Penny Welch was surrounded by boys when she was first introduced to the world of agriculture.
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A self-confessed ‘townie’, Penny was one of only a few girls in a class of 30 studying agriculture at Emmanuel College in Warrnambool.
Today, the wheel has turned.
Penny is part of a female-dominated workforce at Total Livestock Genetics, has travelled to the United States after winning a Power of Women in Dairying scholarship, helped to lead a female-dominated youth camp and earlier this year was named the National Herd Improvement Association of Australia Young Achiever.
Penny, the genetics material export officer at TLG, had grown up in Warrnambool without a farming connection, but was asked as a teenager to help out on a Purnim farm as a relief milker.
“I liked the cows and it went from there,” she said.
“TLG came to the farm and flushed cows when I was about 17 and I thought it seemed pretty cool.”
She later started working in the live export industry and moved into semen collection and then into exporting semen.
“I really enjoy the science behind it and what we can do to get bloodlines overseas to countries where they have never been.”
Now aged 33 and living at Noorat near Terang, Penny’s role involves working with colleagues to export product from TLG and private clients all around the world.
“We work on the protocols to make sure everything is health tested and compliant and I’m part of the industry Ruminants Genetics Trade Advisory Group group which works with our government to renegotiate protocols or create new protocols with new countries,” she said.
“The market is going well. We’re the only semen collection centre in Australia that can send semen to the European Union and United Kingdom and they are good steady markets.
“You need to have a separate centre set-up for EU and UK. Our EU centre is IBR-free and the semen has to pass a lot more tests.
“It takes about 68 days for a bull to qualify for the EU whereas it’s normally approximately a month to come in for export collection.”
Exporting to the US also requires a lot of paper work, with separate health certificates based on where the samples were collected, but Penny said the protocols were needed to ensure health and safety.
Penny has been with TLG for 10 years and has helped prepare exports to countries across the globe.
“The biggest tank I’ve done was late last year — more than 30,000 straws across three tanks, sent as one shipment.
There are more than three million straws of semen and more than 6000 embryos stored at TLG.
Since TLG’s merger with Genetics Australia, it has become the biggest handler of genetics in Australia.
Penny won the NHIA award based on her dedication to supporting young talents and advocating for the herd improvement industry.
She was nominated by TLG’s operations manager Ruth Barber, who said Penny’s infectious passion for agriculture and her encouragement for the next generation truly stood out.
“Her message has always been that there is a job out there in the agricultural field for anyone, and don’t let concerns about education, experience or gender stop you,” Ruth said.
Penny was on the Western District Youth Camp Committee which was revived in January 2024 after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we ran the camp, it was mostly women. There has been a massive swing in the past 20 years,” she said.
“We’re trying to get the next generation excited about the industry. There were students who had never worked with dairy cattle before and it was good to give them a calf to raise for a couple of days.
“I remember doing the camp as a 16-year-old and thinking it was fantastic and it shows you all about how you can get into the industry.
“To see the new group of kids flourish and show interest in careers they didn’t realise were an option was wonderful.
“The main thing I push is that you don’t have to get dirty to work in dairy farming.
“We love farmers and need farmers or none of us are going to be here, but at the same time you can participate in other ways.
“You can be an accountant, a lawyer, an admin staff member. If you have a passion or interest, there’s probably an agricultural job you can do,” Penny said.
Penny also works with the Neil Porter Legacy, talking to students at career expos about potential careers in the field.
In 2022 Penny won the Power of Women in Dairying scholarship, allowing her to travel to World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin, and she continues to work with Power of Women to promote its contribution to the industry.
“Luckily, I was at home when they rang to tell me I’d won because I burst into tears,” she said.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me. I had never been out of Australia and would never get over there by myself.
“It made me grow up and get more confidence and it was a dream to be there to watch those cows go around the ring.”
She returned with a an even stronger view of the Australian dairy cow.
“I had in mind that I would be blown away by the amazing animals at the expo and I was — but I could put Australian cows in that line and have no problem with them.
“It was great to see we’re going in the right direction and breeding cows as good as the US.”
As part of her NHIA award, Penny has received funding for career development from NHIA and has chosen to invest in the Marcus Oldham Rural Leadership Program.
“I want to gain more experience to go the extra step in the industry and in the company if I can,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to learning how to work with all different types of people, and learning how to better manage myself and my time will definitely benefit me.
“I want to keep going and get to a position where I can make more of a difference for that next generation coming in to keep the industry going.”
DNA writer