Tasmania Young Dairy Network helping Jenna Fielding beat barriers

Teenager Jenna Fielding is working full-time on a dairy farm at Natone in the state’s north-west.

She credits the Tasmania Young Dairy Network as a major factor behind her career development.

Ms Fielding said she had previously believed her youth was a barrier.

"Being only 19, I often felt that I didn't have the skillset that someone older than me would,” she said.

“But I learned that if you’ve got the skills and can do the same job, it actually doesn’t matter what age you are.”

Working as a farm hand on a dairy farm that milks approximately 510 cows in a 50-bail rotary with a team of three employees and a manager, Ms Fielding said she enjoyed the variety of her role.

“Every day is different.

“Yes, you’ve got to milk the cows every day and feed them every day, but some days you’re doing fencing, some days you’re in the tractor, other days you’re spraying.”

Ms Fielding said her development opportunities through the Young Dairy Network had a positive impact on her attitude towards farming.

“Definitely how I manage my mindset at work is better now.

 “If I’m stressed, I sort of take a step back and focus on what needs to be done first and the deadlines for things.

“The workshop made me realise that you can take a step back and look at things from a different perspective.”

Communication skills were something that Ms Fielding said had improved.

“My manager has seen an improvement in communication; we communicate a lot better about tasks.

“If I’m stressed about something, I will tell him, and if he’s asking me to do a task, then I’ll ask, ‘Right, when do you need it by? Because I need to do this, this and this first.’
“It’s a lot less stressful, and we can prioritise better, which is really, really good.”  

Ms Fielding said that communication was often overlooked in dairy farming.

“You don’t talk to someone when they’re trying to milk cows unless you really have to.

“Because it’s so noisy in there, you have to yell, and when people yell, people get stressed out, and then it stresses the cows out.

“It’s about trying to make it a nice and calming work environment for us and for the cows.”

Talking and being aware of issues such as burnout was something that Ms Fielding wanted to see more of in the dairy industry.

“We definitely need to look after ourselves.

“A lot of the time it’s how to look after the cows, how to look after the equipment.

“What about having to look after the farmers who deal with all that stuff?”