Oli Le Lievre 0:02
G'day guys, and welcome back to another episode of the humans of agriculture podcast. All right, can we nearly 200 episodes, which is just insane to think we've had that many combos. Now I'm joining it up in Roma on mendon danji country. And I'd like to pay my respects to the traditional custodians on the lands wherever you're taking our podcast this week. Now, my guest today is the Australian country choice CEO Anthony Lee. And I don't even know where to start with this chat. One, I'd wanted to chat to Anthony for so long, he was involved and spoke at the ACA Brekky, back in 2022. And he talked about the opportunities and the importance of getting agriculture in the education system. Now from there, Anthony actually brought together a bunch of people. And they're really starting to make some ways in terms of how agriculture is part of the curriculum across Australian schools. And there's some incredibly passionate people working on that, which you'll hear a little bit more about. Now, what we're trying to do at humans of agriculture is shift the stigma of people involved in agriculture and create a community from farm to fork and beyond. And I reckon when it comes to people thinking of CEOs of Australian agriculture businesses, they probably don't think of someone who is a surfer in their past time. But that's just how cool Anthony is. In our chat, we chat a little bit about the business side of things, the challenges that he's had to overcome since stepping into the CEO role in early 2020. And we talk about how the business has evolved his philosophy to growing a company culture growing people's capability. And one thing which was so cool was we were at the ACC camp draft in Roma. And I loved how it was bringing all the station people together. But what was especially cool was the family side of it, the kids, Jim Karna, Anthony running around leading his kids laughing alongside other families, and alongside his staff, it was just bloody cool to see. So I'm not gonna take any more of your time. This chat covers a little bit of country, everything from mentors, to opportunities, overcoming challenges, education in agriculture, but I think the underlying thing in all of this is just Anthony's passion for the business, but the Australian beef industry and agriculture more broadly. And I think it's just so infectious. So let's get into it. Anthony, thank you for sitting down and having a chat. I think it's pretty cool coming out to roamer and seeing the whole station, and I guess cattle handling crew out here for you, it must be pretty special to come out and see them all.
Speaker 2 2:35
Yeah, mate. I mean, I love anytime I get the chance to get away from the office for a start. But my this has been something we've been building up and working on for about five or six years now. And it's just evolved over time. And everyone loves it, you know, and the more we do it, the more we add things to it, and the more interest it gets, and the more engagement you get with it. And, you know, it's three days now, I think it started off 123. And, and it's just, you know, it's what they, they're passionate about a lot of the people out here. So you see, and it's a tool of trade, you know, so it's really important part of the business, but it's also something that people love and are passionate about. So you add those two things together, and you get something pretty special. If I could do more of it, man, I would, you know, it's fantastic.
Oli Le Lievre 3:17
And I think I might have got like a tiny bit of footage. But we better talk about the boss actually having arrived and doing a bit of Camp drafting. I reckon you might have nearly won it.
Speaker 2 3:25
Now mate, I always get a few extra points, you know, but mate, I just love having a run around. And I think people enjoy I do it once a year, right? Like, it's not something that I practice for anything like that, it's more so just being involved with the crew and having a bit of a blast, and you get a buzz out of it and you know, jump on a different horse every time and make just great to get around and and it does bring that competitive side out and you're like, Oh, I gotta do that again. Do better at it. You know? So I love it, man. It's fun. Yeah,
Oli Le Lievre 3:55
well, it's probably no some with you at the most pressure on your anyone one because you're the big boss. But two, they also want to be able to see what you can do. And I'm sure within you as well, you want to show them that you can run
Speaker 2 4:08
a little bit of that. I say not. There's always a bit of that. But it's actually more about being part of the team. For me just doing it. I'm far from the best. And you know, it's not about that if I wanted to be the best at everything, you do hardly anything, right? It's about being involved, and enjoying the thing that they love, and I love you know, with them.
Oli Le Lievre 4:28
So I think we'll come back and chat about the business. But I'd love to know, what do I need to understand about you, your early life, your childhood that has really shaped you and your passion today? Mate,
Speaker 2 4:39
I've always just grown up in the business. So for me, it was just something that was there from day one. We lived in the city. And my father's sort of, you know, he spent a lot of time out here but by the time I was sort of getting old enough to travel with him he was in the city and building the business there. So but we did a lot it was just always a part of my life. I just looked at it. I didn't really think of it As a business until I got a lot older, but the older I got, I've always said that, you know, when you start out and particularly in the meet works, it's not something that naturally draws you in, you know, I got to work in a meet works type thing, but I did a lot of that stuff. And it, you know, it was a good sort of learning ground. But but as I got older, what it was about was, this is a food business. And this is actually something really important, and what better business to be in than something that makes food for people. And so I just went from it being a production thing to actually a food producing business, and just growing it from there and absolutely love what we do. And always think about what more we can do and just always want to be in the food and meat game.
