This week’s top stories from our Young Farming Champions around the country (and globe!)

In the Field

In Central NSW this week Grains YFC Keiley O’Brien’s family are getting creative with their contract harvesting business, due to ongoing drought. “This week we have trucked our windrower and large square baler 650km south, from Narromine to Balranald, to take advantage of a silage job offered to us through friends. This is the furtherest we have ever travelled for work, by a good 400km, and unless we get rain in the next couple of weeks our machinery will probably be staying down there, as we won’t have a hay season in our area – not many crops have been put in, or have come up, or have the outlook of making it to harvest without rain. The crop we are cutting is Balranald is a very impressive height!”

It’s a huge contrast to the world of Cattle and Cotton YFC Kirsty McCormack who is this week walking cattle up into the mountains of western Canada, into summer lease lands to graze. “These are public leases that are brought and controlled to reduce the risk of fire and overflowing vegetation,” says Kirsty, “It was an amazing cultural experience to be part of.”

YFC Tim Eyes and his partner Hannah are in the media spotlight again this week with this fabulous magazine spread of their Central Coast farm on the front page of the New Strait Times in Malaysia.  “A few weeks ago we were fortunate to have journalists from all over the world come and check out the way we farm right here on the Central Coast ❤️@chefsamuelburke and @jabfood were superstars cooking the meat up to perfection 🙏 thank you @meatandlivestockaustralia for making this happen!” – The Food Farm: Central Coast Produce

Out of the Field

If you haven’t been following our Picture You in Agriculture Facebook page, now is the time to pop over! This week we’re following the ag-venture of UNE YFC Becca George who is touring China and Vietnam. Becca attended the International Food & Agribusiness Management Association 2019 Conference in Hangzhou, China and is now sharing videos and photos of her ag tour through Vietnam.

YFC Meg Rice recently attended Country to Canberra’s “Overcoming the Odds: power, equality and life’s toughest moments” event. Meg says, “There were laughs and tears, mixed with heartfelt advice about how to push past barriers and drive change. The panellists all shared stories about learning from their mistakes and being the best they can be. It was an incredibly inspiring evening!”

Picture You in Agriculture YFC Alana Black, who is currently working with Rural Youth Project in Scotland, this week attended her first Highland Show and interviewed Scotland’s first minister.

Wool YFC and Peter Westblade Scholarship winner Chloe Dutschke attended MerinoLink conference and field day last week in Armidale, NSW.

Congratulations to Youth Voices Leadership Team chair Jo Newton who has returned from Ireland and is this week returning to Agriculture Victoria as a research scientist in dairy genetics. Jo says she is looking forward to applying the skills and knowledge she learnt on her Endeavour post-doctoral fellowship in Ireland into her new role. Good luck Jo!

Best of luck also to Eggs Young Farming Champion Jasmine Whitten who is starting her new role with AgriPath in Tamworth this week. It’s straight in the deep end for Jas who will be travelling to Collie, NSW, with AgriPath on Tuesday while the team presents the 2018 profit focus results to landholders. Wool Young Farming Champion Katherine Bain is also attending. Say hi if you see them!

Next week Woolly YFCs Haylee Murrell and Katherine Bain will be attending the GrasslandsNSW conference in Gunnedah, where friend of the YFC program and ag consultant Greg Mills is speaking on one of our favourite topics: Social Licence.

Youth Voices Leadership Team vice-chair and agronomist Emma Ayliffe and Cotton YFC and agronomist Casey Onus will both be attending the Summer Grains Conference on the Gold Coast on July 8. Good luck to Emma who is speaking on her journey in agriculture, career path and few “tips” from her experience. And congratulations to Casey who is nominated for the one of four finalists in the Zoe McInnes Memorial Agronomy awards, with the winner to be announced at the conference.

YFC Sam Coggins is excited to be heading to Myanmar in August/September to live with rice farmers and iterate his smartphone-based fertilizer advisory tool with them: www.riseharvest.farm We can’t wait to hear more about this soon, Sam!

