Showgirls - representing your local show

What the Showgirl Competition is really all about - not what you may think...

2012 The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl State Finalists

The countdown to the Sydney Royal Easter Show is on and with that also means the Showgirl competition is stepping up with the Zone Finals already underway. 

For those of you not so familiar with the Showgirl Competition here is a quick brief:

Each local show has a local showgirl competition - the aim is to select a young lady as an ambassador for the local community and recognize their involvement in their local community and show. The winner then goes on to represent their town at the Zone Final.

The winners of each Zone Final (there is 7 zones across NSW) earn a place at the State Final which is hosted by the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

The Showgirl Competition provides young women with an opportunity to give something back to their community, as well as engage in their own personal development and build networks with other young women with a passion for rural NSW.

2012 The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl State Finalists at Government House in Sydney with the Governor of NSW,  Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir 

The 2013 Zone 1 Showgirl Final was hosted by Mullumbimby. Echonetdaily.net.au put together a great video on the  Zone 1 Final and I think it summaries really well what the Showgirl Competition is all about. 

~ Enjoy.

& Good luck to all the Showgirls participating in the upcoming Zone Finals across the State!

Extract from the Showgirl Information guide (www.agshowsnsw.org.au) 

Overall, the aim of the Showgirl Competition is to find a person most suited to represent young rural 

women of NSW during her term as ‘The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl’. This covers many 

official and informal situations during the Sydney Royal Easter Show, as well as her travels 

within NSW and interstate. The Society therefore seeks an articulate and presentable person 

with a pleasant personality. 

The winner will be required to meet a wide variety of people and should be able to converse 

intelligently about Australia in general and in particular her own district. She will be 

interviewed by press, radio and television and will be asked to speak about her experiences 

before a range of groups. 

The RAS defines a ‘local’ showgirl as a person with strong family, personal, educational or 

business associations within the local community. She must also be approved and nominated 

by her local Show Society and have a genuine interest in and understanding of rural and 

regional issues.

2012 The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl place-getters

Show me the future - AY Roundup Dubbo 2013

Who said you shouldn't work with cows & kids...?

Hello - its been a while between posts but I assure you, the time away from the blog has been well spent.

In January I helped run the 2013 Angus Youth National Roundup in Dubbo NSW. We had record entries with 207 competitors between the ages of 8 and 25 plus their bovine charges - all in 4 days in one shed and a  heatwave.

Competitors at the 2013 National Angus Youth Roundup.

The hard work from the committee was well worth it as the event ran very well  - I am saving the details for future blog posts but for those who can't wait for the results from the event, they can be found here.

Thanks to the committee and volunteers for for all their hard work and also a big thank you to the sponsors of the 2013 Roundup - your support is greatly appreciated and is important to ensure we can continue to put on a good show!

Bridging the Gap

Introducing the Young Farming Champions...

2012 has been the Australian Year of the Farmer with the aim of helping to educate the broader community about the importance of agriculture and enlighten them about the dedicated, hard-working people that provide that quality food for your table (and lots of other's as well) everyday.

Some of our city cousins have lost that connection with the rural communities and no longer understand where their food & fibre comes from, let alone what goes into growing it! The increasing curiosity about where their food comes from and the new platform of social media, I believe gives us a great opportunity for rural people to engage and tell our own story about what we do everyday to help put that food on your table.  

During my travels I have run across a program that has been started in several schools as a way of educating children about agriculture called Art4Agriculture. 

Part of the program for schools is the Archibull Prize - (yes ArchiBULL not Archibalds....!) in which students get to meet a young farmer, and then explore and showcase a particular food/fibre industry as the subject of an artwork.

Sounds like fun?! The other twist is the blank canvas each school is provided for their artwork is not actually canvas - but a life-size fibre glass cow!

A team of young farmers, aka "Young Farming Champions" travel to a few schools each and tell their story about what they do as a farmer. They have all put together some great videos to share with the classes during their visits so I hope to share some of these with you.

Thanks to Young Farming Champion Richie Quigley & Art4Ag for this one.

