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We're going behind the scenes to see and understand modern agriculture, because no matter whether you're in it or not, you probably don't know all the pieces to just how incredible, diverse and multi-layered agriculture is. We do this by uncovering the real stories, experiences and voices of modern agriculture.
Speaker 1 0:00
I always presumed that I would come to university in Australia go straight back to Zim and take over farming. But obviously things changed quite dramatically in 2000. So from 1980 to 2000, which is actually when I left school, hugely prosperous, a very rapidly growing ag sector and tourism sector. There was some land redistribution, which saw community of about 500 farmers in our farming district down to about two basically just had to accept at the age of 20. And my mom was killed in that process, and decided to stay in Australia worked out a new way to go forward. My one brother had a brain aneurysm. And my other brother was pretty much chased out and he moved to move to Kenya. My dad ended up moving to England. And so we went from a, in a big farming family to everybody dispersed all over the place. So we didn't really have much option other than to adapt, we can't change you got to be able to create a new future. And so that's what I went about doing.
Oli Le Lievre 1:09
Welcome back to the humans of agriculture podcast this week, we're kicking off the first of our conversations as part of a series that we're going to do with different Nuffield Scholars over the next 12 or so months. Jack Mill Bank is one of those people as I've been reading and learning a little bit about him. And I think I've only just like started to touch the surface. He must have more hours in the day than everyone else. He grew up on a mix farm in Zimbabwe, and then across his career has been involved with global biotechnology businesses, running a microbrewery importing cattle genetics from Africa, working across a variety of ag industries. In a nutshell, I think, Jack, there's probably not a lot you haven't done along that journey. You also completed your Nuffield Scholarship back in 2007. I think since then, certainly a lot has happened to you, mate. But welcome to the humans of agriculture podcast.
Unknown Speaker 1:55
Excellent, Ali. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you. Now
Oli Le Lievre 1:58
I just need to say up front here, Jack that I was in South Africa in 2019. And it was probably like a real trigger point for me of okay, how do we share these stories more differently, better, and show the variety of people that are involved in agriculture because I came across a bloke and he was working there in South Africa and pretty well, his life's ambition was to head back to South Africa and become a farmer. Sorry, hit back to Zimbabwe. You've come from Zimbabwe to Australia. But I'm genuinely fascinated by everything you've achieved. But we'd love to know, where were the early interests for you in agriculture. And can you tell me a little bit about growing up in Zimbabwe?
Speaker 1 2:37
Sure. So it stems right back to probably my grandfather moving to Kenya straight after World War Two. So on my dad's side, we he went to join an ancient uncle that originally moved up to Kenya in about 1908 and started breeding baronne in northern Kenya. So I had a strong sort of interest with cuddle on my dad's side. On my mom's side. My grandfather was an agronomist that worked for the British Imperial Chemical Company and was posted to Jamaica, where my mom was born. So he was managing sugarcane production in Jamaica, and then eventually moved to Kenya where he set up coffee production. So I suppose having a beef farming grandparents and parents on the one side and agronomists on the other, I've ended up pursuing both both sides of egg. And my grandfather on my mother's side was a very innovative guy and actually was developed a, you know, vermouth, which was a fermented orange drink. So that sort of got me into the brewing of value adding agricultural commodities that are not otherwise able to be sold. That was as a result of the unilateral declaration independence in Rhodesia in about 1965. So the markets to Europe closed and they had to think of another thing to do with all the oranges that they had been producing for export. Yeah, so So I suppose my passion for cattle is to as a kid, in school holidays, be in the passenger seat of my dad's pick up and drive around the tribal trust lands or the you know, just middle of the bush in Zimbabwe, he would buy cattle, they were all indigenous cattle that were tough, fertile, put on weight quickly. And he used to carry huge wads of Zimbabwe dollars in the glove box of the car, and then developed a trusted relationship with indigenous suppliers all across, you know, within a sort of 200 kilometre radius. So we ran about 1000 breeders and then had a butchery where we killed my parents killed, probably three or four hit a week and supplied the buses that used to come from Harare to the tribal trust lands every weekend. Yes, I suppose that's that was my early exposure to riding home Horses everyday mustering cattle, and yeah, and then driving around trading a bit we didn't do a lot of detail breeding programmes. My mum did establish phenomenal pedigree Beefmaster herd, there was a lot of early engagement with cattle, but I didn't quite know what direction it would lead me down or what would be required to get there to, to get back to having cattle because I always presumed that I would come to university in Australia go straight back to zoom and take over farming. But obviously things changed quite dramatically in 2000. And yeah, I had to chart a different course, which has led me down some very interesting avenues.
