LIVELIHOODS ON THE FARM
Farmers don’t just milk cows. After listening to our farming
champion we learned that farmers have to be skilled at many things to be able
to make money and keep their business going.
Many of the jobs that need to be done are done by family
members, often after being awake since 3.30 am milking cows. If these jobs are
not done, the business is not sustainable. This means it won’t make money for
very long, so the farmers cannot pay for things in the future, or plan for
making the business grow.
Also, other members of dairy farming families have other
jobs to make extra income. One family who live on the South Coast have the
whole family working on the farm, the grandparents get up and milk the cows
with their sons in the morning. Their son’s wives take care of the family then
go to their jobs and work all day while the farmers do the other jobs such as
fencing, feeding, caring for injured animals, mechanics and fixing equipment,
business management, and sometimes making dairy products such as cheese.
WE also learned that careers in dairy farming can include agronomist,
veterinarian, food scientist, diary product maker, mechanics, “there are plenty
of pathways to a great career in the industry” according to the legendairy
website.
AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY
For starters, these families spend their money in their
local area, so dairy farming provides a lot of money for local communities. The
legendairy website explains that dairy farming is a 13 billion dollar a year
industry employing 43000 Australians directly and thousands more indirectly.
Exports of dairy from Australia to other countries is worth 2.76 billion
dollars per year.
This industry is very important to all Australians, not just
because it makes things we like to eat in the city – we learned that we could
have jobs that are related to farming in the future even if we don’t live in
the country!
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