Amy Jackson and Amy Pilgrim were awarded Fox & Lillie Rural’s 2018/2019 scholarships, aimed at providing Longerenong Agriculture College students with financial assistance towards their tuition fees.
Fox & Lillie has been awarding student scholarships at Longerenong College since 2016, as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to the industry. The two-year $5,000 scholarships provide students with financial assistance towards their tuition fees for the duration of their course and hope to engage young people who are looking to pursue a career in the agriculture industry and in particular, wool.
From the age of 12, Ms Jackson, now aged 20, has built her own sheep enterprise with the assistance of her parents, which has now grown to more than 60 1-year-old Merino ewes and two Border Leicester rams.
As part of the scholarship, students are required to undertake industry placement at Fox & Lillie’s two divisions, Fox & Lillie export and Fox & Lillie Rural, the woolgrower services division. Coincidentally during her two-week placement with Fox & Lillie, Ms Jackson was able to watch her hard work pay off after her own home-grown wool was sold at sale in Melbourne.
“Fox & Lillie actually bought my wool themselves and it sold for a really good price… so I was really pleased with that,” Ms Jackson said.
She said the wool, which weighed 187 kilograms and sold for 1623 cents a kilogram, would likely be batched and sent to India due to its micron.
Fox & Lillie Merino trading manager Peter Maher said the placement gave students an insight from the early stages of the wool supply chain, to farm brokering, exporting and processing.
“Amy’s wool came up in the catalogue while she was in the auction room and it suited the specs of an existing order, so it was the perfect timing,” Mr Maher said.
Ms Jackson said her experience on her parents’ farm, Irak, south of Ararat, had laid the foundations to understand breeding principles and the industry more generally, and encouraged other young farmers to “get involved” from a young age.
“If people like me have an opportunity to start working from a young age, then I’d suggest they go for it because it really gives you a strong understanding of the sector when you enter college or the industry itself,” Ms Jackson said.
Full article here: Stock & Land – Young wool grower encourages others to follow suit.