Oli Le Lievre 5:39
Can you share a little bit more what happened in 2000? And what was the I guess the evolution that was happening in Zimbabwe? Yes.
Speaker 1 5:46
So So obviously, you know, our family had been there since the mid 60s. And there's a bush war that started in the early 1970s. That continued on to 1979, when or 1980, when there was independence, and Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. So I was born at the end of 1979, middle of 1979, right at the end of the war, and it was a very so from 1980 to 2000, pretty much or 9798, which is actually when I left school, hugely prosperous, a very rapidly growing ag sector and tourism sector. So my dad actually established in partnership with Jeff Kanta ever come in Kent, where he then was involved in taking people on safari all around Southern Africa. And my mum was running the five farms. So there was a lot of agricultural production, I think, at the time through the mid 90s. And Bowie was exporting about 6 million head of beef cattle to Europe, which they don't export any today. So it's a huge changed to go from exporting 6 million to not exporting any. Yeah, there was some land redistribution that needed to occur. And obviously there's a referendum that McGarvey lost. And yeah, decided to, you know, I suppose, commenced the land redistribution, which saw our sort of community of about 500 farmers in our farming district down to about two. Yeah, so I mean, it was, it was a seismic shift in the country's economy. And, I suppose, led to about a 15 year decline in productivity and mass inflation and mass unemployment and sort of a reset of the ag sector. I haven't been there for a number of years. So can't talk with too much authority as to the latest situation and what's happening there now, but they needed to be reset. And so our farms were taken. And yeah, basically just had to accept at the age of 20, and mum, my mum was killed in that process, and decided, I suppose at the age of 20, to stay in Australia, and work out a new way to go forward. And unfortunately, it is very difficult to get into beef cattle at that point. So I chose to work in horticulture because it was more cashflow, it was easier to get a job as an agronomist. And yeah, quickly worked, worked my way through that process. It was a bit of a dispersion from them, because then my, my one brother got had a brain aneurysm. And my other brother was pretty much chased out and he moved to move to Kenya, my dad ended up moving to England. And so we went from a, you know, big farming family to everybody dispersed all over the place. So we didn't really have much option other than to adapt. And and if we can't, you can't change, you got to be able to create a new future. And so that's what I went about doing.
Oli Le Lievre 8:51
Just one question, just stepping back slightly. So you've mentioned that the plan was to come to Australia, go to university and then go back to Zim. So, like, Were you looking to study an ag degree a business degree? What was it and why was Australia the place that you wanted to go to study?
Speaker 1 9:06
Yeah, sure. So I was doing an agronomy degree to while my eldest brother went to Cirencester in the UK. My middle brother went to UNC and Armadale and I went to UQ Gatton. The reason for choosing us was it's a you know, similar to me choosing to use African cattle genetics in Australia. It was a similar production environment, similar temperature, and I thought I could learn far more from egg in Queensland than I could learning egg in Cirencester. In the UK, it's like trying to breed Herefords and in Australia, it's not matched to the conditions. So I applied my thinking of you know that it'd be a far more relevant education to come to university in Australia and have far more applicability to farming in Zimbabwe.
