Speaker: Ed Riggall
Speaker: Natalee Johnston
Speaker: Deb Scammell
Speaker: Mark Ferguson - neXtgen Agri
Speaker: Elke Hocking, Elke Hocking Consulting
Callen is a consultant with AgSTAR Projects, working with producers, advisors and industry professionals to improve on-farm outcomes through targeted extension. Callen has held various roles agronomy and farm advisory roles in both the public and private sectors. Callen and his wife Maria also run a beef breeding and backgrounding operation in Condobolin, NSW. 
The Productivity & Profitability series presents new and topical information to help southern producers increase the success of their businesses. Beef, sheep and goat producers can listen to a diverse range of expert speakers present webinars to aid on-farm decision making.
This webinar features Dr Penny Schulz, of Schulz Livestock, who discusses farm labour and how to attract and retain good staff.
This webinar features Mick Hay, Managing Director of Rimfire Resources, who discusses farm labour and how to attract and retain good staff.
This webinar features Phil Graham, of Graham Advisory, who presents a current seasonal update and implications of this for producers.
Productivity & Profitability series
The Productivity & Profitability series presents new and topical information to help southern producers increase the success of their businesses.
Beef, sheep and goat producers can listen to a diverse range of expert speakers present webinars and podcasts to aid on-farm decision making. Plus, producers will find relevant resources and MLA programs to continue their learning journey.
The Productivity & Profitability series is back for 2023 with live monthly webinars as well as corresponding podcasts. To register to attend and receive notifications of upcoming webinars or to listen to our podcast series, please follow the links below.
Upcoming webinars and podcasts
Integration of livestock into mixed farming systems
Speaker: Ed Riggall
Ed Riggall is the Director and Principal Consultant at AgPro Management, serving around 180 clients across Western Australia, from Albany to Geraldton and Esperance to Augusta. With a background in consulting and hands-on farm experience, Ed established AgPro to support farmers in creating productive, sustainable, and profitable farming systems. His expertise spans farm business management, animal husbandry, budgeting, business analysis, and strategic planning. Through AgPro, Ed helps clients align their farming practices with management capacities and environmental needs. He also hosts the "AgPro Cast" podcast, discussing important topics in livestock and agriculture.
This webinar covers:
- Managing livestock through the non-growing season, including utilising stubble, and confinement feeding as a tactical management strategy to manage the feed gap and allow pastures to establish at the start of the next growing season
- Role of alternative pasture and feed sources in this period
- The risk and impact of a late break.
Date and time: 7-8pm AEDT, 11 December 2024
Spring 2024 library
Performing under Pressure: when seasonal conditions throw up operational challenges and decisions must be made, what can you do to manage high workloads and pressure?
Speaker: Natalee Johnston
Natalee Johnston grew up in regional Western Australia and is the Royal Australian Navy’s first female pilot. In her 24 years of military service, Natalee fulfilled roles as a qualified helicopter instructor, operations manager, leader and safety professional. In these roles, she gained knowledge and practical skills in human behaviours, why we make errors, the importance of resilience, what influences our decisions and how organisational culture impacts it all. She has over 15 years of experience in instructing and facilitating helicopter training, risk management, safety investigation techniques, human factors, non-technical skills and positive safety cultures. Natalee shares her experiences to show how the tools she has used to can enhance decision-making and improve resilience, in both individuals and organizations.
Post-retirement from full-time Naval service, Natalee operates her own business. She provides human factors and safety management system training, and consultancy services and delivers safety workshops and keynotes across various sectors, including maritime, aviation, hospitality, agriculture, mining and government. Natalee lives on the South Coast of NSW with her husband and two children.
This webinar covered:
- Making decisions based on a moment in time; the information you have, your state and the influence of the world around us.
- Understanding your limitations and how what impacts them can improve your interactions, decisions and well-being.
- Building resilience by applying basic human factors and risk management theory.
Date and time: 7-8pm AEDT, 13 November 2024
Mineral supplementation for beef and sheep: What are the options for mineral supplements and how to best assess cost-effectiveness?
Speaker: Deb Scammell
Deb Scammell is a livestock consultant at Talking Livestock, she assists producers with nutrition and production planning in their sheep and beef enterprises. She consults directly to farmers and runs industry courses and projects. Deb is based in the Clare Valley.
Prior to starting her own business, Talking Livestock, Deb worked in the commercial nutrition space in several different roles covering technical, sales and national management. Deb has also been involved with sheep genetic programs and DNA, EID technology and extension and sheep research.
Deb graduated from Adelaide University with a Bachelor of Agricultural science with honours in Animal science and has studied ruminant nutrition post-graduation.
Key points:
- Determining why and what you need before purchasing products that are not fit for purpose.
- Saving money on supplements by determining when they are required, what is required and what is the most economical way to supply this.
- Finding the best fit ‘supplement method’ for yourself and your property.
Cattle, complexity and change
Speaker: Mark Ferguson - neXtgen Agri
Mark Ferguson is the founder and CEO of neXtgen Agri - an innovation and consulting company that has clients across Australia and New Zealand.
