Seeds for Success

Emma Ayliffe, along with her partner Craig, runs "Gleesons", a 1700-acre farm near Lake Cargelligo, alongside running a successful agronomy business, Summit Ag Consulting. Above all, Emma is passionate about helping farmers stay connected through supportive and constructive peer-based networks.  In today's episode, Emma explains how she started in agriculture and shares her lessons about cropping...

Scott Hickman and his wife run a grazing operation on their 770ha property near Canowindra. They run cattle and sheep with a passion for ecological health principles and holistic management techniques, including time-controlled, planned grazing methods.  In today's episode, Scott details the effects of prolonged dry years on their operation and how this prompted them to find ways to minimise input...

Andrew Charlton and his family run a mixed-farming operation at "Cedar Park", their home property at Ballimore. They currently run around 4,000 Merino ewes and 1,000 cattle, along with dual-purpose cropping and grazing.  In today's episode, Andrew shares his newfound interest in goats and how he balances his new Kalahari Red Goat stud alongside his sheep and cattle trading. He also explains how sm...

Luke Dunn and his family run "Oak Hills", a mixed farming operation near Mandagery, 30km east of Parkes in the Central West. They focus on wool and sheep-meat production and are passionate about creating a consistent product.  In today's episode, Luke talks through the process of fleece weighting at shearing time, a process they undertake to help them produce a consistent product and help drive de...

Broden Holland runs a mixed farming operation between Grenfell and Young, alongside his extended family. Like so many others this season, Koolpari Enterprises has been dealing with the price of inputs against potential yields, leading to some clever decision-making on-farm. In today's episode, Broden shares some of the challenges he's expecting during the 2022 cropping season and how basing paddoc...

David Greig runs a mixed farming operation near Tottenham, where he works alongside his wife Melissa and their two children. David is passionate about the Merino industry and has spent the last ten years choosing rams with above-average sheep breeding values for fat, muscle, good growth rates, and other desirable traits such as breech cover and breech wrinkle. In this episode, David explains how h...

Tess Herbert, along with her husband Andrew and their family, runs a 6,000 head cattle feedlot on their property “Gundamain” at Eugowra, along the Lachlan River. Tess is a passionate advocate for the red-meat industry, and currently holds several leadership positions within the industry where she is working on developing innovative approaches to the issues facing Australian agriculture...

Ros Patton is a Senior Project Officer for the Suicide Prevention Project and the owner and a manager of a mixed-operation farm. Ros works full-time with her husband and their two sons, managing sheep, cattle, and crops, on their farm near Condobolin and spends her spare time volunteering within her community. In this episode, Ros shares her passion for destigmatising mental health in rural commun...

After two years working on 'Seeds for Success', Cal Thompson is hanging up the microphone and moving on from Local Land Services to pursue his own farming and consulting business. Before he left, we had a chance to sit Cal down on the other side of the table and interview him about his life in the cattle industry, and the lessons he's learnt in podcasting. In this episode, we learn about how Cal a...

Ned Williams and his father Kim are based just north of Dubbo on their third generation property, “Polldale”. Together, Ned, Kim and their families run a shorthorn cattle stud with a pasture system, focused on tropical pastures and lucerne irrigated using local effluent. In this episode, Kim talks about the challenges they have faced while introducing tropical pastures and improved gra...

Bob Freebairn runs a busy agricultural consultancy business — Robert Freebairn Agriculture — while also running his own farm with his wife Sue at Coonabarabran. Bob has a wealth of knowledge on managing light soils, tropical grasses, and dual-purpose cereals — and has been credited with transforming agriculture in the Central West of NSW, particularly around Coonabarabran. In thi...

Winsome Mumford runs her family properties "Mogriguy" and "Parkmead", just north of Dubbo, where she's busy rebuilding her Hereford Simmental cross cattle herd after the recent drought. In this episode, Winsome shares her background in training and the corporate world, and how she continues to draw on her off-farm income to help achieve her goals on-farm. With soil and water management at the fore...

James Leigo and his wife Danielle own and run properties at Condobolin and Wanaaring in western NSW, while working full-time off-farm as well. The challenge of 550 km between properties and off-farm work means they need to be able to plan, prioritise and make decisions well in advance to keep things running smoothly. In this episode, James shares the journey he and his wife Danielle went on from s...