Oli Le Lievre 9:51
So starting literally from nothing here in Australia, you had a university degree your family had dispersed kind of all over the world. What was you Your mentality at that time in terms of chasing opportunities creating something, or was it just about being thankful that you were kind of in a safe place? Yeah,
Speaker 1 10:09
sure. So, obviously, quite disruptive and your whole life, you think you're going to do something for that to suddenly change in a three month window does make you reevaluate things pretty quickly. And you don't actually have much choice, you have to innovate. So I was a little bit upset, or, you know, I really wanted to go home. But I thought, I've got to be able to create a new future. And so the only way to do it is to look forward and pursue every opportunity that presents itself with as much vigour and passion as I possibly could. And, you know, if it involved, so we bought and renovated houses, I was pretty pushy, as a as a new grad, asking for pay rises with my boss taking on responsibility, I was the first one working on remote soil moisture monitoring, we worked with a virus scan. And then that became a sort of project where I was involved in what became the John Deere Field sense. So sort of working on how to transmit data via FTP from a probe to a logger, and then up into the cloud. So very early days of remote sensing, as using UHF radios. And yeah, I suppose that then took me to California where I trained a lot of the Californian tomato and almond farmers on irrigation monitoring. Because in those early days, I was was a leader in ag and water management. So I was a young energetic guy looking at new technology and ways to improve Hort and so that gave me access to some good relationships with big farmers in California, and then across Australia. And yeah, then, I suppose travelled a bit and came back to Australia and was lucky enough to get a job with with us veg as the sort of industry development officer for Northern Australia. So that was pursuing projects with researchers to make sure that levy funds were spent in the most efficient, effective manner and contributed to their productivity of the all of the veggie growers in northern Australia. So that got me sort of an in working with a lot of science backed researchers, research providers, innovative growers, which ultimately led me to buy the company that I'd started working for. So crop tech, was sold to tea systems, and then John Deere, and so I bought the company off John Deere in 2009, as a 2028 year old or so. So it didn't take me or might have been a bit older, sorry, because we ended up buying a farm in between. So yeah, but I soon realised that I wasn't a great employee, and possibly better now that I've mellowed with age. But at a young age, I was pretty tenacious and wanted to pursue being my own boss in a new country. And so, yeah, farming was the first start with that, where we had a nectarine and passionfruit orchard. So that gave me sort of independence. And here and then purchasing crop tech off of John Deere gave me a team of agronomists and scientists. So I learned to value what good science and good technology can do to agriculture. And, yeah, I suppose set about revamping that business, and the software that managed all the samples that went through the laboratory. And it became evident as I was looking after growers in our area, there was other issues that chemistry wasn't addressing. And that nutrition wasn't addressing, there was a couple of floods in Bundaberg in 2011 and 2013 that resulted in perfect storm of some disease outbreaks. I then developed a microbial inoculant company to address those issues. So you're the bigger tomato farmer said, well, we need a solution. And yes, I started producing a bacillus Australian bacillus for microbial control of some of the diseases that were occurring in the in the tomato industry. Yeah, and that continued on, and but it gave me I suppose a good foundation for broadening the exposure to risk. So one thing when you come out of the country, that you lose everything, it's you soon learn about risk mitigation, and diversifying your exposure and making sure that you're working both up and down the supply chain as well as broadly across it, which is possibly why I've got such a broad portfolio of interests and things so that if something's not working, hopefully something else is I
Oli Le Lievre 14:42
want to move into that in two seconds. I'd actually just want to bounce back because I've had a few conversations with people recently, people who I guess have a big part which I'm sure you're so privy with in Australian agriculture is the piece around succession. And I would love to know with what you know through your experiences and how you're able to bounce back from, I guess, yeah, losing your mother, your family dispersing, losing the prospect of what you thought you were always going to do actually disappearing in quite a short period of time? What learnings did you get from it? And what could other people who are listening take away from that?
