Growing up on a farm in Bruce Rock had not captured Michaela’s heart to work in the agricultural industry when she finished school. She was more interested in doing events and sports management or even hairdressing. But when life took an unexpected turn, Michaela deferred first semester to help her dad on the farm who was going to be physically limited for some time.
Michaela knew the farm had to keep going, so she decided to help him out. Whilst she had not previously considered an agricultural career, she was also not a fan of city life either, so the prospect of settling into Bruce Rock for maybe six months was comforting.
However, she had no detailed understanding of how the farm operated, other than casually assisting her parents over the years. She was suddenly thrown into the deep end. She remembers saying to her dad a lot in the early days ‘I can’t do that’, when asked to do something she had never done before. Her dad would always reply with ‘of course you can’.
Under her dad’s guidance, Michaela learnt all aspects of the farm and her confidence grew. It was here working with her dad that she developed the need, and logic to make farming operations as smooth as possible, for her and her dad.
Working on the family farm was done out of love, and whilst she was housed and fed in return, she was keen for some extra cash.
Michaela received a call to do some casual harvest work at CBH and jumped at the opportunity. This meant she worked days on the family farm and then evenings loading trains. She was now well and truly settled into the routine of farming and agricultural life.
Michaela was encouraged to apply for a permanent position as a Receival Point Operator out of Merredin, Nungarin and Bodallin. Her dad was able to pick up full responsibility again of the farm and, at the age of 17, Michaela’s agricultural career was starting to take shape.
Now with thirteen years of experience, Michala is the Manager of Area 7 for CBH and lives in Trayning with her partner. She manages a team anywhere from 10 to 15 over a 300km operational radius area including Nembudding, Trayning, Mukinbudin, Bencubbin, Beacon, Cleary, Wialki and Bonnie Rock.
She wears a lot of different hats in this management position, from HR, health and safety, site management and maintenance, transport logistics programs, facilitating silo contractors, monitoring centric shifts with the trains, and so much more. “No day is the same,” said Michaela.
What Michaela loves the most about her agricultural career is the people. “I love the agriculture community…small communities always band together”. She also loves seeing ‘newbies’ to the industry thriving in challenges. Inspired by her dad, she tells her teams to ‘give anything a crack and ask the right questions’. She also brings all her lessons from working with her dad to her work today, making Michaela an exceptional leader when it comes to training new staff.
Whilst Michaela’s weeks are full working as a manager at CBH, working on her partner’s farm and still helping her dad from time to time, she knows how important is for time away from work. Michaela is on the Hockey Club committee, volunteers at the bar of the local sports club and is on the tennis club committee.
Michaela has now started Agribusiness at University. Looking back, she cannot imagine any other career than working in agriculture and feels so fortunate to live and breathe it.