AgVic Talk Season 4

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Supplying fresh food like cut pumpkin direct to supermarket shelves around the country requires sophisticated packaging equipment to ensure it lasts and looks great when it gets there.

Drew Radford:

G'day, I'm Drew Radford and being able to operate that equipment, and importantly, support it requires skills that not so long ago farmers like Nathan Free would've never have dreamed he needed to recruit for. And to add another level of complexity to his farming operation, Nathan changed the property to organic some 12 years ago. It presented a range of opportunities and challenges. To discuss them, Nathan joins us for this AgVic Talk podcast. Thanks for your time.

Nathan Free:

Thanks Drew.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, whereabouts is Wattle Organic Farms located and what do you produce on the property?

Nathan Free:

Our properties are based up near Lake Boga, up on the Murray River. We grow a range of stone fruits so, plums, nectarines, peaches, and apricots. We have a small line of figs we do early in the year and two of our main crops are pumpkins, both Kent and butternut pumpkin, and broccoli as well.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, that's a reasonable range of produce. And I think when people hear organic, they often think, "Well, it's a fairly small niche scale." What sort of volumes and number of people are you employing and area are you covering with all that?

Nathan Free:

Our products, say for this time of year, we're punching out about four and a half thousand crates a week, which probably works around at 25- 30,000 individual units of organic produce. Either broccoli on trays at 500 grams or cut slices of Kent pumpkin, or butternut pumpkins cut in half and they're all wrapped up and delivered to supermarket shelves from Melbourne all the way up to Townsville. So, all the eastern seaboard. So, it keeps our teams busy and it keeps a few other industries around us through the supply chain busy as well.

Drew Radford:

Well, I'd imagine it would keep them busy Nathan. And it's a family business as well so, what sort of labour force figures are we talking about throughout the year? I imagine it ebbs and flows.

Nathan Free:

There's some ebbs and flows. We're very busy here at the moment. We're still in the middle of broccoli planting as well as picking up pumpkin, picking broccoli and also running a packing shed. Really quite a modest crew of about 12 to 15 workers in that packing shed, which they work through Monday to Friday. So, it's a pretty consistent time of year for us.

Nathan Free:

Once we get all the pumpkins up and in storage, those staff will start pruning stone fruit trees or continue with the harvest of broccoli as well. So, it's a pretty consistent gang of workers. We've been really fortunate that we've partnered up with an Afghani family that we've had working with us for about 15 years now. So, we've got a lot of trained staff and a lot of people that, when it comes to pumpkin season, they already know what to do. They know how to care for the products. They know how to get them into the bins as safely as possible and able to train up those other staff that just come on spec for a big day or for a different task.

Nathan Free:

So, really quite fortunate and it's really been good having a loyal support base of workers so we can keep growing the business.

Drew Radford:

That's actually a really important point, isn't it? Because it can be incredibly draining constantly chasing staff to get jobs done. Particularly in the current climate.

Nathan Free:

Yeah, and a lot of farmers are facing very big challenges at the moment. Holding a working crew, but holding a work crew that has experience, or will stay around to help them out through the seasons, or have experience in the certain products that they might be growing. Because it's a lot different to pick an apple compared to a cherry. It's a lot different to pick a cherry compared to cleaning broccoli to put in a pre-packaged unit.

Nathan Free:

So, you've got to be really careful that there is extra costs around for growers at the moment having to train those staff up regularly. Because of such a big throughput of workers and they're really hard to find. And so, a lot of these new PALM scheme of getting workers into the country on a more consistent basis will be really beneficial for farmers and the whole supply chain to be able to get that product off efficiently and quality as well. And then get the product to the customer.

Drew Radford:

Nathan you're a fully certified organic grower. How did that journey start? Because you're third generation, what was the reason behind the decision to become organic?

Nathan Free:

As a farming family, we're always had a passion for looking after soil, looking after trees, and making sure that we're doing the best thing for all parts of our production system. Not that any other farmer isn't, but we were putting extra composts out. We're using a lot more biologically active ingredients in through the water, or applied to the foliage itself, to try and enhance the growth of the tree to try and get more flavors and more shelf life out of our products.

Nathan Free:

But that all come at a cost and so, we didn't have quite the margins that a conventional grower just utilizing specifically NPK systems was able to do. So, when the opportunity come up that Coles or Woolworths at the time were looking for organic stone fruit and wanting to partner up with someone. We kind of jumped at the opportunity because that was a way that where we could continue going down that road at keeping and utilizing composts and other things. And to be able to grow the healthy tree and grow the flavourful fruit that we wanted to, and have a business where we could make the margins to keep upgrading and keep working on that side of the business.

Nathan Free:

So, with getting the stone fruit in and going along well, that opened doors. And we expanded out our vegetable growing business as well so that we could take option on that relationship with our different market partners and grow more crops, and employ more people all year round so we could keep a good, consistent business running.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, that's quite a long term vision though, isn't it? Because you just don't put in some stone fruit and they start producing. This was a long term game for you.

Nathan Free:

Yeah, and we're continually improving our offering in stone fruit. Only last week, we received some new varieties of apricots from overseas. So, we've got some other trees of them here that we're going to build up and start planting out really new and exciting varieties that have got high red blush and high flavour, but also ship well and store well at the consumer's end as well.

Nathan Free:

So, it's a continual road of development, but the abilities of organics made it viable for our business to be able to go forward very boldly and pick up these new things to be able to give better offerings to the consumers.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, has there been any noticeable change in the property over those 12 years? Do you look at it and go, "We're seeing things flourishing that didn't happen before."? Or am I romanticizing the notion of turning organic?

Nathan Free:

No, you're definitely not romanticizing. We've just seen a lot better resilience from the plants that we do grow. We really noticed an uplift in soil health, obviously it come by a little mistake. We had a few years ago, there's a block of peaches, quite a heavy crop on this block of peaches and we got to harvest. We'd harvested the trees and we'd come back and it was, maybe another month later, we kind of noticed, well, they're looking a bit wilty or they're not looking as vibrant as they should do. And went back to the computer system, they hadn't actually been watered for 10 weeks and they still got a full crop off them and they still had really great quality fruit, really saleable fruit.

Nathan Free:

And we were just excited by that in a way, not the fact that we made a mistake, but more the fact that, well, there's obviously more biology. There's more reserves to be able to hold water in the soil by all the applications and compost we'd been doing and mid row crops and stuff like that to enhance that soil and get more storage in there. So, that's just one little story that really proved to us that we're going down the right path.

Nathan Free:

And like this year, we have a pretty basic production of pumpkins. We prepare the soil and spend a lot of time at doing that, but we put the pumpkin seed in the ground into a balanced soil and we're not required to spray with any fungicides or anything like that. The allowed ones we do have in organics, the plants keep thriving. They've set really nice crops, even in some pretty trying weather this year. So, having that resilience in the plant is really proving dividends for us at the moment and really keeps showing us every day that we're definitely going down the right path and it is a sustainable way to grow food. So, it makes us quite excited.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, I can hear the excitement in your voice. You're very passionate about what you do. Did you always intend on joining the family business? And what is it about horticulture that makes you want to continue on in it?

Nathan Free:

I'm really passionate about the industry. And obviously from a young age, as soon as my legs were long enough to find the clutch in the tractor, or in the little Mini Moke that I had to first up drive around the farm, I always had a passion for it. And it's quite an exciting industry to be a part of being able to use water, nutrition, and the right varieties to grow our product.

Nathan Free:

But the one extra thing you get in horticulture is you can take it straight all the way to the consumer. And that's been the part I got a bit my teeth at, and worked hard at that in our pack house, and talking to our customers to find out what they wanted and how we could add value to their supply chain. So, that was quite exciting. And that's why we take the product from the seed, from the paddock into the packing shed, prepare it for our consumers.

Nathan Free:

So, as I mentioned before, cut to pumpkin and cut butternut, because that's what the consumers want at the store. They don't want to have to carry around a big Kent pumpkin. So, we cut it, we seal it here, we get it cold, and we put it around the country ourselves. And knowing that the consumers had that experience, we know what we are sending, we know it's good products that we know they're as tasty as they can be. And that's what kind of wakes you up in the morning. And even though we were only planting the broccoli, or we've got to weed some pumpkin plants, or we've got to keep working soil to prepare for the next season, that's all a part of that same supply chain. So, that's what keeps us excited.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, this was quite a change in direction for the family property some 12 years ago. And I imagine that required a lot of new knowledge. How have you gone about changing your skills?

Nathan Free:

As a farm we've always been probably very adaptive to change. We might have been a little bit late to the precision agriculture, tractors with GPS and whatnot. But outside of that, we've always been at different field days, researching different things. And I was very fortunate five years into our journey to be able to do a Nuffield on sustainable organics. So, being able to travel around the world and experience different types of organic agriculture and still you pick up new and exciting knowledge. Even from say cereal farmers, or a dairy farm that's using organic practices. We can bring that back here and into our horticultural blocks and see how that can develop.

Nathan Free:

But it's all about picking up on a good rotation using sound cover crops and having that long term approach to growing organic crops. We can't keep the block I'm sitting beside right now as a pumpkin block. It won't go into production again until next winter. So, it'll have the rest of this winter off, summer off and then we'll start planning what we can do there with a few cover crops and our additions of compost. So, we need to respect our soils, look after our soils and continually get that knowledge so that we can see different methods to keep building it up rather than taking away that soil health.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, in terms of that knowledge, you've also got another role. You're pretty busy on your property, I'd imagine, but you're also President of Horticulture for the VFF. Why did you get involved with that role and why is it important to you?