Speaker 1 15:15
Sure, the number one thing is building a community of supportive people around you. And so that is probably the most challenging thing, because it's Australians naturally tend to be quite self sufficient, so quite independent and isolate themselves. Whereas then and that's as a result of having to, you know, necessity survival. So they've adapted to be self sufficient. But what that does, it leads to a competitive atmosphere. So you know, it's you against your neighbour, as opposed to you working with your neighbour, Africa is a very different mentality, because that's a minority population of farmers, they're at serving an export market, you've got to collaborate, and you've got to work in partnership with your fellow producers, as a community, and share research and share resources and share expertise towards a common goal. Far too often in, in Australian AG, I've noticed that it's improving slowly, but it's very slow to change got to be adaptive, and you've got to, you've got to work collaboratively, you know, not competing with one another, we compete far too much between cattle breeds between crops between farmers of the same crop, you know, then competing for export markets, instead of, you know, building the market together, expanding and production to serve it together. And so that comes down then into the succession planning side of things where, yeah, there's a, an absurd historical thought process that the boys need to inherit more than the girls, which is just absurd. You know, I've been involved in in a science based ag business servicing some of the biggest producers around the world in agriculture. And I employed 12 women in the laboratory. So we were a girls only company for a number of years, and far more capable, far more diligent and attention to detail. And I think that's starting to change, you know, gradually, but we really need the historical the older the boomer generations, to be the progressive ones. But as they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. This, you know, it's going to be hearing that there's some very progressive older farmers that have got really good progress, you know, succession plans in place and handing over but as a rule of thumb, the self sufficiency leads to selfishness, which leads to poor succession planning, because you're, you're being selfish about it, as opposed to this open community minded sharing attitude that we all benefit. And particularly, if you look at maternal societies versus paternal societies, and maternal societies tend to have more of a sharing attitude, whereas paternal sort of societies tend to be a more survival and selfish attitude. So I think engagement of daughters is a key way to the hearts of some of the old Boomer dads. And if, if it's, I suppose a call to action would be any of the young wives, young girlfriends that have got some sway to contribute to the discussions and to make sure that it's fair and equitable and community based and collaborative. And that's going to be the way forward for a new generation and a new partnership to take the business forward. Yeah, that's just that's my view that I've found so far. No, thank
Oli Le Lievre 18:42
you for sharing. So before we probably jumping, because I feel like at 2627, you decided you'd been in the workforce for a couple of years, and you thought you'd study in Nuffield scholarship. So at that point in time, and I think, what was it that you were hoping to get out of studying and Nuffield and why did you choose the topic that you did around horticulture?
Speaker 1 19:04
Yeah, sure. So I was tenacious, you know, ambitious, and, you know, sort of set my objective when I left university, I wanted to own my own farm again. Well, fortunately, I achieved that very quickly. And so I almost had to reset. Once I had the farm and I couldn't expand any more. Based on the size of where we were in the size of the market, we produced about 4000 passionfruit vines, and I chose that because it was a high value, good cash flow crop. That something I had to have as a startup with no backing here. So I suppose Nuffield presented the opportunity to broaden my horizon and see what other markets might exist or how to do things differently and too, so suppose pursue that continued education and continued building of networks and relationships which did perfectly. So I chose is a what would be, you know, quite early stages for Regenerative ag and carbon efficient supply chains and benefit on the on the environment and the local economy and value adding of products. Those were all topics I was keen to investigate further and how they could be assembled as a complex suite of ideas into a single business. So, yeah, through that journey i On my return from Nuffield is when I bought the lab off John Deere. And then that morphed into hard to put in into practice the low impact low energy supply chains, how to value add agricultural commodities, how to have a branded presence so that you control the supply chain and your profitability and you're less exposed to environmental risk, which ultimately led me to building the brewery which sounds like a strange concept, but it was in IRL in sort of 2014 When I started it, craft beer was on the up and up. And I was taking hops barley yeast, using my expertise that I'd developed and brewing employing people, we had a retail venue in the Bundaberg CBD. And yeah, it was, it was inability to assemble ingredients, value, add them, put them in a retail presence, and engage and use rainwater and solar in the whole process. So and it was a community hub where people could come and connect, we didn't have any screens, it's just was time for people to connect and share and reengage. So yeah, I mean, that was a, in my view, what the sort of my Nuffield Scholarship taught me was to try and put all of those elements together, I've then subsequently, you know, reiterated or had a stage to release or that as I'm working on my cattle business, where we've assembled, you know, a suite of genetics, that we then partner with other recent herds and people and we've built a community of 50 scientists around the world, working together on a sort of Australia's newest composite breed called a Solera. So I suppose what I've learned is you've got to build the community of people around you with expertise and science, to develop those relationships up and down the supply chain. So we have, you know, someone that works closely with feedlots, we've got others that are doctors that work in education, of impact of meat quality consumption, we've got an embryologist, that's, you know, one of the sort of world leaders in embryology. So assembling the community of people of experts taking whatever ingredient it is, and I've just sort of moved through the journey. And that can be grain or hops, or it can be a seaman straw, or it can be a tomato, it doesn't really matter what it is, it's the same process exists where you've got to build a team of people around you. And it's a little bit like brain fitness. So your your neurons that fire, if you do it off often enough, you then learn how to assemble a team of people pretty quickly.
