Acres of Ambition
Real conversations with women who are shaping the future of agriculture - from the paddock to the boardroom.
Acres of Ambition
01. Ag Heroes with Claudia Humphries
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Did you know some kids think a bull is female? Or have no idea how food gets to their plate?
Claudia Humphries is on a mission to fix that.
Claudia grew up on the land, became an ag teacher, worked as a governess in remote Australia and now teaches at the School of the Air in Dubbo. She's also the founder of Ag Heroes - a business born over a beer with her dad, trying to solve one of agriculture's biggest problems: kids growing up with zero connection to where their food and fibre comes from.
In this first episode of Acres of Ambition, Claudia talks about what it's like to build something brand new, how she became an ag teacher and where she sees Ag Heroes going in the next five years. She also shares her number one tip for nannies and governesses. And tells us about her own podcast, Conversations with Ag Heroes.
Claudia is an Agricultural Acceleration Grant winner and former Oberon Young Woman of the Year.
"A lot of people take for granted that they can just eat and have food every day. People don't think about the processes that got the food there." - Claudia Humphries
On this episode, we're going to be talking about starting a project, following a method, following the data to do something that impacts others and taking it step by step. And also looking back as to why someone would start a method, like what are the clues in your past that could lead you to doing something really cool right now? So I have my friend and client, Claudia Humphreys. Welcome to Acres of Ambition. Hi, Patrice, thank you for having me. You've got this thing called the Ag Heroes. And it's been getting a bit of traction this year. You've won an AgriFutures Accelerator grant within New South Wales to get it moving and to give you a bit of support. And you've also been featured on the radio. People are asking you about it. You've got an Instagram page that's getting more and more attention. And you've got a podcast that you're doing to spread the word. What is Ag Heroes all about?
SPEAKER_02So Ag Heroes started from a, I guess, an idea that there is a really large disconnect between children and their understanding of where their food and fibre comes from. From a young age, we'd always go to places like Sydney and Brisbane and Melbourne, really obviously dense metropolitan areas where there would be lots of people talking about their idea, I guess, of where their food and fibre comes from and how it ends up on their plate. And for me, it was quite scary to hear these thoughts and ideas of what people thought was true. So that kind of had always stuck with me. And then a passion for wanting to get into ag teaching and the education space really sparked this idea of wanting to create, I guess, I probably refer it to a healthy herald-like program that's really around getting kids in front of their food and fibre and being really practical and hands-on, having an engaging program that's all about teaching kids where their food and fibre comes from. And I guess the idea of Ag Heroes is heroing agriculture as a a massive part of the Australian industry and something that's going to be keep keep going forward in the future.
SPEAKER_01What's the craziest thing you have heard that you're like, I can't believe that you think that that's where your food comes from?
SPEAKER_02There's probably two that I can think of. One would be uh people looking at at udder of a cow and not even being a dairy cow, so that's probably the number one thing. Um, and thinking that uh a teat from each quarter gives you a different flavour of milk. Um, and I also had an argument about the fact that um, and I had an argument with someone, a dad, and he had his three kids sitting there with him, but he was arguing to me about the fact that a bull was actually a female. He thought two testicles were were another, um, and he would not take my word for it. He walked away very cross. Um, so yeah, that just goes to show that yeah, I think that's the scary thing, and I always say it's a bit of a vicious cycle in that the the parents are so uneducated, so they're passing that lack of education and connection between their food and fibre to their kids, and it's just gonna keep keep going unless we do something about it. So I guess that's where I'm hoping Acura's comes in.
SPEAKER_01Why does it matter if someone knows that they are having a milkshake, for example, or ice cream, and that they know that that came from a cow? Why does that matter?