Nathan Free:

The industry's given me so much over all the years I've been in it. Which really hasn't been that long compared to a lot of other people that are in the horticultural industry. But it was my way of being able to give back. Obviously running a production business that supplies say to supermarkets and export markets. I feel I've got a pretty good handle on what the issues are in the industry and what problems certain growers are facing.

Nathan Free:

So, I felt that I wanted to give back to the industry and I found this was a good way. Obviously we have a big labour issue at the moment, which takes up most of our time at the VFF and across the board in this industry. So, hopefully when we can kick some more goals in that area and get a better reliable workforce for the growers in Victoria, and obviously the country as well. We can start battering down on some of the other big issues that we can solve to keep farmers viable and keep them profitable so that we can keep growing this wonderful produce that we grow in Victoria, and keep doing it for generations to come.

Drew Radford:

Earlier on, you mentioned you've got these specialized packaging systems in place. Was that particularly helpful during COVID? Because we shifted towards a bit of direct delivery.

Nathan Free:

Yeah, well inside our packing shed, we've got our machines that wrap that product up for us. Because again, none of us really like wrapping presents and it's generally a mad rush the night before Christmas to be able to get it done. So, we didn't see why on our property, we needed to be hand wrapping any of our products for the consumers. Because one, it was adding cost to that product. And two, we couldn't get the capacity to be able to get that product to market, or enough of that product to market, to run our business.

Nathan Free:

So, we've implemented some automatic wrapping machines that kind of gets that product through the system a lot quicker and also checks its weights and make sure there's no metal contamination in it to make sure our customers are always safe. Having that good access to other products and suppliers of things during COVID where we ran a little boxed business. And that was very popular where people can come and pick it up from the farm or we'd deliver them into town.

Nathan Free:

And it was just adapting to that market. People were doing a lot more things at home. And like we've noticed, even the development in our butternut line where we are kind of selling a lot more of our butternut whole with just a sticker on them rather than cutting them in half and wrapping them up. So, I think during COVID, people have maybe got back in the kitchen again and cooking stuff up for themselves rather than maybe eating out as much as they used to.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, it sounds like technology's playing an ever increasing role in your business. But that must present issues as well though, in terms of ensuring that you've got the workforce with the appropriate skills.

Nathan Free:

Yeah, and that's why the industry's ever changing. And a practice that we were doing yesterday is not technically the one we might be doing tomorrow due to weather. Or as we were talking about before, gaining extra knowledge and seeing that was an old thing to do, or that was something that wasn't, helping us out at a hundred percent. So, having key staff in our production system that are trained up in using GPS agriculture in the paddock, or being able to utilize the expensive and automatic wrapping machines that are in the packhouse.

Nathan Free:

But also making sure down to the basics that the right cleaning products were put in the right bottles to make sure that the benches are clean, and sanitary, and hygienic so that we don't have any other issues come through the business. So, it's making sure everyone's looking at the right result. And even though you're only wiping down the bench at the end of the day or you're allowed to run the tractor outside all those jobs are very important to the end result we need on the farm. So, making sure everyone knows that key goal, it keeps us going forward pretty strongly.

Drew Radford:

Nathan, what do you think are some of the opportunities for people considering a role in the horticulture sector?

Nathan Free:

Oh, opportunities are huge, and the industry isn't what it was yesterday, and it's going to be a hundred percent different nearly tomorrow as well. There's a lot of different roles in this industry, but it's just probably getting that perception that people have thinking that farmers are out there with a hook hoe or a shovel. Or they're out there tramping around in wet grass all day, that's all you get to do in an agricultural, horticultural business.

Nathan Free:

We need to be able to showcase the technologies we have in the industry. We need to showcase how today we've got a pumpkin sitting here, but tomorrow afternoon it's sitting on a supermarket shelf. We've got to be able to show that system, so people can be proud of it like we are and excited to get in the industry and work on getting training in certain things.

Nathan Free:

I don't think our next employee we get here will be just say, an admin person or a tractor driver. It'll be someone that's got a lot of knowledge in electrical systems. Because that's a key in our business now. That's a big risk for us because we are quite remote. The technologies we use in the packing shed come from Spain. So, having training on those machines will probably be something that we'll really need shortly. Because The day where we're broken down is the day we're not supplying product and then we're not consistent.

Nathan Free:

So, we need to make sure we're on top of everything. And having the right training courses through the TAFE systems or privately based ways of getting education in sustainable agriculture, in organics, in technologies that we all use I think will be lifting up pretty quickly. Because at the end of the day, everyone's got to eat so, we've got to make our supply chain as efficient as good as possible.

Drew Radford:

Well Nathan, you're doing a fabulous job of making sure that people do eat. And it sounds like you're taking your business from strength to strength. Nathan Free, Managing Director of Wattle Organic Farms, Thank you for taking the time and spending it with us for this AgVic Talk podcast.

Nathan Free:

Thank you very much, Drew.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgVic Talk. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. We would love to hear your feedback. So, please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release contact agriculture, Victoria, or your consultant before making any changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria authorised by the Victorian government Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Aiming to grow the best produce is arguably the aim for every horticulture grower. It can all be for naught though, if you can't employ anyone to help you harvest it. In a very tight labour market, horticulture farmers are being encouraged to look carefully at how they recruit and to move towards developing a model around workforce planning. To find more about how horticulture business can attract and retain staff, we're joined in this AgVic Talk podcast by human resource consultant with Meridian Agriculture, Ben Reeve. Thanks for your time.

Ben Reeve:

You're welcome.

Drew Radford:

Ben, you specialise in agricultural workforce recruitment and HR. Can you tell us about your involvement in workforce planning in horticulture?

Ben Reeve:

Yeah. Look, have been involved with the industry as a whole over 17 years now and that's been focused across a broad number of commodity areas – livestock, cropping production, some intensive industries like dairy and pork production, as well as viticulture and horticulture. Working with businesses ranging from small family businesses, right through to large corporate structures as well. And over this last year, been working with Agriculture Victoria on this workforce planning program where we've been understanding the issues and I guess getting a situational overview of what's been happening for growers, what their experience has been with a challenging harvest. And look, if I can summarise, I reckon the summary is that we found that businesses are generally operational in nature or have been or have been blessed to be able to be operational in nature and now have the opportunity to really hone in and develop skills across workforce planning.

Drew Radford:

Ben, just for a bit of clarity, what do you mean by operational in nature?

Ben Reeve:

The sector's been exceptionally lucky to be able to have access to a steady number of potential employees, mainly through backpackers or people traveling around Australia. Because of COVID, the international and state borders have been shut, which it's been challenging for people to be able to find staff, which is the largest and the biggest challenge facing the sector. From an operational versus strategic perspective, that's meant that pre-COVID, that staff may have been just showing up at the front gate or a simple advert has been able to attract a number of people. And yet now businesses need to be a little bit more strategic to make sure that when they are recruiting staff or attracting people that they're a little bit more intentional to make sure that they can attract these people in a really tight market.

Drew Radford:

What you're talking about there, Ben, I guess, can be summarised in the term workforce planning, is that correct?

Ben Reeve:

Yeah, absolutely. You will have heard the saying, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. The more prepared you are and the ability you have to plan, the more likely you are to succeed. And with the shortage of staff available for grower businesses, there is some flexibility required so they're able to adapt to different situations which they face. Because the work is seasonal in nature, it requires significant focus and attention at these peak periods so planning ahead enables these businesses to operate in a less stressful situation. A lot of growers have been focusing on using labour hire companies and they're one source available to them. But this is about saying to growers, "Well because these labour hire companies are not always fulfilling your needs, you need to ask yourself, should I be relying on labour hire companies as my only source of recruiting staff? And if they're not the only source, what other aspects or opportunities do I have to me?"

Ben Reeve:

It's about having a backup plan should plan A fail. It goes a little bit beyond attracting staff as well, Drew, because from a human resource management perspective, attracting staff is but one area of the human resource management function. It's about understanding what sort of workers you will need and when and how you'll source but then to consider the other areas behind that. We've recommended to growers that they need to consider drafting job adverts, having them ready to go so that when they're needed, they're not stressing about “what wording do I need to use”? They've already got them together in advance. Having some templates together for employment agreements, having things like induction manuals and checklists already prepared so that at these peak periods, when the stress is on and these periods require the attention where they need them, right on the harvest, right on managing staff rather than doing all these background things, focus on these tasks during quiet times and prepare for them, plan in advance so that when they are needed, you can call on them to help things go more smoothly.

Drew Radford:

I guess Ben, a lot of growers for a long time have been very used to handing over a lot of this responsibility, paperwork, administration to labour employment agencies because I get there's quite a bit for a producer to get their head around. They're focused on producing the fruit, not being an employer but maybe they need to change their focus.

Ben Reeve:

Absolutely. And again, nothing wrong with labour hire companies, but this is about businesses taking control of the things that they can control and worrying about the things within their sphere of control. There's plenty of things that every business around Australia, whether they're growing fruit and vegetables or making chairs or carpet or whatever it is, things that we can worry about beyond our control. Government regulations, what's the government doing here? What's the industry doing here? What's my neighbour doing? When we're encouraging growers to think about what they can do within their business, understand key aspects within their business that they can manage, they can control, they can change, adapt or grow so that they can set themselves up for the future.

Drew Radford:

Ben, I'd imagine also that employees, particularly in the backpacker circuit, they would talk amongst themselves and I would imagine if you set yourself up as an employer of preference, that word would spread so it would pay to get your head around this sort of control surely.