Wool YFC and Local Lands Service Biosecurity Officer Lucy Collingridge is in the Arctic! Lucy sent us this update from the Svalbard Seed Vault, a storage facility for seeds from around the world, approx 1200km from the North Pole. “Based on the structure of a coal mine, the facility is ideal for the storage of seeds as it maintains a constant temperature and humidity. With nearly 1 million samples, there are seeds from nearly every country in the Svalbard seed vault and include many plant species, eg cowpeas, lettuce, barley, sorghum, egg plant, potato and many more! To maintain a high standard of biosecurity, the vault is only opened once a year for the sole reason of introducing new samples in to storage. Visitors are able to attend the entrance of the vault but are unable to go inside. Unfortunately due to construction at the entrance I was unable to get any closer but you can see the entrance in the background of my picture!”

Prime Cuts

Picture You in Agriculture, in conjunction with Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), is pleased to announce Tom Squires from Tasmania and Matt Cumming from New South Wales as the 2019 Wool Young Farming Champions.

Tom Squires grew up around sheep in Tasmania, owned his first mob by age sixteen, completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Commerce in New Zealand and is now living his dream job as a shearer and a farmer. Read Tom’s story here

Matt Cumming owns and operates a shearing contracting business in Inverell in northern NSW, a one-stop shop for all shearing needs from mustering to wool pressing. Read Matt’s story here

Tom and Matt will participate in the Young Farming Champions leadership development program, a two-year package of support including media training, networking and mentorship opportunities to help them share their stories with the nation. Welcome to the team!

Congratulations to our incredible and inspiring Youth Voices leader and Tintern Grammar School alumna Dr Jo Newton who has been chosen to be the face of Tintern’s latest fund raising campaign. Great work, Jo!

Kreative Koalas

Our Primary School engagement program Kreative Koalas officially launched in Western Sydney at Penrith City Council and in the Hunter Valley at Tocal College last week. One hundred teachers, students and community champions attended. We’re excited to share this world class program with these new communities!

#YouthVoicesYFC #YouthinAg #StrongerTogether #ArchieAction #KreativeKoalas

This week’s top stories from Young Farming Champions (YFC) across the country (and globe!)

In the field

Wool YFC and Local Land Services Biosecurity Officer Lucy Collingridge has been coordinating a drone survey using thermal imaging to identify the density of wild horses and deer in an 18,000ha survey area. Following an increasing number of reports of wild horses and deer in the area, the North West LLS is using the emerging technology to assist landholders in a proactive approach to managing these feral species. It is Lucy’s role to coordinate the project by talking to landholders to receive reports of the species, getting consent for the contractor to fly over each property and to get the landholders together to learn more about what the project involves. Following the completion of the survey, Lucy will again get the landholders together to discuss the results of the survey and what it means for the group moving forward.

 

YFC Tim Eyes and his partner Hannah from the The Food Farm: Central Coast hosted some special guest chefs from Malaysia last week and the food looked as amazing as the dinner venue! Check out this location:

 

“Today we were so fortunate to have @chefsamuelburke, @jabfood and media from South East Asia come and join us on the farm 🌱 it was an awesome opportunity to showcase what we have happening here; with #australianbeefandlamb, #regenerativeagriculture and #soilhealth being some of the hot topics. It’s so humbling as farmers to have such talented chefs to showcase the nourishing produce ❤️” – The Food Farm: Central Coast

Now how cool is this one – YFC and agronomist Casey Onus captured this video of a weed being sprayed in slow motion, at an Agrifac Machinery demonstration day at Beefwood, just north of Moree NSW. The company demonstrated their spot-spraying technology on the day – and whether you spray crops or not, everything looks great in slow motion!

 

From cool to freezing! Beef Young Farming Champion Kirsty McCormack is hosting our Picture You in Agriculture Facebook page this week – live from snowy Canada! We are blown away seeing some of incredible conditions she is working in. Jump over to Facebook to follow along for the next week.

 

Friend of the YFC team Matt Champness is currently spending time in Laos as a volunteer weeds agronomist, supported by the Crawford Fund. This week Matt started working on farm research sites demonstrating direct seeded rice weed control techniques. The control techniques include:

1. Sowing fertiliser with rice, rather than broadcasting fertiliser, to overcome weeds
2. Inter-row cultivation – this will require some machine engineering by Matt!
3. Cutting the rice crop with a whipper snipper – not just useful in the garden!
4. Hand weeding every day to stop seed set and achieve perfect weed control.

 

Matt is also off to the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) youth workshop in Brazil next month – this workshop aims to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services. All the best for your work in Laos and trip to Brazil Matt – we look forward to sharing Matt’s insights with you all!

