Farmers are often portrayed as being lone operators, but we know that working in agriculture, or any rural business, is a team sport. No matter what specific industry you’re in, you’re not going to get far without the ability to get people working together towards a shared goal.        

None of this is possible without effective leadership, and that’s the topic we’re going to be tackling in this episode. How do you define your leadership?

And who better to ask than two women in leadership roles within the massive event that is the Australian Dairy Conference. 

• Rose Philipzen is the first woman to act as president of the Australian Dairy Conference. With a lifetime of experience in the industry in New South Wales, Rose shared what her trailblazing journey has taught her about the benefits of leaning into a collaborative leadership approach. 
• Ella Credlin is working in Rose’s team as the conference’s programming chair. As a passionate dairy farmer from south-west Victoria, Ella was tapped on the shoulder to work for the ADC, and told me all about her hope to create positive change within the industry she loves.     

Also in this episode we discuss the Australian Rural Leadership Program. The ARLP is a 15-month program that helps rural people develop their skills as leaders in their field. 

This episode was brought to you in collaboration with the Australian Dairy Conference, Australia’s premiere conference. Next year the conference will be held in Melbourne in February at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. You can register for the conference or explore the program at this link.    

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Nikki Davey is well known in the rural women's community as an entrepreneur, flower farmer, speaker and absolute go-getter. She founded Grown Not Flown, an app connecting customers with local flower growers. This startup business had a great cause in directly challenging the lack of sustainability in the flower industry, where many flowers are flown to Australia from countries in South America, Africa and Asia. Which is a crazy amount of unnecessary flower miles... given the amazing flowers we have right here in Australia. 

As a business and a movement, Grown Not Flown was kicking goals. Nikki won the National Agrifutures Rural Women's award in 2023. She fostered a large social media following and most importantly, created a platform that was popular with both growers and customers. But a couple of months ago, Nikki posted online about how she was winding up Grown Not Flown. This came as quite a shock to many.

But the reality of any startup is that most fail. Sometimes you can even have the market fit, a brilliant founder and a popular platform... and things don't work out.

So you're about to hear an interview with Nikki Davey that she did on another podcast called Agtech.. So What, who have kindly shared it with us. Sarah Nolet is the interviewer and dives into the business side of things, from what it's like being the founder of a startup, the challenges of finding funding and how difficult it is to make the final decision to wind up the business.  

Nikki is still doing amazing things of course too, including a new role in the sustainable flower industry, her new startup AI business, Stratlas and she just released a book for business owners about collaboration... called "The Pie Gets Bigger."

This is a Rural Podcasting Co. production. Check out our other podcasts and how we can help you create your very own podcast too!

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It can feel very murky when diving into measuring things like nature, biodiversity, carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.  Essentially, how do you know what you’re doing is working? And while the tools are still improving there are many reasons why it’s worth giving it a crack. 

In part 3 of our collaboration series with Farmers for Climate Action, we dive into ways to help you account for all the good environmental work you do on farm. We also get insights directly from the bank, including what financial tools are out there and how to best communicate your vision with your bank manager. 

Hear from:

• Carmel Onions, Executive Manager Agribusiness Sustainability at Commonwealth Bank
• Leah Garnett, dairy farmer at Mohyu, VIC and science researcher on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in dairy.

We also discuss some of the latest scientific developments in greenhouse gas reduction, including a ‘methane vaccine’.

Please note - this episode does not contain any financial advice. All financial discussions are general in nature.

Quack! Are you interested in sponsoring the next season of Ducks on the Pond? Contact us at Rural Podcasting Co.

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“Climate smart farming” has become somewhat of a buzz word (or buzz phrase, rather!). But what does that even mean? Instead of becoming caught up in definitions, we hear from two women who are each running farming operations in two very different landscapes...but are both proudly, climate smart farmers. 

At its essence, climate smart farming is about lowering inputs where you can, making decisions for your soil and grass, and in some cases, tapping into opportunities such as renewable energy or carbon sequestration. It’s going to look different, depending on your property.  However, it's often thinking about farm productivity from the soil up, and yes, it also means making a profit too.