SPEAKER_02For me, growing up on the land and being surrounded by a lot of agricultural people and that being a really significant part of my life and knowing how much time and effort and money goes into producing a product like that. And I think a lot of people take for granted that they can just eat and live every day and have food in front of them and it just be provided and it just be there. But a lot of people never think about the processes that happen before that food ends up there, and I think no one really has a respect for farming or farmers in general. I think we're we're quite a um hated-on industry, I guess, in terms of people that choose a different way of eating, like vegans and even vegetarians and um different diet choices. So I think it's really important to build that respect because without agriculture, we will not survive as a as a planet, we just won't. Um, so yeah, really important to instill in people that it is an important industry, but also it's important, but why is it important?
SPEAKER_01And so you mentioned a little bit about where you came from and your interest in agriculture. So, where did you grow up? What were you guys farming? Take take us back to little little Claudia.
SPEAKER_02So little little Claudia grew up with three younger brothers, and I guess from a very young age, I was very much the eldest child and lived that up to all expectations. Um, I would also always rope rope the boys into playing games or schools. And I was telling you, Patrice, the other day, that I would often line up my little teddies and pretend to play schools, and so I've always loved, I guess, teaching and telling a story from a really young age. Um, and then back in 20, I want to say 10, my dad went over to Canada and purchased his first lot of speckle park genetics and brought them back over to Australia. Um and since then we've grown um, yeah, probably one of the largest speckle park studs in the country. And um, I guess, yeah, once my dad always was in carpentry, so we grew up on the land, but we were never really heavily involved in it. But once we um yeah, once dad had those bulls out the front paddock, I was out there every afternoon after school with a loaf of bread feeding these bulls, and yeah, that was just I loved it. I absolutely loved it. Anyway, dad went to go and do cattle work, I was with him in the car, dressed, ready to go, whether it was snowing, typical Oberon, New South Wales. Sorry I forgot to mention that bit. Um, yeah, it was where I grew up. So I guess agriculture from then's just always been a massive passion of mine. Um, and then yeah, carried it through and did it at school and did cattle team and was ag prefect and then went on to study agriculture and teaching at uni. So it's all kind of stemmed from there.
SPEAKER_01So you have the memory of feeding the bulls a loaf of bread and being pumped to do that. Do you have another memory that really stands out from you from being a little girl, little kid with the speckle park with the cattle?
SPEAKER_02Um, I've got this really cool photo, um, and I would love to get it professionally drawn or something like that, because it's just holds a really special memory. But I think it was for maybe my 12th birthday, I want to say, or it might have even been a bit younger. But all I wanted to do was lead a speckle park bull. That's all I wanted. And at the time we'd only kind of just got into showing cattle, so we had all of our show cattle with a I guess we were the client of his, he was um using his business to break in our cattle, and um he was living up at Orange, so they brought down a trailer with my favourite show bull, his name was Nitro, and they brought him down to the house, didn't tell me it was a big surprise, and then yeah, I got blindfolded and taken to the shed, and I was unveiled, and there was this bull on a halter ready for me to lead. So, and I remember I was bawling my eyes out, I was so excited, and then yeah, there's these really cool photos of me leading like this, I don't know what it was, about 1500 kilo bull, and I was only 12, and I'm not a very big person, so it um yeah, that was a really special, special memory for me.
SPEAKER_00You really painted that picture, and to know that this gorgeous 12-year-old girl's dream came true when nitro was revealed and she got to look around is so vivid. That is such a crack up. I love that.
SPEAKER_01You obviously had this natural knack, you had three little brothers, and you had a natural knack to teach them. You're like, I'm the leader here, you guys sit down, I'll show you what to do, and then I'd line up my teddies. And then how did that keen interest for teaching unfold as you got older?
