A Country journey, or something like it !

The long road back home, to a career in Agriculture and Agriculture Advocacy.

As a young child growing up on the family mixed farm in the Ganmain/Coolamon region in the eastern Riverina, I believed my course was set. I had finished school and had completed a farm management and wool classing course.

Now home to a future in farming. I could not have been more wrong.

It wasn't a bad plan, Dad wanted me home, the farm was not large, but there was plenty of work. Dad had just bought another block, and he was also share farming mums’ cousins. I don't believe anyone really counted on the Paul Keating Banana Republic and 19% + interest rates.

Money was tight, so off I went wool classing and odd jobbing around the district and the state. It wasn't all bad, as long as you don't mind living out of a suitcase. And then I was always home for sowing and harvest. I am sure that I am not the only farming kid that worked many countless hours on tractors, headers, trucks and livestock principally unpaid.

I did however learn to milk the cows (by hand) and butcher a sheep. All handy lifelong skills. Increasing time was spent away wool classing and at other jobs, to the point that I learned to like my own independence.

I eventually took a job managing a property at Yass, again not for managers wages (a bit of a thread emerging here) and picked up the skills of beef cattle and superfine sheep in the Tablelands, a passion that continues to this day. And that where life took a huge U turn.

Married by now, and with one child, we decided that the rules of broken promises, increasing pressure to live on less with less and not being able to trust those that you should, led to some life changing decisions.

Deciding that at 28, I probably needed a bit of "university paper" if I was going to get a job that would pay me like I would like to be paid. I applied for and was successful in getting the job of cemetery manager at Griffith. I was finally working my way down in the world. This job fitted that description. It did, however, give me access to study at CSU in Horticulture and access to plenty of overtime. In such roles as saleyards, garbage & stray dogs. It was in the main though, a peoples skill role, dealing with people in duress, funeral directors, and the ever-present whims of council.

One of my favourite rules for life has become. " I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times"

It taught me a lot, well that and dealing with difficult people.

But I did pick up along the way that three things really matter, and to quote Warren Buffett. "Intelligence, energy and integrity. And if you don't have the last one, don't bother, and certainly don't employ anyone without it."

I know all this sounds like I am heading a long way from Agriculture but hang in there. I didn't know how I was going to get back either. What followed is a curious but winding path, but one with a central theme, of small but continuous improvement.

I have over the following years worked for:

• South Pacific seeds as a field officer.

• Yass Rural Land Board as a Ranger, (Mainly Footrot control)

• Philmac p/l as a Territory manager.

• Nutrien/Landmark as a store manager

• Philmac p/l again as territory manager working my way up to a national role in Irrigation -K-line.

• Retained Fireman at Station 389 Harden.

• Captain at Bookham RFS and now deputy Group 1 Southern Tablelands

And then finally in 2013....... after a 45deg day complete with howling winds that spread a horrifying fire in the Yass/ Bookham district. Change occurred again. We had an opportunity to purchase our own small block at Bookham and lease some country as well. Not quite back home but farming again. To 2026, lots of stories to tell in the intervening years but I will save that for another time. Succession planning, start early and get it in triplicate.

However, what had all those years away from farming taught me? Maturity, perseverance, the value of a true-life partner, The love of your children. Many wonderful and enduring friendships. The value of integrity and about getting stuck in and giving things a red-hot go.

Also. My true passion was agriculture, and now (unlike the younger me) I now had many more tools and experience to fall back on. I also felt that these experiences placed me in a good spot to be able to contribute to rural advocacy. I had the benefit of many wider experiences.

From the kid that just wanted to farm, I find myself now having the privilege to be sitting on and contributing to committee's within NSW farmers on wool and sheep meat(past). The board of NSW Farmers, and Wool producers Australia, and as an alternate director on AWEX. Hopefully making meaningful additions to all of them.

So, my message is, to all the young hopefuls out there, if your passion is agriculture, it isn't always a straight path but have the vision and keep following it. Find good mentors and don't be afraid to ask them, you can't be expected to know it all, two ears, one mouth, for a reason. Learn to listen. And if an opportunity arrives, take it. You never know where it will lead. But above all, retain integrity. It’s surprising what works out when you keep trying.

That's it for now, until next time, enjoy the winding road.

David Young

Director WoolProducers Australia