Drought Resilience Scholarship Program

Future Drought Fund video Drought Resilience Scholars

Meet the 2025 Drought Resilience Scholars

24 March 2025

Video duration: 3 mins 08 secs

Introduction

This is the transcript of a video produced by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry’s Video Services area, which introduces the 5 Drought Resilience Scholars for the 2025 cohort as part of the Drought Resilience Scholarship Program. The program is funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF) and outlines what the scholars hope to achieve through the program and how their topics aim to build drought resilience in Australia. 

Learn more about the Future Drought Fund.

[Recording begins]

Video begins [0:00]

Music plays. screen displays the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Future Drought Fund logos and text saying: Meet the 2025 Nuffield Drought Resilience Scholars 

Jock Barnett [0:04]

My name’s Jock Barnett and I’m a mixed grain, cropping and beef cattle farmer from Delungra in Northern New South Wales. 

Lucy Dodd [0:10]

My name is Lucy Dodd, I farm at Bordertown in South Australia, and I’m predominantly a free-range chicken farmer.

Hamish Robertson [0:18]

Hi, I’m Hamish Robertson. I’m from Coleraine about four hours west of Melbourne. I farm with my wife and two kids where they farm merinos.

Tyson Cattle [0:25] 

Hi, my name is Tyson Cattle. I live in Perth, and I grew up on a family sheep and grain property. 

Kari Moffat [0:33]

My name is Kari Moffat, I am from Darwin in the Northern Territory and I’m the sustainability manager for AAM Investment Group, which operates a diversified agricultural portfolio here in Australia.  

Question slide [0:45]

Music plays. Screen displays text saying: Why did you apply for a Nuffield Scholarship? 

Tyson Cattle [0:47]

I applied to be a Nuffield Drought Resilient Scholar, purely on the purpose of I work in agricultural policy, have done, worked in agricultural policy and media for, for quite some time. 

Drought is a really difficult challenge for farmers to navigate. What I want to try and learn was, how can we actually be better to make sure that we’re getting practical outcomes for farmers so that we make sure that the policy that’s happening in Canberra, really meets the needs of the growers on the ground. 

Kari Moffat [1:15]

The opportunity to apply for a Nuffield Scholarship, awarded me the opportunity to learn and engage from leaders from right around the world working in Agriculture, and bring that knowledge back here to Australia. 

Question slide [1:29]

Music plays. Screen displays text saying: Why choose a drought resilience scholarship?

Hamish Robertson [1:32]

I believe building drought resilience in agriculture is extremely important – just to survive. Farming is getting tougher and tougher, and the margins are getting smaller, and then you get, throw a drought in there on top, to come out the other side you need to have that knowledge of building drought resilience and getting through it. 

Lucy Dodd [1:53] 

Building resilience in agriculture is particularly important in Australia because of the climatic variances that we have. We know that we will have droughts again, we know that we will have other events that will impact us, so we need to think about a risk-based approach that helps us to come back better from any hard times that we have. 

Questions slide [2:12]

Music plays. Screen displays text saying: What part of your Nuffield experience are you most excited about? 

Hamish Robertson [2:14]

One thing I’d like to learn from my Nuffield experience and bring back to the Ag sector, is sort of the financial resilience and building a better business through different ways we can finance those cash flows through drought and harder times.

Lucy Dodd [2:35]

I think the project that I’m looking to run contributes to drought resilience because it will look at alternative opportunities for diversification on farm, and diversification of funding options for the farmer.

Jock Barnett [2:44]

One thing that I really would like to be able to bring back to our industry, is an attitude towards diversification that shows that through different income streams, we may really be able to improve our resilience. So that when we do hit tough times, we can carry on being good farmers.  

Recording ends [3:03]

End screen displays the logos of Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Future Drought Fund and Nuffield Australia’s website Nuffield.com.au to learn more. 

© Commonwealth of Australia 2025

Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights) in this publication is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia (referred to as the Commonwealth).

All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence except content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms.