Mark has 25 years experience in agriculture, holding a PhD in genetics and a passion for enabling farmers to impliment effective strategies to get the most out of their livestock. Mark grew up on a family property in the Victorian Mallee, and now lives with his family in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Key points:
- Understanding and embracing change in agriculture
- What will a successful farm business look like in the future?
- Available and emerging technologies that will add value to livestock businesses.
Date and time: 11 September 2024, 7.00pm AEST
Winter 2024 library
Hot Tips for Top Heifers
Speaker: Elke Hocking, Elke Hocking Consulting
Elke is a private consultant with over 20 years’ experience, having worked in public and private sectors in research, development and adoption roles across the livestock industry. Additional to providing consultancy services, Elke holds a number of industry committee positions and runs a prime lamb and beef cattle enterprise with her husband at Lucindale. Elke is passionate about producers being able to profitably and sustainably produce high yielding beef and lamb that meets consumers’ expectations in terms of eating quality, nutrition and safety through the adoption of new technology, best practice production systems, value-based trading and a positive, professional approach to business.
This webinar brings together findings from various MLA funded projects focusing on managing the health and reproductive performance of heifers to optimise whole herd productivity.
The webinar covers:
- Proactively managing weaner heifers to achieve critical mating weight targets and condition scores prior to joining to improve the reproduction rates in their heifers and second calving cows.
- Developing an annual management and health plan for your beef business, to optimise the health and welfare, reduce mortality rates, achieve target liveweights and realise the genetic potential of your herd.
- The importance of measuring and monitoring liveweight, body condition score (BCS), pasture quality and quantity, animal health, calving time and genetics for managing reproductive performance.
Date and time: Wednesday 14 August 2024, 7.00pm AEST
Growing Beef from Dairy
Callen is a consultant with AgSTAR Projects, working with producers, advisors and industry professionals to improve on-farm outcomes through targeted extension. Callen has held various roles agronomy and farm advisory roles in both the public and private sectors. Callen and his wife Maria also run a beef breeding and backgrounding operation in Condobolin, NSW.
This webinar covers:
- What opportunities exist in the Dairy-Beef supply chain.
- The key factors for profitably producing beef from dairy animals.
- The industry requirements to further develop a Dairy-Beef supply chain.
Date and time: 10 July 2024, 7.00pm AEST
eID – does it really add value?
Sally Martin is the principal of SheepMetriX, a consultancy business servicing seedstock and commercial livestock producers.
Sally brings over 30 years of experience in farm management, animal health, reproduction, genetic selection and breeding program design.
This webinar covers:
- Identifying breeding and production objectives and understanding what data is needed to inform these
- How to us eID to efficiently collect and use data
- The value of data in making informed management decisions to achieve breeding and production objectives.
Date and time: 19 June 2024, 7.00pm-8.00pm AEST
Autumn 2024 library
Maximising Dorper reproductive performance in challenging environments
Anne Collins is the principal of AC Ag Consulting and has nearly 30 years’ experience working with livestock industries in Australia.
Anne’s particular areas of interest include sheep breeding and genetics, reproduction efficiency, technology adoption and data management. She recently completed a three-year MLA funded PDS project “Maximising Dorper Reproductive Performance”, working with a group of producers on the far west coast of SA to find ways to increase the reproductive efficiency of their self-replacing Dorper flocks.
In 2022, Anne joined forces with the University of Adelaide to successfully tender for the MLA Donor Company funded project, “Quantifying and improving reproductive performance of shedding sheep”.
This webinar covers:
- Understanding weaning rate as a key profit driver in a shedding sheep business
- Fit to join assessment of ewes and rams
- Cost effective management practices to increase reproduction rate.
Date and time: 8 May 2024, 7:00pm AEDT
How can producers make liming decisions on their properties for maximum returns?
Dr Jason Condon is Associate Professor in Soil Science at Charles Sturt University and has taught and researched soils there since 1996. His research portfolio includes projects on fertiliser management, carbon sequestration, nitrogen cycling, salinity management in Vietnam and the formation and management of soil acidity in Australian crop and pasture systems in collaboration with NSW DPI, Holbrook landcare Network, FarmLink and Central West Farming Systems.
The webinar covers:
- Implementing improved soil sampling intervals to enable better decisions about liming.
- Understanding the movement and effect of liming to address lower soil acidity layers.
- Management of acid soils removes one of the manageable constraints of the production system.
Date and time: 10 April 2024, 7:00pm AEDT
Dual Purpose Crops – Do they add value?
The Productivity & Profitability series presents new and topical information to help southern producers increase the success of their businesses. Beef, sheep and goat producers can listen to a diverse range of expert speakers present webinars to aid on-farm decision making.
Shawn McGrath is an agricultural scientist and Senior Research Fellow at the Gulbali Institute at Charles Sturt University. He completed a PhD considering the context of grazing reproducing ewes on dual-purpose wheat and has since been part of several other research projects investigating the utilisation of dual-purpose crops in farming systems and the prevention of metabolic diseases in sheep associated with crop grazing.
The webinar covers:
- The opportunity of dual-purpose crops to increase profitability in mixed-farming enterprises.