The 2012 The Land Sydney Showgirl Runner-up, Jess Monteith is also one of this year's Young Farming Champions!

You can read about Jess's story here, courtesy of Art4Ag.

The Art4Ag program is a great initiative and provides a little inspiration on just how easy it is for an everyday person to share their story about agriculture.

Art4Agriculture also have a great blog that you can follow: Art4Ag blog or go to their website www.art4agriculture.com.au

Woolworths Ag Business Scholarship Wrap-up

The 2012 Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship finally comes to a close.

Wow - what a busy two weeks! Week one was only a warm-up compared to the intense timetable the Agscholars had for week two at the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship program!

We covered a huge range of topics, including

• presentations from industry experts on the BIG issues and challenges facing Australian agriculture,
• discussions around agricultural education of the broader community,
• tour of a Woolworths distribution centre which is the key part of getting that great, fresh Australian produce to the store shelf,
• guided visit of a Woolworths store to explore the new concepts and innovative ideas to provide the best fresh food solutions to consumers,
• rubbed shoulders with some industry champions at the 2012 National Landcare Awards
• leadership development workshops
• & experienced a new perspective of Sydney - from on top of the Bridge!

Needless to say I can not fit all of that in this post!

Watch this space - I will fill you in on all the details on some of these amazing sessions soon!

Being able to participate in discussions facing Australian agriculture and our rural communities with some of the brightest young minds the industry has to offer was truly a great experience.  It challenged me to think outside the square and was great to have other young people that are passionate about their industry to share and bounce ideas around with. The passion these young people have for Australian agriculture is remarkable and assures me the future of Australian agriculture is bright if we have these young people heading up our approach to the challenges and our industry will face.

The Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship was an invaluable experience and I am very grateful for the opportunity to participate - a big thank you to the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW for supporting the growth and development of young people with a passion for agriculture.

If you are looking for an opportunity to network with other like-minded young people with a passion for agriculture, learn about the supply chain from several different perspectives as well as further your own professional development I highly recommend applying for the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship - you will be amazed what doors it may open for you.

Thank you very much Woolworths (shout out to Katie Poray for all her great work!) for conducting this program and providing us with such a great opportunity. Your support of the youth of Australian agriculture is greatly appreciated. Thank you.



Thank you to Yvette and Katie for putting this together :)

Hawkesbury to the Huon

For something a-little different...

My last post was about the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment - the name coming from its location in the Hawkesbury River area. (See Further in the Field)

The Hawkesbury name, along with several other Australian rivers including the Yarra, Diamontina, Gascoyne, Huon and Norman, have also been used to name the Royal Australian Navy Huon class ships.

This ship class are minehunters and were built in Newcastle for the Royal Australian Navy. They are no any ordinary ship as they have a unique hull which is designed to flex inwards if an undersea explosion occurs nearby. This hull is made of a fibre-reinforced plastic which due to its unique design offers several advantages in low magnetic and noise levels as well as underwater shock resistance.

These ships are continually mapping Australian waters to make sure they are safe, particularly our shipping channels. This is good news and plays an important role in helping to safeguard the large number of merchant vessels that carry alot of our agricultural produce to our overseas export markets.

The safety of our merchant ships is not something that you regularly think about when we talk about our Australian agricultural exports but it is good to know that the Royal Australian Navy is out there performing this role.

HMAS Huon - Royal Australian Navy minehunter which my brother has been posted to during his training.
(Photo from Royal Australian Navy)

This is particularly relevant for me as my brother, MIDN Nixon, has just been posted to HMAS Huon for the next few months so he will be part of the crew on patrol around our coastline for the next few months.

Good luck! And thank you to our Royal Australian Navy and our defence forces for all the work they do.



 

The Woolworths Way

Day Two of the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship

The main focus of today's sessions was to give us an insight into the management of the Fresh Food side of Woolworths supermarkets in terms of how they manage this part of the business and the challenges they face bringing fresh produce to the consumer that is high quality, fresh, consistent and what the consumer wants.

