The image of Australia’s dairy industry has been bruised by a combination of false stereotypes and real environmental concerns. But it now has a new champion in Roma Britnell, winner of the 2009 RIRDC Rural Women’s Award.
Roma Britnell’s entry into the dairy industry was borne of three things: a rebellious streak, luck and a simple wish for her young family: “We were looking for a lifestyle in which we were able to control our own days’ destiny,” she says.
For about a decade, Britnell and her husband Glen unsuccessfully attempted to purchase a grazing farm. They were knocked back by banks unwilling to take a gamble on two fresh faces new to farming, which – due to its typically high expenses and often low returns – is commonly viewed as a family business rather than an entrepreneurial enterprise.
Persistence pays
Britnell blames her youthful nature for her response: persistence, despite the rejections and the general air of discouragement among family and friends. This only served to spur her on towards the long-term goal of working in agriculture.
“At the time I thought: ‘Why is everyone saying that?’,” Britnell recalls. “It’s not a smart move for a nation to continually tell its people that they can’t do something. What is that doing for the succession of agriculture in our country?”
Then a shearer, Britnell’s husband was often away for up to seven months of the year. She would occasionally follow him, but for the most part she stayed with their children in their hometown of Hawkesdale and worked as a nurse to save money.
The pair longed for a more stable lifestyle for their young family. “Glen said to me: ‘This is not the life of a family’, which was what we’d been trying to achieve by geting into agriculture,” Britnell says. “We both thought ‘it’s not going to work, let’s just give up’.”
Lucky break
Then, however, came some much needed good luck: a newspaper advertisement for dairy farm trainees. Despite the dairy industry’s reputation for being mundane and inflexible, they decided that they had nothing left to lose. And sure enough, within nine months of the traineeship, a share-farming opportunity arose. This meant they would not only be employed as managers of a dairy farm but would also take on a share of both the risk and income generated by the business.
The next three years were spent learning as much as possible about the dairy industry, both firsthand and through numerous short courses completed on everything from pasture management and fertiliser application to herd health and natural resource management.
Having proven themselves capable of doing what everyone had been so convinced they could not, the Britnells bought their own farm in 2000 and now own three in total – two are run by external managers.
Fierce defender
Roma Britnell (left) and family: "In the dairy industry we've been able to raise our kids and be available to them as they've grown up"
Like many dairy farmers, Britnell faces a number of challenges unrecognised by the wider community.
She was initially daunted by the day-to-day pressures associated with running what is essentially a large business from scratch, and felt compelled to join a number of offfarm dairy industry bodies for greater support.
Over the years, Britnell has also become a fierce defender of the image of the dairy industry. She is now the Chairman of regional development body WestVic Dairy and was formerly President of her district dairy farmers’ council. She passionately highlights the unique pressures the industry faces, which she argues are symptomatic of a general lack of appreciation for the importance of agriculture and primary industries.
“Agriculture, I feel, is somewhat threatened by the community’s lack of understanding of how we are doing a valuable job of creating food in an environmentally responsible way, using sound science at the base of every decision we make.” Just rewards Earlier this year, Britnell was declared the Victorian winner of the Government’s Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Rural Women’s award, and subsequently took out the national prize.
The award aims to help women improve their leadership skills to encourage them to take an active role in the future of their industry. Britnell was given $10,000 to fund her project to improve the financial viability of dairy farmers and the image of the dairy industry.
“When we talk about agriculture being worth 12% of Australia’s GDP, I don’t think we recognise what the industry actually contributes to society and we don’t have a way of putting that data together in a meaningful way,” says Britnell. “This award gives me the opportunity to raise the profile of that discussion.”
Pricing project
She intends to use the prize money to coordinate a research project on dairy pricing. In Australia the proportion of milk processed through farmer-owned plants has dropped from 90% to 30% in the last ten years, with a marked increase in the number of processing plants owned by multinational corporations.
Britnell argues that the impact this has had on falling dairy prices has been overlooked in recent years, with industry attention diverted by the drought and the broader impact of climate change on agriculture.
“A lot of analysis and research has to be done,” she says. “I think it’s important to raise this issue before it slips by unnoticed, which it has done in other countries such as England.”
Britnell is currently working with national industry body Australian Dairy Farmers to re-examine this issue, with particular focus on the future of the dairy industry.
“I think the dairy industry needs to stop and take a look at what the implications are,” she explains. “What will the industry look like if farmers no longer have any influence over their milk once it leaves the farm gate? Will this end up making the operating environment unviable?”
Sustaining dairy
Like many in agribusiness, Britnell’s main concern of late has been the possible future impact of the Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), as the dairy industry is relatively carbon-intensive. The Government’s decision to exclude agriculture from the Scheme has not entirely allayed her fears.
“There is still uncertainty until the wider Australian community embraces agriculture and starts to see it as part of the solution in reducing the environmental impacts of humans, rather than seeing agriculture as the problem itself,” says Britnell.
“In Australia we have farmers wanting to be part of the solution to the challenge of producing food responsibly and safely, so we’re better off making sure that we do it well here rather than losing the opportunity offshore.
“That way we can confidently monitor and value environmentally sustainable production in our own country, where we’ve got educated farmers who can take up the latest research, adapt that and be part of setting the standards for the world.”
For now though, Britnell is taking it one day at a time. At the heart of her concerns is the lifestyle that she initially sought: one that affords her the flexibility to change her busy work schedule on and off farm to suit the needs of her growing family.
“It was something I wanted to do in partnership with my husband,” she says. “I value the family farm concept and I think men and women have different strengths and weaknesses and in this business they complement each other, and it works for us.
“In the dairy industry we have an environment where we can raise our children and have the type of lifestyle with the kids that we were after. We’ve certainly been available to them as they’ve been growing up, whereas other jobs wouldn’t have afforded us that opportunity.”
Article by Jane Lee
This article was originally published in Agribusiness Australia 2010 magazine as Milking success
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