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Leadership, determination and spirit are qualities that many of the next generation of ag possess, but they’re also what set some exceptional young professionals apart from the rest.
One such high achiever is Mitch Highett, who was recently recognised for his impact on the industry with the 2023 Zanda McDonald Award.
It’s been a ‘very humbling experience’ for the 33-year-old, who is the founder and managing director of Bullseye Ag based in Orange, New South Wales.
“It’s a fantastic feeling to win an award that’s named after, and a credit to, such an amazing person in the ag industry,” Mr Highett said.
“The fact that I got to meet and convene with finalists and other winners through the process was a huge benefit as well.”
Winning the award comes with an impressive prize package which includes a tailored mentoring trip in Australia and New Zealand, and $10,000 worth of education or training.
For Mr Highett, the prize is an opportunity he believes will not only benefit himself, but also the people around him.
“It’s really about how do I improve my understanding of what makes the industry tick, what people have done previously to accelerate their business and the industry as a whole, and then how do I share that knowledge with the broader industry, broader community, my team members and anyone that might be interested in agriculture,” he said.
Sharing this knowledge will fit seamlessly into Mr Highett’s day-to-day role in his farm management company, which works alongside enterprises across NSW and Queensland.
Bullseye Ag now manages an area totalling over 500,000 acres, but it ‘came from very humble beginnings’.
“I started off as a worker on a range of different farms in our area, working for people that needed basic labour help, fencing and moving stock, things like that,” Mr Highett said.
“How it developed was really those people saw a greater benefit in involving me in their actual business decisions and helping out with planning their farms and their operations.
“That’s what really grew the business - we started to offer a lot more of a sophisticated offering to our clients and now we service still very much those smaller operations with mum and dad investors, all the way through to large corporate and government portfolios where we assist in managing a range of different lands, commodities and systems.”
Above: 2023 Zanda McDonald Award (NZ) winner Harriet Bremner, award chairman Richard Rains, and 2023 Zanda McDonald Award (Aus) winner Mitch Highett. Photos: supplied.
Now in its seventh year, Bullseye Ag employs nine full time staff and utilises the local knowledge and experience of contractors from the areas in which properties in its portfolio are located.
“When we started to hire some fantastic staff to grow the business, that’s when I realised that it was something pretty special,” Mr Highett said.
“I don’t say this lightly - the business would be nowhere near where it is today if it wasn’t for those team members that give their all to help with the business and their clients.
“The people in my team, and in ag in general, are so genuine, so supportive and just downright awesome.”
This appreciation for genuine, knowledgeable people is something Mr Highett believes is clearly prevalent across agriculture, and so keeping these people in agriculture is one of the biggest challenges the industry will continue to face.
“These challenges are nothing really new; we’ve obviously got a lot of competing industries that would love to have such competent employees,” he said.
“I think anyone that’s from a farming background or has farming experience is a real doer and that’s what’s looked for in nearly every other industry, so in our space we’re definitely competing along with every industry that would like those employees.”
Mr Highett also points to the access to agriculture land as a challenge for the industry.
“We’re obviously not making any more land, so how do we help young, aspiring farmers and farmers that want to develop what they’ve got,” he said.
“How do we encourage them and make it achievable that they can grow bigger or get onto their first farm.”
Despite this, Mr Highett does believe there’s a changing of the guard taking place across the ag landscape.
“Although the vast majority of rural land ownership is, we always talk about that 65-year-old and above, I think what’s an important thing to look at is who’s out there working on those farms and managing those farms,” he said.
“I’m sure that if we took a deep dive on the stats, there would be a very high percentage of people under 40 that are working the farms and managing the farms, but they’re just not able to own the properties themselves.
“On that, I think what they’ll bring is that energy and probably more of a corporate- or business-orientated mindset that helps grow those businesses.”
It’s this energy and mindset, which Mr Highett exudes himself, that shows the future of Australian agriculture is in safe hands.
