Marcus Oldham student sets goals high to help develop beef industry

But that is exactly what 19-year-old Dayna Grey is doing with Australian beef.

The Tasmanian teen recently won an $8000 agriculture award from charity BBM Youth Support with which she will travel to the UK and Europe next year to learn about the practical and business side of international beef production.

“Australia is very different to the UK so you can’t really compare our industries closely, but we can learn from each other,” Ms Grey said.

“I’m following the DEXA (objective measurement) implementation in Australia very closely — obviously JBS is implementing that at the moment — so it will be interesting to see if the UK is keeping up with us or is in front of us in that respect.

“I’ll also be keen to find out what they’re expecting to implement to cut costs of production and increase yields across their entire operations, benefiting the farmer and the processor and bring those ideas back home.”

Ms Grey completed a Diploma of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham this year and was one of nine students from Queensland, NSW and Victoria awarded by BBM in agriculture and horticulture.

In their applications, the students had to design their own international study program to expand their skills in ways not possible in Australia.

BBM chief executive Melanie Stray said Ms Grey’s “forward thinking application” as well as her strong academic results and dedication to the beef industry were key reasons why she was selected as a recipient.

“She had a clear sense of what she wanted to achieve with the award, where she wanted to go and what she wanted to do,” Ms Stray said.

“She understood it’s not just about the technical aspect of her skill so she’s spending some time with a market­ing agency because she understands how the industry promotes itself and how its product is going to be really important for the success of the industry.”