Joe Messina is a student of the Farm Machinery market both here and in Canada.

This Aussie turned Canadian turned Aussie again gives us a rundown on where the very expensive new Machinery market is at and where it's headed.

I hope you enjoy. End of message.

The Farmers Club podcast is now only available to our paid newsletter subscribers. We know that won't suit everyone, but it's a business decision we have made to give all our current and potential subscribers extra value. So what you will hear here is a preview of each podcast.

You can sign up for the free version by going to www.thefarmersclub.com.au. You can then subscribe from there and get access to any future podcasts and our 6-day-a-week newsletter.

Our partner in this podcast is our sister business, Farm Tender. We are an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and anyone else associated with Agriculture. Go to www.farmtender.com.au and sign up from there.

Jeff McDonald is the best person I know who can explain how the relationship between a Farmer and a Bank should look like.

The title of the podcast is called "Equity ain't Equity anymore".

This is a must-listen for anyone involved in the business of Farming.

Enjoy. End of message.

The Farmers Club podcast is now only available to our paid newsletter subscribers. We know that won't suit everyone, but it's a business decision we have made to give all our current and potential subscribers extra value. So what you will hear here is a preview of each podcast.

You can sign up for the free version by going to www.thefarmersclub.com.au. You can then subscribe from there and get access to any future podcasts and our 6-day-a-week newsletter.

Our partner in this podcast is our sister business, Farm Tender. We are an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and anyone else associated with Agriculture. Go to www.farmtender.com.au and sign up from there.

Lachie McKenzie is a Farmer in South West Victoria who runs a Commercial Angus Herd and a Composite Sheep Breeding Flock. 

Lachie also runs McKenzie Ag, a Nutrition and Stockfeed business that delivers around 1000 tonnes a day to clients all around Australia.

If you want to know how some of the best operators in Ag go about it, then this is well worth a listen. 

I hope you enjoy. End of message

The Farmers Club podcast is now only available to our paid newsletter subscribers. We know that won't suit everyone, but it's a business decision we have made to give all our current and potential subscribers extra value. So what you will hear here is a preview of each podcast.

You can sign up for the free version by going to www.thefarmersclub.com.au. You can then subscribe from there and get access to any future podcasts and our 6-day-a-week newsletter.

Our partner in this podcast is our sister business, Farm Tender. We are an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and anyone else associated with Agriculture. Go to www.farmtender.com.au and sign up from there.

Jack Owen is a Farmer in the Ballarat area of Victoria. Jack has a couple of other strings to his bow in that he's written a book and coaches 20 Farming businesses.

Jack, at 30 years of age, is going places. 

The Farmers Club podcast is now only available to our paid newsletter subscribers. We know that won't suit everyone, but it's a business decision we have made to give all our current and potential subscribers extra value. So what you will hear here is a preview of each podcast.

You can sign up for the free version by going to www.thefarmersclub.com.au. You can then subscribe from there and get access to any future podcasts and our 6-day-a-week newsletter.

Our partner in this podcast is our sister business, Farm Tender. We are an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and anyone else associated with Agriculture. Go to www.farmtender.com.au and sign up from there.

End of message.

It's amazing how many clever people we have in Ag here in Australia. And when it comes to contributions to world Agriculture as far as Australians are concerned, Ken Williamson is probably at the top of the tree. You see Ken invented the Silage wrapping process from here in Australia, which has become a massive worldwide industry. 

There are two parts that Ken had to invent. It's the Silage wrap and the Silage wrapping Machine. Although he didn't invent the wrap itself, he got the idea from wrapping pallets, but he was the first to use the exact same process for wrapping Silage. 

Ken knew that it was going to be a big job to stretch it by hand, so he invented the Silage wrapping Machine, which was an equally important cog in the wheel. Initially rejected by the Government and some of the biggest Machinery Manufacturers in the world, Ken found an able suitor in Kverneland, which, on the back of the Bale Wrapper, has become a worldwide force in a wide range of Machinery and Equipment items. At one point, they sold over 10,000 Wrappers in one year, and Ken and his company held the licence and received a royalty for each Machine sold.

