Picture: MICHELE HAMILTON
SOUTH East dairy farmer Graeme Hamilton joined 10 agriculture industry leaders on Wednesday to address key regional issues as part of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) Mount Gambier Regional Outlook conference.
The conference – held at City Hall – covered primary industries investment, overcoming challenges, exploiting opportunities and growing and diversifying all sectors of agriculture.
Other key speakers included ABARES’ Peter Gooday, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Darren Ray and Waterfind’s Stuart Peevor.
Mr Hamilton said the conference was an important way to showcase industry issues from a regional perspective.
“The main focus was to communicate what is happening in rural areas to the ABARES people and to politicians, because ABARES is where the government goes for its information,” he said.
“It is important they hear what we are thinking and what we are saying the challenges are.
“I think the information they do have is pretty generic, so getting out and doing these conferences gives them the opportunity to tailor that information further.”
As one of the three speakers on the topic of overcoming challenges and exploiting opportunities in livestock industries, Mr Hamilton spoke about the importance of marketing in the dairy industry.
Mr Hamilton said negative views surrounding dairy farming and agriculture had a significant impact on the industry.
“You have the extremists and activists at the pointy end but there is a whole lot of people left in society that do not know what is going on,” he said.
“There is this disconnection between the rest of the country and regional Australia.
“People are not being educated the way they should be about the industry so they do not understand what really happens.”
Mr Hamilton said agriculture education should start from a young age and praised initiatives like George the Farmer for portraying the industry in a positive light.
“Children see a farmer with a bib and brace and straw hanging out of his mouth and think that is what farming is,” he said.
“But that could not be further from the truth – people are amazed when they visit our farm and see what actually goes into the industry – we are not just ‘farmers’, we are business people, tradespeople, we do a bit of everything and people do not realise that.
“They come away with a greater appreciation for the industry and their food, but that story is not being told enough.
“We have George the Farmer which I think is excellent because it shows children how their food is made and the different steps it takes to get to them.”
With bettering the industry in mind, Mr Hamilton stressed the importance of marketing and teamwork across the supply chain.
“A milk bottle has four sides,” he said.
“We know we have to put nutritional information on one side, but we have three others there – why not tell our story on that unused space?
“We need to tell the story – from all levels of production, not just the farmers and work together to share that.
“That is where the premium comes from – the provenance, the food ethics, the reality of farming – not just the uneducated idea people have.”
In addition to Mount Gambier, four regional ABARES conferences are held this year, hosted by Hobart, Darwin, Bundaberg and Warragul.