Hear from:

• Ellen Litchfield -  runs a cattle and sheep station in remote South Australia. She’s also a vet, and has a Masters in Sustainable Agriculture and works part-time for Farmers for Climate Action.
• Dimity Taylor - runs a sheep farm near Crookwell in NSW. She is implementing regenerative agriculture practices on the farm and also works part-time as a physiotherapist.

Both Ellen and Dimity talk about the challenges and successes they’ve had in getting others on board their climate smart farming journeys. 

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Behind every good Ag business, is a good woman. Well, a smart and caring one.

There are many women doing innovative things on farm and in the broader agriculture industry. From cracking a value added business, to finding more sustainable ways of producing food. In this episode, you’ll meet two women who think strategically about their own farming businesses, as well as broader issues around soil science, national food security (such as a national food plan) and how to bring more diversity into industry board rooms.

Hear from:

*Fiona Marshall -Chair, Grain Growers National Policy Group Member. Chair, Riverine Plains Farming Systems Group.  Grains producer and advocate for agriculture. Based in Mulwala, NSW.

*Cressida Cains - President of Australian Women in Agriculture and founder of Pecora Dairy, a raw-milk sheep cheese dairy. Based in Robertson, NSW.

This is episode one of a 3-part collaboration series with Farmers for Climate Action. Come to their national summit - and receive 20% off! Listen to the episode to find out how!

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How do you create systemic change, especially when it involves changing the culture and attitudes of not just a workplace, but an entire society? 

There is no specific playbook for systemic change. But there are a number of tools you can try. In this final episode of our three part series with Rural Women Lead, we explore this adaptive process by looking at space of women’s health and wellbeing - including reproductive health, family violence and menopause - which are all areas that have been overlooked, misunderstood and mischaracterised throughout history.

Hear from:

• Jodie Hill - CEO at Women’s Health and Wellbeing Barwon Southwest, from Crossley, VIC.

In her role, Jodie is tackling multiple systemic problems. To do this, she says you need to have conversations with people with very different attitudes and ideas to you. This inevitably comes with discomfort - but if you want to create change, you need to have the courage to be able to sit with that discomfort and do it anyway. Jodie tells the story of having to speak to a room full of tradies about gender equity, when it was clear they hadn’t really chosen to be in the room. She adjusted her talk to better fit the audience..but summoned the courage to speak!

This series has been made in collaboration with Rural Women Lead, lead by Leadership Great South Coast. Other members includes: O2 Advisory, are-able, GenHealth, Wannon Water and Rural Podcasting Co.

This is a Rural Podcasting Co. production.

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Storytelling is so important for connection and information retention (there are several studies that prove this!) But have you ever stopped to think how important knowing YOUR OWN story is?

Hear from Sherry Johnstone, a Keerray Woorong woman, based in Warrnambool who didn’t feel confident in embracing her indigenous heritage, because she was so tired of people questioning it. But when she finally did acknowledge her culture, it markedly changed the direction of her life, giving her greater purpose and re-awakening her passion as an artist.

In this episode hear from:

*Sherry Johnstone - Artist (Spirit and Soul Connections) and educator and Kerray Woorong woman based in Warrnambool, VIC.

*Trudy Marr - Head of Strategy of Strategy and Projects at are-able, a not for profit organisation, which helps people with disabilities find meaningful employment.

Connection is also a strong theme of this episode, and the link between sharing your story and connecting with others. Trudy moved to Warrnambool from Scotland in her early 20s and had to quickly learn how to forge meaningful relationships.  Since then, she has reimagined what networking means. For her, it's not about starting with an intention to climb the corporate ladder,  but rather form a genuine connection - and through this, wonderful opportunities will emerge.

This episode has been made in collaboration with Rural Women Lead - an initiative led by Leadership Great South Coast. It captures some of the insights shared at recent workshops, funded by a community projects grant, from Elders.

Would you like to collaborate with us? Or sponsor a full season? Get in touch! [email protected]

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If you haven’t heard about ‘bio-hacking’ - it’s all about using our neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin and hormones to maximise our wellbeing. And you can do really simple things for a big pay off.

