National Agriculture Day celebrations in Toowoomba

On Friday November 20, National Agriculture Day was held across Australia.

It is a day dedicated to Australian agriculture and the people behind it, our Australian farmers. 

This initiative was first introduced by the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) in 2017 and each year since has been celebrated in November.

For 2020, the NFF encouraged people to host a Long Table Lunch and for NH Foods Australia, along with its subsidiaries, the idea was created to host three lunches with two in New South Wales and one in Queensland. 

In Queensland, the NH Foods Australia owned subsidiaries Oakey Beef Exports (Oakey, QLD) and Whyalla Beef (Texas, QLD) came together to co-host a lunch for livestock producers and other guests at local restaurant, Muller Bros. 

On the menu was a selection of beef from the company’s grainfed brands: Oakey Premium Wagyu and Angus Reserve, both produced within the Darling Downs area.

Grant Coleman, General Manager Oakey Beef Exports and Tony Fitzgerald, General Manager Whyalla Beef, were joined by key members of their respective senior management teams and nearly 40 producers from as far afield as Central West QLD, Maranoa and Darling Downs regions and Northern NSW. 

Pat Weir, Member for Condamine also attended along with Ali Davenport, Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE) CEO.

The idea of National Agriculture Day is to celebrate all that is Australian agriculture and importantly for farmers to have an ongoing conversation with all Australians, young and old, city or bush based about the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of agriculture. 

Following the worst droughts in living memory, bushfires and then the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian farmers have had our back ensuring that we have all the food we need.

Mr Tony Mahar, Chief Executive of the NFF says, “during the tough times, farmers appreciated the support of our fellow Australians.”

“As an industry, agriculture has not suffered from the impact of COVID like many others have.”

“We’re now working harder than ever to support our fellow Australians to put our economy back on track,” Mr Mahar said.