Hungry for knowledge

Tanisha Shields and Laura Kemmis consider themselves lucky. From the moment both left their respective high schools, they knew a career in agriculture was for them.

After graduating from agricultural science degrees and working in various jobs – Tanisha as a feedlot pen rider and an Elders’ trainee and Laura as a technical officer with the Sheep CRC and now part time with the University of New England – they’ve set their sights on providing livestock production advice and extension.

Their careers got a boost this week when both attended MLA’s inaugural Livestock Advisor Updates as recipients of MLA-funded bursaries.

Tanisha and Laura joined more than 50 other advisors in Sydney, while more than 60 advisors attended the Brisbane update held earlier in the week. Northern Gulf Resource Management Group rangelands project officer John McLaughlin and Angus Australia northern development officer Jonathan Farris received bursaries to attend the Brisbane event.

MLA created Livestock Advisor Updates to share the latest red meat research and development with advisors and create opportunities for them to gain skills, tools and knowledge which can be passed on to livestock producer clients. The events also give advisors the opportunity to get involved in current and future MLA research, development and adoption programs and also network with like-minded advisors.

“I was keen to come along to the Advisor Update to find out more about industry resources and to learn from other people,” said Tanisha, who now works for Western Local Land Services at Balranald in southern NSW, where she is one of a team of three.

Laura, who is based at Cootamundra in southern NSW, is in the process of growing her consultancy business, Productive Livestock Systems, and saw the update as a chance network and interact with other advisors.

“I work on my own and there’s always a risk you can narrow your point of view. I want to be challenged and to talk to other advisors about what tools and programs they’re using,” she said.

Tanisha said a stand-out from the Update for her was the presentations by long-time industry consultants John Francis of Holmes Sackett and Basil Doonan of Macquarie Franklin on designing effective strategies to manage increased climate variability.

“Producers come to me looking for support to make decisions and understanding tactical decision making is really helpful. Producers also want tools and processes which are evidence based to back up their decisions,” she said.

Laura said she was planning on investing more time in building her technical skills in feedbase measurement and management following a presentation from Macquarie Franklin’s Jason Lynch on delivering the Pasture Principles program through MLA’s Profitable Grazing Systems.

“It’s shown me there are lots of skills I need to have to be able to best support my clients and when you’re just starting out you don’t necessarily know everything,” she said.

Both thanked MLA for its investment in supporting their careers.

“If you’re a crop agronomist the career pathway is very well defined, but with livestock advisory you’re out on your own to an extent. These events go a long way to building networks of young advisors and people who can mentor and support us,” Tanisha said.

Other topics covered at the Sydney event included climate forecasting secrets, tools to improve genetic measurement and uptake, making sheep management decisions using ASKBILL and the new condition score recommendations for maternal flocks. The Brisbane event covered carbon trading, phosphorus supplementation and managing the feedbase.