By ROBERT WHITE

SHANE Gardiner is off to see the dairy world – literally.
Shane, 31, is one of five young South Australian dairy farmers who will form part of an extensive 32-day study tour, starting on November 4.
He regards the tour as the chance of a lifetime and hopes some of what he will see while away can be used when he returns to the farm he manages with his wife, Lauren, just east of Mount Gambier.
“I am going with an open mind,” Shane said. “I am not sure what to expect but I think I will learn some things that I wasn’t expecting to learn.
“It might be that I get confirmation that a lot of what we are doing here is as good or better than what I see overseas. Then again, I might find ways of running the farm that are a lot better and more efficient.
“That’s the beauty of being part of such a tour,” he said.
The study tour is part of a Dairy SA project called “idairy – a sustainable farming future”. The project was created as a new way of developing the state’s emerging dairy leaders and helping to set them up for the challenges of the future.
It is also aimed at attracting and retaining new people into the dairy industry.
The young farmers, plus a project co-ordinator, will capture the global trip through video and a documentary will be produced to help the tour group share their experiences with the dairy community.
The tour will include China, Holland, Sweden and Chile and will cover farm visits, studying the manufacturing sectors in each country and investigating research and extension priorities.
The project is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under Australia’s Farming Future and is being managed by DairySA.
Shane and Lauren have been managing a farm owned by MG suppliers, Lorebeck Partnership, just east of Mount Gambier, for about two years.
Lauren had originally joined the partnership as a relief milker in early 2007 and when the chance to take on a managerial role, she and Shane jumped at the opportunity.
Lauren has an impressive dairying background despite her young years. She worked with respected MG suppliers, John and GlenysTindall near Casterton in south west Victoria for two years and was a finalist in the UDV Apprentice of the Year awards.
It was at the Tindall farms where she first met Shane who worked for the local ABS centre.
Lauren went to New Zealand as part of her apprenticeship prize and also spent three years in Ireland on an International Rural Exchange.
“When I came back from Ireland I did a bit of everything and milked for a few people before I got the chance to work as a relief milker on this farm,” she said.
Lauren said she now concentrated on looking after the cows as her family responsibility had grown since the birth of the couple’s first child, Lilly, aged 2.
Shane said the chance to work on a farm had enabled the couple to live a more normal family life.
“I spent more than four years with the ABS and I was covering a very big area,” he said.
“I had been through a dairy apprenticeship and visited a variety of dairy farms and I knew how they operated.
“The chance to work on and run a dairy farm came at the right time.”
He said it was a long term plan to one day own their own farm.
“That’s the future but we are very happy where we are at the moment. The family who own the farm are very supportive.”