Out of the field

Australian Wool Innovation’s 2019 National Merino Challenge (NMC) was held in Sydney over 25-26th May – 161 participants from across the country descended upon Sydney Showgorunds for the competition. The first ever industry team entered this year, a team of young professionals from Australian Wool Network (AWN). This team included YFC Emma Turner, who hails from Ivanhoe NSW but is currently based in Launceston, Tasmania in her AWN role. The NMC brings young people with an interest in the wool industry together to develop their knowledge, skills and networks with demonstrations and presentations from industry professionals.

YFC and Local Landcare Coordinator Jasmine Whitten has been assisting with delivering vertebrate pest forums in the western district of NSW.

“This is a day where we take leading pest management experts Peter Fleming, Darren Marshall and Guy Ballard to talk directly to landholders about managing feral cats, pigs, and foxes. There will also be a large deal of time focusing on wild dogs, looking at pest collaring projects and should we have a similar project out west. We have had fantastic response with over 100 landholders across the region looking to attend. We also have attendees from government agencies including Local Land Services, National Parks and Wildlife and research and development organisation Meat & Livestock Australia,” says Jasmine. This sounds like an event not to be missed in western NSW!

Jasmine has also been busy coordinating the annual Light and Life Photo Competition, which is now in its 20th year. Last week she spoke to Western Magazine about this year’s comp and its theme “Beyond the Dust.” Read more here.

YFC and agronomist Alexandria Galea organised a fantastic WinCott (Women in Cotton) Ladies of the Land Luncheon on 23rd May in Emerald, Queensland. The luncheon was a sell out with 130 women from a 200 km radius coming together to network with ladies working in agriculture and listen to guest speakers! Alex also did a stellar job as master of ceremonies – congratulations on such a successful event.

2019 University of New England (UNE) YFC Becca George spent the 24th – 26th May at Dubbo Show where she is a member of the show society and cattle committee. The cattle section of the show was very successful, welcoming over 160 bovine entrants for the weekend. Considering the dry seasonal conditions that Dubbo and surrounds have been experiencing it was great to see so many animals on display.

Climate YFC and InStyle Magazine’s Farmer for Change Anika Molesworth spoke to Sarah Nolet on the Agtech – So What? podcast this week, sharing her passion for climate action and circular food systems. You can listen to it here.

And if that’s up your alley, this is worth reading! Post last month’s Australian Federal Election, Anika penned this beautiful blog about climate optimism which has been liked and shared hundreds of times on Twitter. Anika writes: “We know how urgent the need for addressing climate change is. We know how critical the situation is. We know there are big steps to be taken, but we’ve got this.”

Keep reading here.

Wool YFC and Elders Employee of the Year Sam Wan is currently on a wool study tour in Italy. She has some exciting news and wooly tales to share next Muster, so watch this space! We can’t wait!

Lifetime Highlights

Congratulations to one of our newest University of New England YFC Ruby Canning. Ruby was awarded the Max Wesbster Memorial Prize for her composition photography piece at the recent Robb College Art Show. “Being the highest award at the art show I was thrilled! I also sold a few pieces of art with a percentage of proceeds going to Angel Flight.” Well done Ruby!

And mega Congrats to Cotton YFC Laura Bennet on her recent marriage. Best wishes for a happy life together, from the YFC team!

Archie Action

The 2019 Archibull Prize is underway and this video of Archie arriving at Merrylands High School has absolutely made our week:

Good luck to all our YFC who start Google Hangout meets and school visits this month! We’re excited!

 

 

It’s always exciting when our Young Farming Champions go into schools as part of The Archibull Prize for the first time, but it seems YFC Sam Wan has been particularly impressed by the experience.

 “HOOLEY WOOL-EY! What a day! I have been absolutely blown away by the energy of the Picnic Point High School students – the next generation ambassadors for wool.”

As a first generation Australian-born Chinese from Western Sydney Sam’s stereotypical career may have been accountant, doctor or lawyer; but not the predictable for our Sam. She is a wool broker with Elders!

Sam is the first to admit she didn’t know much about agriculture growing up but the combination of a great high school teacher, keen classmates and a mob of black Corriedales opened up an entirely new world. And that’s a world she’s keen to share with her Archibull school.

“Suburban Sydney is where I started and to go back and be able to show these students the world I’m now part of was incredible. The Archibull Prize program is providing an opportunity to students that I never had and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it.”

