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Grabbing the bull by the horns
GippsDairy presented an interactive and detailed workshop on mental and emotional health in Traralgon last week.
A SMALL collection of dairy farmers from Gippsland underwent a GippsDairy workshop last Tuesday (February 6). About 15 farmers from the region came together to learn more about mental and emotional health, and the effects it can have in the workplace. GippsDairy is one of the eight dairy regions that make up the conglomerate Dairy Australia. GippsDairy provides services to benefit and advance the dairy industry and individual businesses, with the aim to work towards a profitable and sustainable industry. The group delivers a wide range of services, including workshops where farmers can meet and communicate with each other and learn how to get the most out of their businesses, discussing 'every angle in the book'. This particular workshop, held at the Traralgon Bowls Club, focussed on mental and emotional health, how to spread positivity in the workplace and how farmers' health could affect other staff or employees. GippsDairy Regional Manager, Karen McLennan, said different types of workshops pull interest to different kinds of dairy farmers. “It depends on the topic, sometimes different topics can engage different types of farmers,” she said. “Our more popular kind of course is that we deliver ‘Cups On, Cups Off’, for new people coming into the industry; this one is a little bit different to the usual workshops that we offer, but it’s still really important because its about your sense of self and how you work with others.” Ms McLennan highlighted the importance of the day’s topic, mental and emotional health on the farm, and how GippsDairy approached the topic.
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“The big focus was around your emotional health and how your emotional health presents in your interactions with others and that could be your family life, your work life, whatever - which is very relevant across the dairy industry,” she said. “Thinking about ‘above and below the line’, so some of that negative self-talk, that might mean that you are not as approachable, not as understandable as what you should be in a work environment.” Longwarry dairy farmer, John Versteden, travelled to Traralgon for the event, and found the workshop helpful. “I’ve been in the (dairy farming) industry for about 40 years, started off share farming, leasing, purchasing farms … we sort of went from 100 cows to 1200 cows in the 1990s, and then we’ve settled at about 700,” he said. “It’s a bit of a self-development thing as much as anything else, because I think if we were actually in a headspace yourself - everything flows better as a result of that. “Whether that’s your family, or your staff, or whatever it is, it’s about keeping everything above the line, and how positivity flows - it’s almost infectious.” Mr Versteden admits that he has undertaken some GippsDairy workshops in the past and implanted their ideas in his business. “I’ve actually done a little bit of this stuff before, and it actually works. I’m really conscious of staying above the line every day, it’s hard to do that some days," he said. “Watching how people respond to that, when you come across people that are really negative or want to stay below the line, it actually shuts them down when all you give them is positive stuff." On the implementation front, Mr Versteden said, “We try to, it’s a work in progress - we don’t succeed in doing it every day, nobody does”.
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some curveballs into the mix too and just see,” Ms McLennan said. “It mightn’t have been asked for but it might be something people engage with, for us its always a bit of a balance to see what attracts more farmers and what they can benefit from.” The workshops appear to be highly successful and widely popular for farmers of all ages, and Mr Versteden would love to see more dairy farmers joining them at the workshops. “I actually would like to see a lot more people coming to these sort of sessions … particularly young people because I think they’re hungry for this sort of stuff," he said. "Quite often, old people - such as myself - we’re already set in our ways I suppose, because a lot of this is about fresh thinking, and thinking about stuff differently."
Folk Festival to hit Boolarra THE multi-award winning Boolarra Folk Festival will celebrate its 21st birthday this year. The free community event, held within the setting of mountain ash trees in the Strzelecki Ranges, will feature music and market stalls with local arts and crafts, festival merchandise and food stalls offering a diverse range of delicious cuisines. Since the festival’s inception in 2003, more than 800, mostly local, musicians have entertained audiences, which have grown to more than 9000 each year. Musicians take to the main stage in Boolarra’s Centennial Park, Boolarra Memorial Hall and ARC Yinnar. This year’s festival will open on Friday, March 1 at the Boolarra Memorial Hall with a special, free celebration featuring extraordinary Gippsland musicians from 7pm. The ever-popular Strzelecki Stringbusters will be followed by Paul Buchanan’s Voodoo Preachers playing original raw, electric blues. The evening will close with Smokin’ Dog Johnson, a swampy, dirty blues band from Boolarra. Saturday, March 2 is the main event, and has a full day of incredible artists and bands
scheduled from 10.30am until 8pm. Festivalgoers can enjoy Half Cut Hicks, a combination of banjo, mandolin, trombone, ukulele, sidchrome, bass and drums creating a high energy hillbilly blues sound, and Boneyard Blondes, who play a mix of blues and rock originals and covers with a Boneyard twist. Ally Row, an indie pop-folk duo and 2023 winners of the Port Fairy Street Fair Busking event, will be performing, as well as the Hip Pockets, a 10-piece R&B soul band with a pumping rhythm section and sweet vocals. A vibrant market will also be held in the adjacent Boolarra Railway Park on Saturday, March 3. From 50 market stalls in the early days of the festival, now more than 100 art, craft and food stalls will be set up for the festival’s 21st birthday. This free community event would not be possible without much appreciated sponsorship. Latrobe City Council has provided funding since the very first festival and Loy Yang B continues to be a major sponsor. Car parking is available, including accessible parking.
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Page 16 – Times-Spectator, Tuesday, 13 February, 2024
Ms McLennan spoke on the importance of the workshops, and how they get farmers to not only interact with one another, but share ideas and network. “Often at events like this, farmers will meet farmers they know, but they’ll also get an opportunity to meet and connect with other farmers," she said. “(It) is really important for the dairy industry because they’re working with a close, small group, in some instances of employees and staff on the farm, or maybe even only with their partner." GippsDairy is always trying to get ideas from farmers as to what they would want to learn, and from there they plan out events throughout the year and cater to their needs. “We are trying to consult with farmers at least once a year to (say) ‘What do you want to see over the next 12 months?’ but we also just like to throw
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Tom Hayes
Photo: Tom Hayes