Lotfeeding

Trevor Schoorl Scholarships open opportunities in forage industry

Beef Central 10/06/2024

Lucy Okill

A SCHOLARSHIP exposing young students studying agriculture to the forage and silage industry is set to open again this year.

The Trevor Schoorl Trust was launched in 2019, in memory of the respected Lallemand silage production and nutrition consultant who tragically died at the start of that year. The trust pays for one scholarship each year to a person aged between 15 and 25, who is studying agriculture.

Scholars are given a tour of cattle feeding, forage growing and silage making operations within both the beef and dairy industries.

Last year’s scholar Lucy Okill grew up in Wynnum in eastern Brisbane before heading out to Beaudesert to finish high school and onto the University of Queensland at Gatton where she is studying animal science and agriculture.

“I had never seen a feedlot before, most of the people I know who have cattle are not very intensive and only feed pastures,” Ms Okill said.

“I was so out of my depth, I had no idea what I was looking at and I had a to ask a lot of questions to get up to speed.”

Ms Okill currently works in the dairy industry and is keen to stay in dairy after university. She said the scholarship showed how much the beef and dairy industries can learn off each other.

“I had been feeding rations in my day job, so it was good to travel with Lallemand and understand the theory behind why we were doing certain things,” she said.

“A lot of the dairy industry is going towards feeding mixed rations, with the idea of putting more feed in and getting more milk out. The output is slightly different, so some of the elements of the ration are different – but the basic idea is the same.

Ms Okill said one of the main benefits of the scholarship was to get an understanding of the opportunities available in agriculture.

“We were able to see how businesses in the industry are run and what opportunities there are, which was quite eye opening and showed how many jobs there are,” she said.

“It gave me a real idea of the scale of operations and the amount crops that are grown to feed cattle.”

  • Trevor Schoorl scholarships are set to open again in July

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments

  1. Ross Ainsworth, 11/06/2024

    What a great way to recognise and remember a champion bloke like Trevor!! Bravo to all those involved.

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