SPEAKER_02Thinking about it. I always was a really big people person and was always kind of a leader. I'm naturally quite drawn to leadership and wanting to be, you know, the person that does it all and does everything. Um so during school I kind of fell into a um a few leadership roles, which obviously helped with that, and I was always keen to be a part of any kind of group and help people. Um, probably towards the end of high school, I I figured and I knew that I really wanted to do agriculture at uni, but I just didn't know what that necessarily looked like. I I had a vision for wanting to be involved in the ag industry because I absolutely loved it, but what role and what career path I was going to go down, I wasn't probably too sure. So I was I never applied for teaching. I um actually got accepted into I think four different ag courses, but I ended up going with rural science. Um, so my first year at uni, I did a year of that, and I got told that it was the hardest agricultural degree you could do, and I went, oh, I don't know if this is for me. Anyway, so I did a year and but in my gap year to go back. In my gap year, I I wasn't sure. I knew I wanted to do ag, but I went, I really need to try something completely and utterly different and somewhat okay with kids, but we'll we'll see what we can do. So I ended up putting an ad on Facebook um to seek work as a governess or a nanny. Um I ended up landing a position in Thargaminder, and if you don't know where Thargaminda is, I definitely suggest going and looking at it. But in the polite way possible, it is in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It is in the sticks. And I drove up with my mum in my little Suzuki Swift and was absolutely terrified. But I was like, I have to give this a crack, I have to have a go. So drove out to Thargaminder, was there for about 10 weeks, I think. Um and I looked after two little kids, and they were a big challenge, and I think overall it was a big challenge because yeah, I'd never done it before. Um, and then yeah, I then left that job due to a few different reasons. Then I went and started working in childcare centres just locally in town and doing some babysitting, and then towards the end of the year I went back up to Queensland um and worked at a property as a governess again in Barcaldon, which was an amazing experience. Three really cool kids, and I actually got to do school of air teaching at that job. My Thargaminder job I didn't, I was more just a nanny, but um yeah, at this Barcaldon job I was more a governess, so I was teaching, and I guess that's where I just went. I've found what I'm really good at and I want to keep doing it. So yeah, just to get through uni, I then just went and did a year of animal uh rural science, sorry, and then transferred to teaching, um, which was it was good. A lot of my um rural science credits had passed over, which was awesome because I was doing ag teaching. So um yeah, it came out with a Bachelor of Education Kate at 12, majoring in ag and then throughout my year at uni, I also governessed during school holidays and uni holidays for a family out at Condoban.
SPEAKER_01What's one bit of advice you would give to a woman who's currently a Govey or thinking about doing it? What's something that you learnt along the way?
SPEAKER_02For me, it's something that you think that you should be really good at off the bat, but it's something that obviously takes a lot of learning. And I think too, and I tell this to any girl that like I've with the family that I had out at Kondo Condoblan, I had to, I guess, um, train up a few girls over my time um to replace me. And my number one tip was always just to be honest with your family. So whoever you're working for, just be honest. Just say, your kids were an absolute shit today. I'm in a shit mood, I want to go home, be honest, like it there, you are such a you're in a really intimate role in that you are completely and utterly part of their life and part of their family. So if something's not working, you're better off being honest about it. Um, and knowing too, I think that because it's such a people role, if it's not working, it's not working. And you're better off as a governess if you know internally or a nanny, if you know internally that it's not working and you're not fitting their bill or they're not fitting yours, then you're better off leaving because you play such a vital role in the running of the household. If you're a governess, you're literally their sole educator for their children. So if you if you can't even now that you've got kids' education on the line. Um, so yeah, that would be my one piece of advice.
SPEAKER_01So now you're working in Dabo at the School of Air there, teaching agriculture. How are you finding doing things online in comparison to doing it in person, as in being inside the classroom physically?
SPEAKER_02Uh for me, it was very it was very much a big adjustment. I went from full-time casual teaching, uh, where I was in a classroom with all sorts of different types of kids, different ages, all different types of subjects as well. So I guess for me, the number one thing that I've absolutely loved moving to double and into my new role is that I've been able to teach AG, which I'm obviously very passionate about. I think for me I really struggled at the beginning, and this sounds really weird, but physically not being able to stand up while you're teaching. Because if I'm casual, I get to the end of the day and my feet are so sore because I just don't sit when I'm teaching. It's just a physical thing. Like I want to be up and I want to be moving around and helping kids. But then you feel so stagnant and helpless when you're sitting down in front of a screen and you've got eight kids on the other wherever they are, and they say, Oh, I need help with this, or I can't do this, and I can't find a pen or whatever, and you feel so helpless. You're sitting there and you just kind of got to say to them, Well, hop out of your chair and go and look in mum's office or wherever it might be. So that was a really big challenge, and I think too, because I am such a people person and I'm very intuitive and love to care for my students and look after them, and that's a main reason why I love teaching. I found that that was really um hard to do over a screen without seeing them. Um, yeah, you can feel really disconnected from your students, which is a yeah, challenge.
