Alex’s Childhood Dream Fulfilled through Agronomy
7/5/2018
25-year-old Alex Davies has wanted to be a research agronomist ever since he was a child. He loved the way agronomists have the ability to help farmers to fix problems with their crops and soil and aspired to be one. He liked to see the agronomists come to his farm as a child to see what was going on and to work out what needed to be done.
25-year-old Alex Davies has wanted to be a research agronomist ever since he was a child. He loved the way agronomists have the ability to help farmers to fix problems with their crops and soil and aspired to be one. He liked to see the agronomists come to his farm as a child to see what was going on and to work out what needed to be done.Alex graduated from Curtin University in 2013 with a degree in Agribusiness. He started his first job out of college as an agronomist at the company Eurofins. He worked there for two years before he moved to Living Farm three years ago. At Living Farm, he managed the National Variety Trial program.
Alex is currently in his third season of managing the northern trials. His position takes him to field days where he speaks to groups of farmers, something he wouldn't have imagined doing just a few short years ago and feels like a huge accomplishment.
In his role as an agronomist, he has managed to become more involved in his family’s farm in Talbot. He has had the opportunity to work alongside his family members on a mixed farming enterprise that does 70% of barley, canola, wheat and lupin cropping and the remaining 30% for merino wool and lamb production.
Alex shares that working as a research agronomist and farmer has allowed him the opportunity to learn a lot of new things. "Each different season brings different possibilities and opportunities which can be capitalized on in different ways." With his ability to work at Living Farm and on his home farm Alex has realized that there is an opportunity to learn everywhere and finds the diversity of both roles exciting.
Alex sees his job as a research agronomist as very rewarding since he as the ability to give back to the farmer. He loves the research side which he recalls was sparked during a gap year after high school when he worked as a casual employee at Living Farm.
As a farmer, Alex has a good understanding of the needs of farmers and so he aims to give them the quality of service that he would expect from an agronomist. He notes that he is not influenced by marketing, his recommendations to his clients are always based on personal experience. He said he will never promote anything that he does not believe in or that will not be beneficial to the farmer.
Alex thinks the biggest challenge for the future is helping to grow his family farm.
“Historically the family farm would grow by buying more land to continue the expansion through size, but I would like to move away from the traditional ways of growing the farm and I am always looking for new opportunities to increase quality or tapping into niche markets,” he said.
“We need to consider whether we buy more land and put more effort into it to make more money, or do we work the same land we have, but look at alternative ways of increasing profitability?
“There are so many advancements occurring in agriculture and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can bring to drive growth in our business.”
