.....and back to regular programing

Ok, before 2015 SAF, I said that I would pull my finger out and start blogging about things here on the farm.  So here goes!

A lot has happened over the past 18 months (ahem....possibly TWO years) since I last blogged regularly.  Too much to really catch up in one post.  So I'll bring everyone up to speed on things as new events that relate come to hand.

But one thing to talk about today;

A couple of months ago, Mark and I were asked to enter the South West Dairy Industry awards.  We have been reluctant to enter awards because we like to give to the industry rather than take from it.  Sounds ridiculous, I know, but essentially I guess it bottled down to the fact that we are just not that keen on being put into the spotlight in that regard.  Anyway, we have knocked back nominations for a number of years, but this year, we had significant pressure from a number of avenues to actually stand.

So we accepted nominations for Employer of the Year award and Farm Business Managers of the Year award.  We submitted the required information and were pleased to discover that we were shortlisted for both categories.  We were then interviewed for the two awards and videoed as well.

Nominees have no idea who will get the nod, only that you are one of three businesses.  On the night - held in Colac - we were named the Employer of the Year, the Farm Business Managers of the Year and excitingly, we were also named the inaugural Legendary Farmers of the Year!  It was a HUGE honour for us and we are stocked to win these prestigious awards.

We remain passionate about the industry and we fully intend to play a role in promoting dairy to as many people as we can.  One such example of us doing this is by hosting groups of students from Thomas Carr College in Tarneit, Victoria.  Each month, to a new group of students, we give a hour talk to them about the past and present of the dairy industry and how farms such as ours fit into that picture.  We then host them at our farm for a couple of hours where they get to see everything in operation, including calf rearing and milking.  Another example is where we have been invited to speak to local service groups such as Rotary or Probus about the past 100 years in dairy.  It is exciting to do this sort of thing and we hope that everyone walks away with a better knowledge of where the industry has come from, where it is today and where it is going in the future.

At the end of the day, regardless of whether we win an award or not, we are here for the long haul and we will continue to be involved in the transfer of information about the industry to as many as we can get to!