One of the biggest lesson I leant when working as a banker was that I can learn hell of a lot about my own farm performance by looking outside the industry I grew up in. I was very fortunate as a young bank manager to be exposed to the dairy industry when I was stationed at Warrnambool in South-West Victoria. The lessons I learnt about grazing management and running a profitable farm I still teach today at Marcus.

So I want to use today podcast to discuss profit drivers and the concept of resilient farm enterprises and what can we learn from the dairy industry about these concepts. I am lucky to have one of Oceania’s leading experts in dairy production systems and industry analysis to navigate us through this discussion.

Neil Lane was raised on his family’s dairy farm and has a lifelong association with the industry. He has a detailed knowledge of both the technical and financial aspects of a dairy business and how they influence profitability under the various dairy production systems. He has run his own consultancy business for 15+ years, has worked in the farm business management program at Dairy Australia and has overseen a large family corporate dairy farming business in Northern Victoria. He has co-authored a number of reports analysing farm profitability using industry data sets. He also has experience in milk supply management and has a detailed knowledge of the various milk pricing models employed through the industry.

ROBERT SAIK has had forty years of experience as a Professional Agrologist, entrepreneur and an international consultant who's worked with a wide variety of agriculturalists from Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture to Bill Gates on implementation of ag tech to help developing economies.

Over his life he has founded over 15 companies in the areas of Farming, Agri-Retail, Distribution, Media and Ag Tech including The Agri-Trend/Agri-Data Group of Companies which were acquired by Trimble.

Robert is CEO of AGvisorPRO Inc and Saik Management Group Inc. AGvisorPRO is a new way for the agriculture sector to solve problems through a brand-new connectivity platform for farming. As CEO of his holding company, Saik Management Group Inc., he provides consulting services to many organizations and serves on several boards and advisory committees.

Robert up until recently was CEO of DOT Technology Corp an Autonomous Robotic Farming Company which I am looking forward to discuss in more detail over this podcast.

Rob has wide interests in the ag tech space and facilitates the PowerFARM peer group for progressive food producers.

He is an author with over 50 published articles, Executive Producer of the Know Ideas media, a keynote speaker and recognized as 2016 Canadian Agri-Marketer of the Year by the Canadian Agri-Marketing Association.

Join us this week as we check in with the Founder and Managing Director of Market Check, Brett Stevenson, for a grain market update.

Brett Stevenson, comes from a pioneer farming family in the Central West of NSW, founded AgRisk Management Pty to provide a range of grain marketing and risk management services to Australian grain growers.

Brett brought a team of expert analysts and advisers together in anticipation of the deregulation of the wheat industry and in 1996 the trading name “Market Check” was established. The company has grown to become Australia’s most highly respected and widely used independent grain marketing program for grain farmers with over 4,000 growers having attended Market Check Seminars and over 1,000 becoming members of Market Check.

My guest this week is someone who I probably first bumped into at the back bar of the Tatts Hotel in Armidale over 30 years ago. At that stage we where both on a road to completing a Bachelor of Ag Economics from the University of New England

Andrew Bouffler hails from Lockhart in Southern NSW, 70kms West of the town Wagga Wagga in the State of NSW.

Andrew is the Managing Director of Valera Pastoral Company, a mixed sheep/wheat family-controlled business that has maintained a traditional balance between cropping and livestock enterprises.

However, Andrew is probably better known to many as the principal of the company’s seed stock business, Trigger Vale Poll Merino and White Suffolk stud.

Andrew states that the basic principle of his seed business is to maximise genetic gain and client profitability by performance testing using MLA’s LAMBPLAN and MERINOSELECT genetic evaluation technologies. The business is a leader in the early adoption of new tools to aid genetic gain the most recent one being genomics.

Andrew holds a firm belief that you can never stop learning and has always sort out opportunities to learn from his peers and challenge his own knowledge and beliefs. This has lead him to completing:

An Australian Nuffield Scholarship in 2007, becoming a Graduate of the Duchy College ‘Challenges of Rural Leadership” Course’ held in the United Kingdom in 2009

A graduate of Institute of Company Directors Course and in 2019 participating in Rabobank’s Global Farmers Masterclass in Brazil

After nearly 40 years in the game, Andrew believes that the basic principle of farming is “managing risk.”

