Ebony Wilson didn’t grow up on a farm, and she’s not from a long line of farmers. She took a job milking cows about ten years ago, liked it more than she expected to, and stayed. Now she works full-time near her hometown of Jamberoo, on a farm running 250 cows that get milked twice a day, on top of all the other jobs that fill up a day on a dairy farm.
She got into it because she’s always loved animals and wanted work that would keep her learning. Both of those have held up. Ten years and a handful of different farms later, she’s still picking up new things, which is most of why she likes it.
The breeding side
Most of her energy these days goes into breeding. She works with red and white Holsteins and uses genomic testing to work out which animals will produce healthier, stronger calves. One cow she was given years ago has since become a herd of nearly twenty, all of them bred by her. The rest of her attention goes to nutrition, pasture and feeding, the kind of things she’s always trying to do a bit better than the season before.
Her advice for other young women
Her main message to young women thinking about dairy is not to wait until they feel ready.
“Throw yourself in with both feet first,” she says. “It may be daunting, and you may not be exactly where you want to be at the beginning, but don’t be afraid of the moments when you stumble or make mistakes.” For Ebony, the mistakes are the useful part. They’re how you get better at the job.
She also reckons it’s worth taking opportunities even when they feel like a stretch. A short course, a new role, a job on the farm you haven’t tried before. She still says yes to those herself, ten years in.
And she’d like to see more women in the industry full stop. Farming’s carried this image of being a job for big strong blokes, and Ebony’s one of plenty of women showing that’s out of date. Women bring a different perspective and a strong work ethic, she says, and the friendships she’s made have mattered to her as much as anything.
Where the industry’s heading
What keeps Ebony interested is how quickly the technology’s changing. She’s watched things become normal that she once thought were science fiction, like IVF and breeding for traits such as heat tolerance. There’s robotic feeding now, herd management software, and collars and tags that track each animal’s health, so she can keep an eye on the herd without so much guesswork.
“Every day brings a new challenge,” she says, “which creates opportunities to improve, adapt, and find better ways of doing things.”
If any of that sounds interesting, she’d tell you to go and see it for yourself. Sit in on a symposium, listen to the researchers, and get a feel for how fast things are moving.
Who are Dairy Australia?
We’re Dairy Australia, the national services body for the country’s dairy industry.
Our job is to help dairy farmers run good businesses and keep the industry strong, from research and on-farm tech to training and bringing new people in. Most of that runs through our eight regional teams, one for each dairy region.
Check out careers with Dairy Australia here.
