The Prendergast family runs a mixed farming operation in Clarkes Hill, Victoria, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town just northeast of Ballarat. The family first began farming at their property, Brackenhurst, in 1906, and 118 years later, the fourth generation is taking the reins.
The Prendergasts’ now doubled-in-size mixed enterprise is built on commercial potato production, and the family also grow canola, barley, wheat and peas, and run sheep and cattle.
Third generation Pat Prendergast recalls how agriculture is part of his family’s DNA.
“After coming out from Ireland during the Potato Famine, our family first settled in Newlyn, Victoria, and farmed there for about 50 years, before shifting across to where we have been farming ever since,” said Pat.
“I took on the farm from my father about 40 years ago, in 1985.
“I like to think that our family have been leaders in farming in our region. My grandfather was a founding member of the Victorian Producers Cooperative (VPC) and when they folded in the 1990s, Elders took them on.
“Elders has been looking after us ever since.”
The family works alongside Elders to buy and sell livestock, and for their rural products, from fencing, to animal health and crop protection.
Now in his 80s, Pat still has a vested interest and role in the operation, but it is his eldest son Dominic who manages the day-to-day livestock activities. Dominic works on the farm with a couple of cousins who run the potato side of the business, with occasional help from son Ben, who also runs a successful local livestock transport business.
Four generations of the Prendegast family are involved on the farm. From left to right: Hugh (age 4), Julian, Patrick, Dominic and Ben Prendergast.
Pat’s second son, Julian, is even more connected to Elders, having worked for the business since 2013. Commencing as a senior sales support officer in the Ballarat branch, Julian has since worked his way into leadership, becoming a branch and then area manager, and most recently taking on a role leading the modernisation of Elders’ livestock systems.
“In my role, I am the conduit between a technology team, a project team and our Elders branches and staff on the ground. My core motivation is to ensure that any solution we implement works well and positively impacts producers and our end users,” said Julian.
Julian said he is excited to be delivering a project which will have sweeping benefits for clients like his own family.
“We are implementing a brand-new livestock system, which is going to have a significant impact on both the company and our clients, particularly in how it will deliver efficiencies in processing and also greater traceability,”
“With this new system, we will be able to get a lot more data out of livestock sales. We want to be able to predict trends, see when people are buying or selling, and even things like their habits in buying bulls and rams for breeding programmes.
“There is so much potential for better analysis of the data that we gather. With this new system we hope to be able to report on livestock weight gains, yields and that sort of thing.
“It will give us a lot more insight into how farms are performing, and our clients will see a lot of efficiencies in processing.
“It’s a big innovation for Elders and of course I am excited that the benefits will flow through to our clients.”
Julian’s role is part of the wider Elders Systems Modernisation (SysMod) project, which is seeking to revolutionise business systems and processes, to better support staff, clients and customers.
Pat explained that it is satisfying to see Elders continually innovate to better service farmers, and it is clear he is proud of his son and the leading role he is taking in the project’s implementation.
“It gives me a lot of joy and I am excited to be able to see some of these new insights come to life,” said Pat.
“I think some of that really in-depth reporting about our sold stock, what we got for them and how much they cost us in the first place will help us to make on-farm decisions going forward. I’m looking forward to our family being able to tap into that.”
A healthy mob of cattle on the Prendergast's property.
While Julian’s family is excited to see the system come to life, his brother Dominic jested that the biggest benefit of Julian’s connection to Elders is being able to ring him to ask that a new packet of drench be brought home.
“It’s just left in the mailbox now; saves me a trip into town,” he joked.