What's Your Beef

When Adam Coffey finished school, he seriously toyed with the idea of becoming a chef but skip forward a couple of decades and he and his wife Jacynta are instead more interested in producing what goes onto your plate at a grassroots level. Having done a ringer’s apprenticeship across various parts of Australia, the high school sweethearts from Tasmania eventually settled in Central Queensland, rejuvenating an old forestry block into a stellar example of regenerative farming practices.

Luke Chaplain is a fourth-generation grazier from Cloncurry in Northwest Queensland with a big passion for developing UAV’s. After purchasing a drone on a study trip in Hong Kong in 2017, he began investigating its functions and capabilities which soon led to a solid business idea. He was later awarded a Nuffield Scholarship which led to funding for trails from MLA and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Fast forward a few years and that business idea has evolved into a successful business now known as @SkyKelpie, providing innovative musting and farming solutions, particularly to those struggling with labour shortages.

Luke shares his passion for his creation, his journey as a start-up in the Ag Tech and Innovation space and how Sky Kelpie is providing the industry with cost saving benefits, higher productivity, and increased safety for livestock producers in the latest episode of What’s Your Beef.

The Beef Australia Commercial Cattle Championship is a hotly contested highlight on the event’s calendar, with record entries expected across all categories. For next year’s event, there’s a new chair Angus Creedon, who is StockCo’s Business Development manager, based in Rockhampton. A Central Queensland boy at heart, Angus has spent time all over the State in a variety of roles, eventually returning to the Beef Capital to raise his young family. In the latest episode of What's Your Beef, Angus goes through some of the exciting new additions to the competition as well as some of his own personal motivations to be involved in the Australian beef industry, including an adoration of the Brahman breed.

With the return of international visitors to the 2024 event, the Beef Australia International Program and Handshakes Program will once again be taking center stage, connecting the global beef industry in Rockhampton.

“It’s a movement that the whole nation will again turn the spotlight on to Rockhampton and the beef community. It’s a story of good people, coming together in the pursuit of something that they love. From all walks of life right here in the heart of cattle country, right here in Regional Queensland, we will again deliver one of the greatest events the globe has ever seen...”.Those are the words of Beef Australia Chair Bryce Camm officially launching the 2024 event. Which can only mean one thing, we’re officially less than 12-months away before the gates are thrown open again to bring together the beef community from across the world. Almost 200 people gathered in Rockhampton to officially mark one year to go, celebrating the coming together of plans and ideas and to get a taste of the big changes coming. Join us in the latest What’s Your Beef episode as we chat to some of the voices who joined us at the event and are involved in the planning of Beef2024.

There wouldn't be many people in Australia who haven't been impacted directly or indirectly by mental health, and the rural community is certainly no exception. For many people who do struggle, the hardest thing in the world is to talk about it, but fortunately our amazing service providers are arming the community at large with ways that we can help.

The Gyranda Santa Gertrudis stud in Queensland’s Arcadia Valley has long been synonymous with the cutting edge of Australian beef innovation, under the stewardship of Burnett and Louise Joyce, and more recently with their daughter Nikki and her husband Pete Mahony. Not only do the family and the business prioritise innovation and the constant improvement of genetics, landscape and their people, but for generations they’ve committed to giving back to the broader industry and community through various roles. In this episode, Louise, Nikki and Peter talk about transitioning the business, Burnett's legacy and the challenges facing the broader industry and how to turn them into genuine opportunities.

Prue Bonfield is no stranger to the Australian beef industry, having built Palgrove into one of the most successful seedstock businesses in the country, together with her husband David. The pair have spent their careers doggedly pursuing genetic supremacy in their animals suited to a variety of clients. In the last few years, they’ve taken a step back from the business after it was sold to the New Zealand Superannuation fund - instead concentrating on other industry roles, family and spending more time in their home at Dalveen in Southern Queensland. In this episode, Prue speaks candidly about how she made a role for herself in the business and how building a successful beef business isn’t always done from the paddock.

From designing high end T-shirts to growing high end seaweed… Sam Elsom has had a career change that’s been every bit dramatic as it’s been rewarding. As an environmentalist, Sam and his business partner Stephen Turner are determined to combat climate change in meaningful and scalable ways. So, they’ve created @SeaForest, the first company in the world to cultivate asparagopsis at a commercial scale, supplementing cattle and sheep to cut methane emissions by over 90% in some cases. But how has the industry reacted? And what has the take up by producers been like?

From sharing a childhood to cramped living quarters, then to a business, sisters Casey Bowie and Sara Anning are the gold star example of making family businesses work. The dynamic duo grew up around Western Queensland’s Hughenden district and have built a paddock to plate frozen food business called Black Rock Beef Co. 

In this episode we delve into how they built their business and what is slowing up their distribution- the reason will surprise you! They also give a very candid reason why the storytelling aspect of the beef supply chain is an elephant in the room for the industry.