Oli Le Lievre 5:40
Do you remember your earliest memories around ag are like a really early memory around the facility,
Speaker 2 5:46
when I first got it, because I was the boss's son, and I'm 14. And so, you know, there was probably six months of serious, you know, trying to work in with the team and a bit of an induction process with the team where they weren't particularly friendly to me. But you know, after sort of six months of internship with them, and getting to know them made, I was starting to play golf with them and having a good time. And so it went from being something that I was quite nervous about going to every Friday night after school to being something that I you know, quite enjoyed. And I'd spend some time with them on the weekends. And yeah, it was a change in my psyche towards the business at that time.
Oli Le Lievre 6:25
So for you leaving high school, what were the options that were presented in front of you?
Speaker 2 6:30
Yeah, was go to uni, it was trying to get a degree that was probably told, just, you know, wherever you want to end up, that's probably a good thing to do. I did business. You know, I think it's interesting, I look back on business management, and you're learning about conflict resolution, and different things like that, where you have no idea about you know, and it's only to get in the workforce, you really understand those things. And so, I think uni was more, so just a time for me to do a few things like that, but start to work more in the business, get an understanding for it. And then I think after I'd done uni, and I'd worked in the business for six or seven years, by that stage, I just wanted to do something different. And just get a feeling for what was else was out there. And, you know, what are the options where they wanted to see the world. And so I went away for a while. And that was, that was a fantastic experience. Like I learned so much during that time, not really any sort of meat or, you know, career progression stuff. But it was more just about life skills. But I always had a bit of a drawback to the business. And I was always, you know, staying in touch with the old man. And he was telling me about what was going on. And he came to the US I'd been away for about five years, or four and a half years. And he came and said, we're about to build retail ready, which is the value add the end part of the supply chain, you know, putting the cutting the pieces of meat up, putting it into a tray, putting it away price label and sending it to the store. And that was really the the evolution of the business, a vertically integrated model. He said, we've not done this before, it's a new area of the business, you know, now's a perfect time to come back. You can get some training and development in other businesses, and then we can bring you in as a supervisor and grow from there. And, and that's what I did. And yeah, it was an exciting it was it was absolutely one of the hardest times of my life. I remember when we started that facility, we were doing 17 hour days, it was just it was full on every day, just getting that the factory fired up and going. And it was a couple of big, big years very challenging years. And you know, you're questioning yourself and whether you can do it and are you the right person and all those things. But that resilience, just to turn up the next day and get the facility working was a big motivator for me and taught me a lot about just, you know, as I said, resilience and never giving up going again, trying to do better the next day, and I look at our business, you know, the same way today, you know, you never give up, you just got to work through the challenges. They're always there. COVID comes skill shortage comes interest rates, you know, that's always there. The market we're at today is not particularly favorable. So you just keep going, you know, and you just, it's all about the team, you just build from there make it better every day. So that's Yeah, little part of it.
Oli Le Lievre 9:07
So you spent five or six years you mentioned overseas, what kind of businesses were you working in over there?
Speaker 2 9:12
Well, not career progressing, but it will you know, it was I was scrubbing dishes, flipping burgers, I was varnishing boats, I was taking photos on ski fields, I was a postman, one stage, the main thing for me was getting around and seeing different countries. So I'd never spend more than sort of four to five months in a country and then I'd move on and I want to do a summer summer or winter somewhere. And so just you know, took me to all sorts of places, all sorts of companies, probably the most the most enjoyable one was actually the photography one where it was all commissioned based and it was all about selling was all about getting people fired up on you know, hey, I'm going to take this do that and you know, and trying to attract people into the something you were doing it that taught me a lot, and I made some really good money out of that business. Actually, it was quite interesting that and had a good time along
Oli Le Lievre 10:00
the way? Do you still take photos now? Or is it No, no, that's
Speaker 2 10:03
my what I'm terrible at. That's the other thing I'd never, I'd never taken a photo like, you know, like, there weren't phones with cameras or anything like that. So I had no idea like I literally, you know, had to learn all about that. But so I don't have any sort of passion in that, I suppose. But my wife actually has and she's, she's doing a great job taking, getting around doing a lot of ag sort of shoots and whatnot, and just absolutely loves it and going really well.
Oli Le Lievre 10:29
He just passed on the the skills that you never had. You mentioned before about the some of the challenge isn't questioning yourself in the early stages of the business where you're the right person for it. How did you actually overcome that?