Oli Le Lievre 23:09
Yeah, so let's talk to that. Because I'm fascinated. And this is the part which I'm incredibly curious about, but also just don't understand how you do it. Like, how much of your time is spent in the thinking of how things are going to do or how things are going to work, etc, who's going to do what versus the actual doing of it?
Speaker 1 23:28
Sure, I try and delegate myself out of a job wherever possible. So you've got to be able to be wrapped Well, I've learned to be a rapid thinker, you know, through my lived experience, I've had to think on my feet since the age of wrong all my life, you know, so. So most people responding to cues in their environment and then acting so I always use the example of someone crossing the road that's been brought up in a very safe environment where everybody's rule abiding, and it's very predictable. You walk up to a pedestrian crossing, you look at the green and red light ahead of you, if it's red, you stop if it's green, you walk. Whereas when I walk up to a pedestrian crossing, I look and see if there's a car coming first, if there's a motorbike, if there's someone else around me, I don't really care whether lights red or green, it's the environment around me that I'm aware of. And then I can take my cues on the decision to be made off that. So it's a it's a very different way of thinking. And so it's pre emptive, you're looking at what risks exist, you're looking at, what am I going to do in the situation? And how can I construct an environment around me that protects myself provides an avenue to pursue and then who am I going to need around me to create that opportunity? So yeah, I suppose the thinking of a business idea and assembling what's needed and the strategy of how to execute it starts with speaking to people and getting a broad in like any research you Ask the net widely. So when we're building ag Pro, which is our software data platform that we spun up from, from November as an ag tech platform, I wanted to assemble something that had all the decision making tools necessary in a farming system. So wanted to know where an animal is. So I spoke to series tag, and we got an agreement in place with series tape to track animal location, need to know how much it weighs. So we spoke to up to a for an empathic weighing, I wanted to know the condition of the pasture that's eating, see speak to data farming, and you get a layer of mdvr imagery in the background. I then spoke to breed planning work out, okay, for doing phenotype measurements, what are we measuring? So then you put in place compatibility with other software systems that ensure you can record all of those things, we then need to do genomic verification of things. So you speak to Neogen, or someone else that might offer genomic sequencing, you speak to researchers that a conducting current work and go How can I work with you? How can I be part of your research, and then it's just pursuing it and explaining the benefits of what you're doing and seeing whether it works for others and you iterate and you then refine it and go, Okay, well, we don't need 10 Different mapping companies, we just need the best one. We don't need every sort of soil moisture sensor, we just need the best one. Yeah. And so I suppose from the beef genetics, I cast the net very widely, and people always laugh at me because they think I'm either indecisive or trying to pursue too many things. So when I went into cattle, I bought six pedigree heifers of each breed. So across 10 breeds, instead of one herd of some, I wanted one beautiful herd of uniform cattle, but you got to go through the process to ensure that you're not missing anything. So I bought marine grade, bought Red Angus, Scimitar, Cheryle, Bond Aquitaine. You know, we're breeding an tropically, adapted, slick, Parasite resistant, fertile animal that doesn't have any Brahman content in it. And so I needed to see all of those crosses and hear you through that process, you then eliminate areas that you don't need to worry about. And naturally, you sort of end up following the thing that does work, that's a bit of my philosophy and assembling things versus and getting the scientists and the leaders to do some of the work. But you've got to know what needs to be done. So you've got to be able to write the sleeves up and do everything you're expecting somebody else to do as well. But that doesn't mean to say that you have to do all of it, what it means you just know, you have to know how to do it so that you can be a responsible adviser or manager of that process, and have realistic expectations. So you know, all the sort of early embryo programmes, you know, I soon learned that it's, it's unrealistic to try and do more than 10 donor cars in a day. So then, if you're the one needling twice a day for 10 days, when I then speak to cooperator herds, I know what they're going to be up for, you know, if I'm expecting them to flush and get embryos, etc. So you've got to know what you got to do, set up the objective, and then constantly zoom back out, refine your thinking, and then redeploy, in that in that same strategic direction.
Oli Le Lievre 28:14
It's amazing how many different things you can stay across? And do if you were to bring someone new into your team today for day one, like, how much info do you give them? Because from where I said, it seems like, obviously, the team that you have have to be really capable, they have to grab the lead and actually run with it and pass the information back to you and not need you for all the different decisions or interactions that are needed. So like, how do you actually support your staff, one to empower them, but to help develop them to go okay, actually, what does Jack need to know verse? What Doesn't he need to know? Sure.
