AgWatchers

Getting new foods on supermarket shelves.

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We chat with Angeline Achariya, CEO of Innovation Gamechangers. Angeline worked in some of the world's biggest food companies, developing new products...

It's a bug's life.

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Olympia Yarger, CEO of Goterra. A company turning food waste into fertilizer and food/feed.  Olympia is was the Australian of the...

AgWatchers go to the movies with Just a Farmer.

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We were excited to have the producer, writer and main after of the new movie 'Just a Farmer'. Leila and Sean McDougall are farmers from Western Victor...

Market Morsel - A conversation about commodities.

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just the two of us.  Matt and Andrew have a conversation about livestock, grain and fertilizer pricing. Along with a few other tangents. 

Keeping it rural

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Dimity Smith, of Gro Events and Gro Rural.  As always we cover a huge range of topics; should events be rural or in cities, findi...

Agriculture for all

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Madeleine Stuchbery, a journalist with the Weekly Times. We chat about our recent article about the inclusion of women on agricult...

The Queen of Sheepa

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this podcast, we have Jo Hall, CEO of Wool Producers Australia (WPA). Jo represents the interests of wool growers across the country.  She discus...

Ute ban, MV Bahijah and the NFF relationship with government.

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have David Jochinke, the current president of the NFF and the immediate previous VFF president onto the podcast for a chat after 3 months in the NF...

This is a conversation starter

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mental wellness is a huge issue in regional areas, and one that we need to more open about and remove the stigma. We have a chat with Jason Banks, the...

Skyes the limit in agtech.

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Skye Raward, co-founder of Farmers2Founders, a program to assist Australian food producers in collaborating with tech developers. ...

The ag minister from the shadows.

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We had a chat with shadow agricultural minister David Littleproud about a wide variety of topics and how he thinks the current government is performin...

Biosecurity - a new levy or a tax?

21 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Colin Bettles, CEO of Grain Producers Australia. Last week, a huge section of agricultural representatives sent a letter to the go...

You're so Wyn*, you probably think this auctions about you

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Wyn Snyman, the new CEO of Auctionsplus. We chat about the COVID impact on online livestock auctions, new competitors in the space...

Meat Vending Machine

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Jacob Wolki (@jakewolki), who has set up a direct-to-customer meat retailing business. We chat about how this works with no retail...

#205 The end of 2023

30 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We had a quick chat about what we found interesting about 2023. 

#204 Thinking outside, or on the box.

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We had a chat with livestock market analyst Tim McRae, head of markets at On the Box. On the box is a new addition to the online auction space. We fi...

#203 It’s all smoke and clear mirrors.

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I used to have a job cleaning mirrors. It's something I could really see myself doing." We have a chat with Trent Smoker, General Manager at Clear G...

#202 Love me tender, love me inputs.

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Inputs have been an issue in recent years; they have increased dramatically in price, and there have been supposed shortages. We hard about a new star...

#201 The king of black pudding.

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we have a hero of the agwatchers hosts - Jim Arrowsmith of Pacdon Park. Pacdon Park are a supplier of British smallgoods from pork pi...

#200 Grabrielle sounds the trumpet.

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It is judgement day at AgWatchers. After a couple of years, we hit episode 200. Gabrielle Chan, author of 'Why you should give a F$#k about farming' a...

#199 Raising the steaks.

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Adam Coffey, the interim CEO of the newly(ish) formed Cattle Australia organisation. As usual, we cover a range of topics, from ad...

#198 It’s just not cricket with Brad Hogg.

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with elite cricket player Brad Hogg. We delve a little into his cricketing, but have a much bigger focus on his post-retirement work in...

#197 Urea, you gotta see her with Chris Lawson

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chris is the head of fertilizers for CRU Group, and has been a regular on the podcast over the past two years. He joins us from his New York City pent...

#196 Finding the people of agriculture

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do we find staff? We have a chat with Ryan Hoiberg aka Chris Hoiberg of Rimfire Resources. As is always the case with Ryan, we cover a range of t...

#195 The big events in ag in twenty minutes

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You give us twenty minutes, we'll give you the world (of ag). In this episode, the two of us briefly chat about the following major topics in agricult...

#194 Plowing Politics: The Journey to NFF Presidency - Tony York

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The nominations are in for the position of NFF president as Fiona Simson steps down after more than six years at the helm. Later in the month, member ...

