Toby Monaco hopes Colac district farmers will benefit from the knowledge he’s gained from studying agronomy.
Supported by a DemoDAIRY Foundation scholarship, Toby expects to complete his agronomy studies next April.
He’s already supporting farmers while working at AG Warehouse in Colac and continuing his long-term commitment to a local dairy farm…but Toby wants to take it to another level.
Toby heard about DemoDAIRY Foundation scholarships through previous recipients Emily Walsh and Caitlyn Martin and from seeing information online and in the media.
He says the scholarship has been vital to his study success. “It has paid for a majority of the course and the materials I need for study,” he said. “It’s gone a long way to helping me complete the course and the benefits of that will hopefully go back to the local farmers.”
Toby has lived in Colac all his life, growing up on a 100-acre hobby farm. He has worked on the McNamara dairy farm for the past six years, and still helps on weekends.
“I’ve always had an interest in farming and wanted to take it a bit further into the science field so went to study agronomy at Longerenong College,” he said.
“I work at AG Warehouse Monday to Friday and then do a couple of milkings on the weekend, while studying at the same time.”
Toby expects to finish the self-paced Diploma of Applied Agronomy course around April next year.
He’s keen to be part of the dairy industry. “Dairy was always just something I wanted to have a go at,” he said. “It’s a broad spectrum – you can go anywhere and do it and there’s a broad field of work from the cows to the pastures and the nutrition.”
While open about his future plans, Toby does have a long-term desire to travel to New Zealand and Europe to see other dairy operations. “The plan would be to see if anything is different and then bring that back and continue my agronomy career here in Colac to support farmers.”
Toby looked at different course options but “I was drawn to Longy because I wanted to do it online and be able to work at the same time.
“You get your book knowledge through the course and supplement that with the practical knowledge you get from working with two other agronomists here at AG Warehouse.”
DemoDAIRY Foundation will wind up in 2027.