Join us at the GippsDairy Muster 2022

GippsDairy is thrilled to present the GippsDairy Muster 2022 in Denison, part of the Macalister Irrigation District (MID). The MID is the largest irrigation district in southern Victoria, situated near Maffra in central Gippsland. It covers 54,753 ha of which 33,500 ha is used for irrigation – around 90% under pasture.

Driven by strong local input from GippsDairy’s farming community the Muster will deliver a diverse, informative and inspirational line-up of speakers. And the best part: It’s free!

Hear Richard Eckard discuss carbon, Nollaig Heffernan talk about recruitment and reward, and Rachael Robertson will talk about how she built resilience and respect in her team during a year spent in the world’s most remote workplace – Antarctica.

The program is full of short, sharp, practical take-home information and ideas to take your business to the next level.

In addition, there will be seven breakout stations, each with a subject matter expert, of which you can choose three to attend.

Topics include nitrogen, Automatic Milking Systems, recruitment and reward, collars, genomic testing calves, Young Dairy Network and carbon.

Meet the speakers

Rachael Robertson

Rachael Robertson returned to Australia after 12 months in the Antarctic, where she successfully led the 58th Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition to Davis Station.  She was only the second female to ever lead a team at the Station and one of the youngest ever leaders.

Prior to this Rachael held senior operational management roles for 16 years in a range of complex and challenging environments and now works in the field of leadership development sharing her experiences.

Since returning to Australia, Rachael has completed her MBA and written two best-selling books. The first, Leading on the Edge, is based on her year in Antarctica. In 2020 she released her second best-seller, Respect trumps Harmony which provides the tools to build resilient, high performing teams based on research and case studies collected over 15 years.

She is an international keynote speaker and has presented at over 1,500 conferences around the world.

Richard Eckard

Richard is Professor and Director of the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, University of Melbourne, a research centre addressing the impacts of a changing climate on agriculture. His research focuses on carbon farming and accounting towards carbon neutral agriculture, managing extreme climate events and options for agriculture to respond to a changing climate.

He developed the first greenhouse gas accounting tools for agriculture and his research provided the science basis for six carbon offset methods in Australia.

Richard is a science advisor to the Australian, New Zealand, UK and European Union governments, the International Livestock Research Institute and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation on climate change adaptation, mitigation and policy development in agriculture. Richard was recently named on the Reuters list of the world’s 1,000 most influential climate scientists. 

Nollaig Heffernan

Dr. Nollaig Heffernan is an independent Management Consultant from Ireland, specialising in Leadership and Organisational Psychology. She helps businesses from sole-traders to multi-nationals to improve their performance by increasing the efficiency of their most valuable asset; their people.

Nollaig’s dual-discipline background in business and psychology has been invaluable in helping companies and organisations improve their performance across all business sectors including agriculture.

Nollaig was voted best speaker at Ireland’s Positive Farmers Conference in 2018 and 2019 by the estimated 500 farmer delegates.

Matt Harms

Matt Harms owns and operates ONFARM Consulting and has been in private Agricultural Consulting for 14 years.

Early in his career Matt worked at Ridley AgriProducts in both sales and marketing roles, then moved on to Murray Goulburn at Leongatha, where he worked in Field Services and was manager of the Leongatha branch for four years.

Matt has a passion for Farm Business performance and management and works closely with farmers on many aspects of dairy farm performance, business structures, sharefarm and lease arrangements, production issues and fine-tuning the farming system.

Whilst generally working one-on-one with farmers to help them achieve their goals, Matt also delivers programs across Gippsland as well as nationally, including Farm Business Fundamentals, Dairy Farm Business Analysis, Our Farm Our Plan, Fert$mart, Focus Farms as well as seasonal and tactical Field Days and discussion groups.

Meet your hosts

The 2022 Muster is held on a dairy farm, owned by Jon Ryan and Lauren Clyne. They both come from farming families and bought their farm seven years ago. The 480-acre farm currently milks 380 cows in their rotary dairy. Jon and Lauren recently purchased an extra 150 acres to grow their business. They have invested in heat detection collars and are looking into new forms of irrigation.

Jon is an early adopter and always looking to improve his business. “I’ve made some changes over the last few years, taking things away that just weren’t working,” Jon said. “I make plenty of mistakes, which is important to acknowledge as well.”

Jon and Lauren’s farm showcases what is possible when starting from scratch. “Participants are certainly not coming to see a third or fourth generation farm. This is first generation and a work in progress. It’s important for new farmers to know that you don’t start with everything perfect,” Jon said.

While progress and innovation are important to Jon and Lauren, they are also aware of the impacts farming can have on the environment. “We have to get the balance of both worlds. The economic side and the environmental one,” John said. “You have to make real choices on where you spend your money. We’ve taken on the approach of low cost, low risk.”

If you want to register for this event, please visit dairyaustralia.com.au/gippsdairymuster