Gippsland dairy farmers were out in droves on June 7 for the annual GippsDairy Muster.
With a theme of ‘Rethink Develop Grow’, this year’s muster was held at Yarram with speakers, a panel of dairy farmers and workshops to milk for information and ideas.
The focus of the day was discussing how to identify common issues in the dairy industry — whether that be in the industry, in the workplace, or in the broader community — and how to relate those to food security.
Keynote speaker Oli Le Lievre brought attendees back to their first positive memory of agriculture, and inspired them to hold onto that emotional connection.
He seeks to inspire people to connect with farmers by retaining a positive memory of food or agriculture.
Farm consultant Matt Harms then brought dairy farmers David and Penny Conn, Tim Jelbart and Aubrey Pellet to the couch, talking about ownership structures, wishlists and how to manage and mentor people.
Tim Jelbart, who farms in the Inverloch district, employs 20 people (including himself) in 18 equivalent full-time positions.
In the 2023 year, this team worked a compounded 37,000 hours of labour.
Tim said it was important to identify skills gaps in the labour force, but the most important skill was interacting with people. Everything else was teachable.
“We provide opportunities for all our staff to participate in courses, and we make sure we allow the time on the roster to enable them to develop their skills,” he said.
“It’s also important to give people ownership in their tasks. We’re very clear on roles and responsibilities.
“If someone is interested in water management, I’ll roster them to that task. If they’re interested in pasture, that’s what they get to do.
“Knowing this, and rostering staff to these responsibilities, is also an opportunity to have a conversation with them.
“It’s a shared interest that then becomes a way to connect with them in the workplace.”
David Conn said their strategy was to invest in land and infrastructure, and provide managers with autonomy. The couple own dairy and beef farms in two states, with a mix of contract manager and sharefarmers in place.
“We provide a lot of autonomy to our managers and sharefarmers,” he said.
“We like to think we can run anything by computer and phone, wherever we are in the world.”
Nevertheless, he and Penny were available 24-7 to their managers and staff.
The couple has a basic philosophy about investing in infrastructure.
“We make sure we provide the capital to improve and maintain infrastructure on all our farms,” David said.
Aubrey Pellet talked about how important it was to understand cultural differences between people.
Some of those cultural differences were around work ethic, where employees were committed to the workplace; and on rostered days off were still in the workplace.
Some of the people he employs were born and raised outside Australia.
Tim Jelbart said one of the key learnings he took from the succession process that saw him become a director of and take over managing the family farm five years ago, was it is never too soon to have those conversations.
“We’re already having succession conversations,” he said.
The afternoon was a mix of breakout sessions, where blue sky ideas about the dairy industry were workshopped by participants.
Attendees discussed animal activists, climate change, the future of veterinarians in rural Australia, and how to retain staff and provide them with a pipeline (if they want it) towards wealth creation or at least stability in employment.