General News
5 August, 2026
Women in agriculture come together
A CONFERENCE for women in agriculture called Cream of the Crop was held last week in Dunkeld, Victoria, with women from all across different sectors of the industry joining to gain insight from one another.
One attendee was Heytesbury Stockfeeds ruminant nutritionist Lili Ravelo, who came back from the experience enlightened and brimming with information to share with her colleagues.
Mrs Ravelo said while she had attended the same conference many years ago, it has been a long time since she’s had the opportunity to go again.
“Every time it was coming up I was not available to go,” she said.
“This year I saw the program and I thought it looked really interesting so I spoke with my boss and said I would like to attend and if they thought it was okay.
“If I want to go to these things I usually go, unless I’m very busy.”
Cream of the Crop was designed to bring women in agriculture together over a variety of topics, with many key speakers and talks catching Mrs Ravelo’s attention.
“First I was interested in the artificial intelligence (AI) technology,” she said.
“It was very good – when I saw the program I really wanted to do that.
“There was something about silage plastic recycling and that sounded really interesting for the environment, so I thought that was fantastic.
“Everything was looking really good but mainly those two conferences really caught my attention and I decided I really wanted to go.”
The event occurred over two days, with the first day dedicated to key speakers and the second to a farm visit to see different farms and technologies in action.
Olympia Yarger spoke about being an entrepreneur in the agriculture sector, having started an insect farming process from a small garage to a bigger business.
“At the end of the day while it was fantastic it finished, because there were no more funds and no more support,” Mrs Ravelo said.
“She showed that yes it was a fail but it’s not a fail, really, because it would be worse if she never started that and she knew her idea was great.
“She said a phrase in the presentation – ‘it could all end badly, but worse, it could have never started at all’.”
Elle Moyle was an equine vet who travelled the world following her passion, before returning to Australia to work on her family’s farm and help grow the family business.
The topic Mrs Ravelo was most interested in, about AI technology, was run by Rachel Durie from New Zealand.
“Obviously AI is already being used on some farms, using different programs like Halter, but there’s other things that you can do with AI and help you balance your time better,” Mrs Ravelo said.
“English is not my first language so for example when I need to do administration jobs or sending mail and all of that, I can use a little bit of help with AI and it’s going to type the same thing I want to say but in a nicer way.
“She was saying obviously the human expertise on a farm or in my case my human expertise in doing a diet for a dairy cow, this won’t change by using AI.
“It’s just something that’s going to help for you to be more successful with your time.”
The second topic Mrs Ravelo was most interested in, about silage plastic recycling, was held by Elisha Nettleton.
She has a large plastic recycling facility in Hamilton which processes between 5000 and 6000 tons of plastic per year.
Mrs Ravelo said the dream was to get all the plastic from silage rolls and process if in the facility to turn into more silage wrap to sell again.
Afterwards was Fiona Smith, a consultant who does financial support for dairy farms.
“What I like about her is she was saying in many ways how it’s possible to create wealth from beef farming, sheep farming or dairy farming,” Mrs Ravelo said.
“What we hear often is that young people are not able to enter this industry because it’s so hard to start or create a way to live and be profitable.
“She was saying there’s many ways to create wealth, which is very important to keep the industry going.
“Sometimes it’s a difficult industry, the dairy industry, because you depend on the milk price but also you depend on the seasonal conditions.”
A nutritionist, general practitioner and chiropractor also weighed in on women’s health specifically, highlighting the importance of women staying on top of their health when working on farms and risks posed to women specifically.
Mrs Ravelo said the farm visits on the second day were equally as interesting, and overall the conference was a huge success, especially because it provided a platform for women in agriculture to network, get together and learn from one another.
“It was so inspiring in the way that women in the industry can potentially do really cool things like these ladies were,” she said.