Ben Reeve:

Absolutely. In a really tight labour market, employer brand really, really helps. And your employer brand is made up of various things, from the very reason you run the business, what are you trying to achieve? The values in which you embrace as part of your business structure and operations and how you operate, right through to how you treat your staff. Is this a great place to work? Do they value staff? Is this a fun place to work? Or am I just being yelled at, at all times? Those sort of things get communicated quite widely, absolutely. Employer branding is a really important part. We've been communicating with growers, particularly when they're putting together things like adverts, promoting their business, is to consider what sets them apart? What are the key aspects about their business that they know that workers want to see?

Ben Reeve:

And that might be, they've got great facilities, that things like shade cloth over areas so that people can work in a comfortable environment, a great sense of community and camaraderie within the staff, as well as being able to pay both adequately and in a really tight competitive market where salary has been one of the key factors, why workers are moving from business to business to make sure that the salary is fair for the work that's being supplied.

Drew Radford:

Ben, what would your take home message be for horticultural businesses when it comes to workforce planning?

Ben Reeve:

Drew, we've been working with some businesses one on one and have been able to identify a number of areas where they can improve what they do to both attract staff and work with their staff. Every business we've spoken to wants to be a great employer and genuinely wants to provide a great place for people to work. Often, it's just about being able to take a step back and consider what it looks like from the worker's perspective. When you work within a business every day, you lose that objectivity around what's important to the other people around you because you have your intention.

Ben Reeve:

We need to do this and you're thinking about what's happening next week and all the activities and the challenges that a business faces. But by taking the opportunity to step back and to consider, what's it like when somebody walks in here on day one? How do we treat them? What does that look like? When they see our job advert, what are they thinking about our business? How do we look compared to our neighbour next door? What's the perspective of somebody as they're talking and they're working with us when they talk to the neighbour next door or the worker next door, when they talk to them down the street or wherever it is? We're really encouraging businesses to consider, what does that experience look like for the worker from whoa to go, from the advert right through to the end of the harvest season when you're shaking hands and thanking them and then keeping in touch and hoping they come back for the next season as well.

Drew Radford:

Ben, some great tips there and things to focus on. There's a lot though to consider. Where can businesses go to find out more information or resources to help them with planning their workforce?

Ben Reeve:

Yeah, absolutely. We want to encourage all growers to visit the Victorian harvest page on the Agriculture Victoria website and that's agriculture.vic.gov.au/bigharvest. We have recorded a webinar that explores these things that we've discussed in a lot more detail and that will be available to growers on that website. And we've also put together a workbook for businesses to work through. It considers all areas of the human resource management function and it gives businesses the opportunity to objectively review what they're doing. What's working really well? Areas where they may want to improve or need to improve will come out of working through the workbook. And as a result of that, businesses can put together an action plan focusing on areas where they can improve their business over time. It's a really useful resource.

Drew Radford:

Ben, it sounds like a really important resource as well, particularly in such a tight labour market. Thank you for sharing your insights. Ben Reeve, HR consultant with Meridian Agriculture, thank you for joining us for this AgVic Talk podcast.

Ben Reeve:

Thanks for the opportunity.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgVic Talk. For more episodes in this series, find us and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We would love to hear your feedback so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic talk. Keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Sunraysia is one of the great food bowls of the nation. However, crucial to its success, are the estimated 15,000 seasonal workers who pick crops and maintain orchards. G’day, I'm Drew Radford. And while the prosperity of the region depends upon these workers, they're usually from overseas and more often than not, have English as a second language. This can put them on the back foot from everything, from finding accommodation, right through to getting COVID-19 vaccinations. A new program though, is helping change that. In the process, it's creating a more stable workforce and it's making the region a destination of choice for seasonal workers. The Pastoral Care program is run by the Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council, otherwise known as SMECC. Corey Iredale is coordinator of the program and he joins us for this AgVic talk podcast. Corey, thanks for your time.

Corey Iredale:

Thank you, man. Very, very happy to be here.

Drew Radford:

Corey, I understand you are from a banking background, but you're doing something quite different now. You've got a nice phrase about banking versus your current work. What is that?

Corey Iredale:

Yeah. So for me, the work I do at SMECC, it fills up my heart and not my bank account. So for me, people over profits is always the way to go. In my world, it has to be that way. It probably wasn't once upon a time, but I've learned so much about life and myself. People first is my mantra.

Drew Radford:

It's a wonderful mantra, Corey. And also you were born and bred, literally, for generations from that part of the world. You're in Mildura. It sounds like you got a bit of skin in the game in terms of really helping the town and the community out as well.

Corey Iredale:

Most definitely. My family, sort of roots just go back quite a way. And my great grandmother was, I'll have to say allegedly, the first white person born in the town. She was born, a set of twins, and unfortunately one of the twins never made it, but her father was Dr. Abramowski who was the first doctor here, back in the late 1880s. Quite a unique man. He wrote a book called the fruitarian diet. So he wanted everyone to eat fruit and get healthy, probably before his time in the 1880s. He was an interesting man, that's for sure.

Drew Radford:

Wow. That's quite a history of giving to the local community. And now, you are involved in a project which helps with seasonal workers in that area. Corey, how important are seasonal workers for getting crops off?

Corey Iredale:

Without seasonal workers, fruit doesn't get picked. It just simply doesn't. There's no other way to say it. We need the farmer to grow and create the fruit and the veggies, obviously. But without people to assist in picking and getting the crops off, the crops don't get off, farmer doesn't get paid. He doesn't spend money in the town, the town doesn't prosper and so on and so on. So without seasonal workers, doing what they do in our region, our town would be in significant trouble, I would've thought. So we value what these guys do immensely. I know I do, and a few of my mates, are blockies, or farmers, they're the same. Without seasonal workers, no fruit gets picked.

Drew Radford:

Those seasonal workers, I imagine that's a make up of different backgrounds and nationalities and also different objectives too. I guess the backpackers and some are doing this more for, "Well, this is the way I make a dollar."

Corey Iredale:

Absolutely. And the great thing now is that there is work available in the Sunraysia district and in Swan Hill as well, and there's work available. I think we've got it down to 48 to 50 weeks of the year. So effectively you could come to Mildura during January, start the table grape picking. That goes through until May, so just finishing now. They have a couple of weeks break and then pruning starts. Pruning runs through until later in the year, maybe August, September. Then, there's leaf plucking starts in October. There is work all through and in between, that's just table grapes. So in between, we've got the citrus that begins in May and runs through till about October. There's dried fruit, as well. So there's work available on dried fruit properties.

Corey Iredale:

Then the wine grape industry. That's another whole separate thing. That is more mechanized, nowadays. What we do now is that, in the 80s and maybe 90s, that was a European based workforce, the Turkish people, the Greek people bought properties. But now, what we have is the Pacific Islander community and that's Tonga, that's Samoa, all of that group of islands. So that's one workforce. The other is the Southeast Asian, primarily, so Thai, Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian, that's another workforce, and they operate independently of one another, but on the same farm. So I guess what we do also, just to add in and finish that off, is that there's a number of labor hire contractors. Generally, the Islander ones will hire their own people, and the Asian, also the same. So they're operating, I believe there's 70 or 80 or maybe 90 labor contractors registered in our district. So it's quite a lot of people to employ, maybe five to 9,000 upwards of... I've heard the number of 15,000, if you include the Robinvale area, as well.

Drew Radford:

That's a lot of people needed each year, Corey, to pick produce and maintain plantings and vineyards, et cetera. What are some of the issues then faced by employers and workers?

Corey Iredale:

I would suggest that the main issue right now is accommodation. We simply don't have enough beds to support the labor force that we have. We were very fortunate here at SMECC to be funded for an accommodation facility. So we had an old building. We've got some state government funding, which is we're so fortunate to have received. And that's now housing, I think right now, there's 46 Samoan workers in there. So that's safe, equitable accommodation for seasonal workers. Without that, let's say 50 people that have nowhere to live, and if they were to live somewhere, that were going to end up on a shed floor somewhere. So there's a new project in the wings, which will hopefully continue that accommodation. Accommodation, mate, is the biggest issue. There's just a lack of.

Drew Radford:

I imagine there's other issues though, just even attracting people to the region, and then probably, language issues, as well as cultural issues. What are some of those other things that may be problematic getting people to the area?

Corey Iredale:

So within the Pastoral Care project, the object was just to get out and meet workers and see what the problems were. So we had two staff in Mildura, two staff in Swan Hill. Initially, they were finding issues, certainly communication issues, and language issues. Not being able to go to Vic Roads and say, "Oh, my licence is about to expire. How do I get a new one?" Or "I'm on an international licence. How do I get a Victorian licence?" Things like that. Even as basic things as, "I don't feel well. I need to go to the doctor."

Corey Iredale:

And obviously, we know that COVID kicked in March last year, nearly in line with this project, sorry, the year before. But we were working through and found that there were many, probably, COVID infected sick people on farm, that just thought, "If I don't work today, I'm not going to get paid. So I've got to work." Their object is to come out here for three to six months. Work hard, get paid, send the money home and go home and have a better life. And if you are sick, you can't do that.

Corey Iredale:

So we found the need for significant support in that COVID space. We decided that we need to start getting people vaccinated. We undertook that ourselves, in conjunction with our team at Agriculture Victoria. We said to them, "Look, we'd like to work on getting people vaccinated." Because they just weren't, wasn't happening. And ended up just over 2,300 seasonal workers we got vaccinated by getting out and getting on our bikes and finding them. Running vaccination popup clinics at SMECC, here, because we found that a lot of seasonal workers didn't want to go to the big community halls and the fancy looking medical precincts. They didn't want to go there, but they felt comfortable at SMECC.

Drew Radford:

So this led on to a bigger program, the Pastoral Care program. Can you describe what that program's doing, beyond important projects like COVID, what's its overall brief and what are you doing?