Penny Henley — along with her husband Phil, daughter Nicole, and son-in-law Dan — run Emu Logic, near Tooraweenah in Central West NSW. This 1,200 acre livestock property runs cattle, sheep, goats and emus! Penny is an active member of her local Landcare group and is passionate about protecting native wildlife and controlling pest animals. In this episode, Penny discusses the importance...

Trent Johnstone runs a livestock trading enterprise along with his shorthorn bull breeding business at Forbes and Lyndhurst. To facilitate his trading business, Trent has become a bit of an expert at doing the numbers on leasing country and agisting livestock as well. In this episode, Trent shares some of his key principles for trading livestock as well as some of his memorable wins and losses in...

Andrew Wooldridge (or Wooly as he is better known) has spent the last 24 years helping to improve soil health across New South Wales. A Salinity Technical Specialist by day, he also runs his own farm business with his wife Margie at Canowindra. In this episode, Wooly shares the importance of reading our landscape, including learning to manage the water balance on farm, to knowing the key early ind...

Daniel Volkofsky manages a 2,200 ha cropping program across four farms in the Bearbung Valley, east of Gilgandra. With livestock absent from each property for at least a generation, Daniel shares with us some of the challenges he's experienced and the knowledge he's gained from continuous cropping in one of the region's coldest climates. Daniel believes getting on top of weeds in this farming syst...

Sally and Mark Dent run a mixed farming business on the historic Cobbora Station, a 1150ha property with breeding, trade cattle and cropping just west of Dunedoo.   Mark and Sally epitomise the true community spirit and are now promoting other local businesses and local produce focussing on sustainable production, healthy landscapes and strong communities. In this episode, Mark and Sal s...

Mark Mortimer is a self-confessed “Sheep Geek” who uses technology in some interesting ways. Mark farms alongside his father, brother and their family near Albert in Central West NSW, in their stud sheep operation and business, Centre Plus Merinos. Mark is a problem solver at heart, and in this episode he shares some of the hard lessons he has learnt through his use of technology with...

Mick Doolan, with his wife Pip, own and manage "Walla Walla" — a 1,300 hectare mixed farm between Gulargambone and Coonamble. Mick and Pip manage the property themselves, focussing on breeding and fattening cattle, with the recent addition of cropping to add value to the livestock enterprise. In this episode, Mick discusses some important factors around the first 10 years of owning a farm. H...

Mike Rosser and his family own and run 3,500 acres at “Galwary”, near Eugowra, as part of a larger family business that also incorporates rangeland grazing properties at Wanaaring in Far West NSW. Mike currently runs 6,000 sheep, aiming to turn off 8,000 to 9,000 lambs per year. In this episode, Mike explains how a need to finish their lambs faster and increase their landholding led th...

Kevin "Tex" Kilby and his family-run "Inglewood", a conglomeration of five properties nestled within what is regarded as the 'Golden Triangle' north of Gilgandra. The Kilby's run a true mixed farming enterprise with a cereal, legume and canola rotation alongside permanent pastures for beef cattle and fat lamb production. In this episode, "Tex" lets us in on his keys to success including being open...

Logan Tighe owns and runs LJT Harvesting, a professional kangaroo harvesting business based in Coonabarabran. Logan is an avid listener to the Seeds for Success podcast and is keen to educate more people about the kangaroo industry. In this episode, Logan talks about the industry, including what is involved in harvesting kangaroos and what the meat is used for. You'll also hear how Logan aims to b...

Jack Creswell runs a family property “Dungary”, just outside of Dubbo, with his father Steve and partner Isa. As well as running 2,500 White Dorpers and the successful White Dorper stud, “Annalara”, Jack also has a passion for advocacy in the agricultural sector. In this episode, Jack shares how his desire to build the profile for agriculture has led him to a side-project,...

To celebrate the one year anniversary of the launch of Seeds for Success, three new dynamic and interesting characters are being welcomed onto the team. In this episode, we introduce our new Seeds for Success team members and ask them to share a little of their background with our listeners. You’ll also hear why they are so passionate about working alongside our farmers to build a secure and...