But long before, in Year 9 at Rochester High School, in northern Victoria, Daniel participated in Cows Create Careers.
“In Year 9 science, we had a couple of calves to look after,” Daniel said.
“We also had to do a bit of research on the industry for a project.”
Cows Create Careers started in Victoria, the biggest milk producing state in Australia. A pilot program started in Gippsland in 2004.
With the backing of Dairy Australia and Gardiner Foundation, it spread rapidly to other dairy regions in Victoria, before moving interstate.
Rochester High School is in the Murray dairy region, in northern Victoria.
Daniel said as a student he was already keen to be involved in the dairy industry.
“Rochester is a dairy farming community, so there was some exposure and understanding of the industry among the students participating in Cows Create Careers,” he said.
Being in the Cows Create Careers project exposed Daniel to more information about careers in the dairy industry and agriculture in general. It enabled him to think about a career more broadly than dairy farming.
“We researched different jobs outside of dairy farming,” he said.
“That probably helped me to better understand what opportunities there were in the industry.
“I was already interested in nutrition, and it helped push me down that way. My family really loved production and looking after cows.
“A local dairy farmer talked to us about how animal nutrition could have a positive impact on the industry.”
A few years later Daniel finished Year 12, then went on to study animal science at Charles Sturt University.
After graduating he worked at Reid Stockfeeds for about eight years.
“When I worked at Reid’s, it was with that focus on animal nutrition,” Daniel said.
In more recent years, Daniel has worked full-time at Brookbora Jerseys.
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