Casey Onus

2019 Agronomist of the Year Casey Onus graduated from UNE with a Bachelor of Agriculture and an MBA. She spends her workdays examining crops to determine how to fight diseases, nurture growth and improve quality. She loves seeing farmers take on board advice and working with them to implement strategies, especially when both she and the farmer can see the positive changes over a number of seasons.

What was your UNE qualifications?

I studied a Bachelor of Agriculture (Plant Production) and a Master of Business Administration.

Online or on-campus study?

I completed by BAg on campus fulltime and my MBA online with a few on-campus subjects while working fulltime as a an Agronomist.

How was your experience with UNE lecturers?

I found UNE lecturers very knowledgeable, but like all things you get out what you put in and I wasn’t afraid to ask the silly questions. Make a good first impression because I guarantee you’ll be working with some of these lecturers again in a professional capacity.

What was your reason for studying at UNE?

I initially studied the Bachelor of Agriculture at UNE because I received early entry and needed a qualification to kickstart my career as an agronomist. I then came back to complete my MBA with UNE because I was already familiar with their online learning platforms which allowed me to focus on the content while working fulltime.

Any plans for future study with UNE?

I plan to continue learning on the job and continue to build the valuable skill set that my education at UNE has afforded me, but hopefully my masters will suffice for now.

Your current job?

I am an Agronomist at B&W Rural in Moree NSW with a focus on dryland broadacre cropping and specialty horticultural crops.

The personal qualities needed to do your job?

I think you need to be passionate about continuing to learn new things, love troubleshooting and finding ways to make things work with a scientific and pragmatic approach.

If you weren’t in this line of work, what do you think you’d be doing instead?

Probably property development. I have loved learning about the property side of farm businesses and the little things you can do to build wealth through land management and asset development.

Your advice for anyone interested in pursuing this type of career?

Do as much work experience as you can; harvest, bug checking, irrigating. It all helps give you a clearer picture of how farms operate. If you’re off a farm already go and work for other ones. Everyone does things differently and you don’t know what you don’t know.

The biggest challenge and biggest achievement you’ve experienced in your work or life in general?

The biggest challenge I have faced is probably striking a work-life balance; agronomy is very rewarding but it isn’t a 9-5.

The biggest achievement so far was being named 2019 Agronomist of the year at the Australian Summer Grains Conference.

How has your UNE qualification aided you in your career?

My qualifications have aided me in gaining employment and increasing my skillset to make me a better agronomic advisor, focusing on the farm business as a whole and not just the agronomy.

What inspires you inside work and outside work?

I love seeing the change that you can help create within a farm business. Seeing farmers take on-board advice and working with them to implement strategies has been extremely rewarding. Especially when you can see the change over a number of seasons.

Do you volunteer your time for a community project or organisation?

Yes, I am the current chair of the Young Aggies in Moree and on the local cotton growers association committee. I think in small towns like Moree everyone pitches in when it’s needed.

In this time of Covid-19, how has the virus impacted your work?

Agronomy is pretty isolated in general so from that perspective crop checking is business as usual, we just don’t have growers jump in the car to come around the farm with us at the moment. Border closures have made accessing some farms difficult but we’re fortunate to have branches and agronomists on both sides of the border. We’re in a pretty good position at the moment but we definitely have concerns for our farmers trying to get workers for the coming harvest with the border closures.