Speaker 1 28:49
So I've been through different processes of employing up to 30. agronomists and staff down to employing them. So employees are fundamentally avoiding full responsibility and ownership of a process, they want a boss to take some of the thing and they want stability of that salary coming in. So by the very nature of choosing to be an employee, as opposed to an employer, or an independent contractor or something, you're avoiding some level of responsibility or risk. So I've gone full circle through believing I needed to be my own boss and have lots of people working for me under me whatever, to deliver on a suite of objectives to building another sweat, come back to that community of scientists and experts. So I now have learned how to build a community of people that have got a vested interest in the process themselves. And you know, I've just come back from Brisbane where we head off sort of our inaugural Solera and Sanger international meeting, where we've got some of the world's leading scientists, we got Dr. Ted sands to guide from Delaware. We've got Olivia and naughty from ilri and Ethiopia, we've got PGM poplar, and Texas we got domani is one of the world's leading embryologist. We had, you know, wagyu, feedlot consultants, you know, everybody that whether that's an expert in their field that's bought into the process, and they want to be part of the journey. And so I suppose you do have to have some runs on the board to in that regard for them to have that buy in. But part of it is learning to be a good communicator, and having a contagious approach to articulating your programme. What are we trying to accomplish here, guys, so I find that done far more effectively, with a cooperative group of people that each have their own responsibilities, their own business, but are looking for some leadership to fall into a system that's going to deliver them more value, an employee is going to be selfish in that regard, they want their money and their salary, and they're not necessarily building the dream for you or with you. Because it's not my dream, it's got to be a collective dream. That's the only way people are going to have buy in as if they can see themselves in that dream. And they can see how your vision can help fulfil their dream. And so it's about being free with your ideas and encouraging and supportive of people around you that they then think, Geez, I'm going to, I'm going to go with whatever Jack's working on because I can see how it's going to benefit me that I think is the key, you've got to you've got to show what's in it for me, for the people that you work with around you. And that then be smart enough that you can construct a system that then builds on the core, the core logic of the whole process. So you know, we we've built software that manages animal pedigrees and registrations and export, we've secured exclusive genetics out of Africa that we can use to distribute around the world. But we need cooperative breeders that then are going to buy those those genetics that are going to upload and manage their animals on our software, that are going to use our inoculants on their pastures that are going to use the laboratory to improve their soil health and you know, trade the carbon. So we've just built, I suppose a portfolio of solutions that all complement each other and feed into one another. that benefits the overall production system. So I'm just one of the beneficiaries along with all the other cooperators in our community of agricultural people.
Oli Le Lievre 32:31
And have you learned on that Nuffield network throughout this like in establishing these businesses and getting information etc?
Speaker 1 32:39
Yeah, 100% I mean, I, I try and just take each person on their merits. And but what Nuffield teaches you to do is is maintain a network and refer to people and ask questions. So Don Madden has been a fantastic support in obviously with Smithfield. And yeah, I mean, there's there's people all over. You know, Trent, Trent, Polly is one of my business partners. He's he's been a great help. So there's, there's lots of people throughout Nuffield that we've worked with. And, you know, but it's, it's only one ingredient, you've got a cost in it nice and wide, and across the different countries. Yeah, but and I feel definitely teaches you how to, to work responsibly and ethically within a network and ensure that you that you're held accountable, and that you make good decisions. Yeah, which I think is important and ag to maintain that ethical position. But at the same time, people are afraid of uncertainty, but you can't change the past, everything that's been done in the past is you can't change it. And so in order to create a future, so to create a new market, create a new product, or a new system, or new breed or something, it doesn't exist yet. So if you've got to create it, you've got to have vision. And you've got to get people to buy into your vision. And of course, it's going to be risky, because it's not yet determined. So you've got to factor in as many of the risk mitigation measures, but explain the risks, and explain that we need to create something new. Because if we're not adapting and innovating and implementing change, we're stagnant and we're going backwards. And it will just be a matter of time before someone innovates and goes ahead of us. So embracing change is one of the key things that I would say is a sort of is not negotiable. You've got to be able to embrace change. And if you look at the rate of change of some of the genetics, cattle genetics in Australia, or scientific services or whatever, it's usually farmers are not that keen to change. They're very conservative in general. And I think we're at risk of being left behind constantly. And so those that adapt to change quickest and bring on new solutions and acknowledge that there's a risk there. There's going to be some failures but fail, fail small, fail fast, get up again and try something different or iterated, it doesn't mean you completely neglect everything or start again from scratch. Just look at the component, there's nuance what failed, what didn't fail, and then let's pick up and pursue the things that didn't, with twice as much energy as the first time. So that's my theory on that. Well,
Oli Le Lievre 35:24
lots of great advice in that. And I think it's so applicable in so many different ways. And you've done it whether it was in the brewing business or going well, actually, how do we then work with local farmers exactly as you're saying there to value add and bring new and flavorful kind of ingredients, but through the imperfect products and things that you've done with the various fruit and veggies that you incorporated? I'd love to know, a couple of questions here. Out of all the projects you've worked on, is there one that's been your pet project or your favourite one that just, yeah, sit so closely to ya. Sure.
