Future growth
The face of modern 最新糖心Vlogn agriculture
Emma Ayliffe isn鈥檛 your traditional farmer. The 28-year-old agronomist, company director and agri-tech innovator who owns and operates a 688-hectare property at Lake Cargelligo in Central West New South Wales represents agriculture鈥檚 next generation. Named 2021 Young Farmer of the Year for her innovation, passion and advocacy work, Emma is keen to attract bright minds that can bring new ideas and technologies to the ag industry.
鈥淧eople don鈥檛 realise the huge variety of jobs in agriculture,鈥 she said.聽"Farmers represent only around two per cent of ag jobs, but there are so many amazing roles and massive demand for skilled workers in fields people don鈥檛 always associate with agriculture 鈥 things like research, marketing, programming, sales and building new tech.聽鈥淭he growth and importance of tech in agriculture are incredible. We鈥檙e looking at driverless tractors, robot sprayers, irrigation automation, and so much more, and 最新糖心Vlog is at the forefront of it all.鈥
Emma鈥檚 family didn鈥檛 own a farm. They managed farms for other people, something which, alongside a childhood fascination with plants, sparked her desire to work in agriculture. As an agronomist, Emma describes herself as a 鈥榗rop doctor鈥, advising clients to improve their crops and their business. 鈥淚 just love growing crops and working with people to help their businesses get better and better,鈥 she said.
Thanks to a Cowan Grant Trust Roseworthy Campus Residency Scholarship, Emma was able to make the most of all the opportunities the Agronomy course could offer. 鈥淚t was massive, it was amazing, it made a huge difference and meant I could take full advantage of everything Roseworthy offered - a complete immersion in the course, but also in the life of Roseworthy, playing netball, inter-campus sports days and footy games, making so many lifelong friends, just everything,鈥 she said. 鈥淭he diversity was just amazing, and you got such a good grounding in genetics,聽biosciences and ag tech. The beauty of the course was the really good mix of things, from doing the genetic stuff in animals and a bit of livestock background courses, right through to crop science and then into production and whole farming systems.鈥
Graduating from Roseworthy in 2011 with a BSc in Agronomy and Crop Science, Emma described the first decade of her career as 鈥渁 series of happy accidents, the result of putting myself out there and going outside my comfort zone鈥. 鈥淏y proactively seeking new experiences, some of the most unlikely jobs became the best part of my CV,鈥 she said.
In the decade since her graduation, Emma certainly grasped every opportunity with both hands. She co-founded Summit Ag consultancy with Heath McWhirter when she was just 26, advising clients on irrigated cropping and dryland growing, cotton agronomy and research. A need to build longevity into the business and keep their employees busy during dry seasons led Emma and Heath to build Yacker 鈥 a free app that connects people in the agriculture sector. 鈥淲e realised we were often acting as a conduit for clients to share knowledge with each other so, knowing how farmers love to chat, we created Yacker as an agricultural phone directory where people could ask questions and share experience.鈥 More than 800 people now use the Yacker platform to share their knowledge and solve problems.
Emma and her partner are kept busy running their mixed cropping and sheep property at Lake Cargelligo. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good to get your hands dirty, and I always wanted to own a property. Plus, it means we are busy with the crop and harvesting just when most of our clients are too, so it鈥檚 traditionally a quiet time for consulting,鈥 she said. Clearly, Emma doesn鈥檛 plan on much聽quiet time. Combining work on her property with her role at Summit Ag requires what she describes as 鈥渁 fair bit of juggling聽and chaos.鈥
Emma wants to see Summit Ag continue to grow. Looking decades ahead, she dreams of increasing its client base to cover all of NSW, maybe even going national.聽But she sees no danger of tech replacing the role of agronomist. 鈥淒espite all the technological advances in say GM cropping systems saving on irrigation and spraying, the role of agronomist is still that human intervention, the logistics, the long-term planning聽and that important face to face element聽wof agriculture.鈥
As an ambassador for her industry, Emma is 鈥渟triving to elevate the role of women in agriculture鈥, inspiring others to 鈥済ive it a crack鈥 and discover the diversity of roles available, although 聽she does acknowledge that female role models have been few and far between. 鈥淲hile most of the time I try to work nine to five, Monday to Friday, 聽there are definitely some incredibly busy times, but聽this is not the case with all roles in ag, making a career in ag very compatible with family life.聽鈥淎s an agronomist, I essentially work in a service industry and arrange to talk to clients during normal business hours.
鈥淏y proactively seeking new experiences, some of the most unlikely jobs became the best part of my CV.鈥Emma Ayliffe
Most of the year, the farm work can be done around that too, as it鈥檚 very seasonal.聽鈥淭here are massive opportunities to build a career in ag. Everyone, regardless of gender, race or background should consider it because there are heaps of careers and immense opportunities as 最新糖心Vlog leads the way in growing food and fibre more efficiently.鈥
Story by Catherine Woods
Photos by Angus Northeast