It takes a special kind of someone to be a farmer — and sometimes it’s just in their blood. For Cooper McKenna, growing up as a fourth generation on his family’s sheep and cereal farm at Kyancutta, there’s no doubt in his mind about what he wants to commit his life to — even if he is only four years old.
“Coop is a true-blue farmer, through and through,” says his mum, Tess McKenna. “There’s farming on both sides of the family, with my family, the Beinke family, having farmed on the Eyre Peninsula for many years, and we’re now raising the fourth generation on my husband Ty’s family farm at Kyancutta.
“Coop has always been very proud of his farm and taken great interest in it all, spending hours out in the paddocks with his dad, Pop and his 92-year-old Pa. His Pa says he’s never met a kid so interested in farming… and he’s been around for a long time,” Tess laughs.
But there was one particular day that really sealed Cooper’s interest, early last November during harvest, as Tess recalls.
“Cooper was only three at the time and we needed to get Anthony Foster from Ramsey Bros out to fix the fan on our header. Foss is an excellent technician and has fixed just about everything on our farm and done heaps of work on my dad’s farm too, so he’s a bit of a legend in our house.
“I took Cooper and his younger sister Nahla out to the paddock just to say hello to Foss, and Cooper was in awe. He was watching everything Foss was doing, asking a million questions, ‘What are you doing there? Have you done this? Will you check that?’ and generally being completely absorbed in the whole process of repairing the machinery.
“I needed to duck back to the house to look after our newest little family member, Nate, but there was no way Coop was coming with me. So, I left him to supervise Foss while he worked for the next couple of hours, and no doubt ensure quality control was met!
“Since that day, Cooper has regularly taken his toy header out to the paddock and whenever we ask him what he’s up to, he casually replies, “I’ve got to take this to Foss, he needs to fix the fan for me,” Tess laughs.
When we ask Cooper what he wants to do when he grows up, he doesn’t miss a beat, confidently confirming, “I’m going to be a farmer… and a shearer!”
But there’s no chance Foss will ever be able to consider retiring any time soon, as young Cooper adds, “And I’m gonna get Foss to fix things, he’s the best!”
And just like any good young friend of Ramsey Bros, Cooper won’t compromise on quality when you ask him about what sort of machinery he’ll have on his farm when he grows up, saying, “I’ll have red… none of that damn green stuff!”
With that sort of wisdom and drive from such a young age, we’ve got no doubt Cooper is set for great things. We can’t wait to watch him soar!