This is the beginning of a 3-part mini series on leadership: focusing on self, story and change. In this episode, focusing on ‘self’ speak to Jessica Fishburn, a women’s health physiotherapist and Director at Gen Health, in Hamilton, VIC.

Drawing on her expertise in pain science and neurobiology, she gives us a few tricks to help increase focus, productivity and overall wellbeing. Jess talks about ‘the flow state’ and how to work out what that is for you, plus what foods and simple exercises can give you a good injection from our natural chemicals and hormones. 

Jess doesn’t believe in ‘taboo’ topics, so she gives some very frank and useful advice on how to reduce your stress levels and optimise your wellbeing. From a leadership perspective, this all comes from the idea that you need to look after yourself first to be a good leader.

This episode has been made in collaboration with Rural Women Lead - an initiative led by Leadership Great South Coast. It captures some of the insights shared at recent workshops, funded by a community projects grant, from Elders.

Would you like to collaborate with us? Or sponsor a full season? Get in touch! [email protected]

This is a Rural Podcasting Co production

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Farm life can sometimes be romanticized, with the wide open spaces, animals and the freedom to do what you want. You might love the bush and your community…but are you actually happy?

There are many factors that influence our wellbeing. This includes how well the business is running financially, farm succession (including whether it has been worked out or not) and your experiences of drought and natural disaster (including how many times you’ve been impacted).  Then of course, all of these factors intersect. So, that’s why we’re looking at these issues altogether.

Hear from:

*Alice Byrnes - Family lawyer and Co-Director at Cheney Suthers Lawyers. She shares her own personal experience of growing up, when her grandparents died unexpectedly, without a clear plan for what would happen to the farm.

*Prof. Jacki Schermer -  lead researcher on the Regional Wellbeing Survey team at the University of Canberra. Her research has found that happiness in rural areas has gone down recently.

There are big and sometimes difficult conversations that need to be had when working with family on the farm. 

This episode will remind you why it’s so important to have them… and have them often enough to keep up with the inevitable changes and unpredictable events that come with life on the land.

Resources:

• From Crisis to Clarity Report: Proactive and Collaborative Farm Succession - Cheney Suthers Lawyers
• The Regional Wellbeing 2025 survey is open to responses now!

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There’s a perception that rural healthcare means second-best or second-rate. Whereas the opposite is actually true. Rural medical students often out-perform their city-based counterparts on standardised tests. Most rural patients are better off being treated closer to home in their rural location (unless they have a very rare condition). And rural medical practices can often be better at adopting new technologies because of their smaller, more agile teams.

So why then, is it so difficult to attract and retain doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to rural and regional areas? 

Hear from:

Dr Bridget Clancy - Ear, nose and throat surgeon based near Warrnambool, VIC and Chair of the Rural Surgery section at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons .

Rebecca Bradshaw - child health nurse and founder of Rural Child Health, based in Jackson, QLD

In this episode we dive into some of the systemic issues from the housing and childcare crises, to sexism in the medical profession. But we also look at what we as individuals and rural communities can do better to help make health professionals feel welcomed and supported.

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Regional Australia has always been at the frontline for energy innovation and delivery. Sure, it's the politicians in the cities that talk about a transition, but it's in our backyard that these projects actually happen.

Some renewables, such as wind, seem to be particularly controversial in a few parts of the country right now. This episode is not diving into that. Instead, it’s looking at how we design renewable energy projects, to ensure farmers and communities have the value of renewables delivered back to them. This includes exploring how renewable could offset farm emissions, to demanding more from big companies to provide long term support to a community, in areas that will make a difference.

Guests:

• Karin Stark - Cotton Farmer in Narromine, NSW and founder of the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference.
• Susan Findlay-Tickner - Grain Grower near Horsham, VIC, who is part of a wind farm project.

So if you’re curious about renewables, from solar, to hydro, wind and even bio energy, we dive into how to assess whether it’s a good investment for your farm, what questions you should be asking and how to work together as a community.

Also, the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference is coming up on 23 July, in Bendigo.

This episode is sponsored by ByCC Fine Jewellery, thank you for your support. And there’s a special promo for listeners!

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