Future growth

The face of modern Australian agriculture

Emma Ayliffe and horse

Emma Ayliffe isn’t your traditional farmer. The 28-year-old agronomist, company director and agri-tech innovator who owns and operates a 688-hectare property at Lake Cargelligo in Central West New South Wales represents agriculture’s next generation. Named 2021 Young Farmer of the Year for her innovation, passion and advocacy work, Emma is keen to attract bright minds that can bring new ideas and technologies to the ag industry.

“People don’t realise the huge variety of jobs in agriculture,” she said. "Farmers represent only around two per cent of ag jobs, but there are so many amazing roles and massive demand for skilled workers in fields people don’t always associate with agriculture — things like research, marketing, programming, sales and building new tech. “The growth and importance of tech in agriculture are incredible. We’re looking at driverless tractors, robot sprayers, irrigation automation, and so much more, and Australia is at the forefront of it all.”

Emma’s family didn’t own a farm. They managed farms for other people, something which, alongside a childhood fascination with plants, sparked her desire to work in agriculture. As an agronomist, Emma describes herself as a ‘crop doctor’, advising clients to improve their crops and their business. “I just love growing crops and working with people to help their businesses get better and better,” she said.

Thanks to a Cowan Grant Trust Roseworthy Campus Residency Scholarship, Emma was able to make the most of all the opportunities the Agronomy course could offer. “It was massive, it was amazing, it made a huge difference and meant I could take full advantage of everything Roseworthy offered - a complete immersion in the course, but also in the life of Roseworthy, playing netball, inter-campus sports days and footy games, making so many lifelong friends, just everything,” she said. “The diversity was just amazing, and you got such a good grounding in genetics, biosciences and ag tech. The beauty of the course was the really good mix of things, from doing the genetic stuff in animals and a bit of livestock background courses, right through to crop science and then into production and whole farming systems.”

Graduating from Roseworthy in 2011 with a BSc in Agronomy and Crop Science, Emma described the first decade of her career as “a series of happy accidents, the result of putting myself out there and going outside my comfort zone”. “By proactively seeking new experiences, some of the most unlikely jobs became the best part of my CV,” she said.

Emma Ayliffe

In the decade since her graduation, Emma certainly grasped every opportunity with both hands. She co-founded Summit Ag consultancy with Heath McWhirter when she was just 26, advising clients on irrigated cropping and dryland growing, cotton agronomy and research. A need to build longevity into the business and keep their employees busy during dry seasons led Emma and Heath to build Yacker – a free app that connects people in the agriculture sector. “We realised we were often acting as a conduit for clients to share knowledge with each other so, knowing how farmers love to chat, we created Yacker as an agricultural phone directory where people could ask questions and share experience.” More than 800 people now use the Yacker platform to share their knowledge and solve problems.

Emma and her partner are kept busy running their mixed cropping and sheep property at Lake Cargelligo. “It’s good to get your hands dirty, and I always wanted to own a property. Plus, it means we are busy with the crop and harvesting just when most of our clients are too, so it’s traditionally a quiet time for consulting,” she said. Clearly, Emma doesn’t plan on much quiet time. Combining work on her property with her role at Summit Ag requires what she describes as “a fair bit of juggling and chaos.”

Emma wants to see Summit Ag continue to grow. Looking decades ahead, she dreams of increasing its client base to cover all of NSW, maybe even going national. But she sees no danger of tech replacing the role of agronomist. “Despite all the technological advances in say GM cropping systems saving on irrigation and spraying, the role of agronomist is still that human intervention, the logistics, the long-term planning and that important face to face element wof agriculture.”

As an ambassador for her industry, Emma is “striving to elevate the role of women in agriculture”, inspiring others to “give it a crack” and discover the diversity of roles available, although  she does acknowledge that female role models have been few and far between. “While most of the time I try to work nine to five, Monday to Friday,  there are definitely some incredibly busy times, but this is not the case with all roles in ag, making a career in ag very compatible with family life. “As an agronomist, I essentially work in a service industry and arrange to talk to clients during normal business hours.

Most of the year, the farm work can be done around that too, as it’s very seasonal. “There are massive opportunities to build a career in ag. Everyone, regardless of gender, race or background should consider it because there are heaps of careers and immense opportunities as Australia leads the way in growing food and fibre more efficiently.”

Story by Catherine Woods
Photos by Angus Northeast

Tagged in lumen Spring 2022, lumen, alumni profiles