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Scholarship will help Boat Harbour lad find a place in the ag industry

The winner of the 2009 Greenham Tasmania Scholarship has ancestral roots in local farming and wants to contribute to the industry by joining a company servicing farmers, when he achieves his Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree.

19 year old Robert Snare from Boat Harbour was presented with the award by the parliamentary member for Braddon, Bryan Green.

At the presentation Mr Green congratulated Greenham Tasmania on their continuing sponsorship of the scholarship and praised the company’s contribution, not only to the region, but to the whole meat industry in Tasmania. He said that he had been very impressed by the winner’s enthusiasm and down-to-earth attitude. .

Robert has grown up on the farm that his great great grandfather bought at Boat Harbour in 1916. The 62ha family farm, formerly a dairy farm, now agists dairy, Hereford and Angus heifers and is currently building a small beef herd, with twenty breeders calving in spring last year.

During his gap year in 2008 Robert worked for Table Cape Alliance on their cropping, sheep, deer and cattle enterprise, and impressed his employers with his initiative and his practical suggestions to improve efficiency in the work place.”

Robert has enrolled this year at the University of Tasmania for the four-year Bachelor of Agricultural Science course.

In his scholarship application Robert said that “….. farming has changed, from an enterprise based on experience and sharing of experiences among farmers in a local community, to an exact science where the measurement of inputs and outputs; the chemistry of soils and the biology of plants and animals need to be understood. For me to continue to find a place in the agricultural industry I need to find out these things through the Bachelor of Agricultural Science course.”

Peter Greenham, managing director of Greenham Tasmania, said it is pleasing to see previous winners developing successful careers across the beef and dairy industries.

“It is very gratifying to us that our company is able to assist young people in forging careers in the beef and dairy industries. Without the support offered by the scholarship some of these people may not have been able to achieve what they have. Not only would that have been a loss for them personally, but also a loss for agriculture.”

The applications were assessed by a panel of independent judges including DairyTas executive officer, Mark Smith; Smithton High School assistant principal, Susan Wigg; Rural Skills Australia education and training adviser Roger Tyshing; and farmer and member of TFGA Meat Council, Paul Saward.

Among criteria considered in awarding the scholarship were personal and academic achievements, the potential benefits and relevance of the chosen study area or career path to the Australian dairy or beef industries, and how important the scholarship might be in helping the applicant realise their ambitions.