Following the spectacle of Beef Week 2024, it's hard not to feel an overwhelming level of pride at being involved in such a monumental event and industry.
Moreover, as one industry spokesperson said, you won't see anything like this anywhere else in the world. That much is plain to see even standing outside the main gates.
People's day welcomed guests in their thousands, from all walks of life, keen to sample a taste of the Australian beef industry in literal and metaphorical senses.
International visitors again descended on Rockhampton and all signs pointed to an astounding level of intrigue, support and overall demand for our home-grown product - so we must be doing something right.
However, I believe we can still do better.
I've long held a gripe over the use of the word 'just' in relation to agriculture, especially farming at a grassroots level.
One visit to Beef and the word, and its minimising connotations, would never cross your lips - the event is so mammoth in scale and dripping in honour. However, it still simmers softly in our subconscious.
During a presentation, an industry colleague unknowingly, unintentionally and innocently used the word to describe their path into beef production.
For context, the phrase went: "I had a choice to make - should I continue with my professional career or just return to the family beef business."
To most, this would fly under the radar but to me, I wondered what made beef production any less a professional pursuit than any other career?
In my opinion, beef producers are some of the most disciplined, calculated, learned and efficient professionals in the workforce, and this goes for all agricultural industries.
There aren't many professions where adaptability and resilience is so crucial to the bottom line, or where change and advancement occurs at such a rate even millennials are having to learn on the run.
When we tell others of our choice to invest our lives into agriculture, it should be done with all the passion and conviction of a life-saving surgeon or scientist.
Often our stories are what will endear us far and wide, breaking down barriers and cutting through the noise.
Positive representation CAN and SHOULD start at a grassroots level. As a wise friend once said to me - don't underestimate your story!
- Lucy Moore, writer grazier
