GROWING up in Harvey, Jade Buckland wouldn't have had her childhood any other way.
Given her preference for a quieter lifestyle and nature, it's no surprise she decided to stay in the region and eventually work for one of the biggest agricultural companies in the South West, Harvey Beef.
With her parents moving to Harvey when she was just eight-years-old, Ms Buckland, was introduced to the agricultural sector at a young age, spending her weekends and school holidays helping her father with his jobs on a local farm, rounding up about 300 dairy cattle at 3am each day and then again at 3pm.
She would assist him with jobs including milking the cows, fencing, feeding calves and was even lucky enough to experience the assisted birth of a calf.
"At the time, I was so little my feet wouldn't even touch the foot wells of the quad bikes," Ms Buckland said.
Quickly realising her passion for agriculture, in year nine Ms Buckland successfully applied to attend the WA College of Agriculture, Harvey, but due to unforeseen circumstances was unable to attend.
"The tryouts consisted of one week's schooling, where I was able to get a real taste for the agricultural lifestyle including cattle, sheep and horse work, which included miking, shearing, riding, animal husbandry as well as horticulture," Ms Buckland said.
Instead she attended Harvey Senior High School and after graduating in 2015, she tried her hand at childcare, worked in the tourism sector and for a landscaping company before successfully applying for a packing position at Harvey Beef in December 2016.
"Harvey Beef was close to home, plus I had family that worked there or had previously worked there and there were a lot of jobs on offer at the time," Ms Buckland said.
Starting off as a packer in the boning room on the afternoon shift, it was there that she met her fiance Troy, a qualified butcher who had spent many years as a livestock and broadacre farmer.
"I find it pretty amusing that he was a farmer previously, because growing up I would say 'one day I'll be a farmer's wife' which eventually developed into, 'forget being a farmer's wife, I'll be the farmer'," Ms Buckland said.
In her role as a packer she developed a great knowledge of the packing process as well as boning and the different cuts of meat, which has assisted in the roles she has since taken on at the company.
About a year later, Ms Buckland filled a receptionist role that was initially only supposed to be to cover a one month holiday period, but she ended up being recruited into the position.
For two years as a receptionist, Ms Buckland assisted other Harvey Beef departments, including human resources, accounting, livestock, by-products through to security, and, as a result, gained a greater knowledge of the company's overall operations.
"I was responsible for meat sales to staff through the display fridge - this stock consisted of retail finished goods from our case ready department and I also had to enter staff orders for our primal cuts," Ms Buckland said.
In August 2020 she joined the cold stores team as the Chep' controller and logistics administrator (Chep is an international company used by supply chains to hire pallets and various equipment).
In this role she was responsible for managing the Chep account, entering orders and booking truck runs.
A family affair, Ms Buckland works alongside her two older brothers, Chris, 29 and Marty, 25, who are both qualified slaughtermen at Harvey Beef.
Now working as the inventory controller for the company at age 23, Ms Buckland is responsible for generating reports on the company's stock levels, domestic and export orders and running daily checks on all of the products coming in and out of the cold stores.
"I make sure the product is aged within our requirements before distribution to our customers, rotate our stock and provide assistance to the cold stores manager," Ms Buckland said.
Since working at Harvey Beef, Ms Buckland has completed her Certificate Two in Meat Processing, HACCP Food Safety certification and is in the process of completing her Certificate Three in Supply Chain Operations.
She said everything she had learnt about cattle processing and all of the background work involved at Harvey Beef had far exceeded her expectations.
Admitting she initially only saw the company as a stepping stone rather than a career path, Ms Buckland said the challenges, people and general working environment there had encouraged her to remain at Harvey Beef and set a career path firmly in the agricultural industry.
"The opportunities have by far been the best part of my job, having started at an entry level only five years ago, now I am proudly the inventory controller with many great things to come," she said.
Enjoying the problem solving involved in her logistics role, Ms Buckland said she missed the physical side of being out with the animals and that perhaps she would return to that one day.
"Many jokes are made that I'll be the first female manager of cold stores, so who knows - maybe that's where I'll end up."
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