Advice on ag from busy beekeeper

DUNNSTOWN apiarist, Millie Enbom-Goad, has been appointed to the Agriculture Victoria Young Farmers Advisory Council.

Also a lawyer in Ballarat, Ms Enbom-Goad is one of 10 people who have been chosen to make recommendations to the State’s agriculture minister on issues relating to young people in farming.

Her family runs Enbom Honeys, producing and selling honey and beeswax, rearing their own queen bees, and managing hives across Western Victoria on private farms and in State parks.

“As a young female in ag who is running a business, has a family, works for a company as a lawyer, and manages all of that, I want to help encourage young people into farming, find out what the obstacles are, how we can support different sorts of people coming in, and what government can do,” she said.

“On the committee, we all have similar interests in what we want to see.”

The new Agriculture Victoria Young Farmers Advisory Council is made up of farmers from different areas of agriculture across the state.

“It’s a really good mix,” Ms Enbom-Goad said. “There’s smaller scale dairy farmers who are doing niche goat milk product, to large-scale pastoral beef farmers, and a veggie farmer in Blampied.

“We started beekeeping as a hobby, then we navigated the challenges of starting a business. It’s good to have the different perspectives.

“Something that’s important to me is that there’s not very many women, and the demographic in farming is mostly older men, so it’s good for other women to see that there’s different ways to be a farmer.”

Ms Enbom-Goad is a key member of the Central Victorian Apiarists’ Association, and said the council is a rare chance for farmers like her to truly have their voices heard.

“When you’re part of a committee like this, you know there’s weight to it,” she said.

“It’s a good platform to make other people aware of what beekeeping entails, that it is an agricultural business, and that we are part of that umbrella, even though our needs might be a bit different sometimes.

“The AgVic team working with us is really supportive and encouraging around skill building and empowering young farmers as leaders.”