Corey Iredale:

We started really just to reach out and connect with seasonal workers and find out if they had any issues. And if so, how could we help with them? That rolled into the COVID element. And then beyond that, we are really becoming advocates for seasonal workers. For things like... If you imagine that you came here a couple of years ago to start working on table grapes, you've got your Medicare card, your Medicare card expires. If you have practically no English, how do you go and say, "Oh, my Medicare has expired. I need a new one." So we're doing that sort of thing. We're working really hard in translating a lot of information into different languages and getting it out. We use social media like WhatsApp and there's a one called line, L-I-N-E, that's quite big in the Southeast Asian community.

Corey Iredale:

So what we do is we translate information and it might be, COVID updates, for example. It might be, "You no longer need to wear a mask when you go to the supermarket." We translate that. We send that out through our network. My staff has about 300 or nearly 300 people on her WhatsApp group. And in one little message, she can reach 300 people in an instant. Same with the couple of the other workers. We're info sharing. We're converting information from English into a number of languages and getting it out there. As much as it sounds a simple process, it's not. We've worked really diligently on just getting information out there, because obviously, I believe information is power. So if you know what the rules and parameters are, you can play by those rules and keep things running smoothly. That info share and translation for us is enormous.

Drew Radford:

Corey, you said at the start, you're doing something that fills your heart. What successes have you seen so far?

Corey Iredale:

This’ll tug on the heartstrings, to be honest. One of my workers engaged with a Thai lady, who'd had a one-year-old child that had been no connection with the father there, with his specific child. In order for that little girl to get an Australian birth certificate, she needed her father to sign some documentation, who hadn't been in the picture.

Corey Iredale:

Our worker contacted him, got him on a video phone call. It was the first time he'd ever seen his child. He obviously broke down and was a fairly emotional moment. And there was connection between this little one year old and the dad, who's never seen the child, who's living elsewhere in Australia. And it was a pretty emotional meeting. And the father has now come through. He signed all the documentation. He's actually now in physical and phone contact with this little girl, although mum and dad aren't together, the dad and the little daughter are. As a result of our... one of my staff, we've reconnected a dad and a daughter. To me, that's amazing work. And hopefully, life changing for the dad, the mum, and the little girl.

Drew Radford:

It is life changing. And I assume, the flow on from something like that is, the people you work with then start to become more integrated to the community and connected and stay in the community. And that sounds like the core objective.

Corey Iredale:

It really is, man. I think, if we can keep seasonal workers healthy, happy. Mentally healthy, physically healthy and happy, if we can work on achieving that goal, that then relies on them, that they work a little more, they themselves make some more money and their lives also improve. But the productivity on the farm improves and then, the farm rolls into the whole ag industry and then, the money that's spent. So it really is, at its most basic level, our goal is to keep people healthy, happy, and help them stay in the region. Because if they stay and they settle down in Mildura, for example, their lives will improve because it is a great part of the world to live in, but also they'll help the industry, which then helps the town and so on. So it's quite circular. I guess, if our client base can work hard and make a good living, it's all the better for them.

Drew Radford:

Lastly, Corey, what feedback are you getting then from primary producers? Are they seeing that flow on?

Corey Iredale:

They are. Initially, it was pretty hard just to walk on a farm and meet the owner and say, "We're Pastoral Care workers from SMECC. We just want to chat to your workers." Initially, we got a bit of resistance. But what we actually did, SMECC itself, we run a food hub. So we provide lots and lots of food to people that don't have much. What we started doing is just taking out some basics, breads and bits and pieces at smoko, it's 9:00 or 10:00 and saying, "Hey, here's a bit of smoko. Can we just sit down and chat with your workers?" The farmer then comes in. He brings a cup of tea, there's a biscuit, or a cake, or even just a loaf of bread with vegemite, whatever it was.

Corey Iredale:

And we got in that way. We utilized the almighty bit of food, bit of tucker, and connected on. And from that, it started becoming a bit of a thing. We wouldn't just turn up. We'd generally try and contact either the contractor who was running the staff, just so they knew, because just turning up out of the blue is not really a great thing. We really managed to streamline how we connected to the workers, but also the farmer. The process of working with a couple of different groups, key agricultural bodies, to start cultural competency training, which we run here at SMECC.

Corey Iredale:

So what we're going to do is get the team from Australian Table Grapes, maybe 10 or 20 of their farmers, and there's a four hour education session talking about culture and how people's cultures are different and how you can best connect with people. So we're really trying to get farmers to have a think that the really important people in their world are these seasonal workers. And if they understand some cultural elements of their workers, they'll connect better with them. They'll have better productivity. Everyone will be happier. And hopefully, life goes on and is positive.

Drew Radford:

Corey, how do people find out more if they want to get involved with the program?

Corey Iredale:

So we have a website which is www.smecc... which is S-M-E-C-C, .org.au. It has some amazing information on it. There's actually a section in there that you can click on to say, "I want to be involved." It's quite a simple way. You can send your details through and we'll reach out to you. We're a 43 year old organization now, as it began in 1979. We're not new, but we're certainly becoming well known. We were just contacted by somebody living in Malaysia that said, "Hey, I'm coming to Australia. My friends told me your organization is fantastic. When I get there, can I come and meet one of you guys?" We've skipped over to Southeast Asia. We're having people contacting us because they're going to move to Australia to work. So that to me, shows that the Pastoral Care project has done amazing things.

Drew Radford:

Among Corey Iredale's team of pastoral workers is Villiami Vea. In the 90s, Villi came to Australia as a 21 year old. Since then, has spent many years as a seasonal worker. He's experienced the difficulties they all face. And he views his new job as a chance to give back to the community.

Villiami Vea:

My role is to work with the seasonal worker that comes in the seasonal worker program from the island, from the Pacific Islanders, where we have three priorities that we have to take care of. Make sure that they are COVID safe in their working place. COVID safe in transportation, and COVID safe in their accommodation. What I do every day is visit where they work at and observe whatever I can observe in their workplace. Is there something that needs to be taken care of? Like if it's overcrowded in the accommodation. And I also translated a lot of flyers in regard to COVID safety and pass it on to these people in their working place and also where they live. I work with other families as well, individual families, but my target is to work with the seasonal workers that are here, because of COVID-19 and make sure that they are well taken care of.

Drew Radford:

Villi, it sounds like a challenging, but also very rewarding role.

Villiami Vea:

To help the community, you have to look at it from all different aspects. Working with these seasonal workers, a lot of time they're facing trials while stuck in here because of COVID-19. And a lot of things take their focus away from the real purpose of why they're here because they miss their families a lot. I witness several problems that happen within the seasonal workers. Some of them turn to alcohol, gambling, even drugs, just to take their mind off from being away from them. Because most of them have young families at home, at the island. And because of how many years they've been here in the seasonal work program and never have the opportunity to return. And I'm glad that it start opening up the border now. And I saw a few of those workers going back and enjoy with their families, but these are the problems that they were facing while they were here in the last two and a half years.

Villiami Vea:

So I organized activities, because I saw a lot of them. They can sing, they can play guitar or play instrument. So I figure, if I organize a choir or something, so they can come and contribute their talent, instead of turning to drugs and turning to alcohol and gambling, maybe they will come and contribute the talent into doing this with the community, as a whole. And right now, I'm running this choir and heaps of them showed up and we even have the opportunity call to sing at some function in the council or also churches, as well. That's where I get out of it.

Drew Radford:

Villi, it sounds like a lot of seasonal workers benefit from your care and attention as a Pastoral Care worker. Villiami Vea, may that long continue, and thank you for joining us for this AgVic talk podcast.

Villiami Vea:

I'm glad that you want to talk to me today. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgVic Talk. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

We would love to hear your feedback. So please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant, before making any changes on farm. This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Mentors. Most people have had them in their lives. They might have been a teacher, coach, or maybe even a senior colleague that has given great advice and guidance. G'day. I'm Drew Radford and mentoring is now an important part of professional development. Indeed, for Katrina Garraway, it's structured into her horticulture job with Select Harvest. Her work there though is more than a job. It's a career path that she started on at 15. To find out more and also the importance of her mentor, Katrina joins us for this AgVic Talk podcast. Thanks for your time.

Katrina Garraway:

Thank you for having me.

Drew Radford:

Katrina, straight out of school into agriculture. Why agriculture, and specifically, why horticulture?

Katrina Garraway:

Well, I've always been interested in a job in an ag or a horticulture field because my family heritage has been both in ag and hort, so I've always known that I was interested in it and I wanted to get into it but I never knew really how or what part of horticulture I would be in.

Drew Radford:

Katrina, you said your family heritage and I've seen the label against your family, a pioneering farming family. What's that mean? I'm guessing they've been there for a while.

Katrina Garraway:

Yes. So my grandfather on my mother's side was a pioneer for the Millewa region, so he was one of the last men to be allocated a piece of land. But my grandfather on my father's side was a horticulture farmer over the river.

Drew Radford:

Wow. So you well and truly have dirt flying through your veins for want of a better description. It's well and truly in your blood.

Katrina Garraway:

Pretty much.

Drew Radford:

Now, you've started with Select Harvest. Who are Select Harvest and what do they do?

Katrina Garraway:

So Select Harvest is Australia's largest almond grower and processor, and it is actually the third largest grower worldwide. It manages almond orchards in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.

Drew Radford:

So a very big organization, Katrina. What's your role with them?

Katrina Garraway:

So I am employed as a farm hand at Mullroo Orchard, which is located 50 kilometres west of Mildura at Cullulleaine. I also am a farm HSR and I have currently taken on the OH&S Committee meeting chairperson role. So as part of my farm work, I work on the irrigation team and sometimes step in and drive some machinery, but also part of my role is some technical work where I collect samples and data and transfer them into maps and spreadsheets to gain a knowledge of trends within our orchard.

