RawAg Podcast

Shawn is a descendant of the Mununjali people of South East Queensland and the Palawa people of Tasmania. Shawn is a graduate of Monash University with a Bachelor Education and Sport and Outdoor Recreation, recently graduated Murra Indigenous Business Masterclass at Melbourne Business School and is currently an MBA Candidate at the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales. Shawn has held positions across National Australia Bank, Melbourne Grammar School and Indigenous Accountants Australia. He is currently the director of Indigicate a majority owned Indigenous company and Supply Aus a 100% owned Indigenous company. Shawn is a highly respected Indigenous educator, public speaker and keynote presenter, thought leader and passionate advocate for equality.
Shawn’s life and career has been shaped by his commitment to educate Australians with the truth about Australian history and the desire to demonstrate that Indigenous Australian culture is sophisticated, beautiful and strong.

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James Playfair - Hannay is a fourth generation farmer from Morebattle Tofts, near Kelso in the Scottish Borders.
Farming 4,300 acres in the Cheviot Hills, an area of low rainfall ( by UK standards ) and free draining soils rising from 300 ft above sea level to 1,200.
Home to the Tofts herds of 450 pedigree Aberdeen Angus and Beef Shorthorn cattle along with a commercial herd of crossbred cows. Bulls are sold directly off farm for breeding, while steers are sold for finishing for branded retail markets. Heifers are kept for herd replacements, or sold for breeding.
The farm also runs 1,500 Hill North Country Cheviot ewes, some pure and some crossed with a Bluefaced Leicester to produce Cheviot Mule ewes for prime lamb production.
Morebattle Tofts cultivate 700 acres and grow a variety of crops. Spring Barley grown for the malting market, Winter Wheat goes in a similar direction to make spirit. Winter and Spring Oats head for human food production, porridge, muesli and oatcakes, whilst Triticale and Winter Barley along with Forage Kale are grown for animal feed on farm.
Away from the farm James has been President of both the Aberdeen Angus and Beef Shorthorn cattle societies which has helped him meet lots of interesting people around the world. The cattle industry has taken James to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa.
James has been heavily involved in the establishment and development of Machinery Rings ( a co-operative society of farmers and agricultural businesses who have the mutual aim of reducing machinery and labour costs) in the UK and Europe. He is currently Chairman of the Scottish Machinery Ring Association.
James' wife Debbie, is a farmer’s daughter from Somerset in the south of England. Having recently sold her mobile toilet business she is now embarking on a political journey with the National Farmers Union for Scotland.
James and Debbie’s son Robert is now part of the family business after studying at Harper Adam’s University College. He is married to Charlotte.
Their daughter Anna, is in Australia working for Woolworths as Sustainable Agriculture and Animal Welfare Manager. She graduated at Newcastle University and worked with Marks and Spencer in their Agricultural team.

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Dr Enoch Bergman is a vet from Swans Veterinary Sevices in Esperance, Western Australia. Enoch grew up in Wild Horse, Colorado and after graduating from University, moved to Australia, fell in love and fortunately for us, never left.
Since his arrival Enoch has been actively involved in Australian BVDV (Pestivirus) research. In 2006 he established Australia’s first commercial laboratory for the diagnosis of animals Persistently Infected with BVDV.
He travels throughout Australia delivering lectures on BVDV and many other cattle topics, such as fertility and artificial breeding programs. He does all this with great insight and application, a genuine love for his work and the people he works with.

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Dr Jason Trompf - Farmer Bahavourial Change. Jason Trompf from Lambs Alive has been working as an Agricultural Consultant for over 20 years. Jason has a strong background in understanding the drivers and motivators of sheep and beef producers and designing programs that support and enable practice change.
Jason undertook his PhD research into farmer behavioral change and adoptive context.
Jason has had significant input into the design, delivery and evaluation of programs such as the Triple P Program, Lifetime Ewe Management (LTEM), Bred Well Fed Well (BWFW) and More Lambs More Often. Each of these programs are widely recognized for the industry leading impact they have had on changing knowledge, attitude, skills and aspiration (KASA) and practice, as well as lifting productivity, profitability and resilience. Jason has extensive experience in lamb survival, consulting with and educating producers on a national and international basis.

LTEM is a national extension program using a small group extension model, for which Jason is the lead author and has had more than 4000 farmers involved. Participants have increased their whole-farm stocking rates by 10% and increased lamb marking percentages by 7% irrespective of enterprise type, which equates to almost a 20% increase in lambs weaned per hectare, while reducing ewe mortality by 33%. BWFW is a national 1-day workshop that Jason co-developed and has now been delivered to over 4000 sheep producers, that coaches producers to use genes, nutrition and best-practice husbandry to improve sheep reproduction rates.

Jason also manages his family’s 3000 composite ewe and 250 Angus and Shorthorn cow enterprise. These self-replacing high productivity enterprises provide Jason with a strong practical background and a constant reality check of the challenges that producers face on a day-to-day basis.

