Suburban woman destined for dairy

Young South Australian dairy farmer Ebony King spoke at the Next Gen Go-getters panel at the Herd ’19 conference in Bendigo in March.

Ebony was one of three young panel members who provided a practical farming perspective and explained their career goals.

Ebony, 20, grew up in suburbia near McLaren Vale but her stock agent grandfather Allan Peglar and herd improvement uncle David Peglar made sure she knew about and loved the dairy industry.

“I’ve always loved cows and had farms in the background,” she said.

After completing an agricultural course through TAFE, Ebony worked on a dairy farm near Clare Valley before moving home to the Fleurieu Peninsula nearly two years ago to work with Wes Hurrell at Yankalilla as assistant herd manager focussing on calf rearing and breeding.

“Watching the herd grow through genomics has been awesome,” Ebony said.

“Every result we get back, we step it up.”

Wes has given Ebony the chance to develop industry connections through DairySA discussion groups, the Track Ag Consulting Group and the Next Gen challenge.

Ebony wants to work in the herd improvement industry and hopes ultimately to be providing independent breed advice to farmers.

She is a strong advocate of the dairy industry and is keen to educate the broader community about the benefits, resilience and caring nature of farmers.

Ebony shows cattle at the Royal Adelaide Show and has worked with Dairy Australia’s Legendairy initiative to host people at the show’s dairy exhibit.

“I love the resilience and family strength of the dairy industry with everything going on with the milk price and environmental factors,” she said.

“The last two years farming with Wes and having those networking opportunities has really helped me to pursue my goals,”