This is a classic case of us not celebrating our Ag Entrepreneurs enough, but in this case, who were we to know? Only a certain few would know about what Ken did, and that's an injustice. Who would have ever thought a humble but clever Australian invented the Silage Wrapping process,  some 40 years ago? Today, if you lined up each bale wrapped in 2024 side by side, it would make a line that would travel 22 times around the world. It's a massive industry, especially in Europe, and as we said near the end of the interview, Ken is more famous in Europe for what he did than he is in Australia. 

Here is his story. I hope you enjoy. End of message.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For this podcast edition, we have a one-off sponsor, Agri Novatex.

"At Agri Novatex, we are focused on Farming. Leveraging over 40 years of Agricultural manufacturing experience around the globe. Agri Novatex originated in Italy in 1977. They have been more than just a supplier of high-quality products to protect your precious Fodder and Grain Crops. As rural servants ourselves, we understand you and the problems you face.

Give the Agri Novatex team a call for all your Silage Wrap, Netwrap, Twine, Grain Bags and Silage Cover requirements..

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our sponsors are The Farmers Club, which is a free and subscription-based email newsletter chock for Farming and Ag news, info and stories. It comes out 6 mornings a week at 5 am Eastern. Go to www.thefarmersclub.com.au and sign up for free.

Our co-sponsor is our sister business Farm Tender, which is an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and associated Ag businesses. Go to www.farmtender.com.au for more. 

Claudia Bryant teaches financial literacy to Farmers. But it wasn't something she was trained for, it was a learnt trait. Claudia turned this need into a business and has delivered courses on the subject. Claudia is young and calculated, and she really gets this space. 

She also said this: "Farmers are willing to pay for her courses, knowing they need to improve their financial literacy, but it's actually getting them to stick at it that is where the problem lies. Farmers just return to their old habits". 

So with her business Farm Life Plan, she is about to pivot and use those learnings to rejig and come at this problem from a different angle. Farm financial literacy is a big issue in Agriculture. We write about it a lot in The Farmers Club newsletter. And we need people like Claudia to succeed in her chosen quest to educate the masses. 

I really enjoyed this chat with a young agriculturalist who is making a difference to people's lives. 

I hope you enjoy it too. End of message.

Our sponsors are The Farmers Club, which is a free and subscription-based email newsletter chock for Farming and Ag news, info and stories. It comes out 6 mornings a week at 5 am Eastern. Go to www.thefarmersclub.com.au and sign up for free.

Our co-sponsor is our sister business Farm Tender, which is an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and associated Ag businesses. Go to www.farmtender.com.au for more. 

Donald Carter has spent 15 years of his life pursuing justice. What was originally a major deception or maybe even corruption by the Megafert/Interfert companies, resulted in $139 million going missing, never to be recovered. They soon realised that pursuing Megafart was futile, so they turned their attention to the National Australia Bank.

The NAB potentially deceived the 22 Fertiliser retailers, who collectively lost 13 million in this scandal. Some businesses went bankrupt, and some people never recovered.

The NAB admitted guilt by paying 17.5 cents in the dollar to these 22 Fertiliser retailers but refused to pay the balance. The bank just kept on sweeping it under the carpet and still is.

Donald, at the ripe old age of 85, is still actively seeking to regain the losses he and his contemporaries suffered. This is one great example of David vs Goliath, with Goliath treating David with contempt. 

It's a very fascinating story that's never really ended. We've titled it the Megafert Scandal.

I hope you enjoy. End of message

Our sponsors are The Farmers Club, which is a free and subscription-based email newsletter chock for Farming and Ag news, info and stories. It comes out 6 mornings a week at 5 am Eastern. Go to www.thefarmersclub.com.au and sign up for free.

