Students immersed in farming
A Drouin apple orchard and organic enterprise at Ellinbank were part of a two-day Industry Immersion Program involving more than 50 Gippsland secondary school students.
The tour, co-ordinated by Food and Fibre Gippsland, took in the Wallace’s Ellinbank farm which has been farmed by the same family for 150 years and the Fankhauser’s third generation apple orchard in Drouin.
Students also visited a large-scale vegetable grower in Middle Tarwin and a big dairy business in Leongatha that milks 1100 cows daily.
At Elderslie Organics at Ellinbank, the students piled into the back of a hay trailer to visit some cows in one of the paddocks and begin their learning experience of how an organic enterprise operates, how they manage their animals and their pastures.
For a number of students, this was the first time they had ever seen a cow.
Getting up close to cows and getting a ride in a hay trailer ranked at the top of the list as one of the biggest highlights of the day, along with learning that not all eggs comes from chickens in cages after seeing free range chickens roaming the paddocks under the watchful eye of the resident Maremma guard dogs.
Elderslie Organics is a fifth-generation farm which has been in the Wallace family for the past 150 years.
The visit to Liz and Glynn Fankhauser, third generation orchardists who with their son Brad, grow around 1000 tons of apples each year.
The tradition of Gippsland farms being family owned and operated was an important model for the students to observe, and by talking to the generation currently running the business, they got a good understanding of the value of what has been built on over many decades, with years of trial and error, knowledge of the land, process creation and tireless effort resulting in the successful operations that they are inheriting and running today.
In the words of Brad Fankhauser as he pointed out the many rows of apple trees on the farm at Drouin - “this doesn’t just appear overnight”.
On Wednesday, the group toured celery, leek and baby leaf producers Schreurs and Sons, where they were hosted by third generation farmer Adam Schreurs and his wife Donna.
A common reaction from the students as Adam showed them various aspects of the vegetable growing business was they had no idea there was so much more science involved than the physical practice of planting seeds.
From baby vegetables to young calves, the immersion experience took a very hands on turn when the students arrived at Jelbart Dairy – a second generation family business in Leongatha that milks 1100 cows.
As well as allowing the students the fun of interacting with a large enclosure of playful calves, owner Tim Jelbart, who took over the farm business from his parents, gave the students an appreciation of what it takes to produce a litre of milk, walking them through the feed process and the labour involved in milking their large herd across split shifts that start at around 2:30am every day and finish at 9pm each night.
Food & Fibre Gippsland acting chief executive officer Nicola Watts said it was great to see so many students getting access to an on-farm experience.
“It’s definitely triggered a deeper appreciation for how and where their food is produced, and being able to talk to the producers face to face about the diverse number of opportunities that are available across the industry is a great start to attracting the next generation to consider a career in the food & fibre sector,” she said.