Sam’s visit to Picnic Point High School included the production of a wool stencil especially for them.

As well as donating their own stencil Sam told students of her life as a wool broker, and had a lot of fun teaching students tongue-twisters to get them used to the quick patter call of an auctioneer. She then used this to illustrate a whole range of careers available in agriculture. The fun continued when she introduced them to the benefits of wool craft and how recycling can be incorporated. Having only begun crocheting herself the week before her school visit, the kids were not the only ones learning!

With such a varied presentation there were bound to be plenty of questions as Sam soon discovered:

“I do know that I needed plenty of water to keep me going. There were questions on lanolin, wool prices, currency, wool types etc.I had no idea how many questions I was asked but the students most definitely took the opportunity to have a go at everything.”

And apart from “Hooley Wooley” Sam is keen to keep using another phrase to challenge her students to become wool ambassadors with her:

I WOOL. WOOL YOU?

#youthinag #youthvoices18 #archieaction

 

Many of our Young Farming Champions have the agricultural show movement in their DNA and are committed to giving back to their local communities by taking active roles to ensure our rural and regional shows remain relevant and have longevity. Young Farming Champions Steph Fowler, Hannah Barber, Tim Eyes and Jasmine Nixon ran the Cattle Experience at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in 2014

We are excited and very proud to announce that a number of our Young Farming Champions are moving from leadership development to leadership roles.

We salute them. Its a courageous step moving from leading yourself to leading your team. It can be both very challenging and very rewarding

As leadership guru Zoë Routh says

None of us wants to be a dud leader. We want to contribute, we want to have an impact, and help improve the lives of others, ourselves and the planet. We take leadership as a serious stewardship opportunity. We need to develop confidence born from purpose not pride.

Leadership is both personal and public. Deeply so. Who we are and how we show up causes effects. Sometimes it’s a ripple in a pond, sometimes a deep and steady current, sometimes a tidal wave! Crafting and managing our leadership presence is as much an imperative as designing good strategy. After all, if we don’t get heard, we don’t advance our cause.

Leaders committed to making a difference and contribution face certain challenges:

• Performance under pressure when the stakes are high demands enormous focus, energy, and nerve. We need to learn control of our emotions, so they don’t control us.

• Leaders with strong opinions can be engaging. They can also be polarising. Our responsibility as leaders is about bringing people along for the ride, not pushing them into the car. We need to learn to express conviction without coercion.

Young Farming Champions Steph Fowler and Hannah Barber are taking this courageous journey to leadership roles through the Australian Agricultural Show movement.

Hannah Barber (right) and Stephanie Fowler have inspired in schools as part of The Archibull Prize and are now leading the next generation of  #youthinag

Meet RAS of NSW Youth Group Chair Stephanie Fowler

Steph first entered the Young Farming Champions Program in 2012 and the skills she developed have held her in good stead in her role as Chair of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW’s Youth Group.

Dr Stephanie Fowler’s day job as a meat scientist keeps her very busy but she is a multitasker giving back to the industry she loves through many volunteer roles 

The prestigious RAS Youth Group is responsible for the engagement and entertainment of both rural and urban youth at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. It does this through three avenues: a social networking event, Agrichats – where topical issues are discussed –  and the Young Farmers Challenge, which highlights the technical skills and the abilities of youth working in agriculture to urban audiences in a fun and entertaining way. The Youth Group also assists other RAS committees with competitions and events.

For the last two years of her five year term, Stephanie has held the role of Chair, a challenging position requiring her to oversee people of her own age. “As Chair it is my job to facilitate meetings and to make sure that the group is on track and on task. The biggest challenge comes from the fact we are all peers, but unfortunately sometimes in leadership there are times that you have to step up and be not popular to get something done.”

And how does she overcome these challenges? “With lots of mentoring, which has helped me get to the point where I have an understanding with everybody that I’m a friend when I need to be a friend but there will come times, and it’s nothing personal, that I’m not and that’s the way of the role.”

Her mentors, who include former Art4Agriculture events coordinator and RAS Youth Group Chair Kirsty Blades and councillors from the RAS, are people with whom she has created relationships, giving her support when the going gets tough. “They take some of that weight off when you have to make those harder decisions but sometimes it is not things you want to hear. Criticism and negative feedback actually allows you to step back and be reflective; to reassess where you are going with your leadership.”

