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Finalists for National Rural Women’s Award announced
Vivien Lin
The complete list of national finalists for the Agrifutures Rural Women’s Award has been announced.
For over two decades, the AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award has championed women from Australia’s rural industries by acknowledging and supporting the essential role they play in businesses and communities.
The Award serves to identify, celebrate and empower women in the industry by providing financial assistance, mentoring, resources and support for state and territory winners.
The
state and territory winners are:
· Anh Nguyen from Tasmania , whose project Vine-Ai aims to roll out a smart farming system using automatic controls and management retrofitted to current irrigation and control systems. This will make farm management more efficient and sustainable by freeing up labour, optimising resources and maximising productivity.
· Natasha Roebig from Queensland , who is passionate about sustainable and ethical beekeeping and is looking to establish a Beekeepers’ training facility aimed at promoting research, knowledge exchange and networking across the apiary industry.
· Claire Moore from Victoria whose project aims to address declining bee colony numbers by breeding a genetically diverse range of queen bees that are healthy and adaptable in a variety of climates.
· Zoe Malone from Northern Territory , whose project seeks to collaborate with grassroots organisations to provide tools and information empowering volunteers and community groups to take charge of their governance.
· Belinda Lay from Western Australia , whose project uses specially designed collars to monitor the needs of sheep, transforming the use of technological data for on-farm animal welfare outcomes.
· Deanna Lush from South Australia , whose project seeks to establish a network of value-based connections between the agricultural industry and city, changing discussions in the agriculture sectors about the importance of engagement.
· Jo Palmer from NSW-ACT , who has founded Pointer Remote Roles, a project which connects regional women looking for work with jobs that can be completed remotely from their rural hometown. This portal has the potential to reduce rural unemployment, stimulate local economies and reduce pressure on farming families looking for alternative income streams to drought-proof their businesses.
Each of these women has received a $10,000 bursary for further work on their innovative ideas and projects, as well as access to professional development opportunities and alumni networks.
The state and territory winners will now go on to compete for the National AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award later this year.
The National Winner and Runner Up will receive a further $10,000 and $5,000 respectively to develop their projects.
The state and territory winners will participate in a three-day workshop and National Selection Panel interviews next month before the National Winner is announced at the 2019 Agrifutures Rural Women’s Award Gala Dinner held at Parliament House, Canberra on 11 September.
You can read about the winners of last year’s award here.
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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