AgWatchers

We have Natalie Green, event organiser of the future ag expo, a new expo and conference held at the Melbourne showgrounds in April, which will display new ag technology and speakers (including us)

We are joined by John Hassell, President of WA Farmers and Vice President of the National Farmers Federation. John is from Pingelly, Western Australia.  In this chat, we discuss everything from climate change, live export, increasing efficiency in farm representation, protests in Europe, animal activism and a whole lot more. 

This week, we welcome Pip Courtney, the host of ABC Landline, onto the podcast. In this podcast, we talk about a range of topics from her favourite story, is Landline is representative of farming, the impact of technology on media and a whole lot more.  If you enjoy the podcast leave a review on apple, and share with your friends and family. 

We have a chat with Ben Pankhurst of Agtech by Design. Ben founded a business that uses AI/machine learning to detect and spray weeds in paddocks.  During this discussion we explain what AI actually is, whether it will lead to our demise and a whole lot more. 

It's just the two of us, as Matt and Andrew chat about what's happening in grain and livestock markets. We also give an educational lesson on the Hawthorne effect. 

We chat with Angeline Achariya, CEO of Innovation Gamechangers. Angeline worked in some of the world's biggest food companies, developing new products that end up on supermarket shelves.  In this interesting discussion, we discuss everything from cinnamon twisties to fried food.  Angeline will be presenting at the Futureagexpo in Melbourne in April alongside Andrew and Matt. You can find out about...

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 year for ACT in 2023, and has a species of fly named after her. She will be presenting at the future ag expo in Melbourne next month (futureagexpo.com.au).  In this very lighthearted podcast we chat about everything from waste removal, animal feed an...

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 Victoria who have moved into the movie business.  This film, set in Tatyoon, Western Victoria, is a fascinating film funded and created by farmers and has a host of big-name Australian actors. Unfortunately, the AgWatchers were not picked up in the casting...

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

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, finding rural talent for contracts, running an EP3 commodities course in New Caledonia, Barnaby Joyce on a night out and a whole lot more. 

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 agricultural boards.  In this chat we delve into diversity, inclusion, access to services in regions, paying for content and a whole lot more.   You can read her article by clicking here

On this podcast, we have Jo Hall, CEO of Wool Producers Australia (WPA). Jo represents the interests of wool growers across the country.  She discusses why WPA have removed support for the governments plan to mandate EID tags in sheep, their views on the new biosecurity levy and the prospect of processing more wool within Australia rather than sending it all to China. 

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 NFF president role. In this podcast, we discuss various topics, including government policy, the MV Bahijah in Freo, the ban on utes and a lot more.  Remember to share the podcast with your friends and family.  

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 CO-Ceo of TIACS aka This is a conversation starter. This organisation, set up by the founders of Trade Mutt ( See here ), is a counselling service for blue-collar workers - truckies, tradies and farmers.  This service provides eight free counselling...

We have a chat with Skye Raward, co-founder of Farmers2Founders, a program to assist Australian food producers in collaborating with tech developers.  In this discussion, we cover topics from getting investment to women in tech. As a bonus, a list of Scottish inventions is provided. 

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

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 government advocating for the removal of the new biosecurity levy.  In this chat, we discuss this, along with the cost of living pressures for everyday Australians - specifically beer!

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, the Auctionsplus foray into media and a whole lot more.  *Wyn is pronounced vein

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 staff. In our conversation we also learn about how he makes money from vegan complaints. 

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

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 find out about the new start-up, but also have a lot of debate about livestock markets and markets in general.

"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 Grain. Trent talks about his biggest career achievement - bringing Andrew into Australian agriculture.  We also talk about change in the grain industry, transacting online, grain 'marketing' plans and a whole lot more. 

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 start-up called iinputs.com, which wants to be the website for farm tenders, allowing farmers to tender out their input purchases in agchem.  We like to hear about new ideas, so invited the founder, Fraser on to explain what it is.  

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 pies to black pudding.  We chat about setting up a small goods business, the costs of business, access to staff and a whole lot more. 

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' and 'Rusted off', and well-known rural journalist, takes over the podcast to chat with us.    The discussion covers a range of topics, including why we are dodgy, live export of sheep, advocacy in agriculture, getting in trouble with fertilizer and sw...