Drew Radford:

So Katrina, you've got a lot going on there. For those that don't know, HSR, what's that mean?

Katrina Garraway:

So HSR is Health and Safety Representative, so I represent our team at our Mullroo site.

Drew Radford:

You said you always wanted to pursue a career in agriculture. That's one thing, but how did you start with Select Harvest?

Katrina Garraway:

So I started in year 10 when we did work experience. I did a week with Select Harvest where I did a couple of days on our Mullroo Orchard site, and then I did another couple of days at our Carina West processing facility. As a result of my work experience, I was offered a casual position for my school holidays from my mentor, Jane, which I gladly took the job because I loved working on the farm. After that, I worked through my school holidays when I was studying year 11 and 12 VCE, and when I finished my year 12, I started a fulltime position on the Mullroo Farm.

Drew Radford:

So you've been with them basically since year 10. What's that? Roughly age 15, and you sound really excited about the fact you've got a job and continuing on. What's the career path from here on look like for you?

Katrina Garraway:

I'm hoping to further my studies and continue gaining more experience within the almond industry, and hopefully look at more of a technical role within the almonds.

Drew Radford:

You mentioned that you're doing some technical work so what are some skills that you already had that you found useful in your role?

Katrina Garraway:

I've always been eager to learn new things and I've been open minded and friendly, so I find that to be a very big strength with coming into a new environment and with learning new things. I tend to be able to stay focused on what I'm learning and I really want to get it right and make sure that I'm doing things to the best of my ability.

Drew Radford:

You're also involved in a lot of extracurricular activities as well. I understand you're on the fire brigade, you're in the show society. Do those things help develop skills which you're able to bring to your job?

Katrina Garraway:

Oh, definitely. I've been a part of the Mildura Fire Brigade for a number of years now. I started in the junior running team when I was 11 years old, so that's helped me with gaining people skills and being able to connect and communicate with people from various ages and building myself a network within different societies.

Drew Radford:

In terms of that network and dealing with different people, you mentioned a mentor earlier on. How important has your mentor been and what role do they actually play?

Katrina Garraway:

My mentor plays a very large part of my journey. It's very nice and helpful to have someone there to bounce ideas off and ask questions and just learn more about everything off. It's always nice to have someone there that is willing to help you out and answer your questions, because I'm known for asking a lot of questions.

Drew Radford:

It's fabulous to have an inquiring mind. So what do you really enjoy about working in this industry, Katrina?

Katrina Garraway:

I really enjoy learning. I love learning about everything on the farm and how friendly everyone is. I love to have a laugh and everyone's got fantastic personalities on the farm. You always get to meet new people and create friendships that last a lifetime.

Drew Radford:

Katrina, you come from a farming background so you've got some familiarity about the work environment you're going into, but has there been anything significant that's really surprised you about working in the industry?

Katrina Garraway:

Yes. I didn't realise how many different job titles or areas that there are in different industries. It's not just the operational side where you're jumping on tractors and in (Rugged Terrain Vehicles) RTVs and stuff, or the irrigation. There's so many more roles like the technology side and all the data and safety and all that sort of stuff that I didn't actually realise was a thing.

Drew Radford:

It's not until you go through the door that you actually discover that there are so many different facets to running a business and it's a big business that you are working for, so what are some of the opportunities you see for careers in the horticultural sector?

Katrina Garraway:

I definitely see a lot of opportunity in the technology side of things because as we know, technology has become a huge part of the agriculture and horticulture industries and it's always ever changing and evolving. So we've always got new equipment and new processes that are available to us, so I foresee a huge opportunity in the technology side of the horticulture sector.

Drew Radford:

Katrina, what would you say to other young people who are listening to this, particular young women who are interested in a career in horticulture but don't know how to get started?

Katrina Garraway:

I would just say to reach out to someone or do your research. So typically, companies have a main office or website so if you locate one of those, they should have contact information and they'll point you in the right direction. I've always been quite open and approachable with especially youth and young women that have been around myself and approached me with questions, so definitely just approach someone. It never hurts to ask.

Drew Radford:

Not many 15-year-olds are like Katrina Garraway in terms of having a clear idea of the career they want to pursue. Helping her now navigate that is her mentor, Jane Finch. And perhaps one of the most important things Jane brings to this process is she's walked a similar path.

Jane Finch:

Yeah, look, I grew up in New South Wales. We had a couple of properties on the Darling River where we ran livestock, sheep in particular, so I've probably got three generations of farming across our properties.

Drew Radford:

That's quite a history you've got there, Jane, and you now work in the horticulture sector. How did that change happen?

Jane Finch:

One of the local towns that we're next to invested into a trial block an orchard, and they continued from that trial block and developed into apples and wine grapes and stone fruit. So I was lucky enough to take that opportunity after I left school and to have a look at the horticulture sector.

Drew Radford:

Not only had a bit of a look at it, Jane, you made a career out of it. What's your role now with Select Harvest? You're Operations Manager but what's that really mean?

Jane Finch:

I look after a number of acres which is across a number of sites, which we refer to as farms. On those sites, they have a management team and they have farm staff so I look to facilitate programs, both irrigation, fertilizer programs, weedicide, insecticide, right through to safety and (Human Resources) HR to operational activities, which can be pruning programs, land preparation in cleaning up for the farms, and yeah, just the whole seasonal activities around growing an almond tree.

Drew Radford:

That's a very large role to say the least, so you've got quite a few people reporting to you, I guess.

Jane Finch:

Yeah, I do. Not directly but as a group, and we all work together as a team and collaborate between our farms and our sites, so yes, I look at it as that is my team.

Drew Radford:

I've heard you describe that previously as almost a bit of a mentoring role and we want to talk about your mentoring work with Katrina, but I find that an interesting perspective to take towards all of those teams that you're responsible for.

Jane Finch:

I see my role as, like you've said, mentoring my management team and staff in those teams. I feel to get the best out of people and to allow them to have ownership within their roles is to guide them and to support them, and I work very hard at that. I like to have good communication across our teams and to work together so I think that's important. We all don't know everything, particularly when we're covering all aspects of an orchard. Sometimes, it helps to give and take and to have others have that opportunity to step up and to learn as well.

Drew Radford:

Well, that's certainly the case with Katrina. So can you paint a bit of a picture of how that actually works and what you give to her?

Jane Finch:

With Katrina, we've structured it with the farm and she's got a fantastic manager out there and team that support her ambitions and goals and her pathways where she would like to be. I have spoken with her around a two-year, five-year, 10, 15-year plan in terms of where she would like to be, so I regularly catch up with Katrina and we've just recently set aside a day a week on the farm where she's doing extra activities more related to technical and projects in helping my role, to keep her engaged with her learning and where she's wanting to go. And our next step with Katrina will be to come more into the technical space for one or two days a week, and that will continue this year with her studies that she's doing. And every six months, we'll review together where she's at to make sure that she's still heading in the right pathway, that she hasn't thought, oh, I might like to be over here now, or spend more time and invest into this area.

Drew Radford:

It must be a very satisfying thing to do to see someone grow and develop in their role and help them along the way.

Jane Finch:

It definitely is, particularly to support, I guess, a young female into our business where it is quite male orientated and we do have a lot of equipment that we run as well. So to be able to support her into those teams and to be there and to also share my experiences, the good and the bad, or to be able to explain to her why something happened and perhaps how we could have done it better, or how to improve and to try and work on herself and to become that leader that she wants to be. Because she does want leadership and management and that will all come, but to actually learn those experiences on site and if I can offer and support her in those experiences or opportunities so we can help develop her to become that person that she wants to be.

Drew Radford:

How has mentoring helped you in your role?

Jane Finch:

I guess mentoring has kept me motivated, and to have Katrina very engaged and always wanting to learn, it's allowed probably more attention to detail to come through, particularly on the site where she's at. It's nice. It's good to have someone there who's eager, who wants to learn and keep you inspired in your own role.

Drew Radford:

Jane, do you have any advice for other people out there who are looking to support young people and new entrants into their businesses?

Jane Finch:

Engage with them early, know their ambitions or pathways, and really look to the site or the farm that they're going to, that the manager does support that role and where that person is wanting to be. And don't forget about them in the paddock. They're eager and they're keen and they want more, and to just keep that engagement so that we can keep them there.

Drew Radford:

Jane Finch, it sounds like you're doing a fabulous job of supporting and encouraging the next generation of primary producers in the horticulture sector. Thank you for taking the time and joining us for this AgVic Talk podcast.

Jane Finch:

Thanks, Drew.

Speaker 5:

Thank you for listening to AgVic Talk. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. We would love to hear your feedback so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Trying to get started in a career can be hard. However, when you throw in being from the other side of the world and English as your second language, it can be even harder.

Drew Radford:

G'day. I'm Drew Radford, and with over seven and a half million Australians born overseas, this experience is something many can relate to. People such as Bhupinder Kaur, who grew up on a farm in Northern India. She came to Australia to study management, but it was her love for farming that drew her back to agriculture. She now works as an agronomist for GV Independent Packers in Shepparton. It's a role that required new skills, a challenge she embraced and it's helped her build a new life in a town she loves. Bhupinder, thanks for joining us for this AgVic Talk podcast.

Bhupinder Kaur:

Thank you very much for having me.

Drew Radford:

Bhupinder, you grew up a long way from Shepparton, where did you grow up?

Bhupinder Kaur:

I grew up in India, Northern part of India. Punjab. It's a rural place Punjab. So I grew up in the farm.

Drew Radford:

You grew up in the farm, and did you study agriculture in India?

