Marcus Oldham College student Jess Mosely shoots for a bright future in agriculture

Born on a 35,000ha station in NSW, Jess Mosely abandoned city studies to forge her own path in agriculture, armed with fresh perspectives on the industry's future. Read her story.

When Jess Mosely takes her first professional role in agriculture, it will be a full circle moment.

Born and bred on her family’s 35,000ha stations between Cobar and Hillston in far western NSW, her education at Orange included a gap year, then flowed on to studying commerce at the University of Sydney.

“I felt like I was siphoned into a university pathway, and it was misaligned,” Jess said.

She spent a gap year working on a cattle station near Charters Towers, in Queensland, an experience she values greatly.

“The ringer experience is a positive one and I think I got particularly lucky with being in a smaller team,” she said.

“This, in my eyes, allowed this rite of passage to grow and challenge me as a result of the responsibility we were given.

“Apart from helping me choose agriculture for a career, working on a station gave me and the rest of the team a lot of opportunities to problem solve, and to think for yourself.”

Jess Mosely sees a role in agriculture as an exciting prospect. PHOTOGRAPHER: ZOE PHILLIPS

But with a place in university, she headed to the city to take up her studies; it didn’t last long, and she returned home to work with her parents Andrew and Megan Mosely, helping to run their enterprises of sheep, cattle and goats.

In her own words, she walked away not only from her studies but the city.

Jess is about to complete a Bachelor of Agribusiness, graduating from Marcus Oldham College at Geelong at the end of the year.

She’s embraced her time there, adding plenty of activities to the course work, but almost all centred around agriculture.

She’s the treasurer of the college’s student committee, was part of the Intercollegiate Meat Judging Competition team in her first year, and then a coach for the team this year.

And she’s been instrumental in training the first ever female representative from Marcus Oldham, Penny Crothers, to make the Australian team which will compete in the US.

She’s made the most of her opportunities while studying, and is eager to put the skills she’s gained into an industry she’s in through choice, rather than chance.

Long-term, she hopes to be able to ply her knowledge in the strategic advisory space, to help investors make good decisions.

“There is no reason why agriculture can’t be a profitable business model, and I want to be one of those who breathe life into the industry,” she said.

“Farmers are getting bigger and smarter, and we’ve seen how the use of data can change the game.

“It’s a pretty exciting time and I want to be part of agribusiness beyond the farm gate.”

Jess Mosely is about to graduate from Marcus Oldham College at Geelong after choosing agriculture as a career. PHOTOGRAPHER: ZOE PHILLIPS

Mentors have also played a role for Jess, but she said the biggest was her father Andrew.

“He’s been a pretty special mentor for me, but both my parents encouraged me to go out and experience other things,” she said.

“There is so much opportunity in some of the more rangeland areas of Australia, like western NSW where I am from, which is undervalued but where productivity and profit can be elevated.”

Two years at Marcus Oldham has shown her a vast range of agricultural enterprises, a world away both physically and metaphorically from her home base in western NSW.

Yet she acknowledges she may well end up in western NSW on the family’s country, bring back more than a suitcase of clothes but a bag of experience too.