Our co-sponsor is our sister business Farm Tender, which is an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and associated Ag businesses. Go to www.farmtender.com.au for more. 

This podcast on Donald Carter is another untold story of an Ag entrepreneur who saw opportunities, took risks, did deals, had to find money when he didn't have any, and innovate his way through the ups and downs of his business life. 

Along the way, Donald was involved in a very innovative trucking co-op, which had a unique business model that worked well until it didn't. He was heavily involved in the Grain Storage side of things, but it was his connection with the Fertiliser industry that he is most famous for. 

We actually did two podcasts, the first one about his life in business, mainly through his Laharum Bulk Handling company. But the 2nd one is how he finished his business life, being involved in one of the biggest Agriculture scandals we have seen in this country. We'll call it the "Megafert scandal", which we will release soon after this one. 

Donald is now 85, and his memory is as sharp as a tack. I admire people who can departmentalise all the important happenings of their life and talk about them like it was yesterday. 

I hope you enjoy. End of message

Our sponsors are The Farmers Club, which is a free and subscription-based email newsletter chock for Farming and Ag news, info and stories. It comes out 6 mornings a week at 5 am Eastern. Go to www.thefarmersclub.com.au and sign up for free.

Our co-sponsor is our sister business Farm Tender, which is an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and associated Ag businesses. Go to www.farmtender.com.au for more. 

Our latest podcast is with Nigel Kerin. We did an interactive question-and-answer type webinar in early July 2025 with our Farmers Club subscribers, and Nigel mentioned one thing that sums up that webinar and this podcast. He said, "When the students are ready to learn, the teacher will appear".

So in this podcast, we are the students and Nigel is the teacher. So listen hard and listen often, as there are many gold bars dropping right through this 1-hour 50-minute publication.

I thought about slicing and dicing the content to make it shorter, and then I thought again, we are not slicers and dicers. This sort of stuff is best presented in its raw form. 

As I said before, listen hard and listen often, and jot down notes because you are in for an education of the highest order.

It's got a Livestock tone to it, but I'd highly recommend that anyone in Ag and business in general take a listen.

Be the student, and listen to the teacher.

I hope you enjoy. End of message

Our sponsors are The Farmers Club, which is a free and subscription-based email newsletter chock for Farming and Ag news, info and stories. It comes out 6 mornings a week at 5 am Eastern. Go to www.thefarmersclub.com.au and sign up for free.

Our co-sponsor is our sister business Farm Tender, which is an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and associated Ag businesses. Go to www.farmtender.com.au for more. 

Paul Ryan had a very interesting upbringing. You see, his dad, Austin, was one of the greatest Farm Machinery inventors and innovators we have seen in this country. 

So much so that Austin got an OAM for his services to the Broadacre Cropping industry.

The business was Ryan Farm Machinery, or RFM for short, which many of you will know. Paul explains what it was like growing up with an old man who thought outside the box. Someone whose mind was often elsewhere in inventor mode. Paul said he was often up at 3 am, and they would find him down in the workshop designing.

He did some brilliant, ahead-of-its-times stuff, which Paul relays in this interview.

Paul himself has continued the family tradition and is an inventor through his own business, Ryan NT (short for No-Till).

Ryan NT is a growing business that sells retrofitted Tynes, Discs, Guage and Press Wheels into the Australian Broadacre Cropping market. They are just starting to sell some decent volumes into other Cropping countries.

This is a fascinating story of a family who has achieved so much. I hope you enjoy. End of message. 

Our sponsors are The Farmers Club, which is a free and subscription-based email newsletter chock for Farming and Ag news, info and stories. It comes out 6 mornings a week at 5 am Eastern. Go to www.thefarmersclub.com.au and sign up for free.

Our co-sponsor is our sister business Farm Tender, which is an online buying and selling marketplace for Farmers and associated Ag businesses. Go to www.farmtender.com.au for more.