Tasmania has talent. You had better believe it – and those involved in our food industries punch way above their weight. Year after year, our farmers and food producers achieve stunning results in national competitions – and this year is no exception.
In the Kondinin Group and ABC Rural’s Australian Farmer of the Year awards last year, Reid Fruits’ managing director Tim Reid was named Farmer of the Year and also rural leader of the year; Peter and Frances Bender from Huon Aquaculture were named Australian Biosecurity (animal) Farmers of the Year; and Rob, Norm and Lesley Frampton of Gawler took out the title of Dairy Farmers of the Year.
In 2012, Grant Archer was Dairy Farmer of the Year; and Ouse farmer Bernard Brain won the award for the farmer who had excelled at diversifying his business.
As well, we have had a mortgage on the Telstra Business awards, with Bill Lark’s Lark Distillery named Australia’s best small business this year. This followed on from Bruny Island Cheese winning the overall award in 2013; and Laura McBain, from Bellamy Organics, being named as the 2013 Telstra Tasmanian Business Woman of the Year.
It has just been announced that three Tasmanian farmers are among the finalists in Kondinin Group and ABC Rural’s 2014 Australian Farmer of the Year awards.
Launceston apiarist Lindsay Bourke, a great friend and supporter of the TFGA, is again a finalist in the Biosecurity Farmer of the Year award. Lindsay Bourke is trying for third time lucky, having been a finalist for the past two years in the diversification category. Lindsay is a remarkable human being. His interest in apiaries goes back to 1966 when he started with 200 hives, while employed at the Tasmanian Fire Service.
Honey profits led to real estate investments: scores of houses, motels, hotels and restaurants before returning to the source of his wealth in 2002. Today, he is the largest commercial pollinator in Tasmania, and his Australian Honey Products are exported to Korea, Japan, Tahiti, Germany, Jordan and the UK.
Danny Jones of Pure Foods could be Australia’s inaugural Egg Farmer of the Year. Danny has developed Pure Foods into the state’s biggest egg producer, while at the same time converting the business from caged eggs to free range as Tasmania leads the way nationally on this front.
Montana dairy farmers, Nigel and Rachel Brock, are looking to continue our dream run in the category of Dairy Farmer of the Year. The Brocks are firm believers in doing it for themselves.
They want their dairy farm to be self sufficient in hay and silage, and to be responsible for its own livestock replacement.
“We like to be in charge of what goes down our cows’ throats,” Nigel Brock says. “We like to do it ourselves.”
The TFGA is rightly proud of how our farmers and producers perform. Very often it is the quiet achievers who come to the fore and stun you with their stories. They are an inspiration to all of us.
The national award winners will be announced in Melbourne on Wednesday, September 10.
We’ll be cheering the Tasmanians on.
TFGA chief executive Jan Davis
