I would dearly love to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing chair Lauren Finger for her tireless and unwavering guidance over the past nine years as a farmer director to the board of GippsDairy.
I’m certain Lauren will enjoy a change of pace and her family will enjoy seeing much more of her as she finishes up. While industry leadership roles are fulfilling, they do take dedication and time out of the farm business, to which Lauren has delivered honourably.
Myself, my husband Mike and our three children currently sharefarm in the Macalister Irrigation District.
Our eldest daughter is only moments away from completing Year 12 and starting the rest of her independent life. The excitement is real for her, and the terror and trepidation Mike and I feel is a whole new experience for us in our parenting journey. I’m grateful to have our other two children not quite there yet.
What seems like long ago, when our oldest was only two years old, we left northern Victoria during a drought where opportunities for progression were limited.
Mike was employed as a pasture manager on a large operation and I hadn’t even milked a single cow, but we thought we’d have an adventure and move to Gippsland.
I was very unsuspecting of this farming ‘thing’, which may have been a helpful advantage to Mike! My background was in business and a second career change into community welfare, case managing young people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Community welfare is another intense career path and I was needing a reset, so I agreed dairy farming was a great option for ‘calm days and wide open spaces’. Did I learn a thing or two pretty quickly!
We decided on the back of some advice that Lake Glenmaggie was integral to this district and a beautiful area to live, and I would still agree.
Our lake is vital to profitable farming in this area, and after a flood event and spill this year, we’re grateful for every drop we’ve had to take us into summer. For some farmers in the district, major flood damage remains and I hope the after effects aren’t crippling into spring.
It really was an amazing week for us in Gippsland on the weather front. I honestly never thought we would see a Watch and Act bushfire warning as well as an advice warning for flooding on the same day in our patch of Gippsland. Let alone an earthquake to take place only a few days later.
It’s through these events I am reminded of the courage and resilience each and every farmer has to operate from on a daily basis.
Daily decisions are dependent on so many variables like milk and commodity prices, irrigation, animal health, pasture rotation, human resources, bookkeeping and budgeting. Managing all of this while being present with family and friends is quite the balancing act.
I commend us all for the skills and determination we bring to this industry in making important decisions daily to operate multi-million-dollar businesses.
As I write this, GippsDairy has been busy interviewing for our annual Don Campbell Memorial Tour to Tasmania.
I always volunteer to be on the interview panel to meet and admire the amazing young people we have coming through our industry.
I commend everyone who employs and nurtures our young farmers; they represent your business with pride and energy that always leaves me grateful knowing our industry is in good hands.
Good luck to each one of them — I’m certainly thankful I don’t make the final decision.
Sarah O’Brien is the GippsDairy chair.
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