The future of Australia's cattle industry looks bright if Wednesday night's Beef Australia NextGen welcome function was anything to go by.
The industry's future leaders, including university students, station hands and graziers, as well as bright-eyed and inspiring cohorts from a wide range of professional services and research bodies, came together to mingle, network and discuss the state of the industry on May 8.
While sharing generations' worth of operational knowledge, the gathering also looked towards the future, with NextGen's young executive committee taking to the stage.
NextGen committee's Harris Thompson, of Venturon Livestock, encouraged attendees to network with "as many people" as they could while at Beef 2024.
The Beef NextGen committee, chair Chloe Gould, Georgia Dale (Black Box Co), Callan Daley (MEQ Probe), Hugh Dawson (Marcus Oldham), Kate Pini (Suncorp Bank), Jordan Watson (Cultivate Agri Partnerships) and Beef Australia director Adelaide McDonald, took to the stage to share their experiences of the industry and about working alongside each other for 18 months.
NextGen committee member Georgia Patterson said some of the highlights of being involved in the committee included networking and learning about the new technology other businesses operating in the industry are utilising and providing graziers to use on the ground.
"(As well as) the flow on effects from that all through the supply chain," she said.
"By all means, reach out. We've got a few days left to make the most of this time together."
Blackall's Jordan Watson, now based in Brisbane, had been in the industry for two years and took care of the data analysis and processing for the team.
"I was pretty new...I didn't know about beef but this committee has been an eye-opener for me," she said.
"Say 'yes' to things...if you guys process or analyse data at home, please tell me how you do it...looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible."