Speaker 2 10:42
Well, even I mean, that's the job. And that's what I still find that today, right? You know, it's a lonely existence, when you become a leader, you are in charge of a lot of people and their responsibilities, quite immense. And you're always sort of, you know, things are going perfectly all the time. As I say, I still feel that today. And it's you got to have more and more you build your confidence over time that you are doing the right thing by the team and the team supporting you and your turnovers, you know, in check, and people are sort of getting behind you. And that sort of builds your confidence, I suppose, get a good team, make sure you're listening to them, make sure you're part of it, you know, bigger than the team. And you're not a perfect individual, right, you see, create a great team. And that's the perfect person is a combination of the skill sets that each one of them brings to the team. So I always say to people that are mentoring, don't be that person that thinks that can do it all be honest about your flaws, be honest about your strengths, and then just put the team around you that sort of works in with that. And you'll be a far better business or department than you would if you try and do it all yourself. And
Oli Le Lievre 11:45
until well, I asked this question a little bit self serving lead to but so when it comes to, I guess those the big new ventures or whatever it is, and it comes with risk, and I guess pushing yourself to the limit, what have you learned about finding those people in the decision making in and I guess, trying to create certainty or clarity when actually you're trying to figure it out for yourself?
Speaker 2 12:05
Yeah, yeah. And this is this is I still use this today. So we've got you know, I always talk about culture before capability like it is, you don't need the best capable person, you need a group of people that have the values and behaviors that work well, within a team. I've seen plenty of times, we, you know, this really capable person, but they're quite destructive for your culture. And they're the worst people to have, you know, you've really got to work hard. And it's easy to say, and it's actually really hard to do, you got to really work on what your values are, what are the things that make you a great team, and really live by them. And you know, you got to work through if people aren't coming on board, you got to make decisions about that, and move people on if you have to, because it's an absolute team and culture killer, if you don't have that, right. But once you get that culture piece, right, so culture for capability, then obviously you're working on your, your capability. So we do a lot now business around internal promotions. And we believe in that because you're seeing that person, then displaying the right cultural button behaviors, and maybe they don't necessarily have the technical capability to step up yet, but they've got the makings of it. And you're far better off taking that person that you know, and putting him into that more senior role and training that skill set than you are trying to bring someone in from outside that may or may not fit your culture. It is a never ending journey, the culture thing, you know, and I sort of talked about the All Blacks and the Melbourne Storm like rugby union rugby league had heaps of good players, you know, they're full of good players. Why are those teams so much better, consistently better than ever, and it's this culture piece, it's real, it's tangible, you can't buy it, you build it. And that's the thing that I actually excites me most. That's the thing I work on the most. That's I look at it as my job. That's really what I do.
Oli Le Lievre 13:53
And so how do you do that in practice? I think as a CEO, I guess you key interactions are at the heart level. So how do you actually then make sure you're seeing felt that you in control or at least have an understanding of what's happening across the business?
Speaker 2 14:09
Well, I think that stepping back and going so you know, when I'd never had any SEO training right? And it was just leadership jobs along the way. So what I sort of did was came in and said okay, what does it mean to be a good business and there was a couple of things I wanted to do was so as firstly sort of set a bit of a goal, but also talk about what does it mean to be ACC so I came out with a thing called aim culture capability. So AC Australian country choice, but also aim culture capability. So what's our aim? What's our vision, our mission where are we going? What's our culture and came up with this B right value so B ri ght belief energy responsibility, integrity, grit, humility and team and that was our second our see before our capability, our culture. So that was an important point. And then capabilities, some metrics right what's, you know, we've got our safety and our customer and our operational excellence and people and culture in those sort of real tangible metrics. And so as sort of bringing that methodology into the business like this is what it for me, it means this is what I want to live by this is what it means to be ACC, we've got our three stripes, which is a butcher's apron. So back in, I could go on about this for a while. I'll be lucky that this is good. So there's butcher's apron, right? You just look at it, I'd never know. Um, but those three stripes signify something. Firstly, the blue is the color that hides blood the most. So that's why the Blue was chosen. And then the three stripes on there. So when you were an apprentice, this is in the 1500s, or something, it was, this was ages ago, when you're an apprentice, just doing your