Lauren Petersen aims to break dairy's 'silo mentality'

Ms Petersen received a Victorian Regional Community Leadership Program (VRCLP) scholarship, sponsored by the Gardiner Dairy Foundation, that aims to nurture and empower leadership opportunities within regional dairy communities.

She used the scholarship to undertake the 2018 Leadership Great South Coast program and is planning to use the skills she learnt to make a difference on farms and in local communities.

“We have a wealth of experience, resources and skills in the dairy industry, but we tend to work in silos,” she said.

“Through the leadership program I discovered the same thing applies in our broader community, we’re working on the same sort of issues in silos rather than collaborating effectively and leveraging the resources and skills we have.”

Originally from Melbourne, Ms Petersen and her partner Tony Hassett moved to the south-west four years ago to follow their dairy farming dream. They share farm at Naroghid near Camperdown and have become strong advocates for the industry with Ms Petersen becoming a United Dairyfarmers of Victoria policy councillor for the Corangamite area

Along with personal and professional development, Lauren hoped the leadership program would broaden her knowledge of local industries and communities.

 What she found was a lack of understanding about the importance of the local dairy industry.

“I was shocked by how little people knew about dairy and agriculture in general. It brought home to me how important it is to tell positive stories about our industry.

“There are a lot of challenges but often all you hear in the media are the negative things. We need to have honest conversations about the positives and the challenges and come up with real solutions.

“I want to bring dairy to the rest of the community,” she said.

Leadership Great South Coast aims to develop leaders and Ms Petersen said course graduates now had to “walk the talk.”