Sam Trethewey, Agricultural entrepreneur

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Resident of Yarraville, former jackaroo, husband

I think Australian agriculture is incredibly misunderstood by Aussie consumers. I’ve been around farming and agriculture my whole life. I grew up in Tasmania where Mum and Dad ran a wool, beef and grain property. Since then I’ve worked on farms and within agricultural industries all over the country, including overseas. At one point, we farmed on King Island which is renowned for its world-class dairy, cheese, beef and seafood.

I was never a really well-applied student. I struggled to fit into the ‘system’ and preferred a group of friends (that were of the less desirable sort) over what school offered and my grades were plunging. During this time, I was diagnosed with ADHD and put on Ritalin in Year 7. Ritalin is a central nervous system stimulant. I went from sitting at the back of the classroom, shooting spitballs across the classroom to sitting in front of the class as I now found it annoying to be distracted. I began to perform really well in school. In a few years, I graduated in Year 12 as a senior prefect. I was a different kid and became highly respected by my peers.

I had grown up nervous about doing further study and put it off for over a decade. My opinion was that I was nervous to study without a ‘stimulant’, Ritalin. I only seemed to do well in our moth-eaten education system when I was drugged. I worked hard, and with some great support have been Ritalin-free since Year 12.

The success was also due to my Mum putting her foot down. Mum has a business background, and she and Dad are both entrepreneurial and highly motivated self-starters. They divorced when I was 14 and we’re all still very close.

From year 12, I wanted to learn more about farming. So I went to the UK and spent 11 months there, before returning to assist dad move from TAS to a large farm near Geelong.

I was really keen on jackarooing and worked hard to secure a job up in Tambo (central Western Qld), for the largest pastoral company in the world at the time. I got to Tambo and literally lasted 24 hours. The living conditions were absolutely appalling; I wouldn’t put a dog in there. It was horrific, and I freaked out.

I was pretty crushed, embarrassed but also let down by the company. I was only 20 at this stage but learnt from the experience what good management versus bad management was. While I was moping around, Dad turned to me and said ‘Do you want to learn how to run a farm business, or do you want to chase the sunrise sitting up the arse of a mob of cattle for months on end?’ I decided on the former and Dad got me a job up in Armadale, NSW for a year.

After a year working in a great farm business, followed by another 12 months skipping around the world on more farms, I returned to VIC and saw an opportunity on the Mornington Peninsula. There were many wealthy Melburnians who have purchased farms in the peninsula but knew nothing about farming. We call them ‘Collins Street Farmers’ as their incomes were derived from jobs in Melbourne. It’s a hobby farm/weekender to them. As a result, they’re keen to learn and the farms need some professional assistance.

From a Collins Street point of view, most of the contractors weren’t very sophisticated and as an example, two blokes who ran a service business were called Dick and Edward, who called their business ‘Dick-Ed’. They, along with other contractors were sometimes taking advantage of these city-based farmers with pricing sometimes four times the actual value of the job.

I worked on closing the gap by presenting a smart and efficient business. I met them in the city and transformed their vision into reality. Unfortunately, the GFC affected me in 2008 and these farms and other holiday houses are always the first to go in tough times.

On one normal Sunday, I was eating dinner at Mum’s and was talking about agriculture at the table. I remember looking at my plate of food and realised I had no idea how and where the chicken was produced, and the same for the salad bits that surrounded it. It was about this time I began hustling some contacts and got myself a regular writing spot for Fairfax Agricultural Media writing opinionated articles on agriculture. I then set out to work on farms that grew stuff I had no idea about, all over the country. It was the best way to learn.

Agriculture has been labelled as an old and dying industry, but it’s far from that. I knew there are a lot of young and exciting people within the industry and change is coming fast. I started writing things that needed to be highlighted in what is a very conservative industry. From more support for women in agriculture to homosexuality in regional and rural Australia and whinging farmers; nothing was taboo!

Soon, I started getting asked to speak at a lot of events all over Australia. It was at one of these that I met my now wife, Stephanie.

Steph was working for Channel 7 in Rockhampton and I was a guest speaker at a beef event. She had interviewed me for a story and I thought she was pretty gorgeous. We eventually started dating and moved to Brisbane, as Steph landed a job in A Current Affair. It was at this time that I took the jump to study and compressed a Masters in Business into 13 months which I liken to drinking out of a fire hose!

Following that, I took on a job in Melbourne, and we found ourselves in Yarraville. We had identified it to be a good place to live as there’s a great little community with a village vibe. We spent six months looking for our home.

I now manage a business that provides entrepreneurs and startups working in agriculture with support and access to capital, mostly in the technology space.

Australia has always been great adopters of technology, but there is not enough innovation in Australian farming. I believe Australia needs to develop a startup culture to introduce fresh, talented technology and people to start solving problems.

Australian agriculture is the fastest growing sector in the nation’s economy and it’s increasingly full of young, diverse and talented people. We’re now the largest beef exporter in the world and there is consistently high growth forecasts across every sector of the industry as our governments continue to lock in trade agreements. There has never been a better time to be in the food and fibre industry!

One day, I would want to go back to writing again and also start my own business. There are a lot of misconceptions about agriculture, genetically-modified food and mixed and incorrect messages as to what is really happening. I think there is a strong opportunity to help consumers who are now, more than ever, very conscious of what they are eating.

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