trade, you got your first drop. So you're, you know, in a five year apprenticeship, whatever learning your trade, when you became the master of your craft, you got your second stripe. And then and most importantly, when you got your third strike was when you're the master of your craft, and you're training apprentices and that I just went, that's us. That's what I want to be, you know, I want to be the master of our craft. And I want to train our apprentices. And I want our three stripes. And so our three stripes are our amo culture, our capability. And we have our three stripes that we've put into a lot of our stuff that you'll see around the facility and whatnot. So so that was the first thing. And the second one that was important to me was there's so much noise that goes on in a business, like, where do I start? How do I work through this, there's everything going on. And I just had a thing where I said, I'm going to get the right team with the right information, I'm going to give them the right information, I'm going to communicate correctly with them and listen, and I'm thinking to have the right accountability. So right team is about the right values and principles, gotta get that right team. So I just work around this premise, right? Get the right team, never stop trying to get the right team, not the best person, the right team with these values. Given the right info, like good people need the information, have they got all the information at their fingertips to make the right decisions. And we've done we've spent millions and millions of dollars on ERP and you know, system upgrades and whatnot to give you real time data, there's so much information flying around? How do you take it into a coherent thing that gives you the tools you need, that gives me the information I need. And everyone like all the way up all the leaders in the business, give him the right info, then communicate. So how am I had a thing where how do I talk to every single person every single week? You know, how do I get a touch point with everyone every week, and it's still evolving, it's not an easy thing to do. But you know, we've done different things like the Monday morning Master, I get it, we get up and talk to the business, or the station guys come online, or we record it. We all our office staff stand up and we just go last week this week, what happened last week, what happened this week, just you know, giving people an update. We're doing different things with surveys and information, you know, to get feedback back and just communicating. You know, because you always hear I didn't know about that. I didn't know about this. So working a lot on the comms and then the accountability piece. And I say only after we've done the other things. Only after that, can you hold people to account? So just really performance reviews? And how are we living and breathing our values and those sorts of things, bringing all that to life? So that sort of thing. I just rotate through right? With all the noise that goes on. I just have I got the right to why is there a problem? I've got the right team info. And generally you'll find in one of those steps, you got to failure, and you need to close that gap to keep going. Just as simple as that. Yeah, that's all it is. So that but that was just me, mate just going I don't know what to do here. So I'm going to think about it and spend some time to analyze what I want to achieve out of this. And how am I going to take a complicated business like they all are, and simplify and make sure I'm always coming back to those basics.
Oli Le Lievre 18:39
I just find that so fascinating. How like, well, from where I'm sitting, I can see your mind working through those different things. I was having a conversation with someone literally only this week, and they said, Do you think the great leaders in business but in agriculture specifically? Are they smarter than everyone else? Are they harder working than everyone else? Or is it disability to connect things?
Speaker 2 19:00
Yeah, they're definitely not Well, in my case definitely not smarter than that. My it is absolutely about the two I'm like that's everything right? I've seen businesses succeed and fail same assets, different team, you know, so I mentioned that businesses but big businesses where they've been doing really poorly brought a new management team in and totally changed around same set of assets, you know, haven't changed anything other than the people it is people is will make or kill your business. So for me, it's not about the one person it's about having the ability to put a good team together. Give them the vision, given the mission, where are we going? You know, my job is not to do everything. In fact my job is almost to do nothing. That's what I got told as a CEO, you do nothing but you do everything and so it's all about just standing back bird's eye view, is it all right, why is it not right? And then coming up with those basics, you know, to really and that for me is the art How do you get that cut? How do you get the Melbourne Storm? How do you get the All Blacks To get the culture, that's the job. And that's difficult it is. And it's a never ending journey and you doubt yourself some days, you know, like, it's never perfect mate. That's also the other thing you got to always be comfortable with.
Oli Le Lievre 20:11
So tell me, we haven't touched much on your dad, I think love the family aspects of the business and it comes through the passion that you talk with is infectious and how that then transcends across the 1200 Odd staff you've got. Tell me a little bit about your old man, and what kind of role model he was a mentor for you?
