Exciting news. Action4Agriculture has our first international Young Farming Champion. Today we share with you Morgan Bell’s story. Morgan works for Corteva Agriscience in their New Zealand team where she is their Western North Island Territory Manager.

 

I grew up with little knowledge about the agricultural industry. I grew up in town with my mum working as a travel agent and my dad as a builder. My first introduction into agriculture wasn’t until year 9 at high school, where I started going hunting with a friend. The farm where we hunted on, we would have to help work on during the day. This is when I really fell in love with farming and started to learn more about the industry.

I decided to join our Teen Ag club at school and changed art to gateway where I would get to spend every Monday out working on a farm learning new skills. Our class was really small with only 5 students in it. Mondays were the day I looked forward to the most, I couldn’t get enough of spending time outside and around the animals. I attended an all girls school and by the time I got to year 11 there weren’t enough students interested in taking agriculture to keep the class going, so I did it extramurally.

Every weekend and school holidays I began working on a dairy farm as work experience. I decided to go to Massey University to complete my Bachelor in Agriculture Science. My time at university was easily the best years of my life so far. Getting to meet so many amazing and driven individuals and hear their stories of why they are wanting to go into agriculture and the challenges that they face. Every day we got to learn new things and be given so many opportunities.

 

University semester breaks I worked on dairy farms, sheep and beef farms and a deer farm. I wanted to experience as many different farming systems as I could. Following university, I started my current role with Corteva Agriscience as a territory sales manager for Western North Island of New Zealand. Three years in and I have learnt so much and had the opportunity to work with so many amazing and inspiration people. Every day there are new opportunities and challenges to keep me on my toes.

 

One thing I would love to change is for young people to have access to see all the amazing opportunities out there in the primary industries. Especially coming from an urban background, it would be great to be able to showcase the variety of pathways and jobs in our industry. I think it’s important for people to realize they don’t have to be born into agriculture to help make a difference in the future.

Sustainable agriculture and farming are important to New Zealand. I find it very rewarding to be able to support farmers to understand the regulations for chemicals, fertilisers, and product requirements used in agriculture. New Zealanders are very proud to have a world wide reputation for being committed to a economically and environmentally sound business model that allows farmers to work closer with nature.

Interesting fact

Here is a picture of Morgan with some ginormous thistles

Did you know – Weeds aren’t all bad news – they can tell you a lot about your soil too.

For example

Capeweed and Stinging Nettles are signs of nutrient-rich, cultivated soil. If the growth is stunted or leaves are yellow, it would show the soil is lacking in nitrogen.

Thistles, chickweed and purslane also indicate fertility. Source 

#YouthinAg #YouthVoices #CreatingaBetterWorldTogether