SPEAKER_01You're at the School of Air and Dabo, and that's obviously your full-time job, but then when you can on weekends and at nights and little bits and pieces, you're slowly, well not slowly, actually quite quickly, but you're making moves, taking steps to evolve and grow ag heroes and what it wants to become with that mission behind it of helping people really know where their food and their fibre comes from. What are you learning about the process of building Ag Heroes?
SPEAKER_02Uh it would have to be that it takes the time that it takes. If you haven't gathered already, I'm really impatient and I want everything to be done at once. And if it's not being done at a certain time, I'm trying everything in my power for that to happen. And I think that I just sometimes have to take a breath and take a step back and just breathe and know that it's all going to be okay and it'll happen. And I think also learning that stuff can just happen on the go and in the flow. If it if it's not flowing and you're absolutely dreading having to do that post or absolutely dreading have to put in creating a Canva image or whatever it might be, then don't do it. Like it, if it doesn't feel natural and it doesn't feel right at the time, then then yeah, don't do it. But with that too, I think, and I was actually chatting to a friend this about about this the other day that's also running a small business, is that you feel entirely responsible for every bit of it because you haven't got you haven't got anyone else to necessarily help you. It's your baby, you have complete and utter control over it. But if something's not, you know, getting posted or you're not sending that message or that email, then you can get quite critical on yourself for not doing it. So it's a it's a constant battle, but it's a battle that I am definitely enjoying.
SPEAKER_01What's something within all of this that you have learned about taking care of the woman behind the project or behind the mission?
SPEAKER_02I think for me, uh I've definitely always struggled with anxiety. It's always been a big thing and big part of my life. So I knew that going into creating this business, I didn't want it to be something that would create angst. I wanted it to be something that was, you know, creating joy and was going to be a really fun part of my life. So exercise has been my biggest thing. This year I've really honed in on exercising as much as I can because it, you know, I have big days at work and then I've got to try and re-jog my brain to then focus on something else. So I find I can finish work, I go for a walk or go to Pilates, whatever it looks like, and then can come home and kind of refocus that energy on body's ag heroes. So exercise has been a big thing too, and Patrice's lovely trick of just spending time with yourself, whether it be five or ten minutes, but just sitting and breathing, and I find that really grounds me. I love to sit on the floor too. I'm actually sitting on the floor right now. Um, and I always say to people, I've just got to get grounded. I just gotta just gotta get grounded. So um I find that really helpful too. It kind of slows you down and makes you just take a breath.
SPEAKER_01Great advice. We can't hear that enough. Oh my goodness. Isn't that funny? This thing that's so natural as a human, but we have to consciously do it and it helps so much. So you mentioned fun, as in when you're building the ag heroes, when you're building ag heroes, you want it to feel natural, you want it to be enjoyable, so there's longevity in it, and you're having a fun time. And it makes me think again that you're within ag heroes, you're making it fun with characters so that people understand where the food comes from in a fun way. Can you talk about that a little bit and also who who's gonna be drawing them and just take us on that journey a little bit?
