About 150 dairy farmers have travelled to Noorat to enjoy WestVic Dairy's event of the year, and listen to an AFL three-time premiership player talk on leadership, values and dedication.
WestVic Dairy hosted its Great South West Dairy Nitemoooves event at Noorat Recreation Reserve on Wednesday for the region's dairy farmers to celebrate the industry's dedicated leaders.
WestVic Dairy celebrated new honour board members included John Dalton and Andrea Vallance, while Lachlan Tindell won the Farm Photo Award and Sarah Jane Rae was the Farm Photo Award runner up in an on-farm photo competition.
Former WestVic Dairy award winners Jorge Massa, Kevin Wines, and United Dairyfarmers of Victoria president and Larpent farmer Mark Billing were part of a panel discussion about their experience in employment and leadership.
READ MORE:
Meanwhile, Tom Newton, MaxCare, hosted the night with Geelong Cats former captain and three-time premiership player Cameron Ling attending as a keynote speaker.
Mr Ling answered questions from the region's dairy farmers and spoke on leadership, working as a team and helping others achieve their goals.
WestVic Dairy chair and dairy farmer Jacqueline Suares, Calderbrae Holsteins, said the night was a great success.
"It was a very successful night and a really good networking opportunity for both our sponsors and farmers," she said.
"There was good messaging about leadership and mentoring, and supporting and encouraging young people in the industry."
The Gardiner Foundation and Fonterra sponsored the evening.
WestVic Dairy regional manager Lindsay Ferguson said dairy farming made up a large part of the region's community.
"The community needs leaders, therefore dairy farmers need to be amongst those leaders in the region," he said.
"Leadership is important, particularly in farming because as businesses grow they need to be able to attract and retain staff."
WestVic Dairy farmer director Brad Collins said the event was important to help engage farmers to lead the industry in a positive way.
"For a long time an issue for me has been young people leaving home and not coming back," he said.
"I think these nights are important and I think we can grow on them to get our farmers better engaged so we can get the right people to lead our industry in a positive way.
"We're very lucky as an industry to have what we have in Dairy Australia and WestVic Dairy."
Rachel Simmonds
Rachel is an agricultural journalist for Australian Community Media's Stock & Land. She covers all aspects of Victoria's farming community and industry. To get in contact, email rachel.simmonds@stockandland.com.au
Rachel is an agricultural journalist for Australian Community Media's Stock & Land. She covers all aspects of Victoria's farming community and industry. To get in contact, email rachel.simmonds@stockandland.com.au
