This week on Mecardo, Michael Whitehead, head of agri-insights ANZ, joins us to discuss a whole range of commodities, from cattle, sheep and lamb, diary, wine and even berries. As usual Michael shares some astute insights about the current state of ag markets here in Australia and globally. Michael also touches on the recent free trade agreement between India and Australia and the opportunities it presents for Aussie producers.
May 15, 2022•23 min•Ep. 183
Although Australian only produce around 1% of total goat meat in the world – demand for Aussie goat meat locally and internationally, has been steadily growing since around 2013 - pushing the price of goat meat on par with it's 'bigger cousin', lamb. This week on commodity conversations Gus Foot, Livestock account manager for Nutrien, based in Charlesville QLD, joins us to share his insights into this increasingly popular market.
May 07, 2022•21 min•Ep. 182
What can kangaroo’s teach us about livestock farming methods? Tune in to commodity conversations this week to hear Lachlan Campbell, CEO and founder of ProAgni, explain their innovative new product, what problems they aim to address and some of the inspiration behind it’s creation.
Apr 29, 2022•27 min•Ep. 181
This week Mecardo's Rob Herrmann and David Myers take a look at what's been happening in cattle, sheep and wool markets recently. Join us to hear the latest market developments and jump on the Mecardo website to read the full articles that are discussed briefly today.
Apr 21, 2022•14 min•Ep. 180
Biosecurity issues have dominated agricultural headlines recently as South Africa grapples with another foot-and-mouth outbreak, meanwhile Lumpy Skin Disease outbreaks among cattle in Indonesia have Australian officials worried. This episode Rob & Olivia discuss these issues as well as pay a special tribute to two friends and colleagues. We hope you have a good Easter break, from the Mecardo team.
Apr 14, 2022•19 min•Ep. 179
Russia’s war on Ukraine is still having ramifications across the global grains & oilseeds markets and indirectly across a whole raft of agricultural commodities. We’re seeing stronger demand for most agricultural commodities than we’ve ever seen before, as governments around the world try to secure essential food items to keep their populations content. China of course is no small fry when it comes to the global trade market, being one of the biggest if not the biggest importers of redmeat &...
Apr 01, 2022•15 min•Ep. 178
Prices for most agricultural commodities (and inputs) have increased to record levels due to the trio of tight supply, stretched supply chains & the war in Ukraine. But are we really in unprecedented times? We’ve seen prices shoot up for commodities before, like during the GFC of 2008, but this time round, while some things are the same, there’s certainly a lot more factors at play & uncertainty in the global economic outlook. To help us untangle the current volatility in the market, we’...
Mar 25, 2022•25 min•Ep. 177
With the Russian war on Ukraine dragging on, we’re taking a look at how this war is reverberating around the globe and in particular it’s flow-on effects on markets that are directly affected, such as the wheat & oilseeds, to the in-directly affected livestock & wool markets. Rob & Olivia are back in the drivers seat this week for our podcast.
Mar 18, 2022•21 min•Ep. 176
This week Adrian & Dave from Mecardo discuss the main movements in the wool, sheep, cattle & grains movements this week. As always, there's plenty happening for us to talk about - head to the website if you want to read the full analysis of each topic we've covered this week. Our thoughts are with all of the flood victims up north, we hope that the clean up efforts continue and the towns and communities recover.
Mar 11, 2022•17 min•Ep. 175
The wheat market has been up and down like a yo-yo in response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The two countries together provide more than a quarter of world wheat supply, so we asked our resident grain expert, Nick Booth from Next Level Grain Marketing, on to help us understand the seismic impact this terrible situation is having on global grain market dynamics.
Mar 04, 2022•18 min•Ep. 174
Online platform AuctionsPlus has gone from strength to strength in the past few years with more and more producers getting on board. AuctionsPlus is now arguably the nations largest livestock ‘selling centre’ which now not only provides cattle & sheep auctions, but auctions for everything from farm machinery, properties, goats, working dogs, cars, charity fundraisers and more. On this episode we’re fortunate to have AuctionsPlus’ chief economist Tim McRae on to give his perspective on why th...
Feb 25, 2022•26 min•Ep. 173
Livestock prices have rarely been higher but what does the global protein supply and demand balance tell us about the outlook? Robert Herrmann and Simon Quilty presented on this topic at Gippsland Red Meat Conference recently and have joined us for this weeks episode to discuss the key factors.
Feb 18, 2022•22 min•Ep. 172
There were many price records broken last year and plenty of profits made in the process for some (despite the increasing cost of production and inputs). And although it’s easy to get distracted by the ‘hype’ around livestock markets, we’re lucky to have Sandy McEachern, Director of Aggregate Consulting, explain just which enterprises were the most successful, or profitable, in 2020/21, according to his latest benchmarking review.
Feb 11, 2022•26 min•Ep. 171
This week Rob & Olivia from Mecardo help tell the story behind some of the key figures in Meat & Livestock Australia’s latest cattle projections update along with the usual market overviews for grain, sheep & wool.
Feb 04, 2022•16 min•Ep. 170
Mark Tully, senior grains analyst for Nutrien Canada, shares his perspective of how the Canadian grain & oilseed growers are going coming off the back of some of the worst droughts in Canadian history. We also dive into the geopolitical tensions in western Europe & discuss what impact escalation of conflict there could mean for grain & oilseed markets internationally. Finally, Mark gives us his outlook on the global supply & demand equation and key market drivers to watch out for...
