AgWatchers

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...

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 advocacy to emissions in the livestock industry.  

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 mental health awareness.  This discussion covers a wide range of tough areas, and we recommend you listen (and we aren't just biased). 

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 penthouse apartment to talk about the fertilizer market.  Topics covered include; fertilizer pricing, supply and demand, shortages in Australia, conflict in the Middle East, minerals for batteries and a lot more. 

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 topics related to recruitment, retention and the job supply situation.   

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 agricultural markets.  The middle eastern conflict and its potential to impact markets. The Russian-Chinese grain trade deal and whether it threatens Australian producers. The Australian fertilizer shortage of 2023 The beef processors making the big bucks. T...

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 organisations of the NFF will vote on who will become the next president and effectively represent farming to Canberra.  We thought it would be interesting to chat briefly with them to see what makes them tick, and their views of agriculture. In this...

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 organisations of the NFF will vote on who will become the next president and effectively represent farming to Canberra.  We thought it would be interesting to chat briefly with them to see what makes them tick, and their views of agriculture. In this...

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 organisations of the NFF will vote on who will become the next president and effectively represent farming to Canberra.  We thought it would be interesting to chat briefly with them to see what makes them tick, and their views of agriculture. In this...

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 Pork.  This discussion covers off on topics from animal rights activists to building a mill on farm. 

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 bright or not?