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Stephen Brain - ideas man. Steve grew up on his parents mixed enterprise farm between Wilaura and Lake Bolac in Western Victoria.
A Merino sheep, Angus cattle and cereal cropping property, they also ran an earthmoving business.

After school and studying Humanities at Ballarat Uni and Psychiatric Nursing at Lakeside, Steve made the decision to return to agriculture and moved back to the family farm.

Steve and his wife Sue moved to Mumbannar in Western Victoria in the mid 1980’s and presently run an Angus self replacing herd of around 1,100 breeding cows. Their main focus is on producing high marbling steers for the long fed market.

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Shannon Speight is the CEO and Cofounder of Black Box Co, an innovative Saas product solving big data problems in the livestock industry. Aside from Black Box, Shannon is a wife, mother, farmer and qualified veterinarian. She has extensive experience across the beef industry from beginning work as a jillaroo in the Northern Territory to coordinating a large scale beef genomics project. Shannon was the 2019 co-winner of the Zanda McDonald Award with Luke Evans. She is passionate about the beef industry and innovation to make it more sustainable productive and profitable.

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Lyn is a recognised leader in the traditionally male world of agriculture. For more than three decades she has made a significant contribution to improving skills relating to communication and succession.

Lyn is recognised as the pioneer of a family-focused approach to succession planning, centred on a facilitated family meeting clarifying the visions and goals of each member in order to develop a shared way forward. At the height of this work she was facilitating 100 family meetings a year in all states.

Lyn was the independent chair of the Environmental Flows Group in the Macquarie River from its inception until 2013. She has had considerable involvement in leadership roles, communication and conflict resolution workshops and believes when groups work cooperatively and harness the strengths of these differences great things are possible.

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Woody has been a vet at Terang and Mortlake vet clinic since 2002 after completing his studies at Murdoch university in WA. He was a previous owner after selling to Apiam in 2018.

A mixed practice vet specialising in large animals, Woody works closely with many well recognised Australian beef studs as well as being one of the lead Prodairy vets. Woody lives in the picturesque town of Noorat in Western Victoria and plays a pivotal role in supporting his local community.

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Richard Rains grew up on a mixed farm near Dunedoo in the central west of NSW. Educated at boarding school in Sydney and went on to a cadetship with Dalgety. Whilst there, in 1974, he sold the first beef to Korea that the country ever imported and it quickly grew to become Australia’s third-largest export market for beef, which it remains today. Richard then joined Sanger Australia (a meat export marketing co) in 1976 and by 2000 he owned a majority stake in the business. He sold his equity in the company in 2013 in a management buy-out. In the late 1990’s he convinced McDonalds that they should use Aussie beef in their burgers in North America and was instrumental in establishing that trade for Australia. Richard also helped establish the prominent processor/marketer of organic beef and lamb, The Arcadian Organic and Natural Meat Co. Richard has Chaired The Zanda McDonald Award since 2015.

Richard’s roles:

• Sanger Australia 1976~2013 (CEO from 2000~2013).
• A founding director of The Arcadian Organic and Natural Meat Co, a significant processor and marketer to domestic and export markets of organic and natural beef and lamb from 2005~2015.
• The Australian Export Council ~ Member of the Advisory Board from 2013 ~ 2015.
• Cattle Council of Australia ~ Member of the Marketing, Market Access and Trade committee from 2013 ~ 2015
• The Co-operative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies (Beef CRC) ~ director from 2008 to 2012.
• A Director of CAG (Certified Angus Group) representing the Angus beef brands CAAB and Angus Pure 2013~2017.
• Member of the 1st year of The Industry Steering Group for the Australian Beef Industry Sustainability Framework.
• A Director of Paraway Pastoral Co (Paraway owns and operates large-scale sheep and cattle enterprises across Australia).
• Country Education Foundation. 2016 ~ 2021.
• Richard was a mentor in the Beef Connections Graeme Acton Mentoring Program leading up to the 2018 Beef Australia event.
• Australian Export Heroes award ~ recipient 2012

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Mike Carroll has more than 35 years experience in food and agribusiness with current directorships including Select Harvests, Paraway Pastoral Company, Viridis Ag and Rural Funds Management. Mike is also chair of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Former board roles include Sunny Queen Farms, Tassal, Warrnambool Cheese & Butter, Queensland Sugar, Rural Finance Corporation, Elders, the Australian Farm Institute, the Gardiner Dairy Foundation and Meat and Livestock Australia. During his executive career, Mike held senior executive positions at the National Australia Bank (NAB) and was responsible for establishing and leading NAB’s Agribusiness division. Roles prior to this included several years as a senior advisor in NAB’s internal investment banking and corporate advisory department. Before joining NAB, Mr Carroll worked for companies involved in the agricultural sector including Monsanto Agricultural Products and a biotechnology venture capital company. He comes from a family who has been involved in farming for over 150 years and has his own property in western Victoria. Mike holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from La Trobe University and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Business School. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, Boston and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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