The Australian Government acting through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has exercised due care and skill in preparing and compiling the information and data in this publication. Notwithstanding, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, its employees and advisers disclaim all liability, including liability for negligence and for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying on any of the information or data in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Learn more about the 2025 Scholars’ projects

Future Drought Fund video Drought Resilience Scholarship

2024 Nuffield Drought Resilience Scholar Michael Taylor, Taylors Run

24 March 2025

Video duration: 4 mins 55 secs

Introduction

This is the transcript of a video produced by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, focusing on one of the 2024 scholars; Michael Taylor, who is participating in the Drought Resilience Scholarship Program. The program is funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF) and outlines Michael’s research looking at the barriers farmers face to adopting Agroforestry, and showcasing how incorporating trees into agricultural systems allows farmers to diversify their incomes and improve biodiversity, animal welfare and other on-farm outcomes. 

Learn more about the Future Drought Fund.

[Recording begins]

Video begins [0:00]

Music plays. Displays map of Australia at 0:20 seconds and the location Kentucky, NSW. 

Michael Taylor [0:23]

Hi, I’m Michael Taylor, six generation farmer.

Taylor's run is on the New England Tablelands, Northern New South Wales.

And we’re a grazing property, but we also have agroforestry and some agritourism.

In simple terms, agroforestry is basically just woody vegetation, trees in particular, integrated with agriculture.

So agroforestry can be all native trees, that were, you know, already growing there and the way you manage them, whether it's for shade and shelter or for a product, or it could be planted trees, special planted trees, or forestry type planted trees - It can also be fruit trees, so there's a lot of orchards that would consider what they're doing as agroforestry as well. But it's, it's integrating woody vegetation into agricultural enterprise.

Australia does have a very dry environment. We don't have rich soils, but we've proven how productive we can be, but it's important that we're also going to be sustainable.

So better understanding what aspects are going to continue to sustain our natural assets is really, really important.

Understanding that woody vegetation in an agroforestry type culture is a really important part of maintaining and sustaining our agricultural enterprises for food security and economic stability, across the regions.

For me, being drought resilient on Taylor's run is basically taking away that boom and bust cycle that a lot of farms see when various commodity markets come and go.

We've got now, you know, alternative products that we can turn to when sheep prices are down for example. We've got the alternative enterprise of tourism. 

Being able to, to shift slightly to offset those extremely high, extremely low times is, is what I would consider being resilient, because it's, when it's extremely dry that's when you are, you know, most at risk, of the business collapsing or the ecosystem collapsing. 

I would say one of the challenges in agroforestry is that it's a long-term enterprise. It's a long-term integration trees. You accept that they grow slowly. You accept that they grow big, and you accept that they drop branches and that where there's live trees, there's going to be dead branches or dead trees.

The benefits of agroforestry on Taylor's run has grown over time, excuse the pun. But having the shade, that extra shade and shelter for our animals has been quite distinct during the extreme times.

During normal, you know, average days, it's not so obvious, but on the extremely hot days in summer you can see that the livestock make use of that shade, and also survival of lambs or ewes during lambing, you know, coming out the end of winter, or, you know, freshly shorn sheep off shears, we definitely have seen improvements in the survival rates of our sheep.

I applied for a Nuffield Drought Resilience Scholarship because it would connect me with farmers not only across Australia, but farmers all around the world, that are facing similar challenges to what we are here, locally and nationally.

There is plenty of research around the benefits of agroforestry and what can be achieved, but there's not a whole lot of research bringing those barriers together, especially in grazing and cropping areas that are not traditional forestry areas.

I'm hoping that my research that's being supported by the Future Drought Fund, will help decision makers and leaders across the agricultural industry understand and make changes that will bring down some of the barriers, to agroforestry, which will improve resilience and sustainability.

Recording ends [4:41]

Music Plays. End screen displays wide shot of Taylor’s run before fading to the logos of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Future Drought Fund, along with a QR code and the text: see the ways the Australian government is investing in drought preparedness at agriculture.gov.au/FDF.

© Commonwealth of Australia 2025

Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights) in this publication is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia (referred to as the Commonwealth).

All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence except content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms.