Pat McEntee is the General Manager of Fresh Food for Woolworths and shared with us several key messages and it was interesting to hear how, as a company they are recognising the need to put the consumer first and foremost. There is soon to be a shift to try and break down some 'walls' and actually put the consumer in touch with the butcher or the baker who prepares that produce daily for that store.

I believe this all reflects on the consumers desire and curiosity to understand where their food comes from and is a great opportunity to educate consumers on the stories, industries and people behind the high quality agricultural produce that Australian farmers produce everyday.

Even the large supermarket giants such as Woolworths are realising they need to be part of the solution to help tell agriculture's story - and understand what it is that farmers do to produce that product so they can convey that to the consumer. For example - making butchers more accessible to consumers can provide avenues to explain how to cook which cut and what an MSA logo on the product actually means...

It was interesting to note that through some of their consumer focus groups and feedback studies, they discovered that there was a public perception that not all of the fresh meat was Australian grown and only 60% of the fresh fruit and vegetables was Australian.... in actual fact with Woolworths,

• 100% of fresh meat is Australian grown; and
• 96% of fresh produce (fruit & veg) is Australian grown.

So next time you sit down to dinner, have a look at what is on your plate and thank an Aussie farmer!

Sneak preview

Wondering what the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship is all about?

Here is a video on some of the participants at last years program.

Hopefully this gives you an insight into what the scholarship program is all about and some of the young people that these programs are identifying as the future of our agricultural industries.

This year's participants come from far and wide across Australia - from Western Australia, Northern Territory to central and Southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, King Island and New Zealand.

And what is more exciting is the range of industries they represent. As part of our group this year we have beef producers and processors, tomato growers, garlic and grape agronomists, potato growers and dairy farmers, vegetable growers, grain traders, stock-feed producers, sheep farmers and assessors, feedlot managers, communication students, crop farmers, extension officers and animal health technical specialists. Such a broad range of fields but ALL involved in careers with agriculture. Should be a fantastic 12 days with some great discussions to be had!

Welcome to Australia's Fresh Food People

Day One of the Woolworths Agricultural Business Scholarship

This was the banner that greeted us today as we entered the Woolworths Limited Head Office and was also the message that Director of Supermarkets Tjeerd Jegen shared with us as he talked about the new strategy and direction Woolworths is taking with their supermarket business.

As one of the largest supermarkets in Australia, it was interesting that the idea behind their re-branding has been to go back to the simple messages of what they do as a business and highlighting the people that do this - yes that's right, highlighting the farmers that produce Australia's fresh produce.

This introduction was the tip of the iceberg for what was an incredible start to the Woolworths Scholarship program. We have already had the opportunity to listen to highly regarded industry speakers which gave us both a perspective on the value of our agricultural industries and also challenged us with what is the strategic long-term plan for Australian agriculture, as well as rub shoulders with some of the senior management team within the Woolworths Fresh Food division and learn about the day-to-day roles they play and challenges they face in making sure they get fresh produce from the farm-gate to the consumer.

Did you know:

• The gross value of agriculture, fisheries and forestries in 2009-10 was $45 billion. 

• Of this $45 billion, 69% of that is exported. Australian farmers are well and truly helping to feed the world.

Taking the plunge...!

Welcome to my first blog post!

Since being introduced to the world of blogging by my good friends Crystal Cattle and Trio Angus I've been keen to utilize "blogging" to help tell the story of agriculture and share it with the wider community. There are some great blogs out there (I will try and highlight some on future posts) which, as our world becomes more and more interactive, I think are a fantastic way of connecting with others and finding the real story about the people and places behind where their food comes from. 

University studies (and now work), helping on the family farm and my show involvement always keep me pretty busy but I've taken the plunge and finally have got around to writing my first post.

I also aim to use this blog to help showcase my adventures this year as the 2012 The Land Sydney Royal Showgirl. (more on that later!)

Please feel welcome to follow along as I share with you the stories, innovations, inspirations and personalities that make up rural Australia. Enjoy!