#193 Plowing Politics: The Journey to NFF Presidency - Georgie Somerset

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The nominations are in for the position of NFF president as Fiona Simson steps down after more than six years at the helm. Later in the month, member ...

#192 Plowing Politics: The Journey to NFF Presidency - David Jochinke

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The nominations are in for the position of NFF president as Fiona Simson steps down after more than six years at the helm. Later in the month, member ...

#191 Pigs might fly.

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We had a chat with Dawson Bradford, a pig, sheep and grain producer from Western Australia. He is also a local councillor and director of Australian P...

#190 We are going to need a smaller flock.

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We had a chat with Tom Bull, GM of Lambpro. In this episode we talk about the state of the industry, where it is going, and whether the future is brig...

#189 Sheep sliding, grains gaining and hilux for sale.

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It is just the two of us this time. We are having a chat about what is happening in the sheep industry in relation to price. Why is the price so low, ...

#188 Who the f#$k is Alice?

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Alice Mabin, we talk about the accident that put her into a coma and changed her life, and about moving into the position of creat...

#187 The war on water?

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Who is Murray? who is his darling? - and what is his plan for her? It was Clint Jasper's childhood dream to come on the Agwatchers podcast. We help h...

#186 Misinformation and disinformation - voices in agriculture.

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We chatted with Kirsten Diprose, former ABC journalist, Ducks on the Pond podcast host, and advisor to podcast producers.    This podcast talks abou...

#185 Sheep farming in a foreign land.

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with English-born Emily Davis, who is now farming in New Zealand.  Emily doesn't come from a farming background but got into the indu...

#184 The end days of the economy?

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with FX expert Dion Ciavola about the Aussie dollar, and the wider economy. Is the global economy ready for some tough times?  Matt a...

#183 The agent of agents.

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Chris Howie, a regular commentator in the livestock market. We talk about a range of topics from the difference between livestock ...

#182 Breaking News: Barley Tariff Removed

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's not surprising - but the Chinese anti-dumping tariff on Australia barley has been removed. As of tomorrow, we will have no tariffs for barley int...

#181 Cultural vs Agricultural.

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Aboriginal Heritage Act has been a cause for concern for Western Australian farmers, on top of other issues. In this podcast we had a chat with Tr...

#180 Grain gains, livestock pains and urea game

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Just the two of us. The actions of Russia and how they have increased grain prices.  Livestock markets - what is happening? The VFF conference. Ferti...

#179 Carbon Cowboys part 2

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In episode #158, 'Carbon Cowboys' we had a chat with Fiona Conroy about her views on carbon trading. In this episode, we have a chat with Oscar Pearse...

#178 Plowing through the stress of farming.

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We had a chat with Kate Burke of Think Agri. As always, we like a guest that is outspoken and has a laugh with it.  In this discussion, we talk abou...

#177 What’s the backlog with meat processing?

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Tim Ryan, General Manager of Industry Affairs of the Australian Meat Industry Council.  In our chat we discuss what is the probl...

#176 Chilli, competition and confidence

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We talk about our experience with Perth's spiciest pizza, the origin of the F word, competition with the Bunge/Viterra merger, confidence in livestock...

#175 In defence of meat

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Andrea Bertaglio, an environmental journalist from Europe, who has recently written a book defending the meat industry from misinf...

#174 We welcome our robot overlords

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Tim Neale, founder of DataFarming. Tim is a straight talker when it comes to ag and ag tech and was a guest on episode #78 (click ...

#173 Watt’s up? A chat with the ag minister.

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After a year in the ag portfolio, Murray Watt finally comes onto the Agwatchers podcast for a chat.  Our discussions include live export, trade with ...

#172 The silence of the lambs

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this podcast, we chat with Clarice Ané van den Berg, a farmer from Limpopo in South Africa.  This podcast is another in our series with the Glob...

#171 Biosecurity budget - a levy or a tax on farming?

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The budget announcement this week included increased funding for biosecurity, which was welcomed by most in agriculture. The concern was that some of ...

#170 Two bob’s worth

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We chatted with Australia's current longest-running federal minister Bob Katter, from far north Queensland.  We hear Bob's views on ethanol, farm la...

#169 Guns, germs and succession (from Australia).

