Young farmers to watch in 2022: Emma Ayliffe, Celia Scott

Australia’s agriculture industry is in good hands with these 22 young farmers. See how they became leaders and why they’re at the top of their game.

Meet some of the best and brightest young farmers in Australia.

These 22 producers excel in the agriculture industry and are working hard to supply our nation with the best quality food and fibre.

See why they are leaders in the fields of beef, sheep, dairy, cropping and horticulture.

SHEEP 

CELIA SCOTT, POOLAIJELO, VIC

Celia Scott wears many hats – community leader, Country Fire Authority captain, member of the Victorian Farmers Federation livestock committee and livestock producer.

The 36-year-old farms with her partner Peter Male and the couple run 4500 composite ewes, 350 Angus breeders and a Speckle Park Stud across1376ha of owned and leased land.

Her community was hit by devastating fires at the start of the year and she has led calls to get better phone coverage.

“This fire season has been really challenging with the district loosing 7500ha of land to fire which also took 7000-plus livestock, over 600km of fencing and several sheds,” she said.

Celia also sits on the Sheep Producers Australia policy council and the Victorian Sheep and Goat Compensation Fund committee.

ALI DAVIES, BRANXHOLME, VIC

Ali Davies runs a large corporate enterprise at Branxholme and is a leading figure in working dog trialling, plus wrangs four kids.

Ali, aged 34, works alongside her husband Richard across eight properties, running 30,000 ewes and rotational grazing for an investment company based in Melbourne.

She also organises, runs and competes in local dog trials and campdrafts and was a nominee in the 2021 Shine Awards.

“We started with 800 ewes with the goal of getting to 30,000, and we’ve done that in four-and-a-half years,” Ali said.

JO TREASURE, COWRA, NSW

Fifth generation sheep farmer and shearer, 24-year old Jo Treasure, originally wanted to be a history academic.

One of four children, Jo says she was the only one who wanted to come home.

“I just fell in love with it; it’s hard to explain, it more a feeling than anything, you just get so much satisfaction out of your day.” she said.

Jo works in her family’s mixed farm, running prime lambs, Angus cattle and cropping.

She also finds time to shear a few sheep – at best 220 a day (with a 4.30pm knock off) – a tally achieved in just two years on the shears.

Her passion for her work and community also saw her named the Employee of the Year at the 2021 State Business Awards by Business NSW and she is being sponsored to do the Australian Rural Leadership Program.

STEVE WISHART, INVERLEIGH, VIC

Steven is driving the transformation of a traditional stud, Burnbrae Poll Merinos, into a modern sheep breeding business using new technologies.

The 33-year-old and his family have also ceased mulesing their Merinos in a high rainfall area – a fair achievement itself.

Steven said his passion for data, genetics and tailoring traits specifically for his stud keeps him focused striving to improve the Burnbrae sheep.

Traits conducive to animal welfare are at the forefront of the enterprise with a focus on fat and eye muscle, worm resistance, low breech wrinkle, low dag and breech cover, along with reproductive and structural traits.

“These traits have been the cornerstone … which has enabled us to move from a 80 to 90 per cent marking rate to 138 per cent in the stud in 2021,” he said.

LACHIE MACGUGAN, HAMILTON, VIC

Twenty-five-year-old Lachie Macgugan says there is nowhere he’d rather be than in a shearing shed.

“I bloody love it,” the young farmer and shearer said.

Approaching his fourth year shearing, Lachie said the industry had taken him half way around Australia – and given him many challenges.

But those challenges were what made farming, and shearing, so rewarding.

Lachie and his family — parents Duncan and Sue, and brother Jamie, 23 — have farms in Victoria’s Western District, running super fine Merinos and cattle over 1390ha on two properties.

Lachie has shorn an admirable 324 sheep in a day, and 400 is the next goal, with the ambitious target this year’s aspiration.

BEEF

DARCEY HEFFERNAN, BEVERIDGE, VIC

A third-generation cattle farmer, Darcey Heffernan took over the family farm about two years ago, when she was just 21.

Darcey runs 160 Poll Hereford cows and a small flock of Poll Dorset sheep.

At the time she told The Weekly Times, “growing up, I always wanted to work with animals or agriculture, but I never thought I’d be capable of managing the farm”.

Darcey has made some changes and adaptations since taking over to grow the business.

She is holding on to yearling steers normally sold on the store market to grow them out to about 500kg at 15 or 16 months old.

Darcey was also nominated in The Weekly Times Harvey Norman 2019 Shine Awards.

TESS CAMM, ST LAWRENCE, QLD

A fifth-generation grazier, Tess is the general manager of the successful branded beef company, Signature Beef.

