Young Western Australian breeder Lachlan Fry will spend three months in Canada later this year after winning the Semex-Holstein Australia (Victorian branch) Youth Fellowship award at International Dairy Week recently.
The fellowship is awarded to a young Australian aged between 18 and 22 years biannually. It involves three months of travel in Canada from August to November.
Semex Pty Ltd (Semex's exclusive distributor in Australia) General Manager Jim Conroy said the interview process included four outstanding entrants with diverse skills, interests and backgrounds.
"Judging and interviewing these young people is a great experience and restores your faith in the fact that there are good young people coming through to continue our dairy and breeding industries," Jim said.
"Lachlan specifically displays a level of confidence and desire to increase and improve his knowledge and ability that should see him and our industry benefit greatly from this opportunity, and at the same time making him an ideal ambassador for Australia, Holstein Australia, Dairy Youth and Semex."
The news came on the tail of an exciting week for Lachlan. He was accepted into University, worked with the Bushlea Jersey team (belonging to the Kuhne family, from Victoria's Leongatha at IDW, which won Premier Exhibitor award) and won the fellowship.
"It is without doubt an extreme honour and privilege to be the recepient of this exchange," Lachlan said. "It topped off a great day and it's only sort of just starting to sink in now."
"I hope to form a number of lifelong friendships and networks, while also gaining knowledge and new skills from people in Canada. I'm looking forward to learning and understanding the differences between our countries farming systems and the genetics will be another key area of the exchange. I hope to bring back new ideas for the Australian dairy industry."
Jim said the fellowship's travel arrangements have been designed around Lachlan's strengths and interests and he will have several diverse farm stays, time with Semex, Holstein Canada, and he will visit the World Dairy Expo, at Madison in the US, and the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, in Toronto, Canada.
"I see the fellowship as a great opporturnity," Lachlan said. "I have a real passion for cows and I believe this exchange has the opporturnity to open up a number of doors and pathways that may lead to a very exciting future."
"I'd like to thank Semex and Holstein Australia for this wonderful opporturnity. It's great that we as the youth of the industry can benefit from such a well implemented program. I would also like to thank the many talented people within the dairy industry whom I have been able to gain knowledge, guidance and skills from."
