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Rachel Chittick: There are so many opportunities in the Australian agricultural industry. As a mom of two young kids, I've got an 8 year old and a 10 year old. My experience in the agricultural industry and the dairy industry has been unbelievable. I encourage all parents to support their children if they show interest to branch out and develop and create a career in the agricultural industry.

Amelia Unthank: I started in the Ag Industry when I finished uni straight away, but my university degree wasn't a conventional Ag degree. I studied Bioengineering at the University of Melbourne down in the big city, and it wasn't until COVID when I worked in the sale yards for my dad that I really understood the opportunity for innovation in the Ag Industry. I could then apply my skills that I was learning in my degree.

Rachel Chittick: The main benefits of working in the Australian agricultural industry include meeting such incredible passionate individuals. Anybody who works in agriculture, in any form of agriculture, is just a different species, a different beast. They're connected to the land, they're connected to nature and animals, and they're passionate about the sustainability of that specific industry. Their way of life, their hard-working ethos, and their commitment to the sustainability of each of those agricultural industries is amazing.

Charles Chow: I find it to be quite refreshing every day as you go out to different properties; every operation is a different challenge.

From the scope of works that we do, we help to regenerate the land, like with the mining companies, we help to seed and make the land green again. That's very good. So, we're actually doing some good to our planet. So not necessarily just killing weeds for the farmers, we're doing a lot more than that as well.

Amelia Unthank: For me, the main benefits of working in the Ag industry are definitely the people and the impact that you have on those people and their operations with your day-to-day job. I like applying the skills that I'm passionate about and to know that, which is maths really in its core form, but when I apply that in Ag, I can ensure that the maths that I love to do is making a real impact on people, their production systems, and their livelihood.

Charles Chow: We need agriculture because everyone needs to eat, everyone needs to survive, and we need food, and we need farmers. And it's very hard to get the younger generation back into farming. But if we can actually bring something that's cool and high-tech and get the kids really engaged and involved, I think that's really exciting for us to actually, you know, bring it in. But parents definitely should support their kids to do it.

Charles Chow: And with the help of technologies, our younger generation will be more engaged as well by what we have already proven using drones, using AI, the kids are more interested in that. But if we bring that in with our traditional method of doing things, that's how we can get them re-engaged again in what we really need people to be engaged in.

Rachel Chittick: The Australian agriculture industry is in a very exciting space at the moment. There's a lot of development. I'm seeing lots of inter-departmental relationships, sharing of knowledge, sharing of experiences, and skill sets, whether it be internationally to Australia or just from around the country within each of the individual agricultural industry spaces to support one another, to grow and develop, diversify.

I think it's an exciting time for innovation, technology, and streamlining businesses to make sure that our footprint on the land is as minimal as possible. But the output for the production of that agricultural space is supreme.

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Stephanie: Hi, I'm Steph from Cowra High School.

Callie: Hi, I'm Callie, also from Cowra High School.

Angus: Hi, I'm Angus from Doonside Technology High School,

Stephanie: And we're here today to interview some people about their career paths within the agricultural industry.

Callie: What is something students may not know about the Ag Industry?

Amelia Unthank: The sky's the limit when it comes to careers in Ag, I think. Particularly with the rise of innovation. We need anything from data analytics, like computer science, all the way to marketing, accounting, HR, anything you can think of, anything that you desire, you can apply that in Ag.

Callie: What does your normal day-to-day look like in your job?

Amelia Unthank: My day-to-day Callie is very diverse. We have a bit of a hybrid setup. So I’m in Canberra once a week in the office with the team and then working from home a lot of the other days of the week. But amongst that, we’re often out on the farm collecting samples for our analysis and our product development. So I’m either doing that or I’m behind the desk crunching some numbers, running data analytics, and developing some algorithms.

Angus: What does your job look like day-to-day?

Charles Chow: Well, we get to do a lot of fun things. We’ll be out in the field quite a bit. We’ll work a lot with farmers and all sorts of different industries as well, from councils to mining companies, to day-to-day farmers. And we do a lot of training and educational work as well, so to train up more pilots in the fields.

Rachel Chittick: This is absolutely my dream role. I’ve always loved storytelling. So, personal impact stories, finding out who people are, what they do day-to-day, their life on the ground, and to get that message out to help them in some way or form. So, to be able to do that in the dairy industry it’s absolutely my dream role.

Callie: What skills have you learned in the workplace, and have you been able to apply them to your daily life?

Amelia Unthank: I think the key one that I can apply daily is the communication aspect. Getting on to field days, getting on farms, and speaking to producers and people about what we do, why we do it, and what their needs are on farm, has put me out of my comfort zone. But I think, yeah, it’s been a valuable skill to develop and very helpful both at work and in my daily life.

Angus: What kind of led you down to work in this pathway?

Charles Chow: Yeah, I’ve always had a passion about aviation. Drones just crossed path with me, and I saw the possibility of actually using this sort of technology in agriculture. As my family did have a recreational farm in Western Australia, and that got me, you know, my imagination thinking and go, oh, what about, you know, we can treat some of the current issues with the technologies and we’ll be able to help the farmers do things more efficiently.

Stephanie: Where would you like to see yourself progress in your career?

