Young Successful Farmers
Out there doing it…
Marie Muldoon
Cattle and Pearls, it’s all in a Day's Work
 Marie Muldoon works from home, offering exquisite Paspaley pearl jewellery to Paspaley clients around the world. She had mentioned this to a New York client but nothing had prepared the lady for the ear-splitting bellow that suddenly rent the office air.
"Excuse me. What was that?” said the startled buyer. “Stella,” apologised Marie. Stella is the poddy calf that thinks it’s one of the family. She was protesting at the office door, two feet from Marie’s computer.
That’s because “home” is Midway, a cattle property two hours south of Darwin, where the phone and email are delivered by VPN dial up and the broadband service by satellite. The Paspaley head office is a two-hour drive away in Darwin.
Marie and her husband Chris, better known as ‘Mully’, manage the property for the Underwood family of Riveren Station. The Riveren cattle come to Midway before they are exported, thriving on the lush improved pastures and wet season rain that are the envy of drought-stricken farmers around Australia.
For Marie, her family’s purchase of Midway gave her the best of two worlds. She was able to keep her job with Paspaley, while helping Chris run the property. Balancing the two jobs, however, takes an awe-inspiring discipline.
The pair are up each day at 5.30. After breakfast, Marie takes a brisk walk with the ‘family’: Midway’s five dogs. Stella, the poddy calf, trots along at Marie's shoulder as the dogs shoot madly in and out of the scrub, the dam and the cattle troughs yapping joyously in the dawn.
Marie's in office mode by 7, although the jeans, farm boots and bits of hay in her jumper are a world away from glamorous city outfits. She works until 4 pm, leaving a couple of hours of daylight to help on the property or in the garden.
The high tech ‘virtual’ pearls showroom, which doubles as an office for Chris, is a long way from the isolation of her childhood on Riveren. “When I went to boarding school, we still didn’t have a phone or television. It was only in the mid 80s that we were connected to a landline,” she says.
Returning to the land was a long journey. Marie left Riveren for a Sydney boarding school at 11, worked in hospitality management in Darwin, events management in Singapore, then for 10 years with Paspaley in sales and retail management.
She crossed paths with Chris, an Elders stock and station agent, at her parents' property. "Chris was a cattle buyer, so he understands the cattle game. He had a Diploma of Agribusiness and some farming knowledge, so he has the skills to run the place. He's very keen to try new things and not take people's word for what works," says Marie. "I always wanted to come back to the land, but it took meeting the right person."
With a prospective son-in-law in sight, the Underwoods bought Midway two years ago and Chris set about transforming the property which, at 7,000 acres, is the equivalent of just one of the smaller paddocks on the million acre Riveren property. While battling the district's weed problem can be challenge, the couple is thriving, and Chris is leading the district in new cell grazing techniques.
It is an intensive method of farming "but we love our animals", says Marie, with Precious the Jack Russell on her lap at the computer and Stella, the poddy calf, bellowing again for attention.
Samuel Vagg
 I’m a dairy farmer from Leongatha, Victoria. My grandfather started the farm, which my dad now runs. My goal is to work for an internationally renowned dairy, or to take over the family farm one day and turn it into a corporate business, because that’s the way of the future.
I’ve just finished my second year of an Advanced Diploma in Agriculture (in Dairy) at the National Centre for Dairy Education – Australia (NCDEA). It’s an excellent course, which is half practical and half theory. We spend 50 per cent of our time getting taught by awesome teachers and the other 50 per cent of the time in placements on dairy farms all over Australia.
I’ve just returned from a placement in Forbes, NSW, on a 2,000 cow dairy farm and earlier this year I did a placement at Echuca, Victoria. The placements also give us an opportunity to see how milk products are produced and meet key people in the industry.
This year I also took part in the Business Skills Program run by Young Achievement Australia. Our company, Why ADAD, produced and marketed shirts and vests featuring the company logo and the slogan ‘Proud to Dairy’. We were sponsored by NCDEA and GippsDairy.
We did really well – we won two Victorian awards, including Best Company of the Year, and the national Community Value Award, for which three of us got to fly up to Sydney to accept. We launched the range at the Target 10 Victorian Dairy Conference at Shepparton, which was attended by more than 200 people from all over Australia. I think our product gave farmers an insight that there are young people still in the industry, and trying to get back into the industry.