Bhupinder Kaur:

Yeah. Yeah. So I studied Bachelor of Agriculture Sciences in Amritsar.

Drew Radford:

Amritsar's a long way from Regional Victoria. So how did you end up from Northern India to Northern Victoria?

Bhupinder Kaur:

Me and my husband came here in Melbourne on student visa, and then I got different study then in business management, but that doesn't interest me a lot. And then I ended up doing my Masters in Agriculture Sciences in University of Melbourne. And then I just apply a job in GV Independent Packers, and I got a job there. That's the brief story.

Drew Radford:

It's a great story. Clearly you're passionate about agriculture because the slight foray off into business management didn't work out. You, you went back to what you knew.

Bhupinder Kaur:

Yeah, I did a little bit work as management of some company, but yeah, it doesn't interest me a lot. So that's why I change back to my masters and then goes back to agriculture sciences again.

Drew Radford:

Bhupinder, what is it about agriculture that you love so much?

Bhupinder Kaur:

I'm passionate about that. As I said, I am from the farming background and when you are a farmer's son or farmer's daughter, you are always as a farmer. You look at yourself as a farmer. That's the main reason that I love agriculture and love my hands to get dirty. I love the bugs and everything about the plants.

Drew Radford:

Well, how are you getting your hands dirty now with GV Independent Packers? What does your role involve?

Bhupinder Kaur:

So as an agronomist, my job involves everything related to the orchard. For example, from September to January is a season for fruit growing and my main job is to checking the insect, pest and diseases on every farm, and then reporting back to grower. Then recommending all the chemicals, what we need to do for that insects and pest and diseases. As I am in house agronomist I schedule all the chemical applications also. Then I do the soil testing and recommend what we need to put as an fertilizer to our soil for better growing of the plants.

Drew Radford:

It's a very involved role Bhupinder and you've done a lot of study, you've done a undergraduate degree in agriculture and a masters in agriculture. But have you needed to continue further study once you actually got into the horticultural sector?

Bhupinder Kaur:

You are learning a lot in this job, that's a beauty of this job that every day you are learning. When I first got into the job, I was not very experienced on checking the insect, pest and diseases. So I got two years of on the job training, hands on, how I identify the pest and how the pest are working, because pest are always on a weather dependent thing. So one day you are getting one pest and another day if the weather is getting down, they will be down too. So it's everyday learning process.

Drew Radford:

It does sound like a continuous education, especially I guess when a new pest comes in or a new chemical or a new way of dealing with that comes in. Bhupinder, what surprised you about working in the industry

Bhupinder Kaur:

Before coming to this industry I was thinking that this industry is male dominating, that's what my thinking was because that's what it is in India almost. But when I came here in Shepparton I was very surprised to see that the farmer is very welcoming and I couldn't see much male dominating thing in this industry. I was surprised.

Drew Radford:

That's a wonderful thing to hear. Bhupinder, I was reading a quote from you somewhere that you feel as though you've almost been made a part of the family that runs the company.

Bhupinder Kaur:

Yeah. Yeah. They're lovely people. The company is a family business, but they helped me a lot in settling me down here in Shepparton. I got my permanent residency through them. And they gave me training each and every part of my job. So they gave me training for insect, pest and diseases from different agronomists. They invested a lot on me to be honest.

Drew Radford:

I'm sure it's an investment that's been paying off work for them too Bhupinder.

Bhupinder Kaur:

Yeah.

Drew Radford:

You've gone through a transition really from a rural area of India to a big city Amritsar and then to a big Australian city, now to a regional city in Australia. How did that transition from Melbourne to Regional Victoria work for you?

Bhupinder Kaur:

I love quite places from the day one when I born, because I brought up in village. And then I lived in Amritsar, in the city and then I lived in Melbourne city. But I love quiet places and I love farming. I love to be near the nature rather than distractions, to be honest. So when I go to Melbourne these days I feel like it's very busy area and maybe I would not fit in that.

Drew Radford:

That's a fantastic perspective. What are some of the opportunities you see for careers in the horticulture sector?

Bhupinder Kaur:

There are a lot of opportunities here. One is like we are working outdoor, in a very flexible manner we are working outdoor. I'm not stuck in office most of the time. The flexibility, if you love outdoor working, you will love agriculture.

Drew Radford:

What would you say to others who are from a culturally and linguistically diverse background who are interested in a career in horticulture but they don't know how to get started?

Bhupinder Kaur:

If somebody want to start a career, I would suggest that horticulture is a very advanced career and very good career for the starters. They can start as a apprenticeship and they can learn while they are earning. They can earn and learn together as an apprenticeship. If they want to do diploma in agriculture sciences, there are many jobs. There's a shortage of the skills for the new generation. There are many career opportunities like agriculture technician, horticulturalist in the garden or in the nurseries, there are many soil technician jobs available to them. So there is not shortage of the jobs, there's a shortage of skills for them. So if they want to pursue their career, I personally think you can secure your future while doing diplomas or degree in horticulture or in agriculture sciences and be well paid in that jobs.

Drew Radford:

Bhupinder Kaur, you are very passionate about your industry and GV Independent Packers is really benefiting from your skill and expertise and have done a wonderful job in supporting you in the development of those even further. Thank you so much for taking the time and joining us for this AgVic Talk podcast.

Bhupinder Kaur:

Thank you very much. Thanks.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgVic Talk. For more episodes in this series find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. We would love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family. All information is accurate at the time of release.

Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria authorised by the Victorian government Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk. Keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

If I told you that in 2024 orchardists will be hiring robots to pick their fruit, you'd probably suggest to me that I've been at the pub too long. G'day, I'm Drew Radford, and no, I haven't just come out of a bar. I have though found out about someone who's working feverishly on a farm near Shepparton to make this a reality. A lot of future careers in agriculture are going to have a strong technology focus. Hunter Jay, CEO of Ripe Robotics, is living proof of this. And he joins us for this AgVic Talk Podcast. Hunter, thanks for your time.

Hunter Jay:

Awesome. Thanks for having me.

Drew Radford:

Hunter, I was reading on your website that horticulture's being left behind by technological innovation. Your business aims to fix that. And it involves Clive and also Eve, but I'm a bit confused here because neither of these are people.

Hunter Jay:

Yeah. So, those are two iterations of our robots that are trying to automate fruit harvesting for apples, stone fruit, and oranges as well, we're trying with. Historically, it's been very, very difficult to... especially in horticulture to automate or mechanise anything. So we're trying to do the jump all the way from, one at a time picking fruit with people's hands, to having a fully autonomous solution all-in-one. A massive jump. It's a big, big change.

Drew Radford:

Hunter, that is an absolutely massive change. Let's just take one step back before we find out a little bit more about the tech. You've come to the horticulture sector to solve a problem, and the problem might be in terms of access to labour and getting crops off quickly, but you're not from a horticultural background, are you?

Hunter Jay:

No, my background's in software engineering.

Drew Radford:

Right. So how did you get to this point working in the horticulture sector?

Hunter Jay:

Essentially, we were looking at, what things are going to be big in the future, essentially. What are the things that are possible now, but haven't been done yet? And I was especially looking within software, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is where I was specialized. There's a lot of great work being done on AI, within the software space. That's everything being done on phones, and on payment systems, and all sorts of stuff there. And even in Virtual Reality (VR). But there hasn't been a lot of it applied to field robotics yet. There's been even greater stuff with warehouse robotics, and self-driving, which is basically field robotics.

Hunter Jay:

But in the past, it wasn't possible to put a machine out in the field and have it be able to navigate around by itself, or recognize what's in front of it and say, "This is an apple and it's this ripe, or it's this distance away," and all of these things. It wasn't possible to do that in a reliable enough way ten years ago, when the technology wasn't there. But for the last five years or so, it's been plausible. So, when we started Ripe Robotics in 2019, we were sort of looking at, okay, this is possible now. There's currently nobody really doing it. There's a few startups, and a few university projects, but there's no big company that's bringing this field robotics to agriculture, especially horticulture, with the trees and more delicate crops, and more difficult to navigate situations. So I thought, okay, there's a massive opportunity here. Which the technology has now enabled, that wasn't possible in the past.

Drew Radford:

It is a massive opportunity, and I'm genuinely surprised there aren't some big players in the field already charging down this path. It's a great thing for an Australian startup to be charging this lead, I would say.

Hunter Jay:

Yeah. No. I mean we feel Australia is actually a really great place to start a company like this, or try to solve this problem. It was actually one of the factors we were considering when we're like, "Okay, we want to do something in field robotics that solves the problem actually." It's beneficial to the world. And we're already in Australia, so what are the things that make sense to do in Australia. And doing fruit picking here, automating fruit picking here. I mean, we've got the highest cost for the fruit that's being picked. There's a massive focus on the quality of the fruit that's picked, and we're in the Southern hemisphere, so a lot of the fruit that we export is exported... it's exported to countries where the seasons don't align with ours.

Hunter Jay:

So there's still a lot of demand for Australian fruit, even though it has such high cost at the moment. And there's big shortages of people going and picking the fruit. There's no existing system which is working really well. There's problems with the existing system for fruit picking. So if you're looking for a problem to apply the technology to, to solve it, in Australia there's a huge demand, and a lot of current risk, and a lot of things to be gained by doing that in Australia. We intend to expand everywhere, eventually, but Australia's actually a really great place to start something like this. Where we can start at a smaller scale, with a really enthusiastic and technically aligned growers.

Drew Radford:

Hunter, you detailed a little bit earlier, a list of problems to deal with, ranging from navigating branches, to working out whether the fruit's even ripe to pick, to actually even grabbing the fruit. Do you have a typical day, or is there just one problem after another that you're constantly solving?

