Commodity Conversations

This week, the Mecardo team is joined by John Gibson, Director of ProAdvice to discuss the upcoming end of the financial year. We discuss family farm finances including new changes to be aware of and other strategic planning opportunities growers can focus on. 

This week Rob is joined by Mark Symes Southern Wool Manager at G. Schneider Australia to discuss the latest in the wool market.  Mark talks us through the balance between demand and supply in the current market and where to next for accredited wool and the finer wool market in general. 

With an El Nino looming and mixed conditions around the country, we turn to the skies this week with Eric Snodgrass, Principal Atmospheric Scientist at Nutrien Ag Solutions. Today's episode covers all things climate drivers, diving into what to expect from an El Nino this season, the implications for rainfall, temperature and frost patterns, as well as what might be in store beyond the current sea...

This week Rob is joined by Scott Young, Livestock Council President of the Victorian Farmers Federation.  Scott’s mandate is to improve the Biosecurity outcomes for all farmers, and he talks us through what VFF is doing behind the scenes to ensure Biosecurity plans can protect farmers from risks such as trespassing.  Read more at https://www.vff.org.au/policy/animal-welfare-biosecurity/biosecurity...

This week Rob is joined by Luke Bowen, the Inaugural CEO of Cattle Australia. We discuss the takeaways for the cattle industry with this week’s budget release and upcoming opportunities for the cattle industry.

This week Rob reaches out across the country to the Nutrien Ag Solutions livestock team, to get the latest insight into what exactly is happening in lamb and cattle markets. Andrew Holt, senior livestock account manager, talks about conditions for cattle up North.  Leon Giglia, Regional Livestock Lead, runs us through supply situations in WA and Ron Rutledge, South-East Livestock Development Manag...

This week, Rob is joined by David Cornish, Director at the Centre of the Study of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham.  The agenda is all about the landscape for developing and fostering the next generation of leaders in Agriculture. 

This week the Mecardo team, Olivia Agar, Robert Hermann, and Ethan Woolley discuss the key market updates for commodity markets in 2023.  We cover US Beef exports, wool supply surpluses, the ups and downs of the mutton job, Sugar cane success, cotton concerns, and barley back in China. 

This week, Rob is joined by Bronte Lloyd, Animal production specialist with Nutrien Ag Solutions. Bronte discusses some strategies for maximising efficiencies in livestock production including balancing nutrition through supplementation and the importance of managing feed and vaccinations for breeding stock. 

This week Olivia is joined by Bonnie Skinner, CEO of Sheep Producers Australia.  With free trade negotiations well underway in the EU and UK, Bonnie talks us through some key insights regarding the demands of the European lamb consumer.  Bonnie also discusses how EID implementation and traceability can unlock value in these markets. 

This week, Rob is joined by Ally Jaffrey, Wool Area manager for Nutrien Ag Solutions based in Crookwell NSW. Ally plays a key role in the NSW SMBA Southern Tablelands flock ewe championship and joins us to discuss what farmers are getting out of the competition.  We learn how benchmarking, networking, and the sharing of knowledge are driving excellence in Wool.

This week Rob is joined by commodity conversations regular Michael Whitehead, Head of Agribusiness Insights at ANZ.  Michael talks us through some of the key insights from the ANZ Agri in focus autumn report. We cover the outlook for a number of commodities including the climate and cost trends for farmers, the impacts of Chinese demand, continued conflict, and Post COVID supply chain developments...

In this episode, Robert Herrmann chats with Tom Breen, General Manager of Customer and Business services at Nutrien Ag Solutions about the future of Ag, innovation in farm finance and how farmers can take advantage of those opportunities – even if cashflow doesn’t permit.

This week Olivia is joined by Lucy Noble, Industry Analyst with Hort Innovation. We discuss some of the key drivers behind the significant growth in productivity and value in the horticulture industry achieved in the last decade.  We learn more about the latest iteration of the Horticulture statistics handbook, a comprehensive resource covering over 75 different commodities; and when can we expect...

This week Rob is joined by Mark Tully - Market Research Manager at Nutrien, who is based in Calgary, Canada.  Mark shares his insight into the Fertiliser market and covers the volatility of 2022, and what we can expect in Nitrogen and Phosphate markets for 2023.

Agriculture is about production and people, and the difficulty in finding people to fill jobs in agriculture is one of the most common pain points. Rose Ferdinands and Dr Mike Stephens from Meridian Agriculture, join us to chat about the labour challenges, what new graduates are looking for and what we can do to promote the opportunities on offer in our sector. 

This week Rob is joined by Mark Barton, Livestock agent with Nutrien Ag Solutions, to discuss the growth of the Australian performance horse industry.  We cover the benefits of managing livestock from horseback to the history of performance horse sales in Australia. Mark has been instrumental in the success of one of the premier camp draft competitions and sales in Australia -The Nutrien Classic,...

This week Rob & Olivia from Mecardo dive into the latest quarterly market insights report covering our core commodities. The team discusses bumper harvests, another record canola crop, geopolitical influences on the grain market, continued volatility in the cattle market, and the latest trends in lamb and wool markets.   

In 2022 the long-term trend of rising sheep meat value was broken. In this episode of Commodity Conversations, Rob catches up with Will Barton, CEO of Gundagai Meat Processors, to get his take on the market.  We’ll also hear his insights into the demand side of the equation, particularly with lamb export into the U.S market.

Welcome back! We're kicking the year with Jo Clarke Associate Editor of Argus. Today we follow on from a previous episode on managing risk with cattle swaps, discussing the Argus feeder steer indicator. We'll hear how the Argus Feeder Steer Indicator is calculated, how it's being used, how it can be used, and what other indicators Argus is exploring.

Join Rob Herrmann and Michael Whitehead, Head of Agribusiness Insights ANZ for part 2 of their discussion on the pathways to capturing opportunities in agriculture. In this episode, we're looking at the outlook for 2030 and mapping out the main areas in which we'll need to focus to reach our full potential as an industry. 

Join Rob Herrmann and Michael Whitehead, Head of Agribusiness Insights ANZ to discuss, off the back of ANZ's recently released report Greener Pastures Two, the opportunities we've seized over the decade and an outlook into 2030. We've broken this topic into two episodes. In this episode, we take a look back at how Australian agriculture has exceeded the forecast in terms of investment, product, an...

Nutrien Ag Solutions Regional Livestock Lead Adam Mountjoy and Livestock Development Manager Ron Rutledge join Olivia Agar and Rob Herrmann to give an update on the current situation in the livestock market, discuss what's driving prices down, and talk through some of the opportunities in the market. 

Farming regions have been challenged with relentless events outside of their control in the last years such as drought, bushfires, and floods. In this week's episode, Robert Herrmann catches up with Kris Nelson, General Manager of Insurance for Nutrien Ag Solutions to talk about what options there are for growers wanting to mitigate their risk, as well as how parametric weather insurance works.

On this episode, we check in with Andrew Hosken from Hosken Stock and Land, to hear how the season is impacting the supply of cattle, what he expects for this season's weaner sales in terms of supply and demand, and what insight we can take from the feeder cattle market.