Joy McClymont, Off The Track Training - YBPF 2023 MC
The YBPF committee is excited to welcome Joy McClymont back to the stage as our MC for the 2023 Young Beef Producers Forum! We are excited to have Joy along to bring a whole lot of fun and enthusiasm to the event; whilst keeping people ‘on track’ throughout the big days with some incentives (not to be late or run over time).
Joy McClymont is an inspirational, down to earth Aussie outback mum of 4 who is dedicated to providing access to top level fitness, nutrition and motivational strategies for people in any location. Whether in remote or inner city, Joy provides an opportunity for anyone to feel supported, connected and motivated through her company, ‘Off the Track Training’. Her vision is providing simple, fun and achievable solutions for health and wellbeing that her clients absolutely love.
Having personally experienced the isolation of being a young mum wanting to regain her own health and well-being with no availability of gyms, fitness groups or alike, Joy began to think out of the box. She began integrating fitness into everyday life with resources already available to her: a rock, a tree stump, a step, a can of beans or nothing but a wall and a floor. Joy brings to light that the possibility of great health is possible whatever the location or fitness level- and- its easier than people think.
Through her role as a Personal Trainer and Health and Fitness Motivator, Joy has assisted many people in tackling chronic disease, improving self-image and developing a positive ‘can do- attitude. Her clients report the benefits in other areas including personal relationships, family, work and business a result of improving their health through Joy’s sessions.
As well as doing ALL this, Joy also runs a rural sheep and cattle property at Longreach with her husband whilst raising and home schooling four young children (maybe Joy is Superwomen..). Her background includes primary school teaching, being the school principal, achieving the Former Half and Ironman Triathlon in France, Australia & Hawaii, endurance mountain bike riding and trekking and winning the QRRRWN 2015 Strong Women Leaders Award in Business, and more recently as Fitness Australia’s Active Achiever for 2016, as well as various other health and fitness training.
Joy is on a mission to build a society where being in fantastic health is the norm and is recognized as the most critical factor in living a quality life.
Ardie Lord, Lord Pastoral and Lord & Penna
Hi, my name is Ardie Lord. I grew up in North-West Queensland on a cattle & sheep station and bought the neighbouring station, Sutherland, at an early age. My wife Kacie, and I are owners of two businesses: Lord Pastoral - a family-owned and operated beef cattle business and Lord & Penna - a partnership business with my brother James and his wife Marjorie, and Linda and Gerard Penna, a couple who worked for us in the late 90s and were seeking the opportunity to get skin in the game.
We’ve survived, thrived, and for over 40 years, have loved building our businesses together, raising three capable and confident children amid it all.
My passion is managing the land and producing productive animals whilst driving the strategic side of building and growing a business.
In this next phase of my life, I want to use my experience and failures to help guide the next generation to run and grow successful businesses, be it on the land or elsewhere.
I enjoy my position on the Rabobank Client Council, where we are enhancing rural communities and industry through five key charters: Industry Capacity, Environmental Sustainability, Rural Urban Divide, Rural Health and Adaptation Disruption.
I also enjoy a role as a mentor in the ABL program (Australian Beef Leadership).
I thoroughly enjoy working with our three children on their businesses, and when the stresses get too much, I revert to sitting behind a mob of cows for stress relief.
BEN LAW
Ben Law B.Ag.Ec
Ben Law is a bloke with a deep understanding of how agri-business owners think. Having grown up on a beef cattle property on the Liverpool Plains in Northwest NSW, Ben's passion lies in helping farming families and the greater rural community grow, thrive & ultimately become intergenerationally prosperous.
With a degree in Agricultural Economics and over 20 years of experience as a Financial Adviser, Ben quickly realized that he could have a greater impact by focusing on education and coaching for the rural community more broadly. Having sold his successful financial advice busines, Ben's full-time focus is on educating as many people as possible via his podcast, his strategic coaching and delivering educational presentations for various rural community groups.
Through his podcast, Ben interviews successful producers and professionals to share their knowledge and glean the secrets of their success while also drawing on his own years of professional experience.
