Ag’s highs and lows drives career

Profits for the South Gippsland operation fell by 44 per cent.

The volatile market coincided with the family's acquisition of a property, which was purchased the year before, and began one of the most challenging periods for the Ryans' dairy operation.

"At such time all indicators of the dairy industry looked excellent with the pricing of milk solids firm so farmers were optimistic for the future of the industry – then in one night this all changed," he said.

"Our family business, like many others in industry, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"This was my first introduction to how the volatility of free-markets can impact an industry, a community and a family."

Challenging seasons like this that can see young people turned off the land in favour of a nine-to-five job with a reliable income.

But not for Will Ryan – the pitfalls of the last seven years was his motivation to understand how businesses can mitigate financial risks and to start a career in agribusiness.

He turned to upskilling himself in order to understand all aspects of industry, from soil health to global trade.

In 2008, Will began his Certificate IV in Agriculture, coinciding with a Certificate III with the National Centre of Dairy Education Australia (NCDEA). The following year he commenced a Diploma of Agriculture at the NCDEA before taking a gap year to work in Essex, England as heavy machinery operator during the harvest.

"We worked among old World War II machine gun pillboxes and giant bomber hangars, stacking 70,000 bales on old air field that stretched one kilometre," he said.

It was after this time he decided to continue studying and signed-up for an undergraduate degree in Agriculture at the age of 22.

In his second year of uni, Will's father Peter was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. While his dad underwent treatment, Will returned to managing the family property – forgoing an opportunity with Rimfire Resources to look at the Indonesian agriculture sector.

For the next 12 months he managed the family dairy operation four days a week, while working on full time studies.

Afterseven months of treatment and being declared in remission, Peter lost his battle cancer.

"Sometimes we have to endure such challenging events before we can realise the extent of our limits," Will said.

"Whether it be myself and family going through such circumstances, or the 2011 banning of live exports which nearly decimated the beef sector throughout Australia, sometimes to understand the true capacity or resilience of an individual or industry, you have to be exposed to such testing times and situations."

What pushed him to the edge of his studies was a research thesis with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in his third year of uni, examining the extraction methods for sampling soil microbial DNA in Gippsland dairy soils.

This research attracted him the attention as an emerging leader with the Gardiner Foundation, as a result, last year he joined a delegation from the state government to look at opportunities for the Australian dairy industry in China.

The accolades continued, and Will later earnt scholarship with United Dairy Farmers of Victoria to look at the New Zealand supply chains.

He now works as an industry development officer with the Australian Fodder Industry Association (AFIA).

Through his research and overseas scholarships, Will said it was an exciting period to be a part of the Australian protein industry.

"With the average person in China consuming in 0.4 kilograms of dairy products annually verse 35kg/person for someone in a western culture, the potential for protein is huge," he said.

"As the Chinese people begin to change their diets towards more of a western style, more and more protein is looking to be sourced.

"Every year the equivalent population of Australia, about 23 million people, move into the middle class in China – which the ability to spend more money on good quality food and fibre.

"We have selected the right career path."