Rural and Reginal Renewal as an approved charitable project in line with FRRR’s purposes to enable tax effective fundraising.

 

Meet the Action for Agriculture (A4A) 2021 board

 

 

by Action4Agriculture

Tomorrow’s workers to be most sought after thanks to collaboration between Action for Agriculture and top leadership trainers Dale Carnegie

Secondary school students across Australia will be equipped for the future workforce with transferrable skills through an exciting new partnership between Action for Agriculture ( formerly Picture Yourself in Agriculture ) and one of the world’s most foremost leadership training providers.

Dale Carnegie will generously provide the winner of the annual Archibull Prize, an Action for Agriculture  flagship program, with a complimentary workshop to gear them up for life beyond the classroom with the skills most valued by employers and ensure that they can adapt to a wide variety of careers.

“Young Australians have experienced drought, flood, fire and now COVID19, but they are also in a prime position to define their futures. 

“This collaboration with Dale Carnegie will ensure that these youth, the ones who will be most affected by this uncertainty, are given the skills that are now the most sought after in these changing and challenging times.” says Lynne Strong, founder and national program director of Action for Agriculture.

 

Jessica Gopalan, marketing manager at Dale Carnegie, says that The Archibull Prize encourages students to build professional networks, expanding their understanding of the world as they learn how those in a vast array of fields contribute towards a sustainable future.

“The partnership between Action for Agriculture and Dale Carnegie will help ensure that students have the transferable skills that will equip them for tomorrow’s workforce

The sheer volume of talent and potential in these youth is outstanding, and we’re honoured to be working alongside Action for Agriculture in their commitment to driving positive change for both the individuals and the ideas that they champion.” she says.

The 90-minute workshop offered by Dale Carnegie, which offer professional training and coaching with their global headquarters based in New York and their Australian office in Sydney, will be offered either online or physically from 2021 onwards.

Dale Carnegie look forward to building a longer term partnership to support Action for Agriculture and its partners in accessing additional training and development opportunities, says Jessica.

Lynne says that the voices of young people are not heard prominently enough in society and in the agricultural sector, even though they have the most to gain and lose.

“The Archibull Prize seeks to enable and empower students to work together to identify and solve problems and take actions that will help them build a better world.

The Archibull Prize’s 21st century learning design empowers teachers to help students master traditional skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic, alongside capability skills, like creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, most valued by employers.” she says.”

The Archibull Prize is an internationally recognised secondary schools program designed to engage students with agriculture and sustainability by challenging them to research a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal, design and deliver a community action program and to present their findings in multi-media and artistically on a life-sized fibreglass cow.

Last year’s prize went ahead in a modified format, with students and teachers even rising to the occasion and excelling under challenging conditions during the global pandemic.

In recognition of their efforts the first school to benefit from this partnership will be 2020 Grand Champion School  Penrith Valley School

The Archibull Prize, along with Kreative Koalas and Young Farming Champions, Action for Agriculture’s other world-class flagship programs, aim to showcase the diversity of careers and pathway opportunities in the agriculture sector.

We thank all our partners who are investing in the future by empowering young Australians to solve tomorrow’s problems today

 

 

 

 

 

by Action4Agriculture

Nourishing our country and our wellbeing through partnerships with leading charities

 

Five schools are set to benefit from one of Australia’s largest and most iconic charities supporting one of Picture You in Agriculture’s (PYiA) flagship programs.

St Vincent de Paul’s NSW Bushfire Recovery and Community Development Program is supporting PYiA to expand the reach of Kreative Koalas, growing our collaborations with other social and environmental nonprofits.

The schools – Bomaderry Public School, Hilltop Public School, Nowra East Public School, Robertson Public School and St George Basin PS – are located in Wingecarribee, in the NSW southern highlands, and Shoalhaven in the state’s southeast. Both areas were badly affected by the horrific 2019-2020 bushfires that swept across Australia.

 

“Through our collaborations with organisations like St Vincent de Paul and OzHarvest, through its FEAST program, we are nourishing both our country and our wellbeing,” says Lynne Strong, founder and national program director of PYiA.

John Fenech, the manager of Community Development Bushfire Recovery at St Vincent de Paul Society of NSW said that the charity was delighted to be joining forces with PYiA.

“’Vinnies’ and PYiA share common values in both being organisations focused on social justice and systemic change.

“Kreative Koalas inspires young people to investigate and reflect on global environmental and sustainability issues and translate that learning into action at a local level in their communities.” he says.

 The Vinnies Bushfire Recovery and Community Development Program has three major areas of focus – future preparedness and building resilience, community cohesion, and environmental regeneration and sustainability.

“Vinnies views Kreative Koalas as aligning with all three, but particularly the resilience building and environmental sustainability,” says John.

Teachers say that the schools wanted to participate in Kreative Koalas program as they are “sustainability-driven” and already have existing innovative projects using kitchen gardens and recycling.

“We have community members who engage with these initiatives and as a school we are engaging action learning projects as a way of extending student thinking and engagement,” says one.

Another praises Kreative Koalas as a “leadership development program”, and wants to use it to build relationships between their school, the community, industry and business, as well as support students transitioning to secondary school. Another says that they had signed up to the program to teach pupils about “not living in such a throwaway society”. Others want their students to challenge themselves and to develop teamwork skills to allow them to communicate and work together effectively in the future.