His strategic coaching business (Agricoach) is specifically for helping farming families and agribusinesses who are looking to align the family, grow their wealth and protect the family legacy. Ben helps them with their big picture strategic view, unpacking what they want to achieve and exploring the options for getting there, all while protecting family harmony and relationships in the process.
Ben is passionate about helping families on the land who instinctively know that their success is just as dependent on strong family relationships as it is on the family's financial strength.
SHANNA WHAN, SOBER IN THE COUNTRY
Shanna Whan is the rural woman, founder, CEO, and face behind SITC. She is an Australian of the Year recipient who decided to ''do what she could to be part of the change'' after overcoming her own lifelong battle with trauma-linked alcohol addiction and almost losing her own life in 2015.
Today, SITC is a nationally respected grassroots organisation changing and saving lives and preventing generational harm. Far from being anti-alcohol; the charity focuses on straight talk, peer support, social inclusion, and the #OK2SAYNO movement. Shanna lives in rural north west NSW with her husband Tim.
Jeremy and Julie Shaw, JS Grazing
Jeremy and Julie Shaw are beef producers running a commercial Angus herd over several properties in the Injune and Wandoan districts. Their business, JS Grazing, is a multi-generational affair with Jeremy’s parents and the couple’s two young sons, all involved in the daily operation. The dry in 2019 triggered the construction of a commodity shed and the reinstatement of the feedlot.
A focus on improving the genetic base of their herd and a drive to consistently produce a quality female has led to the JS Grazing name being synonymous with quality Angus cattle. The couple were recognized earlier this year as the winners of the Weekly Times Coles 2022 Beef Farmer of the Year.
Bill Mitchell, Optiweigh
Bill Mitchell is a beef producer from northern NSW and founder of Optiweigh.
Bill grew up on a family sheep and cattle farm near Armidale. He studied Applied Science at the University of NSW in Sydney before spending the next 15 years in agricultural commodity trading and export – mainly in the wool industry and with Dalgety/Wesfarmers.
On returning to the New England area, Bill teamed up with his wife Jacqui to evolve their farming business into a specialty grass-certified backgrounding and finishing system. A search for solutions to get better insight into cattle growth rates led to Bill developing Optiweigh over the years 2014-2018. In 2019, they proceeded to commercialise Optiweigh and have now sold over 500 units around Australia and into five other export destinations.
Speaking topic: Using tech to get a competitive advantage in beef production
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LLM (Hons) LLB (Hons) BBUS (Fin) GradDipLP Certified ChairTM
Caitlin is a Senior Associate in the Agriculture & Food and Natural Capital Markets Teams at Clayton Utz, working across practice groups nationally in relation to the role agriculture plays in respect of natural capital markets, ESG investment opportunities & risk, and agrivoltaics. Caitlin specialises in agriculture & food legislation, water law, food security policy and frameworks, and climate-related litigation.
Caitlin has a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne specialising in issues pertaining to agriculture, particularly the role climate change, food, and water security plays in the context of national security in Australia. Her research paper considering the Water Act 2000 (Cth) in the context of 'critical human water needs' was published and is now used by the Melbourne Law School as teaching material. In 2022 she was an inaugural recipient of the Farmers for Climate Action Climate-Smart Farming Scholarship which focussed on carbon neutral agriculture including the calculation of methane emissions on farm and throughout the value chain, and climate adaptation methods.
In conjunction with her role at Clayton Utz, Caitlin is recognised as a young leader and top agribusiness professional in Australia, and is an advocate for youth in agriculture, and mental health & wellness in the legal and agricultural sectors. She is a sixth-generation farmer who oversees the day-to-day management of her family property with her parents (beef, agrivoltaics & agritourism) in SEQ, and is also Chair of the Future Farmers Network, and a Member of the National Farmers' Federation Farm Data Code Certification Panel, the National Farmers’ Federation Young Farmers’ Council, the Queensland Law Society Water & Agribusiness Law Committee, and the Agribusiness Australia Queensland State Council.
