The #nuffieldag Podcast

Having spent more than a decade working on incorporating fibre crops into rotations on his central Queensland sugar farm, Joe Muscat knew there was still something missing. The Oakenden farmer had grown kenaf, sunn hemp and industrial hemp to world standards, but wanted to take the product to the next level through processing and marketing.

Farmers in general don’t have a good understanding of supply chains beyond the farm gate according to South Australian farmer Lachie Seears, and so he used a Nuffield Scholarship to do something about it. He set off to research the the processing supply chain, and identify value-adding opportunities for the pulse industry.

Serious concerns with the consistency of production systems in western Queensland sent pastoralist James Walker on a journey of learning around the world with Nuffield Australia, to find some ways to improve the model. It was in the unlikely fields of sports, medicine and the military that he went to find answers...

A journey that started with using using a Nuffield scholarship to investigate world’s best practice in sheep reproduction has led to flying drones over his paddocks checking sheep. Matthew runs a sheep and cropping property in Maryborough in central Victoria, and also owns a sheep pregnancy scanning business, which is where the idea for his 2013 Nuffield scholarship came from.

Burill Lake (NSW) oyster producer Ewan McAsh wanted to help revitalise his industry after seeing long term decline, and used a 2012 Nuffield scholarship to research how to do it. Being a small industry in global terms, Ewan believes a strategic approach to marketing and export, along with a good dose of ambition, holds the key to future success.

In 2012, Nuffield scholar and Yealering (WA) farmer Dr Kelly Manton-Pearce researched how to gain more efficiencies, and therefore profits, in the sheepmeat supply chain. In this episode of The #nuffieldag Podcast, find out the common themes of successful industry supply chains Dr Manton-Pearce identified.

Queensland farmer Trent De Paoli is focussed on value adding and sustainability as he prepares for the future of his family’s vertically integrated farming operation in Bundaberg. Luckily for Trent, a 2013 Nuffield Scholarship allowed him to travel the world analysing how some of the most successful businesses identify and leverage emerging market opportunities - listen in to find out more!

Managing costs are important to all businesses, but in the intensive world of meat chicken production, it’s critical. New South Wales farmer Guy Hebblewhite decided there was a real opportunity to reduce his gas and electricity costs by using the manure produced on his Tamworth property to create biogas - listen in to find out more!

Queensland beef producer Kara Knudsen was determined to improve the genetics of her beef herd, but realised to be effective, the techniques used had to be cheap and on a large scale - a 2013 Nuffield Scholarship was the key for her to be able to focus on better ways of accelerating genetic progression through reproductive technologies such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer - listen in to find out more!

According to South Australian fruit grower Jason Size there’s a real problem in the way stone fruit is marketed, as it is simply categorised as a ‘yellow’ nectarine or a ‘yellow’ peach, rather than specific flavour profiles being marketed. In fact he says there is so much more work to be done on correct flavour profiling in stone fruit, he embarked on a Nuffield Scholarship in 2013 to study the topic - listen in to find out more!