BCG senior research officer Kelly Angel shares how her career has evolved since leaving the city and how much she enjoys working in the agricultural industry.
I was born and grew up in Melbourne, but took on the passion for agriculture from my Dad who was born in Minyip and lived in that area for most of his younger years.
We spent many school holidays on family and friend’s farms in the Warracknabeal to Narracoorte region, most at busy times of shearing, harvest and sowing.
This desire took me to Melbourne University to pursue a veterinary career, but one animal science subject later and I realised that I enjoyed working with plants, in particular crops, so much more.
This, in combination with meeting my own Mallee Boy (Darren) from Pinnaroo, led to working with Agriculture Victoria, then Victorian Institute for Dryland Agriculture) VIDA, at Horsham in the agronomy farming systems team, as well as the pulse and canola breeding teams.
During this time I completed my Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree by distance education through Charles Sturt University at Wagga Wagga.
Wanting to work closer with growers, a shift to the Liverpool Plains as a trainee agronomist with Pursehouse Rural expanded my horizons to include summer crops of sorghum, mung beans, maize, soybeans, cotton, adzuki beans and a variety of other things.
The diversity and reliability of the region was amazing, my first taste of a big crop was a 10t/ha dryland durum wheat crop in a beautiful area called Bundella, you needed a packed lunch to walk 10m into the crop.
While in the area, our three ‘little angels’ were born, before I returned to agronomy with Elders in Tamworth.
The love of this region came at the cost of being too far from our aging family, and as much as I loved agronomy, I was also keen to get back into research, but something more applied so that it is relevant to the people who are looking for the best outcome – the growers!
There is not much I don’t love about the agricultural industry, it is challenging, and rewarding. You see some amazing things and meet some amazing people.
In ag, you ride the rollercoaster with everyone, the good years, the bad ones. Everyone is watching everyone’s back.
Sure, you have your favorites, but when the going gets tough for someone, the neighbours get going!
I witnessed this first hand in my client base countless times, where the sense of community in a region is paramount to success. Sharing knowledge, challenges, or catching up at the local footy game or races. It’s something you don’t see as readily in the city – I’m sure it’s there, but it’s not as easy to see.
The biggest challenge in agriculture is uncertainty. A bit open ended I know, but so much is invested on the unknown.
Will it rain, what pest or disease will I be dealing with, what will the market do, when should I buy new machinery or more land, when should I sell my product? There are so many unknowns.
A wise grower I worked with said to me “Farmers are the biggest gamblers, they put so much effort up front for something they are not sure on the outcome.”
Farmers these days are smarter and more efficient than before, but they still strive to be better, and I want to be there to see it happen.
The thing that I both love and hate (not in a bad way) about the Birchip community is as I walked down the main street in the first few weeks of living here and having nothing short of 5-10 people address me by name, yet I had no idea who they were.
In Birchip you can’t help but be involved, you get recruited to play sport before you have unpacked your bags, there are endless opportunities for such a small town.
My girls love their school and have made some amazing friends, and Darren, well he has been recruited by a local farmer.
There are several things I enjoy about working at BCG. This includes the variety of work we do, the opportunity to discuss with growers what their challenges are and then think of constructive ways to look at these.
Some of the projects I am involved with allow me to work closely with growers, and there is nothing more rewarding as a researcher than discussing at the end of the season, what worked, what didn’t and what you would do differently next time.
Engaging with top researchers around Australia and the world and having the ability to learn new things through the opportunities made available by BCG means hopefully that we can help, even just a little bit, in taking the guesswork out of a management decision for a farmer by putting some science and numbers behind it.