Speaker 2 20:28
Yeah, he was a visionary. So you want the long story? Yeah, let's go for sure. So look, he was out here. And you know, whenever his first property with the first property that Trevor and Norma owned it, my granddad was Brindley Park 13,000 acres scrub block, he spent his cut his teeth out here. You know, he would they just had Herefords, I think they didn't know who their customer was, they just sell it, you know, whoever and he, he just hated that model. He wanted to know who his customer was. And he wanted to underpin their business with his assets. And that was a vision that he always had. And he put together the this thing about I don't, it doesn't matter what animals I think's right, what's the customer want. And so he got the Colts contract. And that was sort of a very small contract big for him, that he really grew that with this whole philosophy to give a customer what they want, all the ways, just ask the customer that, you know, and that grew and grew, and to be what it is today, all on the back of that philosophy, you know, whether it's Brahmins or crossbreds, or wag is whatever it is, you know, give the customer what they want, all the time, never not supply was his motto. So as as this be right these days, but his was, you know, never not supply. And that was how he built the business. And that's what I've, you know, I've learned a lot from my old man, he's very strategic, very visionary, he's always stayed to his core of what you know, is important in business. And, you know, one of the many things most important thing is the customer piece, knowing your customer giving them what they want. The other thing that I'd like to evolve that too, is that, you know, it's not just about your end customer, it's also internally, so when you've got HR, safety, quality, all those service functions, they've got customers. So what I talked to them about too, is saying, who's your customer know what they want and deliver, you know, serve its people and culture department operations is your customer. Now, it doesn't mean you bend or break any rules, but know what they want deliver for what they want. And if every department does, that will be a great business and will supply to the end customer as a two. So he was he's helped me think more strategically, I suppose it's what I look, he looks over over the horizon, which is always hard to do. And he's been, you know, he's always been there. He's, he's my father, and he's still involved. And I talk to him, you know, every second day when he's not here and every day when he's here. And we're always we're not talking to the minutiae, you know, we're talking those big picture things. And he's a wonderful sounding board. For those really sticky, big things a year you're grappling with. And there's been plenty of them over the I took over the CEO role. And I think the next week COVID hit you know, like it was just you couldn't ask for. So there's always challenges and there's no playbook on some of these things. Right. So you got to go with your gut in your head a bit and, and use the people around you. And he's a master of
Oli Le Lievre 23:11
you sounds very similar to Angus straight. He did. He was telling me when I sat down, I end up spending a couple of years with auctions plus, but when he got the announcement that borders are closing and all this, he went back to his computer and was like, Google, what to do. When global pandemic, he's still a business. I literally, I reckon
Speaker 2 23:29
AI would probably tell you that these days. There was no, what do you do? You know, how do you control the flu? Who's ever tried to control the flu before? You know, that's sort of what the it was? It was? Yeah, I didn't try and Google I should have. Did he find anything?
Oli Le Lievre 23:45
Today? No, I don't think so. So really interesting time, because I think, one, you had compounding factors, you had a workforce that you needed more than ever actually, the public needed more than ever, because there was those real panic, people in supermarket shelves, getting gutted the pressures and demands on you guys to actually create a safe work environment, but actually then deliver for these customers. What was that? Like?
Speaker 2 24:05
Yeah, it was made. It was interesting at the time. And again, you just didn't know where to start with it. It was. And so what we did a couple of key things were let's get some experts in. So we got some subject matter experts around pandemics and crisis management teams together. Third party people that came in and sort of started to help us navigate what does a pandemic even mean? How do they work? And they were amazing. Like these guys had data of pandemics that had happened, you know, the plague and all these things. And what happened, the waves they talked about, this was before the real first wave had even come. And they talked about all this stuff that actually exactly happened, right? So it was fantastic to sort of get people in that gave us some idea of just what we were in for. And they wrote a script. It was pretty much exactly what happened. So that was the first thing. We got our internal team together. We met every day like it was women. with government regularly, we did a lot of things like we brought masks in very early. We had a big marquee set up where we bought a lot of rats, the rats remember the rats and gnats, we had NAT. So we had the rapid antigen test, we had the nucleic acid test, which was like a PCR. So we had all that set up fairly early on, and every single person was being in the meat works has been tested every single day. So there was so many 150 grand I think it was day that was costing us was a ridiculous amount of money. But that was might have been a week I got that wrong. But anyway, it was a lot of money. And it was but we looked at it as you had an option of being closed, potentially or staying open. Right. So what that meant was, one is the people coming through that tent knew that they were clean going into work, right. So they felt safe in a work environment. They were super spread out, you know, abattoir was a super spreader place and throughout the world, people were dying and abbatoirs. So people felt safe, they'll bring their families to get tested, you know, like we had. So that was a really positive thing. And that kept the business going. We did, we've actually done a lot of things that we've kept. We've created a balaclava of washable balaclava with a mask embedded. So that's we've kept that going lot of perspect dividers on all the men, our lunch room tables, so no one was face to face. But still, we can house hundreds of people in in close confines, you know, all the sanitizer stuff. That's all of that still going today. So, again, out of adversity comes the good. And if I look at it positively, I'd say we're a stronger, healthier business, I think we've got lower, we've got lower absenteeism and sickness in our business now than we used to have. So you know, what is that is that, you know, I can't put my finger to say it's definitely that but you know, it's probably helping people are turning up, which is a good thing for our business.
