WA agriculture industry stars Brett South and Georgia Trainor selected for Australian Grain Leaders program

Two young guns of WA’s $8 billion grains industry have been selected for a prestigious leadership program. InterGrain territory manager Georgia Trainor and Beaumont farmer Brett South were this morning announced as two of nine members of the 2022 cohort of the Australian Grain Leaders Program. The specialised year-long program is run by national grains representative body GrainGrowers and offers high-level professional development training to emerging industry leaders. Each participant will complete a project focused on how a farming business or industry challenge could be addressed. GrainGrowers foots the bill for the project’s cost, as well as travel and accommodation expenses. As well as the two WA representatives, there is also a participant from Victoria, another from South Australia, one from Queensland, and four from New south Wales. The pair will be joined be James Murray, of Birchip in Victoria, Joseph Koch of Booleroo Centre in South Australia, Sally Poole in Callandoon in Queensland, and the four NSW representatives Katherine Munn (Wagga Wagga), Mike Surridge (Oaklands), Thomas Carberry (Narrabri), and Thomas Simson (Premer). GrainGrowers grower and industry development general manager Kaitlin Commins said the 2022 program had been “pandemic-proofed” to deliver outcomes, even if COVID-19 restrictions continued. “I always find it exciting to meet the emerging leaders who have decided to step forward and participate in the Australian Grain Leaders Program,” she said. “To see the unique leadership and management skills develop in people taking part makes us proud and excited about the future leadership of our Australian grains industry.” MEET THE PARTICIPANTS Brett South (Beaumont, WA) Brett is a grain farmer with a 5600ha continuous cropping program, who also formed a subcommittee within the South East Premium Wheatgrowers Group, forming a Youth in Ag body bringing together young farmers and young industry professionals. His project will be based around ‘’building resilience’’ and creating a farming program that can face financial pressure, drought, frost, low grain prices, staffing issues, remoteness and looking at turning negatives in positives. Georgia Trainor (Mokine, WA) Georgia works at InterGrain as a Territory Manager in the WA Wheatbelt. She grew up in Perth but family ties to farming drew her focus to agriculture from an early age. Since completing her studies at Curtin University’s Muresk Campus, Georgia has spent the past 10 years living and working in rural WA. Her project will be to speak directly to growers and develop case studies to identify knowledge gaps when it comes to variety selection, and work with grain breeders to put together a webinar which will address these gaps in knowledge to producers. Joseph Koch (Booleroo Centre, SA) Joe is a sixth-generation farmer working in a family-owned mixed farming and Reefinator (rock-crushing machine) business. Joe is also involved in a precision ag consulting partnership which he runs with his wife Jess. Joe’s project will be community focused and based around maintaining and encouraging rural community involvement while swimming against the tide of rural decline and contraction. Thomas Carberry (Narrabri, NSW) Thomas is a fourth-generation farmer and has worked as an agronomist. His project will be to develop a farm and environmental management program/system for growers to operate at maximum efficiency achieving the best yielding results, by using the best industry practices and receiving a premium for their efforts. Thomas Simson (Premer, NSW) Thomas is a fourth-generation farmer and is passionate about soil health. He is the chair of AMPS Research, which is a privately funded grower group that conducts small plot trials to proof test new concepts and varieties across Northern NSW. His AGLP project would continue trialling and implementing soil health practices, and in doing so would seek to find partnerships that recognises these topics as beneficiaries of grain production and would build a credit-based system that rewards such practices. Mike Surridge (Oaklands, NSW) Mike originally hails from dairy farming in New Zealand and has now settled in Australia working in grain farm management. He currently mentors staff and has a big focus and passion for farm safety. His AGLP project will be Improving safety culture and improving staff retention in agriculture. Sally Poole (Callandoon, QLD) Sally’s passion for farming led her to study agriculture, despite growing up in the city. She currently works as an agronomist and digital ag consultant with a particular focus on spatially understanding soil water-holding properties and subsoil constraints and their impact on production. Her project will be focusing on increasing the engagement of growers and agronomist with sustainable practices and sustainability targets. She hopes to develop initiatives and strategies for industry bodies and groups to help get growers to better engage sustainability concepts and practices. James Murray (Birchip, VIC) James currently holds the position of Senior Research Manager within the Birchip Cropping Group and has highlighted a desire to see young professionals within the agricultural industry develop into highly skilled people, with the skills to support grain growers and the grains industry more broadly. His project will be about regulations around climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Katherine Munn (Wagga Wagga, NSW) Currently working at InterGrain, Katherine is passionate about the profitable, long-term sustainability of the grains industry and she believes this starts with developing people capacity. Her project would develop a program she can present to university and high school students about the opportunities in agriculture. She hopes to better understand the career paths others have taken so that she can give confidence to the next generation of agri-professionals that there is something in agriculture for everyone.