A role she has held since she was in her early 20s, Tess, now 30, oversees the co-ordination and production of livestock to ensure carcasses meet market requirements and customer expectations, as well as new product development and sales.

Tess won a 2020 Nuffield Australia scholarship, supported by The Yulgilbar Foundation. She is investigating “Incubating radical change within an organisation – What are the conditions that need to exist to allow a breakthrough?”

Tess holds a Bachelor of Business Management, and previously worked on her family’s grazing properties in Central Queensland.

JACKSON DARGAVILLE, PEDDINGTON, VIC

Driven by a desire to control the narrative over meat sold in his family’s butcher shop, Jackson Dargaville, along with brother Tom and father David, established a beef operation, Paradise Park at Eddington.

The sole focus for the 27-year-old and his family is to produce grass-fed beef which they then sell at their family butcher shop, Flora Hill Meats, in Bendigo.

Jackson isn’t your typical beef farmer, he has no farming background and is a fourth-generation butcher, but since they purchased their 100ha property he has put in the hard work to investigate and plan the best way forward for their farm and beef.

In the future Jackson and his family hope to expand the farm as well as the butcher shop, both organically growing with time and knowledge.

“It’s exciting. We’ve known about butchering all our lives. But to get into agriculture is an exciting thing.”

HUGH DAWSON, BEETALOO STATION, NT

An aspiring young leader in the northern cattle industry, Hugh Dawson, 24, started working on a cattle station in 2016, straight out of school.

And he has since worked his way up to head stockman on Beetaloo Station in the Northern Territory, where they blend responsible land management strategies and innovative, low-stress stock handling practices.

Hugh obtained his helicopter license in 2019 and last year was awarded the Northern Territory Young Achievers Award and he was named one of four finalists in the Zanda McDonald Award for 2021.

He is the vice-chair of the Young Livestock Exporters Network, which aims to build networks and leadership through pathways of professional development within the livestock export supply chain, is an alumni member of the Northern Territory Cattleman’s Association Future Leaders Program.

HORTICULTURE

CAITLIN RADFORD, MORIARTY, TAS

For this 22-year-old Tassie producer, farming is in her blood.

Caitlin is a fifth-generation grower producing wheat, potatoes, carrots and fodder crops from her farms in the northern parts of Tasmania.

After soaking up her family’s farming knowledge, Ms Radford and her partner Owen started up their own company, CO Agriculture Pty Ltd.

Her company was in a share-farm arrangement with her grandparents before taking over the property lease this financial year.

In 2020 she was awarded the Australian Apprentice of the Year and in 2021 was one of thirteen Corteva Agriscience nominees for Young Grower of the Year.

RENEE PYE, PARILLA, SA

Ms Pye comes from one of Australia’s most influential horticulture producers, the Pye Group.

Within their expanding company, the 26-year-old has a key role in marketing and new product development.

And at just 26 years of age, Renee has delivered a revolutionary change to one of Australia’s most popular vegies.

Within the Pye Group, sits the Zerella Fresh label, which is one of Australia’s major suppliers of potatoes, carrots and onions.

One of Renee’s innovations includes the hugely popular Zerella’s SpudLite, a lower carbohydrate potato created via cross-pollination.

What ideas could she have in store next?

JAKE SHADBOLT, 26, SWAN HILL, VIC

Based in Beverford near Swan Hill in northern Victoria, 26-year-old Jake Shadbolt is a third-generation vegie grower.

Alongside his father Peter and brother Ryan, Jake manages Scotties Point Farms, which has been in the family since the 1960s.

Pumpkins, beetroots, broccoli and onions are Mr Shadbolt’s and Scotties Point Farms specialty.

Thanks to Jake’s innovation and commitment to horticulture he was short-listed for the 2021 Corteva Agriscience Young Grower of the Year.

He loves his industry and is passionate about recruiting and establishing a strong, young and hardworking workforce in Australian horticulture.

CHRISTINA KELMAN, WALLACIA, NSW

Using certified organic methods, Christina Kelman delivers leafy greens, legumes, citrus, root vegetables, tomatoes, zucchinis, capsicums and eggplants onto tables across Australia.

The 26-year-old works for and manages her family’s business, Rita’s Farm, which is located in Wallacia, 70km west of Sydney.

In 2019, Christina was awarded a Nuffield Australia Scholarship for her work with producing “more with less”.

Across the family’s 25ha and three farms, they have taken a corner of the organic, largely Asian greens market, and grow a variety of up to 100 vegetable and herb products.