Andrew is a seventh-generation Australian farmer who operates a climatically diverse farming business in Australia, his business ranges from arid semi desert rangelands in outback Western Australia to high rainfall intensive animal production in eastern Australia.

Andrew hold a Bachelor of Applied Science (Agricultural Production) and has established, proven track record of significantly increasing a property’s performance under through genetic improvement, targeted nutritional management and planned grazing management.

For some time I have followed Andrew on Twitter and LinkedIn. What is apparent in his approach to farming is the concept of holistic farming principles. Ecology responsible farming is a key driver in his business as well as other fun stuff like genetics and playing in the supply chain which we will hopefully get a chance to chat about today.

Nearly six months ago to the day,  David Cornish sat down with NAB Agribusiness Economist,  Phin Ziebell, to discuss what current world events meant for farmers and how it may impact them for our first episode of AgTalk.

With the recent release of the Australian budget, the first recession in close to three decades and the worldwide pandemic still causing havoc, Dave caught up with Phin to chat about what this all means for Ag.

Phin is NAB's Agribusiness Economist. He is responsible for analysing and reporting on the trends and developments in the agribusiness industry and works closely in conjunction with bankers in NAB’s Agribusiness division.

Professor Reeves is a distinguished international leader in agricultural research, development and extension. He was a pioneer of no-till and sustainable agriculture at the Rutherglen Research Institute in north-eastern Victoria and has held a high number of senior international roles including as Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico from 1995-2002.

In recent years some of the many roles he has undertaken include: Member, United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger; Member Senior Expert, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations including as an author of ‘Save and Grow’ - Sustainable Intensification for Smallholder Farmers.

In 2017 he received the C M Donald Medal from the Australian Society of Agronomy, its most prestigious award for lifetime achievements. In 2019 he was awarded the Farrer Medal for his lifetime contributions to agricultural science.

He is currently Professor in Residence Dookie Campus at University of Melbourne.

Kate Burke is a highly experienced independent farm consultant with a PhD in agronomy. Kate has also spent time in the corporate sector as commercial manager of one of the largest grain producers in Australia and knows what it takes to run a profitable farm business.

She has over thirty years’ experience in the farming sector. This includes Research, teaching, technical and business consulting, and commercial management of institutional ag investment.

Currently Kate is offering tailored contract services to those seeking agricultural insight and expertise through Think Agri Pty Ltd.

I have been fortunate enough to know Kate for now going on a couple of decades and I have found her one of those rare people that truly understand the relationship between what happens in the paddock, people and the bank balance.

Kate states ‘Knowing the right questions to ask is fundamental to sound decision making.’ And I reckon that’s a great place start

In 2015 Fiona Simson became the first female president of the Australia’s peak farmer group.

Fiona hails from a farming operation near Gunnedah on NSW’s Liverpool Plains, running a farming enterprise with her husband Ed and family including broad acre farming as well as breeding commercial poll Hereford cattle.

2019 was not an easy year for farmers is that part of the world, in fact probably one of the toughest ever seen. However, Fiona is adamant that she doesn’t not want agriculture in Australia to be defined by these tough times and I quote from a recent National Press conference presentation

‘Many farmers, including me, take offence, to the portrayals of the ‘broken down’, ‘hand-out-dependent’ farmer profile peddled by many members of the media.

And she went on to say

‘Ag is not only an industry with a special place in our past, but also an exciting place in our future.

In line with this, it’s not surprising that the NFF has embarked on two ambitious settings for Australian agriculture

1. The value for farm gate output to be valued at $100 billion by 2030. Currently around $70bn

2. That Australian Agriculture reaches Carbon Neutrality by 2050.

Add to this Murray Darlings Basin, Covid and China current trade settings, just to name a few this job is not without it challenges

With these in mind I look forward to chatting to Fiona today about leadership, vision and making a difference.