Dili Schoenberg is no stranger to change.

She swapped the hustle and bustle of city life in Sydney for a quiet, rural life when she moved to Clare, South Australia, for her first job out of university.

And, more recently, she switched from a successful research career to working as a full-time farmer in Manoora in SA’s Mid North.

But that doesn’t mean she finds each new change easy.

“In fact, I think it gets scarier with age,” she says.

A former grains researcher at SARDI for over 13 years, Dili has extensive experience in pre-breeding and data analysis. In her career, she worked with a team developing new genetic traits for plant breeders that have led to the development of new crop varieties.

But while her work has equipped her to take a scientific and analytical approach to on-farm challenges, Dili felt she needed some extra support to gain the confidence to step into her new role as a mixed-cropping and livestock producer alongside husband Daniel.

Now, Dili says it’s the network of support she’s built and the training she’s undergone – including WoTL’s Stepping into Leadership (SiL) Program – that has helped her navigate the career change.

Above: Dili at the 2023 Stepping Into Leadership Graduation.

“The Stepping into Leadership Program came at a pivotal point in my life,” she says.

“I was mid-career, juggling the demands of working off-farm, learning everything I could about agribusiness, and raising two young children.”

While she loved each aspect of her busy life, everything happening at once left Dilli feeling the need to reassess things – and the SIL program helped guide her through that next stage.

“In particular, the program pinpointed my values and what truly motivates and fulfills me. For me, that’s connecting with people, learning, and being useful,” she says.

“This is also probably why transitioning into full-time farming initially felt so terrifying. Coming from a scientific, off-farm background, I was stepping into a world where I was losing that familiar ‘work’ network and lacked some of the basic skills (like steering heavy machinery in a straight line!). WoTL’s leadership program helped me focus on what I could bring to the table instead of what I couldn’t.”

That focus on her skills, strengths and future goals set Dili up for success.

“Alongside learning how to drive in straight lines, within 12 months of graduating I’d also taken on a role as a WoTL ambassador for the Mid North, running seven agribusiness workshops with incredible experts being brought into our local area,” she says.

“Farming requires wearing so many hats—mechanics, logistics, heavy machinery, agronomy, OHS, and agribusiness, to name a few. This year, we’ve experienced the worst seasonal rainfall on record. The skills and knowledge I gained through the WoTL courses helped me step back, see the bigger picture, and map out a strategic way forward.

“Having said that, there’s still a lot for me to learn, and I’m definitely learning a lot with each day on the job.”

Dili is keen to combine some of her research expertise with her growing on-farm experience and the knowledge gained through the SIL program to try new ways of working and plan for the business’ future.

“I’m keen to look into the some of the farm data on yields, soils, crop sequences and weather to see if we can uncover any patterns in our paddocks that may be helpful for future crop and soil management planning,” she says.

“The biggest lesson for me has been understanding and managing risk. On-farm, it’s crucial to identify your biggest risks—both production and business—and try and develop sustainable models and strategies that work for you. To us, that has meant doing those five to 10-year (business) forecasts, calculating those rolling averages and recalibrating as needed… and continuing to pray for rain.”