In 2024, Narelle Zanker turned her 4,000-acre family dairy farm into a classroom; 2 years later, her Dairy Adventures had welcomed 1,200+ visitors and won the 2026 Rural Women’s Award
In 2024, Narelle Zanker turned her 4,000-acre family dairy farm near Mannum into a living classroom where visitors could bottle-feed calves, watch milking in action and learn where their food really comes from. Two years later, her agritourism venture Dairy Adventures had welcomed more than 1,200 guests and earned her the 2026 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award for South Australia, followed by the national title at Parliament House in Canberra. According to AgriFutures Australia, the former teacher was recognised for bridging the gap between farmers and consumers through hands-on education and regional tourism, with new plans to reach even more students through virtual farm lessons and school resources.From classroom to cowshedNarelle Zanker grew up on her family’s mixed farming property near Mannum, about an hour east of Adelaide on the Murray River. After spending four years working as a school teacher, she returned to the farm with a clear idea. She wanted to combine her love of education with her lifelong connection to dairying. With support from her husband Joel and wider family, she launched Dairy Adventures in 2024 as the only agritourism experience of its kind in South Australia.The venture operates on a working 4,000-acre dairy and mixed farm that milks around 300 cows with year-round calving. Instead of a static display farm, visitors step into a real food production facility. They tour the dairy, watch mechanised milking in action, learn about calf rearing and biosecurity, and hear how milk moves from paddock to plate. Zanker has woven teaching frameworks into every tour so that preschoolers, school groups, families, aged-care residents and disability groups all leave with a clearer picture of modern farming.A farm that teachesDairy Adventures runs up to four tours a week and offers experiences that feel more like play than a lecture. Guests bottle-feed calves, try their hand at milking, meet the herd and even visit favourites like Elvis the steer. For many city families and grandparents, these moments reconnect them with rural life they remember from their own childhoods. For students, the visit becomes a living science lesson about animal care, food safety and the systems behind everyday groceries.In its first year alone, the business welcomed more than 1,200 visitors and earned a silver medal in the New Tourism Business category at the 2025 South Australian Tourism Awards. That rapid growth showed there was strong demand for transparent, paddock-to-plate experiences that let people ask questions and see the work behind their food.Recognition and next stepsZanker’s work caught the attention of AgriFutures Australia, which runs the Rural Women’s Award to celebrate innovation and leadership by women in regional industries. In May 2026 she was named the South Australian winner, receiving a $15,000 Westpac grant to improve accessibility on the farm, develop interactive features and create educational resources with Dairy Australia. She also planned a children’s book about life on a dairy farm for schools and libraries.Later that year, she took the next step by winning the national AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award at a gala dinner at Parliament House in Canberra. As national winner she received an additional $20,000 grant to expand Dairy Adventures further, including building a virtual classroom program so students across Australia can join live lessons from the farm even if they cannot visit in person.Why the story mattersAt a time when fewer Australians live on farms, initiatives like Dairy Adventures help rebuild trust and understanding between producers and consumers. Zanker has said the goal is not just to show a pretty farm, but to help people see the science, systems and care in every bottle of milk. By turning a working dairy into a classroom, she is creating a new model for agricultural education that is both commercially viable and deeply community focused.