Hunter Jay:

Oh, I mean, I actually really enjoy the work I do, because it varies so much. Like, this morning, I was working on designing the new metal for our fifth version of the robot. I'm designing the frame for that. This afternoon, I'll be working on the mechanism that takes the fruit from the arm and puts it into the bin without damage. And we need to get it running a little bit faster than it's currently running on the robot. It's actually really, really great to do.

Hunter Jay:

We've got four people working for the company at the moment. All of them have some degree of technical experience, and they all have projects that they're working on. And basically they're like, "Okay, solve this problem." We chat to each other each day in the morning, and then they go and have ownership of whatever problem that they're working on. And get to basically solve it, bring it back to the group and say, "Hey, here's what we're going to do for the bin filler, or for the end effect, or for the new version of the arm, or for the driving system." It's really, really fun to be in this development stage.

Drew Radford:

In researching this, I was seeing that you were focused heavily on this being a modular solution. What do you mean by that?

Hunter Jay:

We want to make it as easy as possible to upgrade and change the robots, both as we develop them, and after they're in the field. Because it's such a new technology, and it's not a new technology that's being applied... like one piece of new technology that's going on something existing, it's building from the ground up a whole new machine, which has a dozen different functions, and a dozen different components. We're expecting in the short-term that, "Okay, we're not going to get this all right, the first time. We need to be able to take stuff out and replace it, or do it in a different way without having to redo the rest of the system." So that's a big reason for making it modular now. Sorry, I'm on the farm, there's tractors and things going past at the moment. Sorry about that.

Drew Radford:

Oh no, you're certainly walking-the-talk, and that's a good thing to see, Hunter.

Hunter Jay:

Yeah. And then in the long-term, being modular is super important to be able to get these robots to do more than just pick the fruit. So we're focused on apples, and stone fruit, and oranges at the moment. Just getting them off the tree, into the bin, and doing so without damaging them, or without damaging the tree. But in the future, we want to be able to take those bins all the way out of the row, put them where the farmer wants them, where they need to go. We want to be able to spray, or thin the flowers, or thin the fruitlet on the trees. We want to be able to prune or gather data about different parts of the orchard. There's a lot of other things we eventually want this machine to do. So it's very important that we're able to change the machine, without too much difficulty.

Drew Radford:

They are a number of very different tasks. So what does the machine look like? And my mind's going crazy in terms of like... is it like many arms just going frantically everywhere? Or is it something a little bit simpler than that?

Hunter Jay:

Well we've tried to make it as simple as possible. The design for the machine's changing quite a bit as we move towards commercialization. Eve and Clive, our earlier machines are sort of like a rail. There's just a chain that moves an arm up and down and tilts it forward and back. And then a second rail, that brings it in and out of the tree. So trying to be as simple possible there. For our next version of the machine, we've switched to having four arms at different heights. So we don't need to move the arms up and down so much. And then each of those arms is on a pivot, so they can access different parts of the tree that way. So the new one looks like a triangle of the arms, at different heights leading up to the bin at the end of the triangle. Because it's so early, we're still playing around with big shifts like this.

Drew Radford:

What do you say are some of the future opportunities in horticulture, for technology, beyond what you are doing?

Hunter Jay:

Well, I think we'll probably move a lot more to having both robots, but also the decisions being made, either having a lot more data, informing the growers when they make those decisions, or even having the recommendations from the computer systems getting better and better. A lot of the way it works now, is the grower will go out and they'll do some measurements themselves on a very small fraction of their orchard, or each block. And then they'll decide based off their experience, and based off this very small amount of data, what the best thing to do is. And they're pretty good at it. But as we bring robots, and other sensors, and things... that lots of companies are working on, into these orchards, we'll be able to basically have year round data of every part of the orchard.

Hunter Jay:

We'll be able to say, at this location, the leaves are wilting a little bit. Maybe they don't have enough water. And this location, you had 10 per cent more fruit than this other location. Maybe there's something funky going on with light there. Or maybe last year, if you grew too much fruit in this location, so it's going down the next year. Because they sort of have a bi-annual thing, where they go up and down. There's a lot of complexity right now, that once we have the data coming in, we'll be able to use these deep learning algorithms to basically recommend what growers should do, for different parts of the orchard. So you should see significant efficiency gains in the way orchards are managed, just because there's so much more information there. And that should be able to happen without significantly more work to the growers, or to the workers going out and doing things on the orchard. It should make it both more efficient work-wise, as well as crop-wise.

Drew Radford:

Hunter, what you're describing there is not just an evolution, it's quite a revolution in terms of data, and job opportunities for the coming generation in the sector. What have you enjoyed about working with this sector?

Hunter Jay:

I really enjoy being out in the country, for starters. I live here on one of the farms, and we build the machines here. People are lovely in the country. It's really great to be able to just walk outside and see rows, or acres of crops. And go out and look and say, "Okay, this is what we can do here." Actually it makes it feel very, very real. When we started, we were in Sydney, and sort of locked in little apartments there, and trying to just imagine all the stuff, as we're doing the first designs. And it's so much better to actually be here, and be able to see what's going on, and learn how things are working, than it is to sort of be locked in an apartment in the city. The way we work now, with our people is we actually... they can work from anywhere, and then we bring them on trial trips here. So they spend two weeks here in Shepparton, for every six weeks they work remotely, which seems to be a good balance for most people.

Drew Radford:

What sort of reaction are you getting from local farming communities when you say, "Well, yeah, actually we're out here trying to solve this problem."

Hunter Jay:

Well, people are really wonderful. The growers are all pretty enthusiastic. A lot of them are skeptical, because I mean, we're talking about trying to get robots to pick their crops. Which sounds pretty sci-fi. And we're definitely optimistic about timelines. We've been a little bit slower than we're hoping in some ways. I mean, everyone's really nice and really enthusiastic about it. We chat with all the growers here, and they tell us about the problems they say, "Hey, what about this? Can you do that?" And so on.

Hunter Jay:

Even the non-grower people have been really wonderful. I live in the huts, on the farm, with all the fruit pickers and they they're pretty nice. Pretty happy with everything. They don't mind the work that I'm doing here, trying to automate the picking, which is good. But they seem to talk. Everyone talks to each other. I went to a high school the other day, because one of the teachers heard about us and invited me in to talk to the kids, and I was like, "Yeah, why not?" You get this nice country vibes where everyone seems to talk to each other, so everyone sort of knows about us. I know them. And yeah, it's really pleasant.

Drew Radford:

The advantage of living in a community where people do have those deeper connections, I guess, is what you're describing there, Hunter. You were talking there about timelines. When do you envisage that this is going to be a platform that growers can purchase?

Hunter Jay:

We're aiming for this year, to have a machine. Just one machine that's able to pick fruit off the tree, put it in a bin. Do a full bin of fruit and get our first $50 of revenue for picking that bin. That should happen this year. Next year, we're expecting to scale it up to probably on the order of about a dozen, maybe two dozen machines. And then moving forward, for probably making somewhere between 50 or a hundred per year after that. So that's late 2023, 2024 is when it would become properly available to most growers. The thing is, we're not going to be selling the machines to growers, we're going to be operating like a service. So the same way they currently pay pickers, the $40 or $50 per bin of fruit, they'll be able to basically contract us to do that. And we'll come with the machines and pick the fruit for them. So even if there's only 20 machines running around, we can still service most growers for some portion of their orchard.

Drew Radford:

That's an interesting approach. And then the machines obviously will be able to go 24 hours a day. How are they powered?

Hunter Jay:

And the machines are fully electric. But right now they're powered using a diesel generator. We are looking to switch to batteries at some point, which is part of the reason why everything is just plugged into a diesel generator rather than running mechanically off the engine. That'll be probably in the next year or two. We'll switch to a battery powered system, rather than a generator powered one.

Drew Radford:

Doesn't sound like a problem that you are not going to be able to sort out, Hunter, judging by what you're doing so far. Lastly, Hunter, what would you say to other people who are interested in innovation and technology in the horticultural industry?

Hunter Jay:

There's a lot of stuff to be done here. There's a big open opportunity for technology to be applied in agriculture in general. And there's a lot of opportunities, both within a startups that are growing in the space, or even starting new projects to do it. Because there's so many things right now, and perhaps not enough talent working on all of the different projects that could be done. It would be a pretty good time to get into it. That's definitely why I switched to working in agriculture, rather than working on direct... just pure software related stuff. Also we'll be hiring soon. So if you're an engineer, or interested in robotics, definitely reach out to us.

Drew Radford:

It sounds like a world of opportunity, and a really exciting space to be working in. Hunter Jay, CEO of Ripe Robotics, thank you for taking the time and joining us for this AgVic Talk Podcast.

Hunter Jay:

Awesome. Thanks for the chat.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening to AgVic Talk. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. We would love to hear your feedback. So please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria, or your consultant before making any changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgVic Talk, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

Everyone's career journey is different, but it's not often you get to meet someone that's ended up in the career that they planned on undertaking as a kid. G'day, I'm Drew Radford and that's the story of Luke Baker. And it started in his backyard and it grew to becoming a horticultural agronomist with IK Caldwell in the Goulburn Valley. To unearth how one led to the other, Luke joins us for this AgVic Talk podcast. Thanks for your time.

Luke Baker:

No worries, Drew. It would be good to have a chat.

Drew Radford:

Luke, I understand you're not from a farming background, but you grew up on a small bit of land and had a bit of a fascination with watching things grow.

Luke Baker:

Yeah, that's right. Grew up in Benalla there. A bit of agriculture surrounding me, a little bit of agriculture and farming in the family, but something just sparked me to start up a bit of a veggie garden and orchard at home. And from there, just being fascinated with watching plants grow and seeing what they can produce and eating the things in the end.

