Shane won the FIL Emerging Leader Award on the course and enthuses about it. “I came home on a buzz... with a new mentor: course facilitator Grant Taylor is an amazing man.... We talked about where we’re going and different opportunities.
“My partner and I have started our first venture and bought 50 calves, so we’re trying to sell them at the moment.”
‘Farming to Succeed’ runs once yearly for five days, with 25 participants doing workshops, farm visits and discussion groups. Facilitator Grant Taylor and other agribusiness leaders help them explore the ingredients of personal and business success. Topics include career development, staged capital growth and asset management, goal setting and motivation, successful business partnerships, financial development, and time and stress management. No fees are payable thanks to FIL, sponsor for eight years.
“I’ve lived on a dairy farm all my life,” Bichan says. “I did my trade as a builder and came back [four years ago] to the family farm....I’m currently the herd manager milking 420 cows.”
He started training with AgITO after his return to farming, doing courses ‘milk quality stage one and two’ and ‘dealing with dairy farm effluent’, and all level 3 courses. “I’m currently doing my National Certificate in Agriculture (level 4)... more challenging and putting the pressure on,” he says.
Visits to top-performing farms included highlights such as chicken and beef farms, a robotic dairy farm and a cropping farm, where “people were pushing the boundaries and showing you it could be done.”
His highly motivated fellow students encouraged him. “I’ve formed a network of contacts and friends; we’re going to organise a catch-up.... Everyone had these new ideas, it was great talking to everyone else and hearing what they thought.”
Now he has a list of goals pinned to the fridge.
“Farm ownership is the big one. We want to be 50:50 sharemilking within five years on the family farm. All the goals we set last year we’ve almost achieved now. We’ve bought calves and paying off the house is the next one.”
After his level 4 training he hopes to do AgITO’s National Diploma in Agribusiness Management (level 5).