Jan 28, 2022•21 min•Ep. 169
What’s beer and gas got to do with livestock and wool? This week we go left of field with our resident wool guru Andrew Woods from ICS commodity services to take a broad look at greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and revisit whether the beer purchasing power of shearers has improved in the last few years, some good conversations starters for your local pub.
Jan 21, 2022•21 min•Ep. 168
Red hot weaner cattle sales are the talk of the market, so this week we chat with Andrew Hosken from Hosken stock and land about who's buying the cattle and which markets they are destined for. As always, Andrew has his finger on the pulse when it comes to the cattle markets in Australia, tune in to hear the conversation.
Jan 14, 2022•23 min•Ep. 167
Join us as David Cornish and Robert Herrmann recap 2021 and look at what 2022 may have in store. This episode was originally recorded on the Marcus Oldham AgTalk podcast on the 20th of December 2021. David is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham Agricultural College with over 30 years experience in Agricultural finance. In his spare time, he is involved in a family farming operation based at Casterton in Western Victoria. Take a look at the full list of episo...
Jan 07, 2022•42 min•Ep. 166
For our final podcast of 2021 we have Michael Whitehead, head of agribusiness insights ANZ, on to discuss ANZ’s December Commodity Insights report. We hope you enjoy the episode and from the team at Mecardo we wish you have a safe and happy holidays and we’ll see you in 2022 for more episodes of Commodity Conversations.
Dec 22, 2021•34 min•Ep. 165
For the 2nd last podcast of 2021 we have Roberto Cardellino, director of DELTA consulting Uruguay on to discuss his latest report titled, 'The volume and diameter of merino wool in the main producing countries of the world'. Roberto shares his key findings from the report and also his outlook for merino wool production going forward.
Dec 19, 2021•25 min•Ep. 164
Last time we caught up with Will Barton, Chief Executive Officer at Gundagai Meat Processors, he spoke about his concerns around labour shortages, particularly heading into the ‘normal’ spring flush of lambs. This week we find out how the spring supply has eventuated and also how demand is looking from the consumer side.
Dec 10, 2021•22 min•Ep. 163
This week Nutrien Ag Solutions Livestock Manager, Ron Rutledge, joins us to give the low down on which yards are starting to get hit with lambs in the south and how producers and processors coping with the late 'spring flush'. Ron also gives us an insight into the first big weaner sale of the summer 21/22 season and a taste of what's to come in this space.
Dec 03, 2021•16 min•Ep. 162
The east coast is soaked, and the timing has been poor for those trying to harvest winter crops. This week Olivia and Rob from Mecardo take a look what implications the continued wet will have on the grains market.
Nov 26, 2021•20 min•Ep. 161
Subdued lamb growth rates have been a major factor in the flow of lambs to market this season. This week, Jason Trompf, consultant and leader in the field of lamb survival, joins us to talk about why lamb growth has been slow this year, pasture management and keeping lambs alive.
Nov 19, 2021•24 min•Ep. 160
Swings in wool supply have a large impact on price, and any price premiums, but the market is also balancing a number of demand influencing factors from overseas. This week resident wool analyst, Andrew Woods from Independent Commodity Services joins Robert Herrmann to discuss these price drivers. The supply chain also has some big questions about wool quality schemes and supply, which we shed some light on in this episode, comparing Australia to South Africa. Responsible Wool Standards, otherwi...
Nov 12, 2021•21 min•Ep. 159
As the state borders open up, we knew there would be one person to count on to see what’s happening in the saleyards and paddocks from south to north, east to west. In a red hot market, this week Andrew Hosken, from Hosken Stock and Land, joined us to discuss how producers have been able to take advantage of the extraordinary prices of late across the cattle market.
Nov 05, 2021•18 min•Ep. 158
This week Nutrien Ag Solutions Livestock Manager, Ron Rutledge, gives us the low down on what's happening in local lamb and sheep markets, as the '8 million residents' are 'released' in Melbourne and Sydney and the restaurant trade returns, will supply meet demand?
Oct 29, 2021•17 min•Ep. 157
This week our resident analyst Nick Booth from Next Level Grain Marketing on to fill us in on what's happening in his local patch, the Eyre Peninsular, but also what's happening in the international grains markets. As Australia looks set for another record/near record wheat crop and is still relatively cheap internationally, they're should be no shortage of demand in the foreseeable future.
Oct 22, 2021•20 min•Ep. 156
This week we got the chance to chat with current Director of Studies and soon to be Principal of Marcus Oldham College (2022), Andrew Baker. We asked Andrew how the current demand is in the Agricultural sector for new Ag graduates and what skillsets are employee's looking for in new graduates and where the varied fields they can end up working in.
Oct 15, 2021•25 min•Ep. 155
The recovery in apparel fibres over the past year looks to be a solid one and this week Andrew Woods, Mecardo analyst and Director of Independent Commodity Services, joins us to talk about what this all means for wool. We also break down the wool complex to discuss what is driving prices for fine, superfine, medium Merino and crossbred wool.
Oct 08, 2021•21 min•Ep. 154