Drew Radford:

I can't think of actually even a better way to get into agriculture. A genuine passion for seeing things grow. So where did you take that next?

Luke Baker:

That was sort of in the middle of high school. From there, it was just about taking every opportunity I got to get involved a bit with the industry. Did a bit of work placement and went around to universities when they had open days and things. Really trying to get a broad spread of what possible job you can do in the future. And yeah, from there, working on dairies, working with agronomists, seeing how they do the job. That's sort of how it all panned out.

Drew Radford:

Was there anybody mentoring you and pointing you in certain directions or was it just generally a path of discovery for you?

Luke Baker:

Yep. New experience all along the way. No one was really guiding me directly. None of my immediate family was involved in any farming business. So I followed a university degree at Wagga Wagga and from there just met new people. Did all sorts of different agricultural jobs and experiences. You just got to have a passion and do things yourself.

Drew Radford:

You narrowed down into horticulture, which is a long way from your bit of work you did in the dairies. Why horticulture?

Luke Baker:

Probably back to where I started in the veggie garden and just having that ability to eat what you've produced in the end. You can grab a bit of fruit straight off the tree and go, "All that hard work we put in this season has really made something pretty decent to eat." You can't really do that in any other job. And it's just such a diverse industry. There's such a big mix of fruit and veggies and the possibilities are endless. You can go to any region in the country and see something new growing.

Drew Radford:

You mentioned there the joy of picking something off the tree and saying, "Well, that season's hard work is paid off." What's your typical day involved then?

Luke Baker:

As in any agriculture or horticulture business, it's a seasonal job. Your job cycle follows the crop cycle. At the moment in my region, all the fruit's sort of finishing off and we're going into sort of the dormant period. There's not much going on. I'll probably spend a lot of time going around talking with the growers, finding out what their issues were for the previous season and making a bit of a plan for next season. Fertilizer programs, fungicide programs, that sort of thing. Just improving the way we do it. So might be a bit different from the last couple of months where you're out on the farms every day, checking for pests and diseases and providing recommendations as they come for fertilizer and whatever they need to do to help protect their crop and make it yield well.

Drew Radford:

Luke, for those listening to this who aren't familiar with farming, they might be thinking, "Oh, so all farmers have agronomists that help them." That's not always the case though, is it?

Luke Baker:

An agronomist would probably say that a good grower would have a good agronomist. Sure, if you're a grower and you've been in the business for a long time and forward thinking and keep up to date with all the news, the new products, the markets. You might be able to get away. But being an agronomist, I get around the whole district and get to see what the whole area is producing, what the crop's like, what the market's going to be like. And even as a grower, just having that information. You can't really get that on your own.

Drew Radford:

So then how do you apply that on a regular basis to try and help farmers make decisions?

Luke Baker:

Just having general chats. I mean, you've got to form a good relationship with your growers and if you can just have comfortable conversations and talk about the things that other growers are doing, what they could be doing, where things are heading? They can soon pretty well work out a pattern on what they should be doing.

Drew Radford:

Luke, I'm getting one of the key skills that you've got is being able to talk to people, but there must be obviously some very key technical skills that are fundamental for your job.

Luke Baker:

For sure. Yeah, talking skills are the main thing to start with. I mean, if you can't form a good relationship with your grower in the beginning, they're not going to listen to you. They're not going to trust what you say. But yeah, certainly after you've brought about that connection, there's a bit to know and horticulture being such a diverse industry, there's so many different crops, so many different fruits, so many different vegetables. They all require different products to be sprayed on them, different fertilizers, different management. It takes a lot of time, I guess, to understand how all that works. In the short time that I've been around, my minds been blown with all the opportunities and things you can do to improve your crop, but there's still a lot more knowledge to be gained.

Drew Radford:

I imagine one of your key skills then in regards to that knowledge is actually being able to take what's quite scientific information from manufacturers, suppliers, and translate that into a language for an orchardist to understand how that's going to benefit him or her investing in that particular product to make this season's crop better. That interpretation skill must be quite important.

Luke Baker:

Yes, that's exactly the job of the agronomist is to translate research results into something more practical that can be understood by the grower. That's probably a big area of improvement as well in the industry. There is a lot of research going on and there are a lot of agronomists in the industry, but in my time, I've had little connection with those researchers and certainly a lot of the newer research could be projected to growers sooner. But certainly as I'll get to meet a few more people and get involved a bit more, that'll happen and I'm happy understanding research reports and yeah, it's a good skill to have to be able to translate that into something more easily understandable.

Drew Radford:

Luke, you said earlier that your mind had been blown by the amount that's actually going on. So have you been able to do more training and skills development once employed? Because your title says graduate horticultural agronomist.

Luke Baker:

That was the plan, I think. But just the experience you get from taking opportunities. I was sort of thrown into the job a bit. I've been put in the role sort of to replace an older agronomist who's retired. They've thrown me into that job pretty well suddenly. And just going out and meeting people and getting involved in the crops and learning from the growers. That's the best training you can have.

Luke Baker:

Probably COVID hasn't helped with doing a lot of external training type things. There are a couple of sort of fertilizer training courses that you can do and as you get to meet more people, well, I'll be able to arrange that sort of stuff. But really just getting involved and meeting new people and discovering new crops. That's the best way to learn new things and train yourself.

Drew Radford:

Luke, I think you've pretty much outlined what you enjoy about working in the industry. Seeing things grow and getting the final result. What surprised you about working in the industry?

Luke Baker:

At the moment, I'm still surprised by the expansion of the industry. There's so many new developments going in, so much more land being ripped up and put into new trees and big vegetable plantations. A big challenge is going to be how do we keep up the water and how do we keep up the labor to all that? Because yeah, more and more plantings just keep going in and in. Especially around this area where I'm working now. People just see so much opportunity in horticulture and that keeps on surprising me. How are we going to keep up with all this work, I guess?

Drew Radford:

It sounds like a good problem to have. And then from that you must be seeing future opportunities. So what are some of the opportunities you see for people who want to get careers in the horticultural sector?

Luke Baker:

Like what I'm doing, there's plenty of agronomist jobs out. More farms needs more agronomists. We still need to spend the same amount of time with each grower and these more new growers are coming in. There needs to be more people looking after those crops. The produce needs to be better and supermarkets aren't going to drop their standards into the future. I don't think so. We need to continue helping growers to produce a good quality product.

Luke Baker:

The other main area is mechanization and technology. Agriculture's sort of gone well ahead of us with, well, driving around in giant headers and GPSs and yield mapping, all that sort of stuff. There's none of really started in horticulture. I mean a lot of new machines and the trellis orchard plantings are really going forward that way, but there's still a lot more catching up to do to make those systems fully mechanized and improve labor efficiency. So yeah, if you're keen on technology and mechanics and that sort of thing, a lot of future direction in horticulture there.

Drew Radford:

Luke, what would you say to somebody who's maybe at school or thinking about a career in horticulture, but they just don't know how to get started?

Luke Baker:

I started from nothing pretty much and just by taking every opportunity that you can. Getting involved, go and talk with people. If you know a farmer down at the footy club or something, go and have a chat to them, ask to have a try of what it's like on the farm. Like where I work, come and talk to an agronomist or someone at an agricultural supply store and they'd be more than happy to show you around or point you in the direction and of other jobs. I've got people asking me to put word out, to get workers for them. I mean I'm out in the public a bit more and it's a good way to advertise for them. Come and find us and we could send you in the right path.

Drew Radford:

Well, Luke, you certainly sound like you're personally on the right path for you. It sounds like a absolutely perfect fit for you as a career. Luke Baker, graduate horticultural agronomist with IK Caldwell, thank you for taking the time and joining us in the AgVic Talk studio to walk us through your career journey and all the best with it from here on in.

Luke Baker:

Really good. Thanks, Drew. Thanks for the chat.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgVic Talk. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. We would love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on farm.

This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.

Dr Sze Flett:

Hello and welcome. I'm Sze Flett from Horticulture Services, and I'm pleased to bring you season four of the Agriculture Victoria podcast series.

Horticulture is a significant industry in Victoria with an annual gross value of production of over $3 billion. Victoria is Australia's major exporter of horticultural products. Think table grapes, almonds and citrus. We are recognized internationally for producing some of the world's cleanest, greenest and highest quality foods. The horticulture industry makes a significant contribution to the whole economy and especially in regional and rural areas. It employs a workforce that can almost double during peak harvest times. Horticulture is diverse and it's spread across the state. You can find almonds, table grapes, citrus, avocados, vegetables in Sunraysia; apples and pears, summer fruits, cherries in the Goulburn Valley, including Swan Hill and Cobram; and vegetables, flowers, berries, apples and a whole lot more in Southern Victoria.

But industries are undergoing significant and rapid change. Business structures and production systems are changing, and new technologies are being tested and adopted to improve efficiencies right across the supply chain. There is however, a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labour. And this is one of the most challenging issue facing the sector. The ability to have the right people at the right time in the right place is absolutely critical to a profitable horticulture business.

In this season of AgVic Talk, we're going to take a closer look at the people working in the industry, the horticulture workforce. We're going to find out more about the different types of careers in the industry and the exciting opportunities that are on the horizon. We will hear how growers are using technology and why. We will talk to business owners, new starters and people who are finding ways to continue to grow and develop their skills in horticulture. We will be taking a snapshot from the Goulburn Valley and the Sunraysia region, but you will find that these stories could apply anywhere.

As outlined in our strategy for agriculture in Victoria, the Victorian government is committed to positioning agriculture as a career of choice and building its reputation for workplace excellence.

For more episodes, find us and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We would love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating and share this series with your friends and families. Enjoy.