Brian Leslie, a prominent dairy auctioneer and cattle merchant, has been recognised in the King’s Birthday honours list.
Mr Leslie, a senior dairy auctioneer with Dairy Livestock Services who was instrumental in the establishment of International Dairy Week, has been awarded the Order of Australia in the general division (OAM).
Mr Leslie was raised in a dairying family in Gippsland and has worked in the sector his whole life.
He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of cow families owing to a photographic memory that he gained as a child.
He was a previous co-owner of 21st Century Genetics, the owner of Brown and Leslie Dairy Agency, and the 2008 Les Bunn Memorial Award winner.
Mr Leslie owes a big part of his success to working with knowledgeable mentors, decent individuals, and many great breeders, beginning with Gippsland and Northern agent Daryl Brown.
He is highly aware of the possibilities he was given as a young man, and in response, he has volunteered at youth camps to encourage the next generation.
“I was fortunate to work with some very good people in the dairy industry, so I wanted to give back to the kids.”
In 1987, he founded the first all-breed dairy youth camp.
