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24 The Australian Dairyfarmer November-December 2012

DEVELOPING YOUNG DAIRY LEADERS

Young farm championshelp tell dairy’s story

THEY are passionate, informed,connected and ready to fight forthe industry they love. But twodairy Young Farming Champions

(YFC) from different backgrounds on theNew South Wales South Coast also knowthey face huge challenges in their fight tokeep the best traditions of dairyfarmingalive amid milk-price cuts, acceleratingtechnological change and a broader com-munity disconnected from the reality offarming.

Twenty-five-year-old Tom Pearce, ofBega, and 23-year-old Jessica Monteith, ofBerry, became two of Australia’s latestdairy YFC after involvement in theArt4Agriculture program.

Both now visit schools to tell youngpeople about the farms behind the foodquality that supermarket shoppers take forgranted.

Mr Pearce has begun his own Progres-sive Holsteins stud after growing up on a380-hectare farm where his family pro-duces two million litres a year for BegaCheese.

Ms Monteith did not grow up on afarm, but says she fell in LOVE (her capi-tals) with dairying after neighbours tookher to International Dairy Week in 2005.

“I have not looked back since,” shesaid.

She may not have had time, as she’s aself-confessed twitterholic who is workingin the finance industry while doing a doubledegree in business finance and agriculture.

She is also starting a herd of Holsteinsand Illawarras on a farm east of Nowra runby her friends Natalie and Tim Cochrane.She has her fingers crossed that she willone day have her own farm where she canapply her skills and enthusiasm to a careerthat will need plenty of both.

“Breeding my cattle is my passion,”she said. She currently has only one Hol-stein and one Illawarra producing milk, buthas breeding-age and in-calf heifers, andhopes she is on the way to broadening hersmall herd.

“I am definitely lacking sleep spendinglong nights catching up on uni work,” shesaid. “Because I only have a few cattle,keeping them healthy in-milk and asheifers is very important.

“I am choosing to prioritise calvingease above a lot of other traits. I love mycattle economical and dairy proportionate.However, we will see how my perceptiondevelops and changes as I learn more.”

Ms Monteith said it was also importantto know more about the business side offarming. “Every business must run at aprofit or risk failure,” she said. “I believemy skills gained in tertiary education andmy finance work will help me build on myknowledge to benefit myself and the indus-try.”

She said her friends call her an “agvo-cate” as she blends agriculture and advoca-cy.

Ms Monteith said one of the main chal-lenges for Australian dairying was to pro-

vide opportunities to get more young peo-ple involved.

“We have many young kids passionateabout our industry,” she said. “However,farming is becoming increasingly harder toget into due to the high cost of land,regardless of how passionate you are. I amhoping my work in succession planningand share farming will allow this to be aneasier transition for some.”

She said she was a prime example ofsomeone who was passionate about dairy-ing, but did not yet have the land to put itinto practice.

She sees opportunities in technologyand stresses that farmers should use socialmedia to stay connected with technologyand each other.

However, she said the challengesin technology included not just keepingup with inevitable developments, butalso ensuring those developments didnot take over an industry where farmers

Tom Pearce said the Art4Agriculture program had opened many doors and has shedlight on the bigger picture of the issues facing Australian agriculture.

By MICHAEL PORTEUS

✔ Young Farming Championsdeliver Art4Agriculture program inschools✔ Help promote story of dairy✔ Develop leadership skills

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D26 The Australian Dairyfarmer November-December 2012

DEVELOPING YOUNG DAIRY LEADERS

must stay connected with their animals. Ms Monteith said being a dairy YFC

has been “truly remarkable” and she hadlearnt a lot from other YFCs from the cot-ton, beef and sheep industries.

She said common misconceptionsabout dairyfarming influenced issues suchas the “permeate debate” and the super-market milk price war. “People are gen-uinely not aware of how the price of milkaffects the farmers on the ground,” shesaid.

“My short-term plan is to keep breed-ing and purchasing new cattle and gettingmy herd numbers up to one day – fingerscrossed – milk on my own property,” shesaid.

“Medium term, I will continue mystudies and continue to work in finance togrow my skills off-farm and achieve mygoals in this area.