The Australian Government acting through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has exercised due care and skill in preparing and compiling the information and data in this publication. Notwithstanding, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, its employees and advisers disclaim all liability, including liability for negligence and for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying on any of the information or data in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Future Drought Fund video Drought Resilience Scholarship

2024 Nuffield Drought Resilience Scholar Caitlin Herbert, Gundamain

24 March 2025

Video duration: 4 mins 11 secs

Introduction

This is the transcript of a video produced by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, focusing on one of the 2024 scholars; Caitlin Herbert, who is participating in the Drought Resilience Scholarship Program. The program is funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF) and outlines Caitlin's research on best practice in cattle feed lots, and her hopes her Nuffield research will contribute to helping Aussie cattle farmers and feed lotters successfully adapt in a changing climate.

Learn more about the Future Drought Fund.

[Recording begins]

Video begins [0:00]

Music plays. Displays map of Australia at 0:11 and the location Eugowra, NSW. 

Caitlin Herbert [0:23]

My name is Caitlin Herbert. I'm a sixth Generation Farmer here at Gundamain in Central West New South Wales.

We're based in Eugowra over about 15,000 acres and we farm a cattle feed lot, a sheep operation including merinos for wool and prime lambs, and a dry land cropping operation.

Integrating into the feedlot we have an Angus breeding herd where we produce our own calves and feed them all the way through.

I think the best way to describe a cattle feed lot is it's a managed facility where the cattle are fed a nutritious diet every day that's formulated by a nutritionist.

The reason we have a cattle feed lot is we can turn off a consistent product so we can turn off animals 12 months of the year and we control what they're eating.

It ensures that we fill a market, both domestic and export, for 12 months of the year no matter what dry conditions hit us or seasonality hits us.

Drought is really quite high on our risk registry, so we have plans in place and we know when to implement these plans as we're going into a drought, including destocking, where to destock first, what paddocks to sacrifice, what to start feeding out first including hay and silage, and where best to allocate these resources.

We grow a lot of lucerne now and we always have every hay shed full on the property and we always ensure the silage pits are full. This has allowed us to stockpile enough feed for 18 to 24 months in case a drought were to hit us. 

Australia's climate variability was a large catalyst in the formation of the Australian feedlot industry, and it continues to define the definition of what we do today, why we can keep feeding cattle during dry times. 

Drought conditions historically force an intensification of the extensive beef industry in Australia, and feed lots provide a place where we can put these cattle and still maintain consistent product over dry conditions.

Being a 2024 Nuffield scholar funded by FDF has allowed me to take time away from our business and explore businesses and operations similar to ours, on an international scale.

I've then been able to bring these practices back to our business and implement innovations and technologies that are happening outside of Australia and bring that knowledge not just back to Gundamain, but back to the wider agricultural community.

As part of my Nuffield research, I'm looking into best practice intensification of the extensive beef industry.

For me, this is centered around food security and how to best destock without compromising good genetics or the condition of the cattle that you're selling.

One of the best things about being a Nuffield scholar is I've been able to connect with other people who, despite the diversity of our operations, we're going through the same joys and struggles in our day-to-Day operations. 

Particularly in reference to drought, it's shown me that no matter what type of agricultural production we run, no one is immune from drought and we both share the same highs and lows and you have this brain's trust to engage and converse with and share your story.

Farming and working in agriculture really leaves you, you're at the mercy of the climate and I think being resilient is just mitigating any type of risk that may come your way, while still maintaining a successful and profitable business.

I hope my learnings as a drought resilience scholar can strengthen the Australian beef supply chain and we can continue to remain a major player in the global beef industry.

Recording ends [3:53]

Music Plays. End screen displays wide shot of scenery before fading to the logos of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Future Drought Fund, along with a QR code and the text: see the ways the Australian government is investing in drought preparedness at agriculture.gov.au/FDF.

© Commonwealth of Australia 2025

Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights) in this publication is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia (referred to as the Commonwealth).

All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence except content supplied by third parties, logos and the Commonwealth Coat of Arms.

The Australian Government acting through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has exercised due care and skill in preparing and compiling the information and data in this publication. Notwithstanding, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, its employees and advisers disclaim all liability, including liability for negligence and for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying on any of the information or data in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by law.