IF you haven't had Lavinia Wehr and Kayla Evans' voices in your ears, where have you been?
The duo has gone from strength-to-strength since they launched their podcast, Generation Ag, about a year ago.
Both women work in the industry in separate capacities, with Lavinia being an independent social media and public relations consultant and Kayla is the project manager of Careers in Grain.
The saying 'great minds think alike' rings true here as Lavinia and Kayla only knew of each other until joining forces to launch the podcast, but with a common passion for agriculture, communicating with people about the industry and sharing interesting stories, they eventually gravitated towards each other.
"We had an element of admiration for each other because I guess we are both 'go-getters'," Kayla said.
What began as a professional partnership has blossomed into a great friendship.
These two young women are not afraid to speak their minds in an industry that historically has not always favoured women or young people, but that doesn't stop them.
All too often or successful women are portrayed as bossy, while men with the same qualities are respected and agriculture has not been immune from these attitudes.
Despite being called 'bossy' on an almost daily basis, Lavinia said it doesn't bother her at all.
"People who say that are not my people, so I don't care what they think," Lavinia said.
"I think people in ag are less conservative nowadays which is great, so we are starting to see those attitudes shift but there is still a while to go."
Kayla feels the future of ag is very exciting and conservative views of women in the industry will not be part of it.
"The fact that historically people have thought ag is not a place for women is what absolutely makes it a place for women now," she said.
"I think young people are already having a huge impact - the young cohort moving through the industry is very exciting."
While podcasts have been around for more than a decade, the medium has only really gone mainstream in the past few years and it is still rather niche in agriculture.
But the pair understand their audience and know the sheer amount of hours they spend driving machinery and could do with something informative yet entertaining to listen to.
But like most side hustles, the work that goes into podcasting can not be underestimated and Kayla said the time it took to produce an episode was easily the most challenging aspect.
"First we have to find the talent, research them, schedule a time to record, then record and check the sound quality, edit, upload, do the social media, respond to enquiries and build business relationships," she said.
"Setting up the business side of Generation Ag has been a challenge, we had no idea how to do that."
In the space of a year, Generation Ag has gone from one podcast to a podcast network with even bigger things planned for the future.
These are certainly two professionals to watch as their dreams are as big as their passion for agriculture and they knuckle down and get things done.
"We started out wanting to create a community and that will always be what we're about," Kayla said.
"Eventually we want to be full-time storytellers, go out into the community with travelling live roadshows and events and perhaps contribute to advocacy at a political level."
