AgWatchers

#129 Two long years of AgWatchers

It's been an interesting two years. COVID, FMD, invasion of Ukraine, a new Australian government, and so much more. Clearly, the biggest event was the start of the AgWatchers podcast, Australia's most amateur agricultural podcast. The tables are turned on this podcast as we enlist a professional for our 2-year anniversary. Warwick Long, ABC Countryhour, turns the tables on us as we have a chat about the past two years. 

#128 The Facts on FMD from the Chief Vet

We talk to Mark Schipp, the Australian Chief Veterinarian Officer. In this podcast we go through the facts about FMD (and LSD/Varroa mite). 
 
Are we prepared? Are feral pigs a risk? Do footbaths work? Do we need to ban Bali trips? What is the compensation? What is the risk? What are the controls in place? and a few other topics. 

#127 Road Trippin

Wheat down, canola down and cattle down. We are back from a week or so on the road presenting around the country. After we get over the first few minutes of meandering through what we learnt on the road, we cover off the big drivers of the livestock and grain markets. 

#126 The Presidents views on the industry.

In this episode, we recorded live from the stage of the VFF livestock and grains conference in Ballarat. We had a chat Steve Harrison (Livestock President) and Ashley Fraser (Grains President) about the big issues impacting agriculture from changing governments to labour requirements. 

#125 Flowing through the big topics.

This week we did a joint episode with FlowFM, a South Australian radio channel. In this episode, we chat about food inflation, labour, government protectionism and a whole lot more. 

#124 Getting our meat trade back

We have a chat with Andrew Henderson, consultant and chair of the SAFEMEAT advisory group.If FMD hits Australia, the impact could be $300m per week in lost trade, and your sheep/cattle will lose their value. Exotic diseases are on the border. We have a chat with an expert on livestock traceability to discuss, firstly what happens to trade if we get FMD, and the debate around EID tags (and the database). 

#123 Restocking livestock, China barley ban and ’opening’ of Ukraine.

Just the two of us, as we talk about livestock and grain markets. 
 
The restock in Australia, the destocking in the USA - what could this mean in the future?. We talk about FMD, as a risk factor to the grain industry, the 're-opening of Ukraine grain' and the two years on from the barley ban. 

#122 Day Zero for Water?

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin FranklinIn this podcast, we chat with Jay Famiglietti, a professor from the University of Saskatchewan, and former NASA chief scientist. This is a sobering discussion on areas of the world, that are at major risk of running out of water, and the need to be more efficient with our water usage - something Australia is already top-notch at. Jay is a regular commentator on the risk of declining water availability around the world, including in the major aquifers. He was recently involved in the Day Zero documentary and runs his own podcast on water.  Watch the Day Zero Documentary here, and catch up on the What about Water podcast here

#121 Carbon Dating

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about carbon markets, we wanted to chat with someone about it from a market point of view. So we had a yarn with Andrew Glass, of Viridios AI about carbon and ESG markets. Andrew has a background in commodity trading (grains, minerals and energy) and has switched to carbon. This discussion looks at carbon from a markets/economic point of view. 

#120 Be profitable in agriculture

We have a chat with Kate Burke, the principal of Think Agri and author of 'Crops People Money & You'.This is a huge conversation covering a range of topics around one of our favourite topics - profitability. We also cover some controversial topics.