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Trevor Whittington, CEO of WA Farmers. We chat about government intervention, sheep live exports (and EID tags), the succession of...

#168 Grain and Graze - Market Update

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

No guests today, just us having a chat about markets. A few tangents along the way, but we discuss cattle prices, grain markets and anonymous fertiliz...

#167 Educating the next generation about agriculture

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"City folk don't understand anything about agriculture". This is a comment we hear a lot, and one of the best ways to get over the rural-metro divide ...

#166 Littleprouds scorecard for Watt.

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we are joined by David Littleproud, leader of the Federal National Party and former Minister for Agriculture. David has never been a...

#165 Australia and China enter into couples therapy.

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A follow-up episode examining further the positive news in relation to the Chinese agreement to expedite their review of the barley tariff. We are joi...

#164 China back for barley?

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A quick market update on livestock, followed by a discussion of grains. We discuss the news of the thawing of relations with China in relation to barl...

#163 Agricultural Truths - Emma Uncut.

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have an open discussion with Emma Germano, mixed farmer and president of the Victorian Farmers Federation.  We cover advocacy in agriculture, the...

#162 Opening a potash mine

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this podcast, we have a chat with Ignacio Salazar, CEO of ASX-listed Highfield Resources.  The global potash industry is centred around a couple...

#161 Fertilizer price crash.

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We don't often have repeat guests on the podcast but we have made an exception for Chris Lawson. Chris is the head of fertilizers at CRU and is provid...

#160 Affairs in the Aussie Sheep Industry.

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In another of our partnership podcasts with the Global Sheep Forum, we talk to Georgia White from NSW.    We discuss the affairs of the sheep indust...

#159 The loosest market update

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A market update, which does admittedly get a bit loose. We cover Russian grain deals, carbon markets, sheep and cattle markets, live sheep export, fer...

#158 Carbon Cowboys

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I'd rather die than sell carbon credits." This week at the ABARES conference, we listened to Fiona Conroy, a livestock producer from near Geelong, d...

#157 Some market musings.

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's been a while since we have conducted a quick market update. In this episode, we have a chat about mutton markets, cattle projections, grain prici...

#156 Terrible Trudeau and sheep in the snow.

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As part of our Global Sheep Forum (Next Gen Producers), we have a chat with Matt Francisco.  Matt is a 1st generation sheep farmer on the outskirts o...

#155 Free trade ain’t free

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Patrick Hutchinson, CEO of the Australian Meat Industry Council. Patrick is open for a robust discussion as always and we cover of...

#154 Farming in Britain

28 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As part of our Global Sheep Forum partnership, we had a chat with English sheep and cereal farmer Ed Brant from Lincolnshire.  We chat about trade, s...

#153 Making fashion in Australia

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Steve Noa, founder of 'The Merino Polo'. We have a chat with Steve about setting up a business making merino polos for Australia. ...

#152 Labour pains in Agriculture

11 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan Hoiberg of Rimfire resources joins the podcast to chat about labour issues. We cover the issues facing white and blue collar jobs and what gradua...

#151 Sheep in the heart of Texas

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the second part of our monthly series for the Global Sheep Forum, we have a chat with Brady Evans from Texas. When we think of Texas, we think oil ...

#150 Chan Solo

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The socialist revolution starts here. Guardian rural editor Gabrielle Chan aka Chan Guevara has forcibly taken over the AgWatchers studio and is holdi...

#149 We meat a butcher

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On this podcast, we chat with Alison Meagher, the butcher girl. We have a chat about being a butcher, the meat industry, access to offal and fake meat...

#148 A solution to farm labour pains

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a massive labour shortage in Australia - what are the solutions? We are joined by Ronald Recinos, the Guatemalan Ambassador to Australia. Guat...

#147 The market brief

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A quick update on markets with Matt and Andrew. Grains, livestock and the wider macro environment. 

#146 The rain mainly falls on the grain

13 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have Adam Clarke, a trade grain broker and high school friend of Matt, on the podcast this week.  In this discussion, we chat about the impact of ...

#145 Farming in the land of the long white cloud

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the first of our collaborations with the Global Sheep Forum. In this episode, we have a chat with Ben Galloway from New Zealand.  We chat about th...

#144 Bringing technology to livestock pricing.

