Elders : Raise a glass to our dairy farmers

Having grown up on a dairy farm and spending the last 30 years with Elders working with farmers on the mid north coast of NSW, Taree Branch Manager Scott Burley knows a bit about what can go wrong on a farm. High on hislist is seeing out bushfires and floods within just a couple of years of each other, experiences that Scott describes as "once in a lifetime challenges".

Scott has been involved in dairy farms for his whole life but says the 2019 bushfires and subsequent floods were some of the hardest times.

"It was one of the worst natural disasters in my lifetime, and harrowing time to be in farming," said Scott.

"The sense of community really shows in those times. We had BlazeAid come to our area along with people from all over helping replace fences and assist cleaning up. It's amazing what you can get done and what people will do to get back to normal.

"Community is so important, outside of the hard times too. One of the most important things to come out of dairy farming is what they put into the local community. They've been a big part of our community for a long time, employing local people and creating community spirit."

"It's part of that community spirit to help one another and it's strong here."

Scott says that he sees the relationship between local businesses like Elders, and farmers, as two-way.

"Farmers do a lot for us at Elders, they support us with their business and we support them in return with local and trusted advice they need,"

"Without them we fail, and without us they do it tougher. Sometimes that's just someone to bounce ideas off and have input in farm management and be a sounding board. They look to us for that support."