Rachel Chittick: Definitely stay in Ag. I’ve found my home. I feel so fortunate, so lucky to work in the industry, the organization, and the role that I work in. But I’ve only been with the organization for just under two years, and I’d really like to stay, grow, and develop further in the organization and work with other agencies within Ag. Probably in a higher-level strategic marketing communications role in that farmer-facing comms space. So really highlighting the voice of a farmer and the voice of the Ag industry for the benefit of future progression.

Callie: Why would you recommend a career in agriculture to students?

Amelia Unthank: You’re guaranteed impact day-to-day in your work. Impact not only on the Australian Ag industry and those that work in it, being your farmers, the animals, our country’s land, but also consumers. Basically, everyone in the country who’s consuming the food, the fibres, the products that come out of our industry.

Charles Chow: We need future farmers, and I think the farming population’s reducing. We need to bring our younger generations back into farming. And I think technology is one good way of doing it, and can be profitable as well. I’ve shown them quite a few of our operators examples. They have left school, looking at doing something that’s cool and high-tech, got into Ag drones, and are now making a decent living out of it.

Callie: And last but not least, if you could, what career advice would you have given yourself in your senior years of high school?

Amelia Unthank: I would definitely say, trust the process. I couldn’t have known that I’d be here five years out of school. In Ag, doing something I love and fulfilling my job each day. But I guess there was probably some more practical things I could do when I was in high school, maybe like talking to my careers advisor and that helped me get here with a bit more reassurance rather than just fully trusting the process. I think a combination of both is important.

Callie: Thank you for joining us today for this interesting insight into the agricultural industry.

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Jess Ryan: Working in agriculture is very rewarding for me because I know I get to play a part in sustaining and growing society.

I was grown into the agriculture industry, always loved it. And as I got older it was something that I always new that I wanted to do. Through high school I worked towards everything ag, and then when I left school, got into farming, learned a heap of new things.

Tom McPherson: My title is Accounts Officer and I currently work at a, uh, Ag Tech startup. I made a connection with someone in the industry and they told me about an opportunity that had opened up, that they were kind of looking for someone to fill, and I was lucky enough to get it.

Adrian Englefield: I loved driving tractors and everything to do with machinery, but that very quickly developed into an interest in plant sciences and botany, but also a passion for extension and the ability to take pieces of information that can support farmers and can support their production systems or even improve their production systems.

Jess Ryan: For my electives in Year 11 and 12 I ended up choosing ag. I did biology, ended up doing multimedia as well, which helped with my computer skills to do now.

Emma Pearson: My school didn’t offer primary industries, so while I was doing my Year 12, I also went to TAFE one day a week and studied my Cert 2 and Cert 3 in agriculture.

Tom McPherson: I study a Bachelor of Science – Agriculture at the University of Sydney. There’s a really good mix of kind of field work, practical work, but also theory.

Joe Kingston: So I left school at Year 10 and then I went studying agriculture at, uh, TAFE NSW. I started off with Certificate 4 and then went onto a Diploma of Agriculture. From there I got to learn all the latest farming techniques.

Dr. Lara Griffin: So most of my students will never, ever work on a farm, outside of doing a little bit of, you know, career work experience type of thing. I am expecting that their jobs could be in agribusiness and management and working with science and technology development, looking at new at new industries, consulting.

I think that the idea that agriculture is digging in the dirt is so far removed from reality now that we have so much automation, we have so many new technologies, particularly in our developed countries. What we need is people who are creating and challenging and want to look at how to do things differently.

Tom McPherson: I think the really great thing about ag is that you can control what you want to get out of it. That the myth of agriculture only being farming is definitely something that comes up a lot. I think I’m a good example of, you know, busting that myth. If you were to put me on a farm I wouldn’t have a clue, I wouldn’t know how to manage that farm, but, it’s about recognising that there are so many other avenues and opportunities in the industry for people that are looking to enter it.

Joe Kingston: Every day is a fun day really, um, that’s the only way I can sum it up, but basically moments that I really enjoy is the end of the day when the sun’s going down. You get to look over your property and your hard work.

Adrian Englefield: From somebody that’s been involved in the agricultural and horticultural sector for nearly 20 years now, my big bit of advice for students out there is that things can change, both for yourself and within the industry. So always be prepared to be flexible, and keep an eye out for those new technologies and new opportunities within any industry.

Tom McPherson: Probably the main piece of advice I would give would be really try to understand what it is, you know, you might be doing in a particular role. You know, some things sound really fancy but when you start them you might find out that you don’t actually enjoy them at all, um, or the other way round, it might sound boring and you really love it. Um, so I think do your research and really figure out what the options are.

Emma Pearson: I really suggest like going to either a TAFE, I also attended TOCAL College. It was absolutely amazing. Gives you hands on experiences in so many different fields of agriculture, that would be the best place to go and really find where your passion is in agriculture.

Jess Ryan: There is just so many gateways within the agricultural industry. It doesn’t matter where you started, it always leads you to somewhere else. It doesn’t matter if you start as tractor operator or a cattle handler or something like that, someone will always see your knowledge and your ability in the agricultural industry and always give you a shot, if you are willing to listen and show that you want to do it, and it will take you places, you’ve just got to be willing to push for it.