The YARN website is a good way for young people in rural industries to let each other know they’re there, to communicate with each other and make contacts. It’s a great idea and I think more people should use it and promote it.
Narelle Savige
 I’m a fourth generation dairy farmer from Moe, Victoria. I’ve always wanted to work in the dairy industry as there are so many avenues. You can do marketing, become a field rep or a farm hand or aspire to dairy farm management.
To help achieve my goal I’ve been studying for an Advanced Diploma of Agriculture in Dairy at the National Centre for Dairy Education’s McMillan campus in Warragul. I’m in my final year, and it’s been really valuable – it’s even inspired my dad to change the way he operates our home farm based on some of my experiences doing the course, which has become more profitable as a result.
This year I also participated in the Young Achievement Australia Business Skills Program. I was the Managing Director of our company, Why ADAD, and we produced and marketed clothing featuring our company logo and the slogan ‘Proud to Dairy.’
It was a great experience because it promoted youthful pride in an evolving industry – we chose and committed to this goal because it tied together the themes of youth, pride in who we are and what we do, and the fact that the dairy industry is exciting and constantly changing.
There aren’t enough young people in the dairy industry and other agricultural industries at the moment. The option of agriculture as a career needs to be promoted more widely in schools and other education institutions.
It’s difficult because it’s so broad and there are so many areas, but it’s important, and hopefully initiatives like YARN will help in getting more young people to remain in and be proud of their industries and also get others to join.
Cameron Williams
 Winning the National Young Farmer of the Year title for 2006 gives me the chance to talk up the contribution young people can make and do make to rural Australia.
I run a broad acre and cropping property at Mogumber, Western Australia, with my mum and brother.
Winning the national title in September has been as welcome as it has been a shock. It was a great opportunity to meet other young farmers and to test my skills and farming knowledge. I was able to hear about techniques used on the eastern seaboard, build networks and take up new opportunities like the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s Leadership Skills Development Course. The Advancing Agricultural Industries Programme course is a great opportunity to improve my leadership and communication skills.
Although I plan to learn and work on farm for the next few years I will be well positioned to work with industry in the future through the networks I build now.
That is why a website like YARN is so important.
It is about focussing on young people who are the future of rural industries. One of the big things is to get young people involved and exposed to issues that affect their industries. If we want to secure a future for our industries we need to be involved at the local level and be aware of where our industries are headed. We need to encourage young people to interact and get involved to ensure a sustainable future.
Sarah Benjamin
 Growing cut flowers was a pretty competitive business in the country with high freight prices and cheap imports to contend with. We needed to value-add to stay competitive so we started selling premium dried rose petals for weddings at Simply Roses in May 2005.
The business, based in Swan Hill, has grown rapidly so that over 95 per cent of our sales are now from rose petals. After receiving strong interest from the Asia-Pacific region, we are looking to export. Critical to our success has been a willingness to network and participate in business training.
I have taken every opportunity to learn more. In little over a year I have attended Women in e-Business Training in Korea, the Young Rural Leaders Course run by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), the Export Market Development Programme and the Company Directors’ Course also through DAFF, and I am heavily involved locally with the Loddon Murray Community Leadership Programme.
This year I am a finalist in the Innovation and Young Business Woman categories of the Telstra Business Woman of the Year Awards in Victoria. In addition I have received the 2006 Peter Mitchell Churchill Fellowship for Horticulture enabling me to study the rose petal industry in six countries next year.
Simply Roses, which I run with my mum, Jan Slater, is an online business. Owning and operating an online business drives home the importance of building networks and getting educated. I don’t bump into anyone if I don’t make the effort.
That is why YARN is such an important tool, especially in rural areas. It is easy to feel isolated – and for me with an online business, this is even more the case. YARN lets us talk to one another; get information about programmes for personal development; and build those important networks that help grow a business.
To get involved in your industry and your business takes courage. I remember sitting in my office on the first morning having left my paid job thinking, what have I done? But by lunch time I knew it was the right thing and I haven’t looked back.
If you would like to get in contact with me please visit www.SimplyRosePetals.com.
|
