A panel of four dairy farming women featuring West Gippsland's Rosemary Atherton together with Nicole Saunders, Emily Pendlebury and Amy Cosby speak at the Women in Dairy Expo. The session was facilitated by Gillian Hayman.
Dairy farmers from across Gippsland enjoyed a celebratory lunch and saw out the year in style at a recent GippsDairy event.
The Women in Dairy discussion groups across Gippsland came together to celebrate the industry at the Traralgon Vineyard in mid-December. The fully booked event, organised by discussion group members and GippsDairy, provided Gippsland women with an opportunity to meet, hear from inspirational women and network.
"We put a call out to see if women would like to come and network together and meet new women that all dairy farm in Gippsland, and we had over 140 responses," said Macalister Irrigation District dairy farmer and Women in Dairy discussion group member Sarah O'Brien.
Celebrating the industry was the key theme to the Women in Dairy lunch. Participants heard from a panel of four local dairy farming women, including Nicole Saunders (Macalister Irrigation District dairy farmer who is diversifying her dairy business), Emily Pendlebury (new dairy entrant and recently completed Certificate 3 in Agriculture), Amy Cosby (South Gippsland dairy farmer and associate professor in agricultural education and extension at CQUniversity), and Rosemary Atherton (West Gippsland dairy farmer and dairy ambassador 2022), that all had a variety of experience, age and businesses.
The panel session was facilitated by consultant and South Gippsland dairy farmer Gillian Hayman.
The aim of the women's lunch was to shine a light on dairying women in Gippsland, celebrate their successes and to acknowledge the hard work they do to produce quality milk.
"I think it is really important for women to know that they're not just doing what they do every day by themselves in isolation, we're all in this together," Sarah said.
The amazing generosity of the industry was a standout on the day with sponsorship and also gift donations. Local businesses and dairy farming women donated many beautiful lucky door prizes, hampers and gifts, ensuring no-one left empty handed.
"It was a wonderful event today we had a lot of fun and there were really great, inspirational dairy farmer speakers," said dairy farmer Lucy Young.
Given the success of the lunch, GippsDairy hope to make this celebration of women in dairy an annual event.
