RawAg Podcast

Tim McGrath is Senior Agribusiness Development Officer with Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. He has over 25 years of Agri-business development experience working across all major agricultural industries in Northern Australia. Tim has developed a passion for understanding profitable agricultural productions systems and an in-depth, field-based knowledge of the north’s resources, supply chains, opportunities and constraints. He is also recognized as an expert in livestock handling and behavior and is one of the founding members of the livestock handling movement called Low Stress Stockhandling.

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Allan Parker OAM is a Micro Behavioural Scientist and Negotiator.

Allan usually introduces himself as an eccentric Micro-Behavioural Neuroscientist, International Negotiator, and Educator.

He works as a negotiator/facilitator of large-scale multi-party negotiations and disputes. Within government and private organisations, he trains in negotiation, dispute prevention and healthy considered conversations.

Allan has presented, facilitated, and moderated in over 60 different countries around the world and has had participants from 192 countries in his audience at one time at the United Nations-World Investment Forum.

He was a writer and a professor on the Masters Program of Dispute Resolution at the School of Law and Business, University of Western Sydney, where he was appointed Adjunct Professor for his contribution to the field.

In 2012, Allan wrote Australia's first degree in negotiation.

In 2020, Allan was a recipient for the Order of Australia Medal for his contribution to business and dispute resolution.

He is the author of The Negotiator’s Toolkit, the best seller Switch on Your Brain; and co-author of Beyond Yes – Negotiating and Networking.

In addition to his professional achievements, Allan has been a scratch golfer and has run 16 marathons and 11 ultra marathons (including 24 hours twice).

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John McKillop has held numerous senior agribusiness roles over the past 25 years including CEO of Hassad Australia, Managing Director of Clyde Agriculture and his current role as CEO of S.Kidman & Co and Hancock Agriculture. 

In addition to executive roles, John is currently the Independent Chair of the Red Meat Advisory Council and Black Box Company. Previous non-executive roles include Chair of LAWD, and director of Dairy Farmers Milk Cooperative, Compass Agribusiness, Dairy Australia and Meat & Livestock Australia.

John holds a Diploma in Farm Management, Bachelor of Business, Graduate Certificate in Agribusiness, Master of Business Administration and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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Charlie Perry manages the family business, Trent Bridge Wagyu in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. Producing high performing bulls for the Full Blood and First Cross market for the last 16 years. They sell approximately 150 Wagyu bulls privately each year. Their bulls are bred with a focus on marbling, growth and structural soundness. They also supply First Cross Wagyu/Angus cattle and Fullblood animals into the feeder market. Charlie exemplifies leadership, vision and humility, which resulted in him being crowned the 2022 Zanda McDonald Award winner. After a successful career in business consulting, Charlie's passion for agriculture, drew him home. Since taking over management in 2016, he’s overseen substantial growth in their family business, despite some of the worst years of drought on record, with a focus on productivity gains, genetic indicators and sustainability. He also serves as president and chair of the Australian Wagyu Association (AWA). To apply for the Zanda McDonald award visit zandamcdonaldaward.com.au

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Justin McNab is the Executive Director of BluePool Energy, a private, independent advisor to investors and companies operating in the energy, renewables and infrastructure sector.

Prior to establishing BluePool in 2017, Justin worked for a number of years as Head of Business Development in Asia for Origin Energy.

Originally a banker, Justin spent over twenty years in various banking roles as a project financier, and was the head of the energy and infrastructure teams for major banks, including NAB and ANZ, both in Australia and Asia. During his time at ANZ he was the Bank’s Head of Utilities and Infrastructure in Asia, and lived in Hong Kong with his family for three years. He held responsibility for all energy sector client activity for the bank across fourteen Asian countries, and spent significant time travelling amongst these jurisdictions.

He has worked on a diverse range of projects, including financing hydroelectricity projects in Laos, wind farms in the Philippines, geothermal projects in Sumatra, water treatment plants in China, solar projects in India, LNG import terminals in China, and electricity transmission projects in Vietnam, as well as numerous domestic energy and utilities transactions.

Justin has extensive experience as a banker and advisor to the sector, and retains long term relationships with investors, governments, energy companies, regulators and bankers across the region.

He holds Bachelor Degrees in both Commerce and Arts from Melbourne University, and a Masters Degree in finance from Macquarie University.

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Robert Wyld grew up on a cattle and sheep property in the Western District of Victoria. After school, Robert attended Melbourne University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours. He began his career working in the construction industry, working on the Crown Casino development before heading overseas for five years. Whilst in the UK, Robert worked on a new maintenance facility for Concord Aircraft and a new storage and research facility for the Natural History Museum.

