This week’s top stories from Young Farming Champions (YFC) across the country.
In the field
Inspiration has struck and an idea has been born! Introducing… “Paddock Pen Pals”
Spurred on by the great success of Cotton YFC Emma Ayliffe’s Paddock to Parramatta skype sessions, our YFC are now are pairing up with schools participating in the #FiverForAFarmer initiative as pen pals.
Wool YFC, veterinarian and farmer every spare minute she gets, Dione Howard is our first YFC to sign up, saying, “I am very excited to be building and strengthening our farming networks and the connections we have with schools to start the Paddock Pen Pals program.”
Equally excited to pair up with students is cropping farmer Dan Fox who inspired the students at Stockinbingal to write a book about him
The coming weeks will see more YFC connecting with schools via social media, skype, email and snail mail, building long-term conversations and relationships. We’ll keep you posted as we continue to build this exciting new initiative.
Out of the field
Wool YFC and WoolProducers Youth Ambassador (WYA) Dione Howard is looking forward to joining the WoolProducers Board as an observer for a 12-month period. As part of her involvement, Dione will deliver two contemporary issue-based policy projects that will see her supported to understand policy development and engage with the WoolProducers Board and staff in key industry representative organisations. Well done, Dione! #welovewool
Youth Voices Leadership TeamChair and Dairy YFC Dr Jo Newton joined Blackmore Wagyu founder David Blackmore and Dr Peter Marendy from CSIRO Data61 on the panel hosted by ABC journalist Tim Lee at the Geography Teachers of Victoria conference in Melbourne on Sunday.
Jo shared the ground-breaking work being done by the Agriculture Victoria dairy research team that could see the Australian dairy industry reduce its greenhouse gas emission by up to 30% per litre of milk produced in the next ten years. We can’t wait to hear more about this incredible research, Jo. #youthinag #STEM #WomeninScience
This week Cotton YFC Laura Bennett is visiting Miller Public School for The Archibull Prize. Check out the hashtag #ArchieAction on Twitter and Instagram to see photos and highlights of these exciting school visits. Good luck Laura!
Laura Bennett always a popular visitor to schools participating in The Archibull Prize
YFC Anika Molesworth is on the panel at the Brave New World Ag to 2030 Ag Institute Australia National Conference 2018 in November. Sharing the stage with John Harvey Managing Director of AgriFutures Australia and Professor Salah Sukkarieh Director, Australian Centre for Field Robotics Anika will give a youth perspective to the challenges and opportunities for the Australian agriculture in the next ten years.
Wool YFCs Emma Turner and Bessie Thomas are busy preparing mental health events in far-western NSW for drought affected farmers in their areas. Read more about this on the fliers below.
Prime Cuts
Art4Agriculture is proud to name Sally Poole, Alexandria Galea, and Anika Molesworth as youth ambassadors of Australian agriculture in the form of the 2018 Cotton Young Farming Champions (YFC).
Sally and Alexandria are fresh faces on the YFC block, while Anika has worked with Art4Agriculture for several years as a sheep and rice YFC. Welcome, and welcome back! We’re looking forward to sharing your journey as Cotton YFC.
A huge well done to Wool YFCs Sam Wan and Cassie Baile who were both runner up n the 2018 Wool Broker of the Year Awards. We are incredibly proud of your great work. Read more about the award and winner Candice Cordy, here.
Watch Sam present here
Watch Cassie present here
Applications are now open for NSW RAS Rural Achievers Award
Rice YFC Erika Heffer and YFC Meg Rice, who were both named 2018 Rural Achievers, both strongly encourage keen young agriculturalists to consider applying.
As Erika and Meg will testify you never know who you will meet as an RAS Rural Achiever
#YouthVoices18 #ArchieAction #YouthInAg