“Long term, I want that property of myown to wake up and milk my own cowseveryday and do my part for the industry.”

Both Mr Pearce and Ms Monteith havefunny stories showing how little peopleknow about the source of their food.

Mr Pearce said he had been askedwhich cows produced chocolate milk. MsMonteith has a story about a child whowas shocked to find dirt on a carrot andthought milk was made in supermarkets.His teacher told him about both cows andvegetable gardens, but was dismayed tofind the child then thought that cows madecarrots.

Mr Pearce said challenges also includemisinformed lobby groups that put pres-sure on farm practices, and marketingcampaigns that confused consumers aboutissues such as permeate-free milk.

“I think there is plenty of opportunityand room for improvement in the way weas farmers connect with the consumer,” hesaid.

Mr Pearce said he believed farmersshould take any chance to tell their storiesto consumers and to young kids to changethe public perception of their industry.This could help farmers get better returns.

“Of course the price of milk needs tochange so that smaller family operationsare able to continue,” he said. “They arethe farmers with generations of knowl-edge.”

He said better milk prices would givefarmers increased confidence to invest andimplement technologies such as solarpower, feed pads and irrigation for moreefficient use of energy, water and feed.

The Pearce farm has granite soils inundulating-to-hilly country, 4.5 hours drivesouth of Sydney. It calves twice a year.The family usually milks 170 to 250 cowsfrom a herd of 500 registered Holsteins,which is dominated by genetics from theCurrency family.

Mr Pearce said both his own stud and

his parents’ Warwick Farm stud hadbought North American embryos toenhance the herd’s genetics and improveits value.

“Our sire selection places emphasis ontotal type and udders,” Mr Pearce said.“We believe that a structurally sound cowwith a good udder forms the basis oflongevity, and therefore a profitable dairycow.”

He said he expected to see an increasedimplementation of new technologythrough the rest of his dairying career witha focus on greater efficiency in all areas ofproduction.

“We have the ever-increasing challengeto produce more from less,” he said. Butsome things should not change: “The pas-sion we have for what we do, and theworldwide sense of community we have inthe dairy industry.”

Mr Pearce said Art4Agriculture hasgiven him invaluable training not just forhis role as a young farming champion, butalso for general life skills.

“I’m looking forward to visiting myschool and sharing my story with theyoung kids and hopefully enlighten themof the opportunities the dairy industry hasto offer,” he said.

“The program has opened many doorsand has shed light on the bigger picture ofthe issues facing Australian agriculture.”

He said non-farmers’ main misconcep-tion about milk producers was a lack ofawareness that dairying was a diverseindustry with switched on and multi-skilled people.

“I think most non-farming folk andlarge retailers are very unaware of what

goes into producing a litre of milk,” MrPearce said.

He said he wanted to inform the widercommunity that the work that goes intotheir milk includes research, farm manage-ment, cattle health, genetics, pastures, feedrations – and more.

“The price consumers pay for milk is abargain,” he said.

Art4Agriculture was founded by NSWSouth Coast dairyfarmer Lynne Strong, therecent winner of the inaugural Bob HawkeLandcare award.

The Jambaroo farmer said she lived andbreathed working with rising stars in agri-culture of the calibre of Ms Monteith andMr Pearce.

“Art4Agriculture’s vision is for anexciting, dynamic, innovative and prof-itable agrifood sector that our best andbrightest see as a career of first choice,”Mrs Strong said.

“To achieve this, we run programs likethe Young Farming Champions to engageand empower young people to tell agricul-ture’s story.”

Mrs Strong said the Young FarmingChampions helped design and deliverArt4Agriculture programs to school chil-dren to promote understanding of – andpride in – Australian agriculture.

She said there were opportunities forother organisations to support Art4Agri-culture, and be part of providing youngdairyfarmers with the skills to farm suc-cessfully in the 21st century.

Go to website <www.art4agriculture.com.au> to contact Lynne Strong and findout more about the Young Farming Cham-pions.

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Jess Monteith has a toe in the water in the dairy industry while studying for a doubledegree in business finance and agriculture.