“Being a leader is probably one of the toughest but most rewarding things I think anyone could ever do. There is something about putting yourself forward like that and stepping up that seems to highlight all the parts of yourself that you really wish you didn’t have. But in the same way being able to see people grow and develop, and witnessing their journey, which you can be a part of and have an influence on, is probably one the most rewarding things I’ve had the privilege of doing.”

Meet ASC NSW Next Gen President Hannah Barber

Young Farming Champion and secondary school teacher Hannah Barber also holds a leadership position with agricultural shows as President of the Agricultural Societies Council (ASC) of NSW Next Generation, which is designed to attract young people into show society executives.

Hannah Barber is a busy girl . A school teacher by day and president of Agricultural Societies Council (ASC) of NSW Next Generation in her spare time  

Hannah’s role as president, which she has held since 2016, sees her liaise with the ASC as well as members of Next Gen who range in age from 18 to 35 and who have a passion for agriculture and an enthusiasm for the show movement. “The president adopts a leadership role and my duties are heavily liaison and managerial, but the entire ASC Next Gen committee are outstandingly driven and capable which makes my role very easy,” she says.

Hannah’s connections to agricultural shows began in her childhood when she competed in horse events, and was strengthened with the Showgirl Competition where she twice made it to the finals at the Sydney Royal Easter Show representing her home town of Parkes. “Most shows in NSW have been running for over 100 years and have been a key event for their communities during this time, allowing them to connect, educate and celebrate. The importance and impact of shows can never be underestimated and I’m committed to doing my part to ensure their sustainability.”

That commitment is evident in her position as president. Depending on the time of the year the job may take only a few hours a week but when events, such as ShowAll Ball and ShowSkills, are imminent the workload increases. It is then that Hannah’s experience and understanding of the show world, and her high organisational and interpersonal skills developed as a teacher come to the fore.

Despite the challenges of dealing with different personalities and personal goals Hannah finds the opportunities the leadership has given her far out-weight the negatives. “Running a non-profit organisation is not a skill many young people get to experience. To be run by, and for, youth in agriculture under the distant but watchful eye of the ASC has made Next Gen a great way to experience this. To climb the hierarchy of positions has given me skills I’ve transferred into the workplace and has resulted in direct benefits including promotions.”

Thanks Hannah and Steph for sharing your challenges and highlights with us. I am confident our supporting partners will agree the return on investment in our youth is significant in terms of creating leaders who’ll continue to contribute value to their workplaces and to the agricultural sector as a whole, in terms of advocacy, teamwork, collaboration, and turning vision into reality .

 

 

 

 

 

This post in a replica from The Crawford Fund website see here

The Crawford Fund has a number of strategies as part of our efforts to build the next generation of Australian researchers with an interest in agriculture for development – key elements are our conference scholar program, our opportunities and encouragement in volunteering for projects overseas, and through our work with Researchers in Agriculture for International Development (RAID).

 

Each of these go some way to encourage students in their study, careers and volunteering in research for food security. This is part of our overall campaign for greater recognition of the impact and benefit of international agricultural research and development to Australia and to developing countries.

Another important strategy has been the introduction of special awards to enable involvement in overseas projects as part of university study.

In 2017, many of our State Committees supported visits to developing countries by students, so they can gain valuable experience and expertise overseas ‘in the field’. 14 awards were provided in 2017, and each of the students have reported back on their experience:

Kendra Travaille, PhD Researcher at the University of Western Australia,

“Being able to visit these areas and speak with local people in the fishery [industry] has greatly increased my understanding of how the fishery [industry] operates and some of the issues impacting FIP progress. I also gained first-hand experience with some of the challenges faced when trying to implement a FIP or similar program in a developing region, including working with minimal resources and balancing complex stakeholder interests. These insights will be incorporated into my research and published in the peer-review literature. Research outcomes will also be presented to the fishery stakeholders in Honduras who so kindly shared their knowledge and experience with me during my time there.”

Emily Lamberton, Graduate Research Officer at ACIAR

“It created a fantastic opportunity to learn first-hand the struggles and barriers experienced by farmers and the factors that influence on-farm decision making.”

Based on the success of our former awards, in 2018 all of our committees are offering these awards so students in every State and Territory have access to this great opportunity.

Requirements in different States are not the same. There is a different number of these competitive awards in different States, and the application requirements and the award amounts also differ, so please read the background information and complete the application form for the State in which your tertiary institute is located.