Kreative Koalas along with The Archibull Prize and Young Farming Champions, PYiA’s other world-class flagship programs, aim to showcase the diversity of careers and career pathway opportunities in the agriculture sector.

We thank all our partners who are investing in the future by empowering young Australians to solve tomorrow’s problems today

 

#youthvoices #youthinag #cultivate #growingleaders #SDGs #goodworks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Action4Agriculture

Language is Leadership – Dr Dione Howard interviews Dr Holly Ludeman, Steven Bolt and John Cunnington from The Livestock Collective

In this episode of Leadership is Language Young Farming Champion Dione Howard talks to the leadership team and founding members of The Livestock Collective (TLC)

Inspired by the vision of the Centre for Food Integrity (CFI) in the United States and Canada Dr Holly Ludeman has created a whole of supply chain movement to build relationships of transparency and trust between livestock producers and consumers

Like the CFI Holly and her team at TLC are bringing together livestock producers to empower and support them to develop best practices and engage with consumers on issues of trust, transparency and sustainability.

We provide a united voice for the livestock supply chain. We care about Australia’s livestock sector from farms through to communities around the world. Source 

The Leadership Collective is a great example of how adversity can create opportunities for people to step up and lead, and that leadership arises as much, if not more so, from the bottom up as it does from the top down

Our key takeaways from Dione’s interview with Dr Holly Ludeman, Steven Bolt and John Cunnington from The Livestock Collective are:

  • Farmers are passionate people who are proud of what they do.
  • Consumers are interested in the origins of their food and want the opportunity to talk to the people who produce their food.
  • Agriculture can no longer stick its head in the sand and say I am a legal business leave me alone
  • Its hard to stick your head out on your own, we are stronger together, together we can support and lift each other up
  • We can train our farmers to have conversations where they can discover what consumers care about and find common ground for connection and collaboration.
  • We can create safe spaces where everyone has an opportunity to be heard and understood.
  • We all have different areas of expertise and its important that we speak to those areas of expertise.
  • Respect that we all have different lived experiences and life journeys, if you can’t engage politely, don’t engage.
  • There is great power in authenticity, people love hearing from people who are living the experiences

Interviewees:

Dr Holly Ludeman is a veterinarian and agricultural scientist and has been involved extensively in all parts of the livestock export industry, both in Australia and importing markets. Holly is the founder and managing director of the The Livestock Collective as well as employed as a Corporate Governance and Compliance officer for Emanuel Exports

Steven Bolt is the Stud Principal for Claypans Merino Stud. Steven sits on a number of industry representative groups including the board of the Live Export Advisory Group and is President of the Stud Merino Breeder Association.

John Cunnington is the Business development Manager of Halleen Australasian Livestock Traders Pty Ltd as well as the Chair of West Australian Livestock Exporters Association, Director of Australian Livestock Exporters Council, Chair of Young Livestock Exporters Network and a Director of The Livestock Collective.

Find out more

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Follow The Livestock Collective

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Host:

Dr Dione Howard is a District Veterinarian with Riverina Local Land Services based in Wagga Wagga, NSW. Dione won the 2021 Sydney Royal Easter Show Rural Achiever award. Dione is currently the Chair of the Youth Voices Leadership Team and a founding member since its inception in 2018, previously holding the positions of Mentor Leader, Innovation Leader and Vice Chair.

Dione’s seat on the YVLT Executive is enhanced by her completion of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Company Directors Course, which she undertook in conjunction with her role as Wool Producer’s Youth Ambassador in 2019.

“What keeps me coming back to YVLT and the YFC community is being able to assist young agriculturalists to achieve their goals and extend their leadership and communication capabilities. Since I’ve been a YFC our team has achieved some amazing things. The future is very bright for this group and if you’re thinking about it, now is the right time to apply to be a Young Farming Champion!”

CONNECT WITH DIONE

 @dione_howard

 Dione Howard

 @dionehoward_

by Action4Agriculture

Dr Calum Watt takes CRISPR technology and wheat breeding on the road

Young Farming Champion Dr Calum Watt found himself in his happy place when he was recently asked to run a train the trainer workshop on CRISPR technology and wheat breeding at the recent WA PRIMED teacher workshop. Calum’s tutorial will support secondary school science teachers to bring agriculturally focused action learning into their classrooms.

Calum is our only Western Australia based Young Farming Champion and hasn’t had the opportunity to participate in our schools-based programs The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas and he found this opportunity an exciting milestone in his personal and professional development journey.

“I found the skills I learnt in my Young Farming Champions’ workshops gave me the confidence to say yes when I was invited.  Having access to all the data collected from 10 years of Archibull Prize entry and exit surveys asking young people what they care about and want to learn about allowed me to tailor my tutorial to support teachers to teach agricultural themes in a way that I was confident will resonate with young people not much younger than me.

After the tutorial I received great feedback and I knew that it was a success when every teacher asked me where they could get wheat!”

Calum joined the Young Farming Champions program in 2015 as an undergraduate at Murdoch University and has been listening to the Young Farming Champions tell him for five years how much satisfaction they get from going into a classroom, sharing their passion and having students and teachers engage with you. He is thrilled to join the club.

“The flow on effect has led to one of the attending metropolitan-based teachers lining up a series of secondary school presentations for me .

I will say this though, first time in an educational setting had the nerves firing. It was a very different kettle of fish from my scientific seminars I have done before.”

Our Young Farming Champions are all cheering Calum on from their workplaces across the country

We thank our supporting partners for investing in young agriculturalists like Calum