Sophia Mansell

2024 | Agriculture

In honour of Clive Sisley

“I am passionate about the role automation plays in minimising environmental impacts and improving animal welfare in the dairy industry. There are a lot of opportunities to see examples of this and learn from them in Europe and especially the Netherlands.”

I am in my second year of a traineeship on a dairy in the Shoalhaven region on the South Coast of NSW. I hope to use my Global Footprints Scholarship further my knowledge of automation in the dairy industry, whilst expanding my passion to minimise the industry’s environmental impacts.

I’m not a generational farmer and came into the industry as soon as I left school. I have always had a strong passion for animal welfare and how we can work towards making their life the most healthy, comfortable and happiest we can.

The dairy industry offers many opportunities, from social networking, wealth creation and access to state of the art technologies. After completing my Certificate IV in Agriculture I wish to go further onto undertaking a Diploma in Agriculture, hoping to gain the skills for management and leadership roles in the future. I am striving for roles where I can put into place procedures and policies in everyday tasks that minimise the impacts of the industry on the environment and climate change.

This scholarship will help me achieve my goals as currently in Australia there are a limited number of examples of farm systems that have both automation and ways to reduce their emissions on site.

I am passionate about the role automation plays in regards to minimising environmental impacts and improving animal welfare. There are a lot of opportunities to see examples of this and learn from them in Europe and especially the Netherlands .

A Global Footprints Scholarship is your opportunity to do more of what you love. What have you done at work that you are proud of or passionate about?

From a young age I was always drawn to animals of any kind and sought to minimise their suffering or discomfort. On a robotic dairy milking is voluntary, and the cows’ comfort and welfare is one of the largest contributing factors to producing a high yielding quality product that has also less impact on the environment.

An automated system allows for voluntary cow traffic through the system minimising stress of daily herding, less effect on the surrounding laneways and compaction of soil in paddocks. The system operates 24 hours a day, but only uses 10% more electricity than a conventional system operating six hours a day.

With the use of solar panels and a new renewable biogas plant for the Shoalhaven region that will collect effluent from more than 23 local dairies, our dairy can operate on 100% renewable energy.

There are several of these similar systems operating in the Netherlands with biogas plants on site, which minimises the transport of the effluent. As I’m not spending hours physically milking cows, I get to spend my time with my passion, ensuring that the cows and calves are healthy and happy.

I pride myself on providing a clean dairy, minimising health issues such as foot problems and increasing udder health by reducing overall stomatic cell count of the milk.

Calf comfort has been a top priority of mine, and together with the farm manager we have put into place daily procedures, such as sanitising pens with natural seaweed disinfectant products, repurposing lower quality hay for bedding and enrichment.

I have also assisted in the implementation of a new vaccine regimen, which now involves accurately vaccinating the mothers at eight weeks before calving and a health program for young livestock.

I’m proud of the fact that since the implementation of this health program, which involves preventative treatments, vaccinations and drenching in a timely manner, calf mortality has decreased significantly.

A Global Footprints Scholarship is for you if you are passionate about creating a sustainable future. Describe something you have done at work or are working on, that helps the environment. Why is it important to you?

I was fortunate enough to be raised in a generation where climate change, and our environmental footprint impacts were taught to us from a young age. This is where my passion for reducing greenhouse gasses, climate change and landfill began.

From the age of 10, I made my family separate soft plastics and implement composting and worm farms in our suburban backyard.

This began to shape my adult life. My rental property and first home away from home is proudly filled with secondhand furniture found on the side of the road or purchased from the tip buyback centres, giving someone else’s trash new life and meaning. Our backyard is filled with portable veggie gardens where I have built our soil with cow manure that I collected myself and compost made from my own scraps.

I have had lengthy conversations with my landlord about the implementation of solar panels. I did not know from a young age that my passions in climate activism, and animal welfare could be so heavily linked. Even at the age of 12, I knew that agriculture contributed to a significant percentage of greenhouse gas emissions (later learning that it contributed to 13% of New South Wales greenhouse gas emissions). I never saw myself being a farmer, especially living in the city, until my older sister started working on a robotic dairy and I spent every school holidays and every work placement there. This is where my passions seemingly met and managed to work hand-in-hand with each other.

Upon finishing school I started my traineeship on that very dairy but I could still see a massive problem with the waste so as a part of the team, I have tried to tackle that problem head on.

As a BBM Scholar you can choose to go anywhere in the world. Where will you travel with your Scholarship and why?

The story of Lely robotic daries began in 1948 in Maassluis in the Netherlands. This is where the head office is and with where their research and development takes place. There is a large number of dairies in the surrounding area that have robotic systems and Lely products in place, ranging from astronaut robots, Luna brushes, lely calm automatic calf feeders and Lely sphere manure converters in place on farm.

I plan to travel to the Netherlands where all my passions could meet in one place. I will see how farms with animal welfare at top priority incorporate automation and groundbreaking technologies that play a role in reducing greenhouse gasses and the impact on local environments.

“Sophia has presented a well-balanced view on current and future practices in the dairy industry, including sustainable milk production, forage harvesting, energy sourcing and animal welfare. […] She displays emotion and real passion for the welfare and care of her herd and has a practical vision, affecting not only the animals but the environment, with well researched solutions and examples the dairy industry could follow.”

– Global Footprints Assessor Panel