AgWatchers

We have a chat with Matt's old colleague from his currency trading days at ANZ, Dion Ciavola. Dion runs his own money transfer service (Forex Sport).  We chat about the inflation numbers, the likely increase in interest rates, and recent slide in the A$.  Lower A$ is good for exports, but bad for imports. 

We talk to regular AgWatchers guest Chris Lawson, head of fertilizers for the analyst firm CRU.  In this discussion, we talk about the impact of Russian sanctions, new plants in Australia, Sri Lanka banning synthetic fertilizer, where prices in Australia will go and a lot more.   

We have a chat with Gillian and Mark Fennell about a huge range of issues around rural politics, the cattle industry and the outbreak of lumpy skin disease.  An interesting point we talk about is diversity of viewpoints when it comes to making decisions.  Happy Easter all. 

A quick market update on the main drivers in the livestock and grain markets. We spent the weekend.  Topics covered include US crop conditions, Indian free trade agreement and why it is better for livestock and a few others.  Remember to share about. 

We have a chat with the CEO of Egg Farmers Australia, Melinda Hashimoto. Melinda thinks that consumers have to pay more for their eggs.  In this discussion, we ask the big questions, and cover the increasing cost of farming eggs in Australia. 

We were lucky to be the last official engagement of Malcolm Bartholomaeus before he heads off into retirement. Malcolm is a respected analyst, and was at the forefront of his game in Australia - and practically invented the field of ag markets analysis and price discovery here.  We talk about the changes that Malcolm has experienced over his career from 1990 to 2022. 

Just the two of us, as we provide a market update. We cover off on whether lamb is cheap compared to cattle, or cattle expensive compared to lamb. We then talk about developing crop issues in China and the US, and the possibility of China coming back for barley.  Just the two of us. 

At the onset of the Russian invasion, we had a chat with two of our analyst friends from Ukraine (Masha & Elena) on a live twitter space (EP102). We wanted to make sure both were ok and managed to get Elena back on to tell us about her journey out of Ukraine and the impact of the war on agriculture.  Masha couldn't make it onto the podcast, but she is safe. 

Fuel has gone through the roof - but is there a larger, more structural issue looming? We have a chat with John Blackburn AO, former Air Vice-Marshal and Deputy Chief of the RAAF. John has been working investigating supply chains as a part of Australia's national security.  In this discussion, we find out how much at risk our fuel supply chain is (along with many other products). 

We have a chat with Michael Trant, a farmer and author from Western Australia, about his new book Wild Dogs.  We chat about how a farmer goes from writing about live export to publishing a crime thriller set in the Australian outback. Although not our typical type of conversation, it's really interesting to find out what the process is.  Andrew also finds out why he wasn't selected to be the narra...

A short AgWatchers market update. We cover the impact of the floods in NSW/QLD on livestock, the action in the wheat market and the impact of the Russian invasion of ag inputs from diesel to fertilizer.  Enjoy the weekend!

We have a live talkback discussion about the Invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We invited Elena Neroba and Masha Belikova, both grain analysts living in Ukraine to let us know how they are.   We also talk to a whole bunch of different folk about the ongoing situation in Ukraine and its impact. Thanks to our additional guests who contributed: Switter, Yeti, Stefan Meyer (and his wife), Simon McDougall...

We have a chat with renowned economist and market commentator Stephen 'The Kouk' Koukoulas about inflation, interest rates, the aussie dollar, negative gearing and a whole lot more.  Remember to support the podcast by sharing around.   

Our 2nd AgWatchers talkback discussion. We start off with a quick market update on livestock and grains. Lots of data on livestock this week, on how the herd is rebuilding which could impact the price. Then the glyphosate issue, Indian lentil tariffs and volatile wheat.  Then we get into the audience with Ryan Milgate, James Stacey, Amelia Shaw and Gaurav Jain. We get some more detail on lentils,...

It's a bit different this week and a lot of fun. We are the first Australian Ag podcast to do a live stream talkback style episode over Twitter spaces.  All our podcasts are completely unscripted (as you can tell), but in this one, it was recorded live to the Twitter audience and we gave impromptu invitations for brave guests to join the conversation.  The guests include Yeti, Clint Jasper, Martin...

Seeding is approaching and farmers have to start making fertilizer decisions if they haven't already. In this podcast, we get AgWatchers regular Chris Lawson, Head of Fert for CRU Group on to have a chat about the fert market.  We chat about what is driving the market, the current falls overseas, snake poo as an alternative, new Australian production and dispel some conspiracy theories. 

A quick update on big drivers of livestock, fertilizer and grains. We cover off on the EYCI projections, herd rebuild, fertilizer 'crash' and grain situation.     

Want to set up your own butchers? We talk about our favourite topic, meat but with a twist. In this episode, we have a chat with former backpacker Jim Arrowsmith who set up the now successful butchers Pacdon Park. A butcher in country NSW supplying British small goods throughout the country, from pork pies to haggis. Pacdon is the largest supplier of haggis in Australia at up to a tonne per week. ...

We chat with Masha Belikova, a grain reporter for Fastmarkets/Agricensus. Masha lives 200k from the Russia/Ukraine border.  A frank discussion about what it's like living under the shadow of a conflict, the impact on grain markets, and why the western news is causing anxiety.  Remember to share with your networks. 

A quick market update. We cover the impact of Omicron on Matt's health, processing and prices. Then off to grain where we discuss the major issue at the moment - concerns about a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sharing is caring, remember to send to your friends, family and contacts. 

For the first episode of 2022, we have a chat with Jonathan Kingsman, retired sugar trader and author of a number of books on the commodity trade. We talk to Jonathan about what he learned from his conversations with commodity traders around the world. A must-listen podcast if you want to understand commodity merchants. His books include Commodity Conversations, The New Merchants of Grain, Commodi...

It's the end of another big year. We talk about what we think were the big events of Ag marketing during 2021, and what to look out for in 2022.  This year we covered a huge range of topics and industries, thanks to all of our guests. Thanks to those named below who subjected themselves to the podcast during 2021! Nathanial O'Hare, John Droppert, John Francis, Pat Coole, Trent Osmond, Michael De K...

We have a chat with Hugo Boudet, an analyst from AgFlow, based in Geneva. We have a chat about La Nina, the EU harvest and why EU farmers aren't happy with the EU government environmental regulations.     

The sheep flock is rising, and so is the fertilizer price. We've had a whole bunch of questions this week on both the state of sheep and the fertilizer market. We thought it was worthwhile having a really quick update.  We cover the sheep turn off ratio and the herd rebuild, the forecasts for lamb pricing, the updated fert model pricing and the light at the end of the tunnel for fertilizer pricing...

Our podcast sometimes gets berated for lacking intelligence, so we thought we would bring some artificial intelligence onto the podcast.  AI is all around us at the moment, from netflix to amazon. It isn't getting all that much attention from the point of view of helping farmers price grain.  We have a chat with Marcelo Artal, CEO of Hedgit. We find out what AI is, the opportunities for AI to assi...