Geoff Birchnell is a Partner and Manager of 3R Livestock located in Tamworth, NSW. Since establishing 3R in 2018 the herd has continued to expand both its Angus & Hereford seedstock operation and commercial business, culminating in an Annual Production Sale each August. Uniquely, Geoff is a first-generation Producer. Prior to establishing 3R Geoff was a Chartered Accountant and worked across public practice and commercial roles primarily associated with Agriculture.
Geoff has previously held roles as a Policy Council Member of the Cattle Council of Australia, a Director of Herefords Australia, a Director of the Future Farmers Network and various other associations.
I was born in Katherine NT in 1996 and grew up on Mt McMinn station which was roughly 300,000 acres my parents Jock and Kerry Mackay had purchased as a bare block of land.
I’ve spent most of my life working in the bush in some shape or form and had the opportunity to work in and with many different outfits. I’ve lived in the USA rodeoing and studying in west Texas then eventually became a helicopter pilot which has given me the opportunity to fly all over Queensland and the NT.
I’m currently studying Agribusiness Marcus Oldham college in Victoria and have plans of creating a stock handling course for large operations in the north that will help with staff retention and stock management.
Bim is presently a Director on the AgForce Queensland Farmers Board.
He is a past Councillor on the Cattle Council Australia.
He represents the Industry on the Animal Welfare Advisory Board.
He chairs the Land Tenure Working Group and is on several committees where he represents Industry.
Bim is a Director of BeefBank that is a conduit to FoodBank and FareShare supplying nutritious meals to vulnerable people and communities. He Chairs the Great Australian Charity Cattle Drive working group, a vision of BeefBank to raise funds to build a mobile slaughtering facility to provide meat into Foodbank and FareShare.
In his local area Bim is Chairman of Directors of the Maranoa Kangaroo Harvesters and Growers Co-op and on the management committee of the local Landcare Group and Patron of the Mitchell Show.
Together with his wife Susan they own and manage “Havelock” a commercial breeding property and a backgrounding property “Yellow Cap” in the Mitchell district where they supply high quality steers to the feed-on market.
Cassandra Saywell MBA, M.Couns (Mental Health), Service Leader Western Queensland, StandBy Support After Suicide
Cass has worked in health and wellbeing for over a decade, with a career in frontline emergency services and supporting the mental health of first responders, their families and the community in general. Coming from a business background, she understands the challenges of profit and loss, growth and establishment pains and family business.
Relocating to the south west has provided a great opportunity to support those in rural and remote communities and gain an understanding of the unique challenges that living in these areas brings. Her passion and commitment to educating and supporting others can be seen in her person-centred sessions and educational delivery. With a specific focus on suicide bereavement and loss, Cass can help us to understand how we can support one another through this incredibly difficult time.
Luke Chaplain is a 2022 Nuffield Scholar and the founder of SkyKelpie. SkyKelpie aims to be the first company in the world to enable the widespread adoption of livestock mustering with drones.
SkyKelpie is a world leader in drone mustering solutions. Support from the Queensland Department of Agriculture & Fisheries and Meat & Livestock Australia saw SkyKelpie complete groundbreaking trials in 2022. Luke and his team are developing a range of products and services that will support graziers in unlocking the numerous benefits that drone mustering has to offer.
Hamish is a third-generation regenerative farmer. Hamish grew up on the 1500-acre property “Tarwyn Park”, the celebrated home of Natural Sequence Farming (NSF) pioneered by his grandfather Peter Andrews.
Hamish now spends his time between two businesses.
At Forage Farms, Hamish is the farm manager, overseeing the production of pasture-raised eggs, chicken and pork, and grass-fed beef.
At Tarwyn Park Training, he oversees marketing and operations while also training to become a full-time educator and playing a more prominent role in the on-ground education of landholders.
Hamish is passionate about sharing his knowledge of food production and farming, along with assisting people in understanding how their landscape functions and how to implement NSF practices.
