Compulsory Blog Post 5 - YFC Visit

9th October 2012
As we looked excitedly across our school, waiting for the arrival of our Young Farming Champion, Sammi Townsend, Maryellen and I whispered to each other about the sheer delight at having Sammi come so far to see us.


Sammi preparing for her speech

And as we heard the screech of tires in our school parking lot we quickly looked up and saw a gorgeous young girl dressed in the official YFC uniform . Sammi had arrived! We had been planning this day for weeks! Firstly, we were going to sit down, have lunch, and get to know Sammi. Then we would take her to some of the Primary School classes so that she could tell her story, and so that all sorts of questions could be asked. Then, during ECA time, the entire school would watch her exciting presentation. And, last but not least, she would stay after school so that the Archibull team could interview her. 

Mr Williams introduces Sammi to our school

Everything was organised, and we were very excited! The entire school had been buzzing about Sammi’s arrival since it was first announced at our morning assembly. I had at-least 11 students ask me when she was coming and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet!So off we went; Aaron, Maryellen and myself chatting away endlessly with Sammi about the different types of jobs in the agriculture industry, young people in the agriculture industry, what it’s like to work on a farm, studying hard at university, and the different types of wool, just to name a few!

Some students touching wool from Sammi

Next it was time to take Sammi around to some of our younger classes. Sammi first explained who she was, what she did, and a what life was like on a farm. Afterwards, it was time for questions and our students had so many! Some students asked: “How many animals do you have on your farm?”, “Do you like living on a farm?”, “How many sheep do you shear a day?”, “What wool is the nicest?” and finally “What do you actually do on your farm?”. After answering many questions, we took Sammi to our school hall to set up for her presentation. Luckily, we had our tech genius, Aaron to help set up all the cameras, the PowerPoint presentation, and all sorts of other equipment.Sammi then began her presentation. Although our school is only small – a total of 300 students in the Middle-Senior school, she was still quite nervous. Despite this, her presentation was marvellous. She began her presentation by showing us her YFC champion video from the Art4Ag Youtube channel.

In this video Sammi told us she was from a small town called Lyndhurst. It is a very small town. Sammi said, “I know everyone in my town. In fact, most of my town is my family!” In fact, we found  out that Sammi actually knows the extended family of one of our Archibull group members - it’s a small world!

Explaining to our school how wool is coloured

The video also gave us a lot of background information on Sammi, including who she is, what her farm is like and why she is “farming for the future”. (To see Sammi’s excellent video please see our October blog post “Sammi Townsend’s Youtube Video”.)

Then Sammi moved on to her presentation. Here she detailed the different types of wool and what wool is used for, the shearing process, different jobs on the farm and how WE can start supporting our Aussie farmers. Our younger students were very excited to learn about Sammi’s very own poddy lamb. A poody lamb is a lamb that has does not have a mother sheep to learn from or feed from. Sammi told us how she fed her poddy lamb from a very young age and how her lamb thinks she is her mother!

Students trying out this cool new handcream- lanolin!

One of the most crucial points Sammi made was that we ALL need farmers to maintain our current lifestyle. We have such a strong cattle and sheep industry in Australia; we export 65% of our meat from cattle and 70% of our wool overseas to other countries. It’s up to all of us as Australians to support our Aussie farmers. An important point Sammi made was that both city people and country people need each other and need to work alongside each other. We need to provide support to each other. People living in cities need to buy products produced by local farmers. By doing this, we can help ensure the ongoing survival of the wool industry (and the agriculture industry) in Australia.

We also learnt about the sheep band that starts from a thin line in Queensland, which then passes through a large chunk of New South Wales and extends over toward Western Australia. When Sammi was asked the question “Why did you choose to stay in the agriculture industry, after graduated?” Sammi’s answer really opened the minds of the entire student body. She definitely destroyed some very common stereotypes that students have in regards to farmers and farming, and the agriculture industry. Sammi told us that the reason she chose to stay in the agriculture industry was because she wanted to get the message out that farmers are intelligent, hard-working people and that farmers are important to Australia.


Wool properties

Sammi also told us that there most definitely is a career for young people in the agriculture industry. She told us that at school she had just 23 people in her class. Of these 23 students, only 3 students chose agriculture as an elective subject in year 12. This made many of our students realise that if there is such a lack of interest in rural communities, then there mustn’t be much interest at all in the cities. All of our team members agree that this is a very serious problem and that more students need to be educated about the importance of agriculture (and, frankly, in many cases… what agriculture is). Thankfully, there are programs like Archibull that provide the gateway to so many new and exciting learning opportunities. Many of our younger students didn’t know what agriculture was and now thanks to Sammi our school is much better educated in Aussie Agriculture.

Celine trying out Sammi's headband

Another important part of Sammi’s presentation was the technical aspects of getting the wool from the sheep to the shop. She told us about the different types of wool and which wool is used for certain products. It’s absolutely mind blowing that wool is made up of many different fibres, proteins and calcium; all of which make up this wonderful thing, called wool.After listening to Sammi speak to us, it really made us think very carefully about pursuing farming as a career choice. It opened our eyes to all the potential benefits of a farming lifestyle. Having contact with such an inspirational young person has encouraged us to pursue our dreams to become whatever we want. Thank you for talking to us, Sammi! You have definitely given us insight into the importance of the wool industry, and why farming is… FUN!

Dominic wearing Sammi's headband!!

We love our Aussie Farmers!