Young Beef Producers’ Forum 2021
The Young Beef Producers’ Forum is always an inspiring, empowering and highly educational event, and this year certainly lived up to expectations. I found this year’s theme ‘Managing Milestones’ very relevant to today’s global climate with the focus being on celebrating and acknowledging milestones along our way to success.
We were lucky enough to kick off the event, as Top Country sponsored the official Meet and Greet at the Club Hotel on Wednesday Night. It was great to meet so many young beef producers’, and to be able to chat with them about what our team do here.
The attendees at the forum were fortunate to hear from industry leaders about how they came to be where they are now. A common message among many of the speakers was that it is important to celebrate your achievements as milestones but also to acknowledge the hardships you have conquered as milestones along your journey to success. A few of the messages that really drove this home for me came from Louise Fitzgerald-Baker from The Pink Hard Hat who said that “it is not the event that defines you, its what you do with it” and from Shane Webcke, the QLD Safety Ambassador, who mentioned that “milestones are all of the things. Even the tough ones, they are what get you to the good ones”.
Shane Webcke was a standout speaker for me. Learning about how the death of Shane’s father affected his career path from aspiring shearer and primary producer to football star, sports presenter, and QLD safety ambassador, really drove home the message around respecting and acknowledging the challenges in your life.
Shane’s messages about safety were invaluable and I believe that everyone could benefit from hearing his story. Shane highlighted that we need to untrain our minds to believe that nothing will happen to us, and we need to remember that complacency and broken procedures are the cause of most accidents. I think that the most important message that Shane had to share with us is that “Safety is about making sure that the people you love don’t have to pick up the pieces when your gone”
Another standout speaker was Beau North, recipient of the Lachlan Hughes Foundation scholarship, who managed to keep the whole room captivated by his story. Beau and Kat made their dream of owning their own property into a reality through hard work and the sheer determination to achieve their goal. By overcoming obstacle after obstacle and not taking no for an answer Beau and Kat now own a property at Sarina that they are converting from sugar cane to grazing using regenerative practices.
There were countless take home messages from each of the speakers and if I am being honest, they were all standouts. Summarising the key messages from each of the speakers would take me a week so I am going to leave you will a few quotes I managed to jot down.
I would encourage all aspiring beef leaders and producers to attend the Young Beef Producers’ Forum. The lessons you learn will be invaluable and the people you network with may just help you throughout your career.
Congratulations to the Future Farmers Network and the Young Beef Producers’ Committee for another amazing event.
— Sara Darrow, Nutritionist
“The standard you walk past is the standard you accept” – Packhorse
“The body will go where the mind will take you” – Shane Webcke, Queensland Safety Ambassador
“Run straight, tackle hard” – Stephen O’Brian, CEO, Mort & Co
“Data is like garbage. You better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.” – Emma Black, Black Box Co
“Milestones are made from attempting & failing and reattempting” – Selwyn Maller, Hamilton Park Wagyu
“If you are going to believe a forecast, believe the dry one. Hope is not a plan.” – Chelsea Jarvis, Senior Scientist, University of Southern QLD
“If your heifers are not your best genetics then you are going backwards” – Enoch Bergman, Veterinarian, Swans Veterinary Services
“The opportunity exists to live a life bigger than yourself” – Louise Fitzgerald-Baker, The Pink Hard Hat