- Management requirements of dual-purpose crops to optimise livestock production and grain yield.
- Forage quality and expected growth rates from grazing dual-purpose crops.
Date and time: 13 Mar 2024, 7.00pm AEDT
Summer series 2023 library
The ‘so what’ of carbon in agriculture
Cam Nicholson is a director of Nicon Rural Services, a consulting business near Geelong working with the grazing and cropping industries.
Cam has worked in pasture agronomy and soils for 35 years and has been involved in many farmer programs for the GRDC, MLA, Landcare and the current Future Drought Fund. He provides consultancy advice to farmers and lectures on animal and pasture systems at Marcus Oldham College. His most recent work has focussed on understanding and discussing risk in farming businesses, carbon accounting and decision making.
He and his wife Fiona run a 400 ha beef and sheep farm on the Bellarine Peninsula turning off cattle for the long fed feedlot market and fine wool.
The webinar covers:
- Understanding carbon within agriculture and grazing businesses
- The carbon space is rapidly evolving, how should this be approach into the future?
- The importance of focussing on improving emissions intensity within the short term
- What can be done within a farm business now to improve emissions intensity?
- The importance of due diligence when considering carbon farming schemes
Date and time: 14 February 2024, 7.00pm AEDT
Human agronomy in agricultural businesses
Sally Murfet is the Chief Inspiration Officer at Inspire AG – a renowned people and culture consultancy 100% focused on the Australian agriculture industry.
Inspire AG supports clients through leadership development, team growth, performance management, succession planning, and strategic business planning.
Sally believes that people are the power of agriculture.
The webinar covers:
- Understanding how to manage and mitigate internal and external factors that influence agriculture’s ability to attract, retain and develop talent.
- How self-leadership and management practices affect an employer’s ability to manage and motivate teams.
- The need to create a positive and inclusive culture in order to attract talented employees who align with your vision, mission and values.
- How ‘employer branding’ in a candidate-short market makes your farm business an attractive choice.
- The importance of communication, relationships, and generational understanding in running a successful and profitable business.
Date and time: 10 January 2024, 7.00pm AEDT
Assessing and managing business risk
John Francis is the Director of agriculture consultancy firm Agrista. He is passionate about solving problems in industry and is also interested in behavioural economics.
This webinar sees him discuss how to assess and manage business risk, focusing on rising interest rates, falling livestock prices, and important drivers of success in commodity production.
The webinar covers:
- How to stay focused during tough economic times, particularly around cost control.
- How a disciplined approach to business management can still generate good profits when commodity prices fall.
- The key to driving a margin during times of low commodity prices.
- The need to start the journey now – it is never too late to focus on the numbers.
Date and time: 13 December 2023, 7.00pm AEDT
Spring series 2023 library
Containment feeding of livestock
Dr Jillian Kelly is the founder of Animal Health and Nutrition Consulting, a company she started in 2022 after almost 20 years as a production animal veterinarian in the private and government sectors.
This webinar sees her discuss the different types of containment feeding systems, the pros and cons of containment feeding and considerations with regards to livestock management, nutrition, and animal health.
The webinar covers:
- Containment feeding as a proactive management strategy for drought, fire, flood or to meet production targets
- How containment feeding areas can be low cost and versatile
- The need for careful planning in establishing confinement feeding areas
- Attention to detail with regards to nutrition and management to achieve good results
Spring pasture management
Spring is generally a time when pasture supply exceeds demand. This webinar features Pinion Advisory Partner Basil Doonan, who outlines ways to deal with the surplus, while better utilising feed to reduce waste.
The webinar covers:
- Measurement – pasture supply and animal demand
- Dealing with surplus
- Maintaining persistency and quality
- Prioritising feed based on animal needs
- Dealing in liveweight
- Marginal cost of conserving and feeding
How to incorporate genetics into a value chain approach
This webinar features Dr Penny Schulz, of Schulz Livestock, who discusses farm labour and how to attract and retain good staff.
The webinar covers:
- not meeting target market specifications can impact your profitability
- selection and breeding programs can influence your ability to hit your target market more consistently and efficiently
- to use all the data, feedback, and tools to assess your performance and make improvements to your breeding program.
Winter series 2023 library
How to attract and keep good staff
This webinar features Mick Hay, Managing Director of Rimfire Resources, who discusses farm labour and how to attract and retain good staff.
The webinar covers:
- What you need to prioritise to recruit for retention?
- How to attract staff in a candidate driven market? The current unemployment rate is at 3.6% and not predicted to rise above 4.6% for next 3-4 years.
- Workforce skill sets are changing – how will this impact your farm business?
- Employees want to work for employers of choice – how brand, reputation and social impact can help you become an employer of choice?
Seasonal Update - Forecast Implications
This webinar features Phil Graham, of Graham Advisory, who presents a current seasonal update and implications of this for producers.
The webinar covers:
- How to assess your exposure to a dry spring because the impact across southern Australia will be variable this year.
- What online resources are available to help producers assess current soil moisture?
- How to make the most of a below average spring through better pasture quality?
- The benefits of a dry summer such as lowering worm burden on pastures.
