By Bronwyn Hastings

Longerenong agronomist Guillermo Sierra has come a long way in his career.

He started his working life as a veterinarian in his birth country, Columbia.

Moving to Australia with his wife Magda and children in 2012 to learn the language and expand their veterinary business, the couple found difficulty in converting their trades to their new home country.

“When we knew that it was not possible for us to be qualified vets, we reinvented ourselves,” Mr Sierra said.

“I went to uni in Melbourne and I studied my Bachelor in Agriculture.”

During his studies, Mr Sierra interviewed Wimmera Grain Company’s David Matthews at Rupanyup. 

“As I was interviewing him, he flipped the conversation and started interviewing me... ‘who are you? why are you here?’ and he got interested and offered me a job,” he said.

“So we moved to Rupanyup, where we lived for 10 years. It’s the place I have lived the most in my whole life –  that’s why we call Rupanyup home.”

About five years ago, after nine years of cropping, Mr Sierra decided to apply for something new, starting as an animal production and skills trainer at Longerenong College.

Magda now works as a nurse at Wimmera Base Hospital’s emergency department. 

“I had two options – Wimmera Development Association or Longerenong College,” he said. 

“At the time, the college was in a transition between John Goldsmith and Avril Hogan. 

“During COVID-19 the crop manager resigned, then in 2022 I took on livestock, so I was managing the whole farm.”

Mr Sierra streamlined the college’s mob of cows to just Hereford, Shorthorn and Red Angus, which he said was successful in the on-site programs and in their showing at Melbourne.

“The Red Angus are more docile and easy to work with, and we have been having really good gains of weight in the containment area,” he said.

“We average 1.8 to 1.9 kilos of weight gain a day. It’s spectacular to see how, in just one year, we get to 550 kilos – last year we won the carcass competition at the Melbourne Show. 

“It’s been rewarding for us as a team.”

Mr Sierra said he also enjoyed making connections with suppliers for the college’s cropping trials, as well as teaching students all aspects of crop farming.

“I take students individually with me in the equipment and show them how all the theory they learn in class about precision agriculture is put into practice, in the equipment,” he said.

“Some of them have never been sitting in the $1-million machines before; they have to drive, they need to learn about how to use it, because that’s the skill they need to get out and make a living.”

Now settled into Australian farming and living, the Sierra family has moved to Horsham.

They have taken up netball, basketball and the arts, differing from Columbia’s typical soccer, baseball, volleyball and gymnastics.

They have adjusted to smaller towns and workforces.

“You would work with 50 people to put the crops in in Colombia because labour is cheaper than here, and here you have myself, a farmhand and an apprentice working a 3200-acres farm,” he said.

“I used to live in Barranquilla, and that was about two-million people, so moving to Melbourne was okay, but moving from Melbourne to Rupanyup where it’s a small community of 500 including surrounding farms, was different.

“But it was nine years where we were raising our children, it was really good for them growing up, and now we are close to many activities.”

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