Beating Around The Bush

S2E1

This week's take on the news relating to rural and regional Australia with Fleur Anderson and Wade Dabinett.

1. GM Ban lifted in SA a big win for science and economics. https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/sa-farmers-permitted-to-grow-genetically-modified-crops-but-moratorium-remains-on-kangaroo-island/news-story/b3eb517e33eb4ef4b51123a8fe46056a

2. Beef Industry contemplates what Brazil's entry into Indonesia might mean for them https://www.beefcentral.com/trade/what-can-australia-expect-followings-brazils-beef-access-breakthrough-with-indonesia/

3. VALE Tim Fischer https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6343855/

4. Milk Price Initiative Explored https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/6343949/the-milk-price-initiative-to-build-market/?cs=5373

For your week news wrap up in a weekly email check out The Farm Table

Guest this week - Scott Briggs, Bridgecape Commodities

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Beating Around the Bush is the podcast of the Rural Business Collective www.ruralbusinesscollective.com.au

This is a Cahoots Radio production edited by Skye Manson www.cahootsradio.com

Hosted by Wade Dabinett https://www.linkedin.com/in/wade-dabinett-947763167/ and Fleur Anderson https://www.linkedin.com/in/fleuranderson/

Let us know your favourite news stories for the week on email - [email protected]

Natalie speaks with Fleur Anderson as she prepares to launch her heartfelt business Blade Active to the world in an Indiegogo Crowd Funding Campaign on Friday 5th October 2018.

RBC's Fleur Anderson chats to Sophie Walsh- one half of the dynamic duo that run White Top Venues. www.whitetopvenues.com.au

Sophie and her husband Josh have had a series of 'pinch me' moments since they quit their day jobs and stared their own  business- now catering to not just Australian celebrities, but have recently hosted the Royal Family as well.

Beef Australia hosted the inaugural Pitch in the Paddock during the 2018 event- putting eight startups on stage to pitch to not just a panel of judges but a room full of industry heavyweights. Jayne Cuddihy and Fleur Anderson spoke to Jess Webb from Beef Australia, Heidi Smith from Allquotes Direct, Nick Dyer from Fluxx, Chris Balazs from Farmgate MSU, Frank Wooten, Vence Corp, Jordy Kitchske, MEQ Probe, Ben Ven Delden, Head of AgTech and Markets at KPMG, Glen Richards, veterinary physician, entrepreneur and a Shark on Shark Tank, Susan McDonald, managing director Super Butcher. The full list of finalists are as follows: 

Heidi Smith, All Quotes Direct 

https://www.allquotesdirect.com.au/

Chris Balazs, Farm Gate MSU, 

http://www.farmgatemsu.com.au/

Nick Dyer, Fluxx

Tim Cannon, Livestock Labs, 

https://www.embedivet.com/

Airlie Trescowthick is the founder of The Farm Table https://farmtable.com.au/about-us/- an online platform bringing together the Australian agricultural industry's knowledge and connecting farmers.

Rural Business Collective's Fleur Anderson spoke to Airlie during her recent national roadshow about why she started the business, and the kind of information farmers and industry representatives are able to access.

Airlie has also launched The Farmer Exchange http://ag.farmtable.com.au/exchange-information  -a place where farmers can ask technical questions from their peers and receive answers in a language they understand.

When you call 000 in an emergency, it usually takes a minute for the operator to establish your location. But two Charters Towers graziers have developed a phone app that essentially eliminates that, giving you the ability to get help sooner.

Russ Broad and Ben Callcott have developed Koorca in a remote part of North Queensland, despite the fact they don't have phone reception (to test the app!) or any kind of tech background.

"There's 15,000 calls to 000 a day in Australia from mobiles where they don't know where that person is located," says Russ.

"We've also built the app to take a photo to send to a central database with a date and time stamp on it, so emergency services have evidence of someone who might be threatening or attacking someone."

"It takes away their anonymity- hopefully preventing a lot of crimes even taking place."

Visit www.koorca.com or find them on your preferred app store.

Here's a sneaky and incredibly interesting preview into our next 30 Day Challenge. Chantal Masters is a psychologist with RuralSky- Realise Your Potential, and has a unique insight into the stresses and challenges of rural and regional business owners and entrepreneurs. In this episode she explores the concept of living by your own personal values and how much it affects your work life. When was the last time you even checked your values? 

To accept the challenge and sign up for the whole series with Chantal, including podcasts and worksheets, visit 

https://rbc.thinkific.com/courses/30dc-burnout/

Fleur Anderson talks to John Moor- the Team Leader of the Resource Consulting Service (RCS) Succession and Continuity Planning Service.

John has a lifetime of knowledge of practical solutions and ideas for succession planning. As part of the sixth generation on his family's South African dairy farm, John has an inmate knowledge of the emotional and business challenges that transitioning a business can throw up.

But what is succession planning? How does it relate to estate planning? When is it too late to start? Or too early? Good communication seems easy on the face of it... but how hard is it once ideas are put into action? John goes through these questions and more with RBC's Fleur Anderson.

Build it, use it, profit. The catch cry from AgTech17 (https://chdc.com.au/agtech17/)- a forum showcasing the innovation at the intersection of agriculture, machinery and technology.

This podcast showcases a number of developers, industry leaders and farmers- who not only use the technology in the field, but are instrumental in its development. And explore the question of what a typical farm might look like in five years... with so many advances made in technology and approaches to farming.

One of the buzz words of the AgTech conference was block chain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain

Anthony Dunne is a beef producer from Roma and has been using it for some time... he's teamed up with an ex banker and they've created Beef Ledger... http://beefledger.io/

Bridie Ohlsson is the external relations manager for AgriDigital http://www.agridigital.io/ an agtech startup based out of Sydney. They create software solutions, supply chain finance, and traceability for your agribusiness.

And with all this technology- plus  a lot more- floating around- what will a farm look like in five years?

Fleur spoke to producers and agronomists including Andrew Greste, Neek Morawitz and Joe Houlahan and Stephen Hegarty from Vanderfield.. http://vnet.net.au/index.php/vnet-rtk-gps-signal-network/14-sample-data-articles/132-meet-our-team

Mel Davies from The Loch Brewery and Distillery talks to RBC's Jayne Cuddihy.

Mel and her partner Craig Johnson were living the corporate high life in Melbourne's inner city, but after a chance encounter with a single malt whiskey it all changed.

"We realised we wanted something more creative," says Mel.

"We didn't set out for the big business life."

So, they sold their house, left their jobs and bought a huge, old red brick bank building in the tiny village of Loch in Victoria's southern Gippsland.

Making 'real ale' and utilising the most of what the local community had to offer became the heart of their operation. Their brewery and distillery is handcrafted by local steelmakers (who were far more used to fitting out dairies), with a few essentials bought in from overseas (but all handcrafted and made to order).

Now, the pair have formed wonderful relationships with other local artisans, ensuring that nothing is wasted and everyone has full stomachs- including the cattle! Mel and Craig use beautiful aromatics grown by a local bush food expert in their gins, their dark ale is used by a local cheesemaker in a wash rind variety, a local chilli grower supplies chillies for one of their ales, and a local baker sometimes calls for some spent grain from the brewery for some delicious loaves of pumpernickel bread. They also have a mutually beneficial deal with a local farmer which means their spent grain gets fed to his cattle, which in turn fertilises his hops crop, some of which is given back to the brewery to make delicious ales! Everyone wins!