Stephanie Fowler visits Muirfield High School

Monday 22^nd October sees the year 9 visual design and the year 9 agriculture classes talking to Stephanie Fowler, young farming champion and meat scientist.

She showed us her videos and explained a little about what it is that she actually does. She has been a jillaroo in the northern territory and a farm hand in Wagga, but currently she is at a university in Wagga training to become Dr. Steph. She was originally drawn into the world of Ag due to her love of animals and that is something that she has taken through all her jobs to even the one she has currently. She’s had so many jobs in Agriculture because until recently she’s never really found what she wants to do but now she’s using a laser to try to determine the quality of cuts of meat without having to taste them. In the future she wants to have a probe created that will be able to determine the tenderness, juiciness and flavour of a cut of meat without doing anything to it. Her personality is fun-loving and she loves the animals she works with, both dead and alive.

Of all the jobs she’s had her favourite was being a paddy stacker ‘cause it’s put all of her jobs in perspective. The strangest job she’s had was an alpaca shearer, where she had to actually catch the alpacas then tie them down and then begin shearing them. Her most interesting job is her current job as a meat scientist, and there aren’t that many meat scientists in Australia at all, just about 10-15. A lot of farmers are big twitter users and Steph is definitely no exception, but she does take time away from her social media to think about everything that matters to her.

As a Young Farming Champion she has talked to us as an Ag graduate, meat scientist and a real person and the messages she’s given us as a Young Farming Champion are:

1) Agriculture can take you anywhere; it’s not just about being a farmer

And

2) Australian beef producers are some of the best in the world because they are innovative and look for ways to become more efficient.

All up Stephanie Fowler is a fun-loving meat scientist, who knows how to motivate school kids to be more interested in learning in learning and Ag.