![NSW Department of Primary Industries district agronomist Loretta Serafin, Tamworth, checks a sunflower row-spacing trial on Windy Station, Quirindi. NSW Department of Primary Industries district agronomist Loretta Serafin, Tamworth, checks a sunflower row-spacing trial on Windy Station, Quirindi.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-agfeed/2074502.jpg/r0_0_1024_680_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
ONE of the best things about managing a farm for Loretta Serafin is being able to test her own advice.
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Ms Serafin began work as a trainee agronomist with the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) in 1999, and over the years she has advised hundreds of farmers.
Although she now works in management and research for the department, she also manages two small properties in the Tamworth region with her husband.
Her parents owned small acreage in western Sydney, near Badgery's Creek (where she grew up) and some land near Tamworth.
But it wasn't until her schooling that Ms Serafin began to feel her future lay in agriculture.
She completed a Bachelor of Applied Science, specialising in agriculture at the University of Western Sydney in the Hawkesbury, before being snapped up by the DPI to become an agronomist.
Stints in Moree, Gunnedah and Tamworth followed, as did prizes.
Ms Serafin received recognition in the grains industry, including the 2010 Australian Sunflower Association Contri-bution to Industry Award and the 2012 Australian Agronomy Society's Young Agronomist of the Year.
At the time of the latter award, Ms Serafin was the DPI's technical specialist for Northern Farming Systems, responsible for co-ordinating northern and central district agronomists and assisting in the development of broadacre cropping.
Ms Serafin has specialised in in sunflower cropping in North West NSW.
"Sunflowers are quite a small crop, so a lot of the focus has been on trying to improve in yields and oil content," she said.
With careful management in water supply and the amount of nitrogen in the soil, however, Ms Serafin noticed many farmers were actually able to increase the oil content from their sunflowers.
Improving the reliability of sorghum crops has been another area Ms Serafin has focused on, both in her time as an agronomist and researching for the DPI.
Looking toward the future, Ms Serafin said the most important thing for men and women in agriculture was to always be ready for new circumstances and ways of doing things.
"My focus has been on crop diversification: what more can we do with our current summer crops and what alternative crops can we look at?" she said.
Ms Serafin is also the editor of publications including the NSW DPI Summer Crop Production Guide and the Northern Grains Region Trial Results book.
These publications report the latest developments in summer crop varieties and management practices.
The Women in Australian Agribusiness 100 is a joint initiative of Emerald Grain and Fairfax Agricultural Media. Read more of the 100 women's stories at www.theland.com.au/WIAA100