Oli Le Lievre 26:51
So you've had it before, I think we've touched on maybe the education side as well. But you've had a heck of a run in three and a bit years, because then also, was the China ban as part of this as well? Yep. What was that like
Speaker 2 27:02
China ban skill, shortage, interest rates, you know, changing the whole customer base, you know, we went from all calls to no calls within three years, we had to change four and a half million acres thrown 1000, head of cattle, three feedlots, and a facility full of 6000 had a week, in three years, go now do it, and COVID and all the things going on at the same time. So there has been a lot and it's put a lot of pressure on our team, there's been an amazing resilience there, I cannot thank them enough. I just love what we've been able to achieve in such a short in such adversity. And, you know, we haven't really had a lot of attrition with people. So people have really dug in and we've come through so much, it'll probably feel really easy. We won't know won't know ourselves, and they won't, they will, you know, but it has been a challenging couple of years, it's still is with a lot of the cattle market meat markets pretty soft. And that's a bit worrying. And I think we're China's globally, I think we're just starting to see interest rates. I know I've speaking to some people who own a large logistics company throughout the world, every one of their facilities is full of meat, their stock turns have gone from six to four. That's all protein. So you know, if you think about it, interest rates rising, we're all just eating a bit less aren't we are we're moving away from the expensive items anyway. And so you know, we've still got a lot of challenges ahead of us to get through the next couple of years, but we're becoming a stronger and stronger business to handle the shocks. And our vertically integrated model sort of helps us with that as well. So they'll always be there. The challenges are you just got to know that that's part of business and you just wake up the next day and try and make a bit better.
Oli Le Lievre 28:40
There's two things I'm really curious about one do end up finding this nearly addiction to this adrenaline rush on the edge managing addiction to it.
Speaker 2 28:51
No, I like positive cut and thrust. Like I love the strategy. I like that. Where's the next thing in the next opportunity love that, like that's addictive? The really, you know, dealing with crises and whatnot is not you know, you'd like to see way more of your time spent proactively than reactively. The last couple of years have been all reactive for us with what I was just mentioned. But so yeah, just moving that towards a more proactive sort of, you know, growth, opportunity diversification. What's next, you know, yeah, that's certainly enjoyable.
Oli Le Lievre 29:22
And then the second part I was curious to find out about is what do you do outside of work to be able to keep showing up at the level the you and the team that
Speaker 2 29:30
I got four young kids, so I try and spend as much time with them doing you know, they love their horses and their motorbikes and getting out here we come out here as much as we can. I like all sports, so whether it's watching it or going and playing it so you know everything from what I had going for a surf I used to play with a golf but I don't do any of that. So but just getting out with my friends doing different sports, family time, sort of try and do this thing was I was told that you know, you've got your work you've Got your personal life individually, you've got your family, you've got your friends, and you've got to try and do all of that a bit on bit lopsided to the work side at the moment. But it's really important to do those other things and just em take a break, like, you know, switch, take your four weeks annual leave a year, you know, make sure our team does that, you know, out here historically, is they're always challenging for people to actually leave. But it's so important to just switch off and you know, spend time doing what you love. And you come back recharged. So that, you know, that's all important stuff.
Oli Le Lievre 30:31
I did hear that you're a surfer is like a bit of an interesting mix. Isn't that one of Australia's largest agricultural businesses with the CEO, who serves as well.
Speaker 2 30:41
Remember, I grew up in the city, right? So I grew up
Oli Le Lievre 30:44
doesn't exactly have Mr. Man had a
Speaker 2 30:47
Trevor had a unit down the coast. And he was a surfer. So he just taken you know, eight years old or whatever, I started doing that. And yeah, I love the water mate, I really enjoy. That's actually where you sitting out there out the back, waiting for a wave. It's just a really pleasant environment, you know, and you really do think all sorts of things out there. And it's very relaxing sort of time and very social, go with your buddies and go for a wave, love to get over to Straddie let the tires down, take an esky and take some seafood, get down the beach and spend the whole day down there kids running around teaching them to surf, you know, a lovely way to like Bush and beach for me, Bush and beach, those to my real loves.
Oli Le Lievre 31:27
That's cool. Now, while we're on the kids, and I think a huge part of well, it's really only just the beginning of the potential impact that I think you're really leading in a key part of in ag education. A couple of years ago, or last year at the ACA, you gave a speech about the importance of getting agriculture into the mainstream so people understand and reconnect back to where food comes from how it's produced, why it's important to have that understanding. What was the conversation that actually sparked this passion?
