The Growth of Person and Pasture: Jodie Ward

Jodie Ward has long been passionate about the cattle industry. Although her direction within it has changed somewhat over time her enthusiasm for it has not. Here is her story…

 

What attracted you to the cattle industry?

Mum and Dad always had eighty or so trade cattle as I was growing up on a small buffel grass block in south-west Queensland, so weekends for me always involved mustering, fencing or just plain checking in on the cattle.

After finishing school I had enrolled in a Bachelor of Applied Science with the University of Queensland but after being accepted I promptly decided I needed to do some exploring first so  headed off to the wide open plains of the Barkly.

Where and for how many years did you spend in the stockcamp?

I only spent two years in the stockcamp, one on the Barkly, and the other near Marlborough in Queensland.

In all honesty, my official introduction to the pastoral industry was not ideal. In the first month the headstockman on the station I was on passed away in a car accident and his 40 year old replacement liked to influence with fear. As a pretty timid and quiet 17 year old, being told “if you stuff up in front of the boss again I will take you out into the bush where no-one can hear you scream” (all of which was said with a smile on his toothless face), did absolutely nothing for me. I went to pieces and became a shivering and shaking mess. I was that terrified that I couldn’t think straight. Thankfully he only lasted a few months without laying a hand on me.

The next replacement was a lovely gent who saw that I was a bit broken and did all he could to build me back up but by that stage my confidence was pretty disintegrated. A 10 year old would have been able to do a better job than I was doing. Thankfully the end of the year came quickly and I slunk home to Mum and Dad, a little bit proud of myself for sticking it out and not coming home before the end of the season, as had been predicted by others.

So I was all set to go to uni when the boyfriend of the time announced he was going to Glenprairie Station, a beautiful place, right on the coast, houses on top of a range, only an hour and a bit out of Rockhampton – thought they were still chasing an additional stationhand if I wanted to apply…. And just like that, the uni degree was forgotten and I was out chasing cows again down the hillsides and through the ponded pastures on beautiful, well-bred stock horses. Here I had a fantastic manager who nurtured and mentored me through my year there. That isn’t to say he didn’t yell and scream and jump up and down at me, but as well as that, he made sure I learned my lessons, took it on-board, and then let it go, trusting that I would not make those mistakes ever again. In response, I worked harder for him than I have for anyone else. By the end of that year, I felt like I was finally getting it. I could do what was required without assistance, and more than that, I was doing it well. My horsemanship and stock handling skills were the best it had ever been. I was getting places with my ‘difficult’ horse. I was getting pretty good at starting the hard-to-start mono and was confident at diagnosing technical hitches in the individual animal recording system. I felt as though I was valuable to the team.

It was a tough decision to leave it all behind and go to uni but the words of my old school career counsellor were ringing in my head loud and clear: “Eighty percent of females who take more than two years off studying never go to uni”… It had to be done.

What were your reasons behind pursuing a career with the DPIF?

While I thoroughly enjoyed working in a stockcamp, I was a bit precious. ‘Putting my body on the line’ wasn’t really my thing. I didn’t enjoy getting hurt, and being a slow runner and general all-round klutz meant that I was usually the one covered in bruises at the end of the day. So I wanted to find a way that I could still be involved in the pastoral industry without being in the stockcamp as such, and becoming a Pastoral Production Officer with DPIF, was just one of the ways I could achieve this. I had always had a strong interest in genetics and different cattle management techniques so this seemed like a good progression for me.

What sort of steps did you have to take to achieve your goal of working with the DPIF?

To be a Pastoral Production Officer I needed a degree in something like Animal or Rangeland Science. I studied the Bachelor of Applied Science (Animal Production), which took me 3.5 years because I studied externally for a year and dropped back my study load when my husband and I worked at Melaleuca Station. I feel this degree gave me a good background for the role I have now, particularly in the areas of beef genetics and reproductive diseases.

What sort of things do you love most about your job?

One of the absolutely best things I get to do in my job is run small workshops for stationhands about rangeland management.  Nine times out of ten (as I did myself) they’ve come north to chase cows and haven’t thought much past that, and when you tell them that it’s the pastures that are the basis of the industry, it blows their mind – and it’s fantastic to be a part of that learning journey.

Would you be able to name a few of the tasks you have had in your job?

Other than presenting workshops I have:

·         done a lot of pasture surveys (aka grass counting) for a number of projects

·         yard work for various cattle projects

·         data cleaning and processing

·         poster presentations at conferences

·         compiled articles and newsletters to be dispersed into the industry…

And a whole bunch of other stuff I can’t think of right now, but what I have done has allowed me to travel the length and width of the NT, having a good time while doing so with knowledgeable and fun colleagues.

Any advice for girls wanting to enter the cattle industry and pursue their goals?

If you want it, get after it. Make it happen.

There is more than one way to skin a cat.