HOLBROOK’S Airlie Trescowthick was recently named a Tomorrow Maker for her contribution to Australian agriculture.
Ms Trescowthick has created a website, The Farm Table, to put farmers in touch with the latest research, training opportunities, jobs and market information.
She recently received a $33,000 grant from AMP’s Tomorrow Maker Fund to help with the ongoing development of her website. The recipients of the grants included other innovators, entrepreneurs and educators.
“It was a huge honour to fly to flag for agriculture among all the other grant recipients,” Ms Trescowthick said.
When Ms Trescowthick returned home from a career in economics in Melbourne to her family’s farm “Koombahla” in 2014, she turned to the internet to bring herself up to speed with the latest research and market information. What started as a list of useful websites and resources soon became a passion project to share these with the rest of the industry.
“Fundamentally there’s such good information out there but it can be ineffective if it’s not well organised and not able to found by the people who need it most,” Ms Trescowthick said.
Now, The Farm Table is a fully operational “information toolbox” and its traffic is growing by the day. Her main visitors to date have been agricultural students and new and returning farmers, but she’d like to attract more established farmers. So far, she’s had almost 20, 000 page views.
“I know there are many farmers my Dad’s age who use the internet for emailing and banking but there’s so much information that’s available that could help them with their production and marketing and The Farm Table can help connect them to it.”
Ms Trescowthick plans to use her grant to hire an employee to continue developing the website.
- Visit The Farm Table