SPEAKER_02So fun bringing it into the story. I was um, I guess where the whole ideas of idea of ag heroes came about was I was sitting down having a beer with my dad, which is one of my favourite things to do because we get get chatting about all the things that we're gonna do to go conquer the world. And ag heroes came up and we we probably tossed over the name for probably a good hour, I reckon, and it was just another beer and another beer, and then we finally got to it and I went, Ag Heroes, that's it, that's the name, and it just you know, when you just have that light bulb moment, and then you just go, holy heck, like I've this is it, this is the name. Um, and then I automatically said to dad, and then we just hear like we hero the food and fibre, and they can wear like a they can have an emblem, like a um, I don't know, a shield, and then they have the letter of the food or fibre or their name in the shirt, and they might have a little cape, and and then we thought about the whole Power Ranger kind of theme, and then they all look the same, but they all have a different coloured shirt. And then we went, well, they could be an RB sellers work shirt, because that's you know what a main kind of uniform is for a farmer. Um so yeah, with the whole ag heroes thing, and I I'm a kid at heart, obviously, love kids, love educating kids. So I wanted it to be really fun and engaging, and I think seeing how successful healthy Harold was as a character, um, in that you know, he could be a cartoon or he could be a real life giraffe puppet, like I think it's changed now. But when I was at school, it was a big hand puppet that a lady would be sitting behind a a curtain. Um, so how diverse that character could be, and how much we still remember Healthy Harold now. You mention it to most people, and people remember who it was. So for the AG heroes, I wanted them to be memorable. Um, so yeah, I then my dad, and he would never admit it to anyone, but he's so creative it's not funny, um, and very creatively minded, and marketing is just his bread and butter, like he's just so good at it. So I hit him with the can you help me build my ag heroes um and help me draw them? And at first he was quite hesitant, but actually last night I was getting um some kind of AI and photo inspirations, and we we came up with some pretty cool stuff, which I'm excited for everybody to see. But um, yeah, that's kind of where he's he's helping me at the moment. So he's been a big part of the process, which is which is cool that yeah, you can have your family involved in something.
SPEAKER_01So special that it started from this thing that you love to do. With sitting with your dad and solving the world's problems over a peer. And it's so cool that wherever Ag Heroes goes, it was born from you and your dad. And you're both your love of agriculture. Okay, so we've looked back at how this all started and where you are now. Where do you see it going? Ideally, I mean, I know from creating projects and podcasts and things like that, it kind of has its own life that you're bringing in. So you kind of know where it's going, but you kind of don't at the same time. And you've got to just keep taking the next step that presents itself, the you know, the bit of inspiration and move. And my sister loves to say, success loves speed. So while we don't want to make ourselves feel anxious, because I so relate to that too, Claudia, but we also got to move when it's there because the inspiration's hanging around for a reason. So to move with it because it's kind of teaching us what it wants to be too. But where you are right now in 2026, where would you like to see it in five years' time? Ag Heroes.
SPEAKER_02I would love for it to be in classrooms and that be whether the teacher in the classroom is teaching the program or me myself of teaching the program. I'd love for us to have a really well-set up website, sorry, where you can purchase or the school can purchase programs to be able to bring into the classroom and resources. I think a really big part of AG Heroes that we have to tackle is the fact that the syllabus doesn't allow for it, which is scary. And it's something that we obviously, it's a big, big thing we will need to attack. But for me, as obviously a high school teacher, we have ag in the syllabus. It's it's part of our curriculum. But for primary schools, which is where I'm wanting to take ag heroes and focus, focus on a lot of teachers will say no because they purely just don't have time. They just, yeah, it's just something that they go no way. And I think too, I love teachers, I'm obviously one, but I think a lot of teachers just don't know as well. They they themselves don't know where their food comes from or the whole process behind it. So I think for me, I'd more like to be in control of that. If I've created this business that's wanting to teach people about a certain story, then why can't I be the one to tell it? So I would love to be at the forefront of it. And um, if I obviously couldn't be in two places at once, then have the program available online for people to purchase and use and have these characters also funded by really large agricultural um businesses within within Australia that can um, yeah, I guess use their funding and resources to help me um tell their story and promote promote agriculture as a a really cool industry.
SPEAKER_01I love the vision that you've got for ag heroes in about five years' time. What have you, what skill are you learning or what are you really, what's really coming back to you? What are you getting out of ag heroes at the moment? Is it within your podcast? Is it um you know within building the brand? Like what skills are skill that you're loving, learning, and growing in right now because of this project?
