Bursary winner gets 101 on seed business

Future Farmers Network Member and recipient of on the 2019 FFN – Central Queensland University Travel and Training Bursaries, Chloe Kempe, has returned from trip to the US. Ms Kempe,f rom Ferny Hills, Queensland, attended the Seed Business 101 course at the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Centre in St Charles Illinois. Read her report from the experience here! 

I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to develop my agribusiness management skills at the Seed Business 101 course held in St Charles, Illinois. The course gave me tools to more deeply understand the operations of a seed business across various functional aspects including Research and Development, breeding, production, and sales and marketing.  The combined industry experience of the instructors was extensive and each instructor was generous in their sharing their learnings and experience within the industry.  Furthermore, the group of attendees brought much and varied experience to the course, with industry professionals from USA, Canada, Korea and Switzerland, representing various seed industries including corn, hemp and soybean.  There was extensive knowledge-sharing through team-based case studies designed to extend and further develop strategic thinking.  The field trip to visit a Bayer testing facility, Ag Reliant research station, and a Dekalb corn seed production plant was also a highlight.

Since returning home I have been in touch with our industry association, the Australian Seed Federation, to discuss the course and possible ideas for training and development that could be implemented here in Australia. I’m grateful to the Future Farmer’s Network and Central Queensland University for supporting my attendance at this course. Thank you!