06 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with R Kelly, also known as Rob Kelly. Rob is an old mate of the AgWatchers team and is the managing director of Agora Livestock, a new...

#143 The AgWatchers / Global Sheep Forum Launch

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We were joined to launch our collaboration with the Global Sheep Forum by Bonnie Skinner of Sheep Producers Australia and Nicholas Jolly of Beef + Lam...

#142 The wool over your ears

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Marius Cuming about the recent AWI campaign about man made fibres. We also provide AWI with solutions to assist the wool industry ...

#141 Livestock, grains and fertilizer

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a quick chat about the volatility of the grain market, issues with livestock and the purpose of the fertilizer census. 

#140 Ukrainian update from the ground with Elena.

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Elena Neroba, a grains professional from Ukraine. We found out about how Elena has been going since the war started, what the feel...

#139 No meatworks, no livestock industry

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Patrick Hutchinson, CEO of the Australian Meat Industry Council. We talk about the issues around labour in meatworks, the media re...

#138 The Next Episode - what is in store for TEM?

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

TEM is no more, but the journey is never over.  Today we engage in our next episode. In this chat, we discuss the evolution of TEM to EP3. Recently, ...

#137 When will fertilizer prices fall?

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We invite regular guest (x6) Chris Lawson back onto the podcast to have a chat about the fertilizer market. Chris is the head of fert for CRU Group, a...

#136 Fertilizer to the moon, Red meat in demand

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A very quick discussion on the big drivers in the market. Red meat demand heats up, risk of higher fertilizer pricing and Putin helping drive grain pr...

#135 Falling grain prices and rising livestock numbers

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a market chat. Lots of livestock data out - FSR, Cattle on feed and sheep turnoff. The grain market has also come under a lot of pressure with...

#134 Counting sheep and singing you to sleep.

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We are joined by Bonnie Skinner, CEO of Sheep Producers Australia.  Our chit-chat includes discussions of traceability, the gov biosecurity response...

#133 You having a Raff? with Senator Ciccone

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Senator Raff Ciccone joins AgWatchers for chit-chat. Raff has launched a senate inquiry into the government biosecurity response to FMD/Varroa mite, w...

#132 The Bees Knees with Dugald Saunders MP

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Dugald Saunders MP, the agricultural minister for NSW. Biosecurity has been the hot topic of the last two months, but NSW is battl...

#131 Calm the Farm

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Just the two of us, a short podcast.  We chat more about falling livestock pricing, why we need to calm down about FMD, grain/fert pricing and food ...

#130 Ukraine Grain Deal and Falling Livestock Pricing.

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Just the two of us. A lot happening in ag markets at the moment. The big news over the past week has been the 'deal' to open up a corridor for Ukraini...

#129 Two long years of AgWatchers

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's been an interesting two years. COVID, FMD, invasion of Ukraine, a new Australian government, and so much more. Clearly, the biggest event was t...

#128 The Facts on FMD from the Chief Vet

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We talk to Mark Schipp, the Australian Chief Veterinarian Officer. In this podcast we go through the facts about FMD (and LSD/Varroa mite).    Are w...

#127 Road Trippin

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Wheat down, canola down and cattle down.  We are back from a week or so on the road presenting around the country. After we get over the first few m...

#126 The Presidents views on the industry.

26 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we recorded live from the stage of the VFF livestock and grains conference in Ballarat.  We had a chat Steve Harrison (Livestock Pr...

#125 Flowing through the big topics.

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we did a joint episode with FlowFM, a South Australian radio channel. In this episode, we chat about food inflation, labour, government prot...

#124 Getting our meat trade back

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Andrew Henderson, consultant and chair of the SAFEMEAT advisory group. If FMD hits Australia, the impact could be $300m per week ...

#123 Restocking livestock, China barley ban and ’opening’ of Ukraine.

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Just the two of us, as we talk about livestock and grain markets.    The restock in Australia, the destocking in the USA - what could this mean in t...

#122 Day Zero for Water?

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin Franklin In this podcast, we chat with Jay Famiglietti, a professor from the Un...

#121 Carbon Dating

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about carbon markets, we wanted to chat with someone about it from a market point of view.  So we had a ...

#120 Be profitable in agriculture

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a chat with Kate Burke, the principal of Think Agri and author of 'Crops People Money & You'. This is a huge conversation covering a range of...