Speaker 2 31:55
Oh, I mean, Carrie, the other day, Caroline, again, talked about the kids and learning being told at school, a few things about agriculture, that that's one of it, you know, certainly don't like to hear that. I hear that a lot. So that's not just my kids. I'm hearing that a lot. I also just think it was seeing that I don't think we were doing it that well, I don't think and I don't blame the teachers. Like I'm not saying it's the industry's fault. I think we've just missed this thing where there's a country city divide that's happened very quickly and very significantly, and I don't think we've really caught on to Oh, hang on a minute, we're losing that contact, we need to make sure that people are understanding and as they go through school, not because they all have to come into the industry, but because it's critical, right is an essential service during COVID. We have to eat, you know, we have to be clothed and all of that it's what we do is vitally important, and people should understand that. So I when I did that research for that speech, and started to understand it a bit more, what I was really boiled about, though, is that the schools that are doing it, well are doing it well. And where it's done well, there's actually really good results, right? So we're not trying to teach something that kids don't like, but in fact nine out like they love it, you've seen him running around here yesterday, they just get into this is all a kid's dream, you know, and when you get onto stations, you got heavy machinery and all the other things that just excite them, not to mention how beautiful it is out here. So they naturally love it. And if you just and they're interested. And if you pitch it as more of a science and technology and innovation and the things that kids are these days interested in, you know, that excites them as well. So we've got a lot to offer and sell as an industry everyone I talked to about this, you know, there's so much interest in helping to support this, which gives me a lot of confidence. There is some challenges about our industry and how it's, you know, sort of set up to I look at as a hockey stick, you know, it's a bit of backwards, you gotta go backwards a bit hard, it's a bit of a grind, you don't go as quickly as you'd like to, or you face a few challenges. But once you get the momentum and things start to improve, then you know, you'll quickly see some upside opportunity. So we've got a working group established now that's got a whole group of really young, interesting, innovative, passionate people that I think are essential for this, because that's the next gen and that's who's going to make this work. So that's really interesting. Because we got to like a business, right? You got to develop where do we want to go? Like, you can't just do stuff and not have any vision, you got to say, well, let's firstly what is great look like if we want to do this, what's great look like let's put that down on a piece of paper, forget what can and can't be done. What if we could write the script? What does it look like? Where are we at today? And then you bite sized chunk it and you go okay, well, let's do these three projects, because we think they're the most important next year and just chip away. If it takes 10 years, 20 years, whatever, it just you got to start somewhere. But you got to always have this vision of where you want to go. And so that's the first thing. And then I've had so many people calling from big organizations looking to back there. So I think from a financial point and we got like 800 million in RDC funds across all of the RDC the 15 RTS See, I don't think funding is the option, you do the right thing, you get the vision, right. And you'll get people on board, you know, education, tech, young people take agriculture tick, you know, like it ticks all the boxes, right? So that won't be a problem. It's just getting alignment in the vision, right. And then I'm working on a bit of a project at the moment around like a bit of a timber top equivalent. Now, just the Geelong grammar model actually, there anyway, it's look, it's just early days, but it's just a thing that I personally didn't quite enjoy. I just think it's a wonderful, wonderful model. You know, education is not about books, it's part of it, right? Education is about building resilience to actually run businesses or, you know, be a great person in whatever field you're in. And that, as you know, as we all know, life is full of ups and downs, right. That's what you got to teach kids, you know, about how they're going to manage their life, how they manage their feelings, how they lead, you know, or how they be good at what they do. And of course, they've got to understand about English and maths and whatever, but I just think it's so so for me that year nine experience where they go out west, and they just get immerse themselves in everything. And it's challenging. And these are rich, you know, affluent kids that have probably had a fairly easy life, and they're put to work. By the end of it, though, the proper young humans, if they're running marathons, they start off, I think he's started running 10 k's a day or something, by the end of it running marathons and fantastic stuff. And you know, the, so it's a brilliant, brilliant concept. We've got all these amazing assets around Australia so much to see and do like, why do they need to be in a classroom all the time? Why can't they be out and about still learning, still learning what they need to, but doing it in in different environment and different way?
Oli Le Lievre 36:35
What's something that's maybe surprised you since you started this, I guess, real focus in around education?
