THE INSPIRING story of a former Vietnamese refugee now part of a broadacre farming business in South Australia's Barossa Valley was a highlight at this week's Emmetts Celebrating Women in Agriculture Ladies Day event at the Longerenong field days site in Victoria's Wimmera region.
A large crowd of females in agriculture gathered at Longerenong for the day, organised by Emmetts, one of south-eastern Australia's largest John Deere dealerships.
The group heard the story of Yung Nietschke, who along with participating in her family farm business with her husband, also works as an educational consultant developing mentoring programs for women and youth.
Other speakers at the event included Laura Bruce, who works as an agronomist with Emmetts' Agree Decision agronomy business, which focuses on precision agriculture including machinery set-up, software and use of data, and naturopaths Emily Grieger and Ebony Jordan from local business Des Lardner Organics.
Event co-organiser Avril Hogan said there was also a ride and drive session where attendees could test out the latest range of John Deere equipment, from small scale gear such as mowers and gators right up to headers and self-propelled sprayers.
Kerry McFarlane and Julie Cummins came to the event from Quambatook, in the southern Mallee.
They said it was a great chance to get a close-up look at the latest in farm machinery while also networking with farming colleagues from across the south-eastern Australia region.