AgWatchers

We have a chat with award-winning Mandy Matthews, AKA rattle ya dags.  Mandy works in the sheep industry in Western Australia, both on farms and livestock vessels.  She was recently the winner of a services to industry award.  We talk about a range of topics, life on a boat, will the boats come back, campaigning for live export and a whole lot more. 

Overnight, the senate voted through the bill to ban live sheep exports from Australia. In May 2028, there will be no more sheep going via boat.  In this podcast, we thought we would have a chat among ourselves about a range of topics: where prices will go, the plan B, changing the government, the timeframe for a ban and a lot more.  If you are struggling with the impact of this phase out, remember...

A quick market update from the two of us. We have a chat about the live export bill going through the senate, the livestock market, grain market and urea imports being record high. 

We have a chat with Colin Bettles, CEO of Grain Producers Australia. We chat about the funding of peak bodies (follow on from Emma Germano podcast), autonomous vehicles in ag, chemical regulation and a whole lot more.  

We have a chat with Will Onus, co-founder of Ruminati. We have a chat about baselines for emissions reporting, and what is going to be happening in this space in the coming years.  You might be opposed to carbon accounting etc, but it is coming, so a worthwhile listen for Australian farmers. 

We had a long discussion with Emma Germano, the outgoing president of the Victorian Farmers Federation. In this podcast, we discuss the events of the VFF over the past year, including three court cases.  In breaking news, Emma tells us that she is canceling the VFF funding of several peak bodies.  Remember, the AgWatchers podcast is an unbiased platform. If you want to come on for a chat, get in t...

We have a chat with Tony Maher, CEO of the National Farmers Federation. In this discussion, we ask the important questions, like did they manage to eat their breakfast before walking out of the Crop Life budget breakfast. You will only find out that exclusive, and much more by listening to this podcast.  Remember to subscribe and share with your friends and family.     

We have Milly Nolan on the podcast, who was formerly with Humans of Agriculture and the livestock collective. We talk about communication between ag and non-ag, advocacy in general, our shared experience after dark, the live sheep export phase, her goals for a new job beyond the dole and psychology/personality tests. 

A quick chat where we cover off on baby reindeer, livestock and grain pricing. 

We have a chat with David Littleproud about the live export phase-out, the biosecurity levy, the cattle live ex payout and a whole lot more. 

We have a chat with an old colleague of AgWatchers, Michael De Kleuver. Michael has just set up the world's nearly completely autonomous wool-handling warehouse.   A range of topics are covered - Matt losing, getting labour, Trump winning, the wool market being a frog and the concerns about the sheep industry.   

Just the two of this week, as we haven't had the time to get a guest on. A quick market update covering the rally in the wheat market, bird flu in the US cattle, our predictions for Trump and a bit more. 

We have another chat with Trevor Whittington, CEO of WA Farmers and author of the Dry Farmer (click here ). As always on our chat with Trevor, we discuss a range of topics.  Dry weather in WA, the future of the sheep industry, the announcement of state funding in WA to help dry farmers and a lot more. 

We record a podcast with animal scientist Robert Hewitt; Robert goes by the Twitter handle @meat_evangalist and has a very data and objective approach to his online debates.  In this podcast, we talk about how the pig industry has advanced production, lessons that cattle/sheep could learn from pork, how animal activists have some value and the retailing of pork. 

We do a quick market summary of what is happening across grains and livestock. 

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.