Speaker 1 35:56
So the lab and soil testing and agronomy was a means to an end, I enjoyed being a good agronomist and a good scientists, but it's not my true passion, the inoculant was solving other people's problems for them. The brewery was really fun and engaging and was value adding and fulfilling, you know, but there's elements of it within hospitality and dealing with the public. That, you know, got tiring after five years, software has been amazing building a global platform that's used all over the world, with with laboratories and sensor companies and hardware companies, that's been an essential part of the platform that enables us to breed good genetics. So probably one of the things I really enjoyed as creating and breeding new animals, you know, some of the semen embryos were made in 1989. And to see those carbs hit the ground and be born 35 years later, in a new continent on my farm that I've been involved in getting that embryo put in and seeing them being born is Yeah, that's probably pretty special. I had a fantastic discovery the other day. So one of the early projects was was creating a telomere to telomere study of a, an animal, which is a totally cross a wagyu. So looking for the broadest extent of the bovine genome, so to try and to identify the most number of genes that could be contained in a single animal, so that they could fully genomically describe every trait of that animal. And think as part of the 1000 bulls Genome Project. And we worked with a range of people. But yeah, I think that one of my bulls has then been identified as the bull with the broadest genetic base, and will be the future global reference science. So every animal moving forward will be benchmarked against his genetic code as to whether they are carriers of whichever genes because he's got the most number of bovine genes possible, that will then all been fully described. So seeing, having that bowl on my farm, and then working out what cards we're going to put them to, and then seeing what sort of progeny we're going to make. That's the most satisfying, yeah, and then working with this awesome group of Solera cooperators around the world in Paraguay, in Texas, in South Africa, in Zim, we've just sent, you know, a load of tools across Angus to one of our customers that we sold the same into that's gone to Malaysia, we've sent export semen to Papua New Guinea, and Bart to send another bull back to Namibia. So you know, now seeing the work that our genetics is doing that's used our software or an Oculus, or soil health, the various elements to now have stubbles and semen that we're selling around the world. And all that progeny popping up in countries all over the places is hugely satisfying. So yeah, just looking forward to beef week, next year, in May, we'll have, you know, a range of cattle on, you know, both being shown, as well as, you know, the technology being displayed. And yeah, so I think that's going to be satisfying, having a whole a whole set of Tooley bulls. And, you know, I suppose that's connection back to my roots, and to see them thrive in Australia, where they were all a CSIRO scientists said that that's the perfect breed for Australia. So again, I'm just following good scientific advice, and now trying to get adoption and people to adapt to change. And so the early adopters will, will hopefully be beneficiaries. And yeah, it's going to be an exciting few years ahead. Absolutely.