SPEAKER_02Ag Heroes and my day-to-day job connect, which I love because it's it's like I feel like I'm working on Ag Heroes all the time. Because I honestly am. I'm getting all the research and all the resources together that I need when I'm doing my job. So today, for instance, I was building a unit that I'm teaching over the next eight weeks that's talking to or teaching kids about a hamburger and the different components of a hamburger and where they come from and how they're produced. And I was given the existing work that already was there that they've been teaching for the last few years, and I went, no, not good enough. This has got to change. I said, I can do so much better than this to help because the information was so basic, and it wasn't really telling that story of where the food is coming from and how it's ending up as a hamburger. So I completely re-jigged it, and that's just been a whole process over the last probably week where I have felt so in my element and really honing in on yes, my job, but it's it's um, it's a good thing that it correlates with Ag Heroes too, because I'm constantly, I guess, doing research too, and I'm really I obviously haven't I don't start teaching this program until next week, but I'll be really interested to see from a person that sat back, rec created the resources, how they're actually going to be conveyed and how students are gonna respond to that information. So it's I'm constantly doing research really for ag heroes in my job, which I love because it gives me a really good scope of yeah, where these kids are at, um, and whether the information that I am providing them is coming across or I need to adjust it as need be.
SPEAKER_01And tell us about your podcast. Who are you talking to? Why are you talking to them?
SPEAKER_02So my podcast is called Conversations with Ag Heroes, and it's all about interviewing people that have been in the agricultural industry and have made some really significant moves, probably more focusing on youth in ag or ag education specifically. So when I first came up with the idea, I um got in touch with uh Grace Collins, who was the national rule achiever of the uh at the time. And we had a really cool conversation about, I guess, more youth in ag and trying to promote um ag as a career path, whether you finish school or pick it as a subject to do at university or whatever that might be. She also was studying to be a teacher at the time as an ag teacher as well, so we had some really cool conversations around that. Um, I then spoke to the likes of Kane Gerritts, who was the youth um advisor or liaison officer at RAS, and he had some really cool insights into youth involvement in ag as well. I then kind of moved more into focusing in on ag education and I think probably selfishly trying to get as much out of other people as I could to help me create this business that is ag hero. So I spoke to Jacqueline Brough that is has a um company called Ag Is Life, um, and she also too is an ag school teacher up in ESC in Queensland, and she's um trying to tell her story and also teach kids about where their food and fiber comes from through storybooks. So probably keep an eye out for a collaboration in the future with her. Um, and then I had the really, really cool honour and was probably um my favorite conversation. Um, but it was with um yeah, a lady from Canada who was telling us about a company that she runs over there, um, which is also called Ag Is Life, but it is literally what I want to do with Ag Heroes, but it's a Canada-based um program, and it's all about yeah, educating kids where their food and fibre come from, but also helping teachers teach kids about where their food and fibre comes from. So, yeah, they've been some really cool conversations to have, and I've got a got a huge amount out of it. So go and give them a listen if you want to hear anything uh in relation to ag and ag education.
SPEAKER_01Well, of course, I'll link everything down below, but everyone should go and throw the aguros a follow on Instagram at the least. Claudia, we're so it's gonna be so interesting to see what happens here because there's so much momentum behind it. People are super curious about the aguros, ag Huros, but they're also super curious with you because you're a young woman, as in you've won the young woman title for Oberon and you've been on the radio and your connection with agri futures through your accelerating grant. There's just so much happening for you, and yeah, uh, I'm really pumped to be on this journey, and I can't wait to revisit this episode in a couple of years' time.
SPEAKER_00We're like give you away where you're at.
SPEAKER_01So thanks for coming on Acres of Ambition because you store as hell have Acres of Ambition.
SPEAKER_02Thank you very much for having me.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for listening. Please share this with any woman you think would benefit from hearing this kind of story of starting something, of having the courage and the ambition to go after something that is having you on the shoulder. And when you don't know where it's going, it's important to just keep taking the next step, just like Glaulia.