Please find more information and application forms below for each State. A contact is provided should you require more clarification.

The closing date for all awards is Thursday, 29 March 2018.

All the very best of luck! In the meantime, please sign up for our e-newsletter, follow us on Twitter and Facebook and follow RAID so you don’t miss any other interesting opportunities and get-togethers. In particular, in March 2018 we will be launching our 2018 Conference Scholarships.

 

Check out the website for more info here

 

Tail of Pigs – The winner of The Archibull Prize 2017 Best Biosecurity Animation was Little Bay Community of Schools

The Little Bay Community of Schools concept is the perfect example of how successful schools can be when they pool their resources and expertise. Little Bay Community of Schools brings together the five primary schools who feed into Matraville Sports High School to provide transitional relationships to secondary school and to promote Matraville Sports High School as more than just a sports school.

Principal Nerida Walker and head teacher of art Sarah Robinson has been involved with The Archibull Prize for five years, successfully taking Matraville Sports High to Grand Champion Archibull on two occasions. They saw The Archibull Prize as the perfect vehicle to work closer with their feeder schools.

In addition Sarah was instrumental in developing the UNSW Matraville Education Program– an affiliation that gives high school students exposure to additional arts and science classes, and give teachers from the university hands on experience working with students. For this Matraville was awarded our inaugural Alan Eagle Award in 2016 – presented to a school fostering partnerships between education, business and the community.”

Since 2016 Sarah has been playing a mentor role to other schools involved in The Archibull Prize and 2017 saw Little Bay of Community School take out the NSW Government Biosecurity Award for their Tail of Pigs animation

The NSW Government sees a strong biosecurity system as vital for protecting our primary industries, our economy and our community.

Agricultural production alone provides:

• $12 Billion NSW Primary Industries contribution to the economy
• 39,000 Agricultural businesses in NSW
• 42,000 Farms in NSW
• 66,000 People employed in NSW Agriculture Industry
• $8 billion value of NSW Agricultural exports

With a vision of Government, industry and the people of NSW working together to protect the economy, environment and community from the negative impacts of animal and plant pests, diseases and weeds for the benefit of all, the government is investing heavily in education programs for farmers and the community including schools.

Concepts relating Biosecurity are considered by school teachers to be complex. The Archibull Prize gives students a concrete mechanism for these very abstract ideas. Using farmers as role models and agricultural examples students are encouraged to appreciate the ways in which farmers are actively addressing biosecurity challenges in Australia and to think about applying this to themselves.

Biosecurity was an issue that 91% of students reported discussing during their Archibull Prize projects with half of those students looking at the topic in-depth

Teachers reported significant shifts in students gaining greater understandings of farmers concerns about biosecurity and the community’s role in preventing biosecurity breaches

Students were particularly inspired by the Cotton Industry ‘Come Clean Go Clean’ program and the concept of the pork industry Pig Pass.

Typical students’ comments about their role in preventing biosecurity breaches included

We need to keep our country free of disease and pests. This can only be done if every single person tries to follow the rules that are put in place to keep Australia bio secure. Students can help be bio secure by respecting the regulations and restrictions on other people’s farms and obeying the rules of our border security. We should wear clean shoes and have clean cars. Remove weeds and don’t drop them in areas where that weed isn’t already growing. Look after their own pets and keep parasites from spreading from them.

The Archibull Prize design allows agriculture to be embedded into the school curriculum across subject areas its hasn’t been traditionally able to reach.

And its had a ripple effect with 83% of teachers saying they will use learning activities about agriculture in other areas of their teaching

 

Hurlstone Agricultural High School took our the winning biosecurity entries with these phenomenal infographics in 2016 

Check out these tongue in cheek biosecurity adventures of our very own Young Farming Champion biosecurity expert  Sharna Holman here

 

The Archibull Prize is a world-renowned art and multimedia competition focusing on the theme of ‘Feeding, Clothing, Housing and Powering a Hungry Nation is a Shared Responsibility’.

This innovative and fun STEM project based learning program is an agricultural and environmental themed art competition for primary and secondary student groups

The Archibull Prize program:

• Brings the farm into the classroom
• Introduces students to young people working in the agriculture sector
• Provides opportunities for students to gain knowledge and skills about the production of the food they eat, fibres they use and the environment they live
• Creates an opportunity for students to work together to create an amazing artwork that tells the story of agriculture
• Builds relationships between schools, industry, business and the community
• Raises awareness of exciting career
• Fosters two-way conversations and builds lifelong relationships between consumers and farmers

Competing for cash prizes and the national title of Grand Champion, participating schools research a food or fibre industry while creatively transforming life-size fibreglass cows into amazing agricultural inspired artworks.