Professor Hayes has extensive research experience in genetic improvement of livestock, crop, pasture and aquaculture species, with a focus on integration of genomic information into breeding programs. Large scale projects Prof Hayes has led include implementing genomic selection for feed efficiency and heat tolerance for dairy cows, improving yield in wheat and sugarcane, and the Northern Genomics project.
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Andrew is an experienced Director and Manager of family, private and charity businesses. He runs successful businesses from various different locations.
He is currently the Managing Director of his family business Bolts and Industrial Supplies. They are a third generation business with locations and stores throughout the East Coast of Australia.
Andrew has currently completed the merger of Securefix Pty Ltd and Fisher Lamco from Newcastle. The business currently operates out of Brisbane.
Andrew is the Chairman of Beefbank Pty Ltd whose sole purpose is to supply processed Beef to Charities such as Foodbank and Fareshare. His 20 years in Rotary and charity organisations has given him the responsibility of people management, logistics, and service supply from a point outside the corporate world.
He is also a Director of Daintree Tools which is a manufacturing company for Live Centres, selling them into the Australian market and also exporting to various countries around the world.
Will and Sasha Treloar live between Charleville and Quilpie where they lease Will’s parent’s property to run their own cattle trading operation with their two young boys.
Seeking resilience in their business has seen them embark on a journey to pursue knowledge and experience in the form of education and mentors. This has led to exploring and implementing regenerative practices on “Boothulla”, as well as transitioning from a traditional breeding operation to trading, in order to better manage stocking rate to carrying capacity and increase turnover.
In 2023 Will and Sasha, have been a part of the Lachlan Hughes Foundation Program, along with seven other participants. They have gained valuable knowledge of themselves, their business and had the great fortune to hear and learn from a number of regenerative practitioners and teachers.
Harry is an engineer and geneticist at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) with a deep passion for agriculture and the commercialisation of research. He grew up on a small cattle property near Woodford, in south-east Queensland where he developed his love for agriculture. After graduating with a bachelor’s of Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2019, he hit the books for a few more years to complete a Ph.D. which developed a pipeline for crush-side genetic testing of cattle for Australia’s northern beef industry. Since completing his Ph.D. in early 2023, he has led the commercialization efforts at QAAFI, continued to develop the crush-side genetics pipeline and is currently working to build capacity for on-farm genetic testing in Indonesia. Ultimately Harry hopes to continue to work on translating blue sky research into tangible value for the beef industry and continue to bridge the gap between scientific innovation and the agriculture sector to drive productivity gains.
Christie Warburton is a final year PhD student with the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) under the supervision of Professor Ben Hayes. Her thesis topic is investigating novel methods to improve the prediction accuracy of genomic evaluations in genetically diverse, multi-breed populations of beef cattle. In particular, her research interest is in quantifying the genetic differences between Bos indicus and Bos taurus cattle. Growing up on cattle stations in Central Queensland, Christie is passionate about the Australian cattle industry, which has driven her interest in beef genetics. In addition to her research, Christie is also a single Mum and a small farm operator. She is studying her PhD part-time and remotely from her farm in Ellangowan QLD.
Sally is an agribusiness consultant based in Toowoomba, delivering business management services to a range of rural clients. She is passionate about working with northern pastoral producers to help them understand and improve business performance, including through the delivery of the Business EDGE program.
In her time at Bush AgriBusiness, Sally has been a key contributor to the preparation of the Australian Beef Report 2023. She is enthusiastic about the direction of the industry and brings a fresh, objective approach to working with clients.
Sally is an honours graduate of a Bachelor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of New England. Her thesis explored how beef producers may capitalise on Australian carbon credit schemes, and whether this is a profitable avenue which they should pursue. Sally is a part of the Livestock Consulting Internship program and is on the IFAMA Oceania Young Professionals Board.
