AG Bureau Speech

My introduction to the stud area came through showing cattle in the local show, and then at 16, I was introduced to Glen and Lindley Trengove of Broughton Park Shorthorns. I showed cattle with them over the next 8 years, across many shows and sales. They became my adopted family, and have continued to mentor and cheer me on through all my endeavours.

In 2003, just after my 17th birthday, I brought 7 ewes and a ram and started Curlew Valley Suffolks, naming the stud after my parent’s farm. I was hooked, and over the following years, spent every dollar I made on all thing’s sheep. At just 21, I had my first on-property sale, selling 44 rams and was by now agisting 1/3 of
mum’s farm.

Mum home-schooled us, and while giving us a brilliant academic education, I was in need of some social refining, so I headed off to Roseworthy to do a Bachelor of Agriculture, an Advanced Diploma in Rural Business Management and to learn to be a ‘team player’. By this stage I had won several State Sheep and Cattle Judging Championships which had sent me across the country competing for the National Title. In my first year of uni, I told the principle I couldn’t afford my accommodation fees….he then saw me at a ram sale, and I got so nervous I brought the wrong ram. After the I got a job so I could afford both university and sheep.

Fresh out of uni, in late 2009 I started working for Farmworks as their Dublin Saleyard Manager and some stock agency work. I was averaging 45 hours by Wednesday night, would then drive to Coonalpyn to do stock sales, while still running the stud on Kangaroo Island. In 2010, I was drafting lambs at Dublin on a Monday night when I got the call from Richard Murdock to say I had won the Peter Olsen’s Fellowship. When I got off the phone, the yardies where asking me what pens I wanted the lambs in, and I just remember saying, “I don’t care, I just won a trip to the UK”!!! They shared my excitement. My project was to look at Suffolks in the UK with the intent of bringing genetics back, to infuse into my sheep. They have some incredible muscling in the sheep. So in December that year I headed off for a 20 day trip through Scotland, England and Wales. I drove 4000kms, visited 30 properties, and didn’t do one touristy stop! Most properties had multiple studs of mixed operations, so I saw a huge range of sheep, management practises, a dairy, a piggery and even a privately – owned methane fuelled power production plant! I had an amazing time, and met some incredible people. Unfortunately, due to quarantine issues, I was unable to bring any genetics back, but it gave me such a boost in enthusiasm and a real goal on how to achieve my breeding objectives with the genetics that where available.

I came home focused, and knuckled down into work. I loved my job, and was gutted in early 2011, to be told the company was sold and my job gone. What a blessing it turned out to be. Two days later I was offered a muscle scanning run with Advanced Livestock Services. It’s a jog that encompasses everything I love (people / travel and sheep) and has sent me across 4 states. I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in the sheep industry and made many beautiful friends. Over the same time, I also learnt to shear and shore across much of SA.

At 26th years old, on Feb 14th 2012 I bought my first property near Manoora in the lower Mid North. It had no power, water, sheds, yards, driveway, barley any fencing and no house, but after an 8mth long battle with the bank, it was mine, and it secured the stud’s future! I was elated, even if I was so broke, I missed my first repayment.

Enter *tough times*. Shortly after buying my property I had a client reneged on a $33 000 store lamb deal, and I was left footing the bill. I had an equally large tax bill that year because I had saved ever dollar I made for the property deposit, so I used that money to pay for the lambs. By August, the ATO was threatening to declare me bankrupt, and then the lamb job crashed, eventually I got through. A positive side to the year was that I won a Woolworths Agricultural Scholarship that sent me to their headquarters in Sydney for a 12 – day business course with 30 other like minded individuals from all agricultural sectors. It was so insightful to see how a corporation on that magnitude works, plus we got to meet Miranda Kerr.

