Dairy News Australia August 2015

Page 5

DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA AUGUST 2015

NEWS // 5

Western Victoria farmer Oonagh Kilpatrick, pictured with employees Shane Dickson (left) and Julian Bellamy.

Long search pays off MADELEINE BRENNAN

LIKE MANY dairy farmers, Oonagh and Harper Kilpatrick have had ongoing challenges in hiring and retaining skilled staff. The couple, who run 750 cows on 485ha in Koroit, Western Victoria, have had to be resourceful in order to meet their labour demands – including Oonagh, who has stepped up to the plate since moving on to the farm in 2011. “The initial understanding was that I wouldn’t be doing anything on farm,” Oonagh says. “I had left farming when I was 16, as far as I was concerned that was it,” she

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laughs. “I probably reared 20 calves a year and now all of a sudden I find myself rearing 700 calves.” While Oonagh has clearly found a passion for dairying, she says the challenge for dairy farm managers and owners is finding staff who share the passion and knowledge required to deliver profitability. “As an employer you want continuity and you want to have a stable workforce of employees who wish to learn and participate in the business,” Oonagh said. “This allows you to impart your priorities and ultimately grow your business. “From an animal welfare point of view, it’s also critical that employees have good animal husbandry skills. The person who stands at the start of a plat-

day visas has worked well for the farm and the town. “They’ll spend their money in the town on dinner and going out, so it does benefit the community,” she said. “And they’ve come from a background of working on family farms from an early age, so they’ve got good experience and animal husbandry skills.” At present, the couple have three Australians as part their permanent workforce, each with a range experience and qualifications, including a retired dairy farmer and a former builder. “They are all excellent, but we had to interview a lot of people before we got the right ones.” She said the changes to the 457 visa criteria mean other roles could be filled TH1848M 29-05-15

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with skilled workers from overseas if required. “The first priority for any dairy farmer employing staff is to look at who is available within his or her community because it’s all about keeping income within the community and moving up together,” Oonagh says. “The labour agreement has apparently been extremely successful in helping the pork industry grow and develop in Western Australia; it’s basically another string to the dairy industry’s bow. “If we can’t access labour with the skills we require to grow more profitable businesses either locally or from Australia, then it allows us to access these labour skills from elsewhere.”

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form putting cups on cows is critical to your bottom line, as he or she plays a key role in identifying if you’ve got a health problem in your herd. “And if you don’t have healthy animals you aren’t going to have a profitable farm.” To fill the gap with staff who have experience and interest, Oonagh and Harper, who emigrated from Ireland, approached agricultural colleges locally first and then in their home country. Oonagh said they always try to hire locally by advertising in local papers and the internet, as there are obvious benefits for the employer and the local community. However, the model of using Irish agricultural students on working holi-

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