MITCHEL EAST, MANJIMUP, WA

Located in southern Western Australia, Mitchel East is a part of a third-generation fruit and vegie growing business.

Alongside his sister, and parents, they run the Willarra Gold farms which produce onions, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and pumpkins.

Under Mitchel’s guidance, the family has also been diversifying into avocados and passionfruit growing in the past few seasons.

Alongside his work running parts of the Willarra Gold operation Mitchel sits on the Vegetable Strategic Industry Advisory Panel and was nominated for the 2021 Corteva Agriscience Young Grower of the Year award.

The 28-year old is also passionate about regenerative farming and has established a processing facility to utilise unsaleable fresh food on their land.

DAIRY

LUCY COLLINS, DIXIE, VIC

With a gumboot on both sides of the farming fence, 32-year-old Lucy Collins boasts a number of titles: veterinarian, Nuffield Scholar, dairy medicine student, and dairy farmer.

From her farm at Dixie, in Victoria’s southwest, Lucy focuses on preserving and promoting high standards or animal welfare in all that she does.

Along with working full time as a senior vet in Timboon, Lucy is currently writing her thesis on welfare in the Australian dairy industry, while her Nuffield Scholarship will focus on public perceptions and welfare enhancement in the industry.

GEORGE NICOLL, FISH CREEK, VIC

Having grown up on his family’s dairy farm at Fish Creek, in South Gippsland, George Nicoll is the recent recipient of the Bill Pyle tertiary scholarship from the Gardiner Foundation. Combining his background in agriculture with his ambition to study a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, George is set to use his scholarship to provide quality science-based communication and journalism with the aim to increase awareness of the dairy industry, and sustainable farming.

ANASTASIA REA, ALLANSFORD, VIC

During her gap year, Anastasia Rea’s passion for agriculture blossomed after working on a dairy farm for 12 months.

The 19-year-old has a family background in agriculture, although she herself didn’t grow up on a farm.

“I went into my gap year knowing the very basics … I knew how to put cups on cows, and that’s about it,” Anastasia says.

Anastasia, who is based at Allansford, will now study an Advanced Diploma of Agribusiness Management at Longernong Agricultural College, with the ambition to eventually work in animal nutrition, or work as a stock agent.

She is the recent recipient of a Niel Black scholarship courtesy of the Gardiner Foundation.

CROPS

THOMAS SIMSON, PREMER, NSW

Thomas Simson is a fourth-generation farmer from northern NSW.

As part of the 2022 Grain Growers Ltd Australian Grain Leaders Program he is building a credit-based system to reward growers for nurturing healthy soils.

Thomas is the chair of AMPS Research, a privately funded grower group that conducts small plot trials to test different grain growing practices and grain varieties in northern NSW.

JOCK BINNIE, BUNGEET, VIC AND MERRIWAGGA, NSW

21-year-old Jock Binnie has been farming full time since he was 16 in Bungeet in northern Victoria and at Merriwagga in the northern Riverina region of New South Wales.

Jock won northern Victoria’s ‘Highest Yield’ and ‘Highest Percentage of Potential Yield’ awards in the Grain Research Development Corporation’s 2020 Hyper Yielding Crops awards for with a 30-hectare crop of Scepter wheat – which produced 7.58 tonnes/ha of grain during 2020.

He is constantly working to optimise practices and improve yields for his family business.

EMMA AYLIFFE, LAKE CARGELLIGO, NSW

Emma Ayliffe and her partner Craig.

NSW agronomist and farmer Emma Ayliffe is a co-founder of agribusiness Summit Ag, a company that delivers independent agronomic and farming system advice for irrigated cropping with a focus on cotton.

Alongside managing her own 688ha property at Lake Cargelligo in Central West New South Wales, Emma works with 24 other farming businesses to optimise their productivity and profitability.

In 2021 she was named Young Farmer of the Year.

SALLY POOLE, CALLANDOON, QLD

Sally grew up in northern Sydney but developed a love of farming during holidays spent with relatives.

She studied a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, and now works as an agronomist and digital agriculture consultant with a focus on spatially understanding soil water holding properties and subsoil constraints and their impact on production.

As part of the 2022 Grain Growers Ltd Australian Grain Leaders Program, Sally is focusing on increasing the engagement of growers and agronomist with sustainable practices and sustainability targets.

CLAY GOWERS, CARWARP, VIC

Clay has managed his family’s 9000ha broadacre farming operation in the Millewa for ten years, and has a special interest in agriculture technology including aerial mapping using drone.

In 2020 he was appointed to a three-year term as deputy chair of Agriculture Victoria’s Young Farmers Advisory Council.