The next three years where relatively uneventful with me developing my property. I had joined the Mid North Young Guns and this was when I won the Rural Youth Bursary. My project looked into increasing farmer uptake of technology. I did a study tour around properties in the New England district and attended a genetics selection training workshop. I was able to filter the information gathered back through our young farmer group. Our group then won a $30 000 grant which we used to mentor and set up technology trials with 5 of our members. It was a of great success with many lessons learnt, new practises adopted and a flow on effect of benefits to local farmers in the uptake of those technologies.

The great thing about tragedy is that it strengthens your resolutions. In mid-2015, my life on a personal level hit some troubled times. I ended up having 550 ewes and lambs on 64 acres, spent 30k on feed and a busted old tractor and except for a very supportive now ‘nearly father-in-law’ I’m not sure how I would have got through. In 2016 I bought my second property, which also had a 350T automated silo system.

But things got worse, and by September 2016, I was standing in the sale ring, mid auction crying…70% of the rams where passed in, life had overwhelmed me, and I had ‘dropped the ball’. I was alone, defeated and horribly broke. We all have friends, but every now again one of those ‘just friends’ steps forward and becomes your lifeline. The day after my ram sale when I was wallowing in misery, my friend Tazzy did just that. He told there was only 1 option, and that was to pull myself together and fight back. I took his advice, and in 2017 I presented an amazing line up of the previous year, I had another terrible sale. This time there was no tears or self-pity, just pure determination. In 2018 the rams looked fabulous, and I had the best sale I have ever had; the hard work finally paid off. This year my ram sale averaged $1670, one of the highest averaging British Breeds sales in SA for the season.

Over the same few years, I started Clare Valley Grains in 2016 with the help of Hancock Farming Enterprises from the Eyre Peninsula. I needed lupins and couldn’t source any locally, so in desperation I rang Mick and a plan was hatched. He brought over a road train, I found buyers for 58T and kept 4T. We diced that there was a market for lupins, so they would supply and deliver the lupins into my silos, where I would then on sell. In the first 12 months we sold approx. 250T and then 500T the following year. Things took off last year, with the 500T we had contracted being sold by January 1st. After following numerous leads, I found I could source them cheaper from WA then I could locally. As it turned out one of my main suppliers was an ex Mid North local, and my freight company was based out of NSW. Hancock Farming decided it was time for me to fly on my own, so they stepped out for the remainder of the season. By April I had brought 850T from WA and traded it across the country. My clients range from livestock producers, feedlots, dairies, and a feedmill. In total we traded approx. 1400T in 6 months! This year, Clare Valley Grains was a semi-finalist for the SA Community Achievement Awards.

Earlier this year I was approached by Irish based, Weatherby’s Scientific to develop their sheep genetics portfolio in Australia. This has been an exciting undertaking, as I believe the future of our sheep industry rides on our ability to use genetics to improve profitability and welfare. These days I am either travelling the country muscle scanning for Sheep Genetics, representing Weatherby’s, trading grain, looking after my stud, the odd day shearing, or trying to squeeze some study in.

Recently I have been honoured to win the Supreme Champion Suffolk Exhibit at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show, the Supreme Shortwool Ewe at Hamilton Sheepvention, and the Champion Suffolk Ewe at the Royal Adelaide Show, with a type of ewe that is exactly what I set out to breed. This year I was also in the top 4 finalists for the Australian Young Farmer of the Year award. As I look back over the last 17 years, I cannot thank the agricultural industry enough for how supportive it has been, and the opportunities I have gained through winning awards, that have enabled me to flourish in my chosen fields. Credit must also go to my dedicated siblings and friends who have encouraged and believed in me through some trying seasons. What a fantastic family the agricultural industry is, and I look forward to the exciting times ahead. I would like to congratulate the 2019 winners tonight, and look forward to seeing how they use these awards to develop their futures.

In closing, I leave you with this though. Life does not always turn out the way we dreamed of, but every day we can choose how we will respond to the challenges thrown our way, and this is what defines us. There is no ‘right time’, and you do not know how long you have, so Ladies and Gentlemen, accept the challenges,
take the risks and live a life that you love and one that inspires others.