Schools also create a suite of digital multimedia communications and are paired with Young Farming Champions who visit schools, taking the farm and their career  straight into the classroom.

Being a part of The Archibull Prize is a chance to put your school on the map, with the 2017 National Grand Champion winner travelling from the iconic Sydney Royal Easter Show to the halls of the NSW Parliament.

Over the past seven years The Archibull Prize has engaged over 160,000 students in agricultural conversations and learning experiences. Teachers saw first-hand the impact of  a successful combination of arts and multimedia activities, across multiple key learning areas. Put simply, The Archibull Prize is a successful addition to any learning program.

Visit our website and view the winning entries in our Hall of Fame.

For more information or to complete an Expression of Interest contact Program Director Lynne Strong:  lynnestrong@art4agriculture.com.au

 

 

 

Events like this make me wish I was under 30 again

MerinoLink embraces ideas and technology from past, present and future research and trials to assist in moving the Sheep and Wool industry forward in a profitable and practical way.

The 2018 MerinoLink Annual Conference will be held on Wednesday 20th June at the Mercure Hotel, Goulburn, NSW. The Field Day will be held on Thursday 21st June at “Ravenswood”, Cavan Station, Yass, NSW. As part of the Conference, to further exemplify MerinoLink’s strategy to encourage the involvement of young people in the Sheep and Wool Industry, one session of the Conference program will be dedicated to showcasing young people in the industry.

 There is no shortage of exciting young people in wool 

What is the “Hour of Power”?

The “Hour of Power” will be a fast-paced, informative session presented by a range of young researchers, scholars and innovators from across Australia. University students will have the opportunity to present their research projects and findings directly to members of the industry that their research could benefit. Previous Peter Westblade Scholarship scholars will be invited to highlight the experiences they gained through the scholarship and how it has helped them in pursuing their career. Lastly, the “Hour of Power” will also include other young innovators who are having an impact in the industry, to share their experiences and highlight how they are making a difference.

Each presenter will be allotted a 3 to 5 minute time slot in which they have to communicate their message in a succinct yet comprehensive manner. This will be followed by opportunities to network and create potential mentoring partnerships with conference attendees. Each “Hour of Power” speaker will be partnered with a mentor who will assist in making network connections during the conference.

For more information Click Here

Application Criteria

• Aged 18 to 30
• Honours, Masters or PhD students undertaking research topics relevant to the Sheep and Wool Industry                 and/or
• Someone who has made an impact within the Sheep and Wool Industry, is passionate about the industry and sees a career within the industry

 

 

“COWmunication is the voice that creates your future”

For the second year in a row we were blessed to have the wonderful Costa Georgiadis speak at our Archibull Awards ceremony, and once more we were reminded why he has become such a favourite member of the Archibull Family.

Costa and Young Farming Champions 

Costa is in high demand for speaking appearances but he is so selfless and generous with his time and wisdom. Prior to his speech he took the time to look over every Archie and connect with the students and teachers involved.

Costa studying the form

He knew all our Young Farming Champions by name, and when it came time for him to speak he made everyone in the room feel he knew them personally.

Take a look at what he said here:

Costa knows the impact he has on people’s lives and particularly his ability to bring joy.

His wisdom and humour from the stage made everyone smile 

No request for photographs is too big and he goes the extra mile giving every child the opportunity for a selfie and a video.

This is typical of the comments we get from anyone who has met Costa:

My little boy, Patrick Perkins is 8 years old wanted me to ask Costa if he could have

a photo with him. Costa went one better and made a little video for him.

Patrick was over the moon and so happy.

Patrick goes to a very small country school called Tamrookum and there they have a garden. When they do gardening each child gets to take something home even if it is only a beetroot or a couple of snow peas, but the children are so proud of their garden.

I am going to put Costa’s video did onto a USB so that Patrick

can take it to school and show the other kids.

Laura Perkins (proud Mum) on far left 

From the team at Art4Agriculture we would sincerely like to thank Costa for making our awards day exceptional and so memorable for all involved.