Oli Le Lievre 39:42
I'll look forward to meeting you at beef next year. So just a couple of quick questions to finish off if you were to redo your Nuffield. Now what would be what would be the topic that you think you'd study? Jeepers okay,
Speaker 1 39:55
if I reflect on my initial topic of of globally competitive horticultural production processing marketing with using renewable energy with a net benefit on regional ecosystems and environment. It was a pretty all inclusive subject. But it doesn't necessarily need to just be horticultural. You know, AG is such an interconnected industry with so many cross pollination is possible, I would only really just change it to instead of horticulture, I'll just say agricultural so that it just covers everything doesn't matter what it is. And I'd probably more change the countries I went to visit. So I've visited India, because they were leaders in biogas. And so looking at their bio, you know, by renewables, and I visited New Zealand, because they were obviously still our leaders in export, and looking at how they exported their passion fruit around the world. And then UAE, looking at high end, restaurants, that serve value added products. So to select markets, for products with the highest possible margin, I think there's a lot to be learned, we don't always have to pursue the latest innovation, because there's a lot of knowledge that exists in ancient cultures. And so we've only really been doing things differently for the last two or 300 years, whereas some cultures have been mastering how they do things in agriculture for a lot longer than us. So I think I'd probably change and look at how some ancient cultures did things, and take that into my thinking into the future as to how to do things better. Because as as productive as conventional industrial agriculture has been, it's been pretty destructive of the planet. So therefore not very sustainable. And, yeah, I think we really need to shift the sustainability but not look at it through just some such a tunnel vision of just carbon farming or, you know, just, you know, there's nuance, we've got to have a breadth of experience and a breadth of expertise to look at all the different elements. And yeah, it still can be simplified. And that's where I think some of the ancient cultures around the world whether it's in Kenya, or whether it's in Namibia, or the the Amazon, or in India, or in Australia, it doesn't matter. But there'd be agricultural communities around the world that will do things differently for a very good reason. Because they've tried it, it's failed in the past, and they've re re attempted how to do it slightly differently, that has then been sustainable for a long time. So Western, large scale, commercial AG is not sustainable. And, sure, we've got to feed lots of people. But we've got to fold in sustainable practices. That's more than just greenwashing and a word that people use to market their product. It's got to be actually a lived process.
Oli Le Lievre 42:53
Absolutely. So on that, and this is a question I ask everyone that comes on the podcast. So I'm really interested to get your take on it. If you had the chance to go and chat to your 10 students at a metropolitan High School in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, wherever it was, what would you say to them about a career in agriculture and why they should consider it today?
Speaker 1 43:11
Here? Well, I've got three teenage daughters one in year 11. One and you're going to your nine, so and then one going to your six. They're not in a metropolitan, but they've been exposed to ag and I wrestled with, whether I should be encouraging my kids to be involved in ag and what they could do. If I was to advocate whether someone what the opportunities exist, there's endless opportunities. It's involved in land management, ecosystem management, you can use technology, you can use genetics, you can do marketing campaigns, you can do social media. So the whole gamut of professional expertise can be deployed into the ag sector, and it's an earth science and not in geotechnical terms. But you know, it involves landscape management. In Data Management, genomics, so much nuance within the agricultural environment or food production. But now it's obviously beyond just food production, its ecological services. So, you know, I think, you know, people can't afford to be divorced from agriculture, because we're intrinsically linked to it, because we all need to eat, and we all need to breathe, and we all need to drink clean water. So thinking that you can just exist in an industry in a metropolitan area and have no awareness knowledge or involvement in agriculture is a fallacy because you are you're eating every day, as is on lots of bumper stickers. Thank a farmer for your next meal, you know, so I think it's almost upon us to say you are involved in agriculture, whether you like it or not, how are you going to contribute to
Oli Le Lievre 44:53
it? And that's exactly the kind of view that we're trying to take here at humans bag. It's looking at anyone who produced uses, moves or consumes, and is conscious in their decision making around it and looking at ways that they can do it better differently, whatever it might be, we actually see as a human of agriculture. So thanks for that, Jack. And thank you so much for your time today to sit down for a bit of a chat. Awesome,
Speaker 1 45:14
Molly, thanks so much and good on you for the work you're doing. And a big piece of it is educating the the broader market and people and engagement and getting people supportive of, you know, of agriculture. And so yeah, thanks for all that you do.
Oli Le Lievre 45:30
Well, that's it for another episode from us here at humans of agriculture. We hope you're enjoying these podcasts. And well, if you're not, let us know hit us up at Hello at humans of agriculture.com. Get in touch with any guests recommendations topics, or things you'd like us to talk and get curious about. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Right subscribe, review it, any feedback is absolutely awesome. And we really do welcome it. So look after yourselves. Stay safe. stay sane. We'll see you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai