Elected for her specialist expertise around people, culture and workplace safety, Lauren is set to help bring positive change to how the lot feeding industry recruits, retains and protects its people. Lauren will be focusing on developing and supporting the feedlot industry in creating change for regional communities that will help showcase career pathways within the industry. She will be adjusting the lens of how positions within the feedlot industry are viewed and delving into community-building strategies to improve the overall attractiveness of regional employment.
Lauren said: “ALFA has made significant inroads in improving our Industry’s practices over their 50-year history, most recently supporting the Red Meat Industry in its sustainability journey.
“While the industry has strong foundational practices across environment and animal welfare that we should be very proud of, there is room to grow on existing work across employee retention, growth and community building. As an industry, we need to engage with our current social climate in regional communities to ensure we can capitalise and be part of opportunities in every aspect of regional and remote living, that are often the backbone of our productivity. This is one of the legacies I would like to leave from my councillorship.”
Lauren has spent her career in feedlots, starting her time at Australian Agricultural Company after completing her Bachelor of Applied Science (Animal Science). Since then, she has worked across human resources, safety, compliance, and loves strategic cultural engagement. Lauren joined Stockyard as our People, Safety and Culture Manager in July 2021. She has participated on a number of ALFA sub-committees for several years. Most recently, participating in the steering committee for ALFA’s Feedlot Tech – an educational, recruitment and resource hub for the industry.
Being nominated onto the council is a natural career progression, according to Lauren. “I feel like I have reached a stage in my career where I have a solid knowledge base, and this is my chance to give back to the industry and contribute to its growth. I’m extremely proud and humbled to be offered to represent Stockyard and carry forward their ethos for impactful change at an industry level,” said Lauren.
Involvement in the progression of the lot feeding and the red meat industry has long been part of Stockyard’s values. So much so, Lauren’s appointment continues Stockyard’s legacy of continuous representation on the Council since the association’s inception.
Lauren joins three others nominated to the council at the same time, including David Bailey from Australian Country Choice, Lucy Morris from Lake Preston Feedlot and Andrew Talbot from Elders.