Returning to Melbourne, Roberts' enthusiasm for the construction industry waned and he started to tinker with software. He wrote the first iteration of what was to become KoolCollect. This was a data collection tool developed for the family farm, used to track fertility histories and treatments utilising the newly introduced NLIS tags. It quickly became apparent how powerful the data could be as an aid to making informed decisions in agriculture. This new frontier, together with the ever increasing pull from producers, is how Sapien Technology was founded.
With new customers exploring how this technology could be adopted, as well as an industry grappling with a raft of adoption issues, problem solving became Sapien’s focus. Robert’s expertise in individual animal management combined with his practical background and genuine character have helped make Sapien Technology the “Go To” company for livestock software development.

Clients range from corporate supply chains such as Coles Supermarkets, VLE saleyards, Whyalla Feedlot, MDH along with many other farm producers. Sapien’s cloud database was the first of its kind in Australia. Sapien are constantly innovating and adopting, while working to encourage the widespread use of individual animal management and sharing the benefits it can bring to the entire agricultural industry.

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Alison is a Behavioural Scientist who has lived and worked in Victoria’s rural farming community for almost two decades. Her expertise in rural/farmer mental health and suicide prevention has drawn on a range of innovative techniques including digital interventions, digital storytelling, community education programs and peer support models. Alison has led numerous farmer mental health projects and continues to build the Centre’s capacity and reach by working collaboratively with researchers, farmers and industry stakeholders across Australia and internationally. Her expertise has been recognised through research awards, numerous advisory roles, peer review publication, international research consultation, invited presentations and expert witness testimony before the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Alison is passionate about co-designing the Centre’s research, education and services in collaboration with community and industry—to ensure the Centre’s work continues to be effective, relevant and tailored to the needs of rural farming communities. Visit www.farmerhealth.org.au for more information.

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Jim Wade has a Rural Science degree from the University of New England in Armidale, NSW.

Jim works as a consulting nutritionist in his own Agricultural Consulting Company (WAC), which started in August 2003. He works with a wide range of feed and premix companies, some government departments like NQ Dry Tropics, Top Stock at Mareeba and individual farms.

His role is to provide technical support which involves product development and diet formulation, staff training days, some assistance with marketing, presenting nutrition seminars to clients showing where the products fit into their feeding program.

WAC is responsible for formulating diets for 9 small independent feed mills throughout the east coast of Australia.

The area of increasing demand for technical support in Qld is the beef and sheep industry. Beef producers have limited money to spend on supplements and will pay for the correct supplement which addresses the requirements of their stock where there are deficiencies. They are looking for a wholistic approach and someone to help them implement and form a plan.

Jim was true to his word with more detail on nitrates. Click here for more information on nitrates or visit Jim's website: http://www.wadeagriculture.com.au. 

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Richard, Emma and Janet McFarlane run the oldest Angus beef herd in South Australia.

Established in 1845, the 19,000 acre property is situated in the Upper South East of South Australia on the shores of Lake Alexandrina. Wellington Lodge has been owned and operated by the McFarlane family for six generations and currently runs 600 Angus breeders and approximately 800 trader cattle.

Richard has introduced a grazing approach that has reduced their inputs to almost zero and improved returns across the board.

The grazing program has also resulted in the prolific return of native grass and plant species, such as spear grass, wallaby grass and blackhead grass, as well as aided in keeping groundcover through the very dry years. This keeps the soil cooler, keeps the microorganisms alive in the soils, even during hot spells and reduces sand drift.

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No-till Producer Grant Sims is a sixth generation farmer running the family farm with his wife Naomi and 4 children in North central Victoria Australia. The farm is 8,500 acres of dryland and some irrigation. The Sims farm has been utilizing no-till farming practices since the early 80's thanks to Grant’s father and uncle. When Grant came back full time on the farm he started looking at ways to improve the life and function of the soil through biology. In 2008 he stopped using granular synthetic fertilizers and started using a biologically made liquid fertilizer. Also at that time stop using seed dressing, insecticides and fungicides, unless absolutely necessary. The Sims have a strong focus on diversity and grow many different crops. They use companion crops, cover crops and have expanded their cow calf numbers to integrate through the system. They have seen many positive changes in the health or their soils and plants. They perform on-farm trials to learn and share methods about how to solve problems, be more profitable and improve the soil for the next generation. Grant and Naomi have recently started up a multi-species seed business, Down Under Covers, where they use their own experience and consult with world leading experts to design and put together multi species blends to help improve the soils and provide live weight gains to livestock to help farmers become more profitable. In 2015 Grant was awarded the Coles Weekly Times Farmer of the Year. Grant is the former president of the Victorian No Till Farmers Association. Find out more at downundercovers.com.

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