Born and raised in Cairns, Far North Queensland, Cam has always had a passion for the Australian landscape and the diversity of animals that inhabit it. Positive that this was his calling it became clear that the best way to combine the two was to n
pursue farming, where he attended the University of Queensland and completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Business. However, his experiences within conventional farming operations unveiled a disconcerting truth: modern agriculture's relentless pursuit of mass production at the lowest cost has led to the degradation of topsoil and a decline in human health, divorced from environmental and consumer well-being. Driven by a desire for a more sustainable path, Cam fortuitously discovered the Regenerative Agriculture movement. Aligned with his beliefs in holistic land and livestock stewardship, this movement offered hope for a more natural alternative. Cam's journey took a turn when he embraced the idea that controlling land was more pivotal than owning it. In 2019, he acquired his first lease, and the journey toward a regenerative grazing enterprise began. Four years later, Binowee Family Grazing operates across 270 acres on six different lease farms in Queenslands South Burnett. Their core approach involves high-density rotational grazing, emulating nature's blueprint and promoting land healing. By mimicking natural grazing patterns, they aim to optimise profitability while nurturing the land, proving that sometimes, nature's wisdom is the ultimate guide to sustainability.
Terry McCosker is one of the great innovators of Australian agriculture who has had an inordinate impact on agricultural practises over many years. On this basis the Central Queensland University conferred on Terry, the degree of Honorary Doctor of Agribusiness, in March 2015 and he was awarded an OAM in the 2021 Queens Birthday honours list for his contribution to agriculture.
Terry is a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the Tropical Grasslands Society, has chaired the Australian Beef Expo, and sat on numerous advisory committees.
One of his greatest lifetime achievements has been to effectively bridge the gap between the contesting paradigms of traditional agriculture and regenerative agriculture, helping to ensure the long-term survival of Australian agriculture and its farming families.
Terry is an internationally acclaimed teacher and has worked in research, extension and property management in both government and private sectors for over 55 years. In his research phase in the 1980’s, Terry published over 40 papers and made several world first discoveries.
Terry co-founded RCS in 1985 which has set the benchmark for capacity building in rural and regional Australia and has been independently rated (by a Commonwealth Govt survey) as the most trusted source of farming knowledge in Australia.
Terry is also a pioneer in the field of soil carbon and carbon farming, having been committed to research and commercial activity in this area since the early 2000’s. He founded CarbonLink in 2007 and remains the Chairman of this agricultural carbon aggregator. CarbonLink was awarded a Commonwealth Commercialization grant of almost $1m in 2016 and was the most innovative business in the region in 2016. It has baselined over 100,000ha and completed the first large scale study of soil carbon sequestration where over 240,000t of ACCUs will be issued in 2023.
Terry was described in the Australian Farm Journal editorial in July 2010 as follows: “It is hard to imagine the mental toughness and commitment McCosker and his early farmer adopters had to muster to withstand the flood of criticism from within conventional agricultural science circles. … McCosker’s ideas took farming out of a war with nature to an association with it. He introduced Australian farmers to the concept of ecosystem health and developed methods of measuring it alongside financial health. Critically he introduced the concept of farm family well-being and welcomed female partners, siblings and parents into courses about decision making.”
Tom has been involved in the agricultural industry all his life, growing up and living on the land.
He has a practical background having had roles from jackeroo through to an operations manager for a large corporate.
Tom has a vision to have a positive influence on the responsible stewardship of quality land ensuring long-term benefits for the soil, production, and environment. Along with this, is the importance of highly productive, low stress livestock and sustainable cropping.
Tom places high importance on engaging and mentoring people and assisting in the development of the culture required for successful businesses.
David is Director – Managed Investments at AAM and leads the Investments and Asset Management team to deliver on the execution of the operational performance of AAM managed funds as well as the longer-term strategic direction of the funds. David assists in driving operational efficiencies using innovation and technology and leveraging benefits of geographical diversification across supply chains.
David has extensive experience in the agricultural sector having spent over 10 years at a major Australian bank focusing primarily on the corporate agribusiness and leadership sectors partnering with major Australian agribusinesses spanning several sectors across Australia including an in-depth exposure to each of the market segments AAM operates within.