Speaker 2 36:41
Well, what excites me is that I still haven't had a person say it's a terrible idea. Because you know, one of the challenges with begin dealing with the oil industries, you've got politics, right, 50% of the people hate the idea. I haven't found that, you know, so what I get encouraged by is that there's a real alignment piece that we need to do things differently and better. And so if that's there, if the willingness is there, then, you know, I think the rest is just effort, a bit of sweat equity, just time, you know, it's exciting. So no surprises to the negative. If anything, it's just build more resolving meter to keep going. Just another
Oli Le Lievre 37:18
little side road. Yeah. I'd love to know, what is it about agriculture? Why is it that like you've grown up in it, you work from breezy, but what is it that if we're to put something on the sector, and we want to connect these Metro people to it, what's the thing that we're, so I bring
Speaker 2 37:33
people out, I take them out, we go out to properties a couple of times a year with families and whatnot. I've taken people out there, you know, 30 year olds, never been out west before one, we're flying up to a place called de lugar in the middle of the up on top of the Canadian Rangers, right, like middle of nowhere. She asked me, where's the nearest ATM? You know, so she had no idea where she was going. And we went out there. And there was a bunch of them that hadn't been out there before. We had five days out there. And they had the best time, right? Like they just loved it and came back going, I cannot believe that that's what it's like. So what I think about agriculture, is this, right? It is something that gets Indian, the older you get, I think the more it resonates, it's good for the soul, you know, being out here, fresh air, good people, that's the only people out here, just the best, just the best people. And so as I said lot to offer, I think the more I do it, the more I love it, the more I get immersed in it, the more I want to come out here, you know, if I could somehow run the business from Roma, I'd be gone. And I think a lot of people would be like that, I think COVID I think, you know, I heard that there was a bit of a lot of people sort of moving out onto little acreage blocks and getting away from the cities. You grow up in the city don't only think differently, but it's not. There's something about a city that only once you get out here that I think you start to go well, that feels a bit fake and feels a bit not real. This feels real. So yeah, I don't think I think everyone has that in them somewhere.
Oli Le Lievre 39:01
It's quite like primitive really, isn't it? That comes back to the core. Yeah. So one thing we haven't touched on, and I guess it's the part, which really fascinates me is stepping up the higher level the role that agriculture plays that we know, by 2050, there's going to be 10 billion people. We're facing increasing pressures, as the world decarbonize. But the thing that, I guess we know, as fact is people need to eat and the way we produce it, here is incredible. What have you learned? And I guess, how's the global interests shaping you and your perspectives of the ag sector going forward?
Speaker 2 39:33
I mean, you know, again, I look at food and say, particularly meat, right, you buy a bit of meat, you eat it, you go again, like pretty good business model. Right. And I have to do it. It's not if I want to or not I have to eat. What I think, though is there is major major headwinds, you know, to just say global population to 10 billion people. I heard a stat that said something like we got to produce more calories from now to 2050 than we've ever produced. I don't know who to without how if That's even remotely right. You know, the challenge of that is immense, right. And, in fact, if anything, arable lands becoming less, we'll be having more and more restrictions on us about weather, you know, water use. And so we should you know, how we balance it all up to make it sustainable. So there's major headwinds, again, this comes back to education, right? We need smart like what a teacher is saying, when they say, Oh, it's terrible out there, we're not doing the right thing. And it's all bad. And sort of like, what's the outcome, we're not going to eat, we're not going to, you know, like, it's all farming, that doesn't work either having all plant based stuff like that, they don't understand that that can't work. And again, it's not their fault. It's just not something that we as an industry have really got that message across. So we need to break down this thing where we're saying it's a problem to going it's not a problem, it's actually really beneficial, but we need to do it more sustainably. And then we need smart young people coming up through the ranks, you know, up through the schooling, education, that going into the sector, to make material change in our industry, to for us to do it smarter, more efficiently, more sustainably, and help us on this journey. You know, look at Israel, they've got a desert there, they got no water. And they've been you know, some of the stuff they've done there out of necessity has been absolutely incredible, right. And we're a bit the same in that we're not subsidized or high cost country, we've had to innovate fairly well as an industry. But we need to keep going. And we need smart, we don't need, you know, counselors saying, Oh, that's a job that you do as last resort. They're the people that have no other prospects in life, it's just so wrong, more off the tools, jobs, and on more city based jobs as many city based jobs as in the region's like, we need it all. And people don't get that and we need smart people. We need analysts. We need data, we need science, we need technology. We need all these great people, that's what's going to solve it. You know, it's not us doing the same thing day in day out, it's the next thing, what's the next bit of kit tech, that's going to change things up. And that'll be smart. So this year 10 thing or you nine thing I want to do one part of it would be you'd have maybe a center of excellence say that the RDC the Research and Development Corporation's put some effort into that every year, you bring these people out and you say at the start of the year, here's all the big problems that we're facing, we want you to spend the year money your projects is to come up with a big technology or a bit of you know, something, an idea that is going to change that every year you do that. And then you give them a platform at some big event sometime and they pitch it, you know, imagine if you know, it doesn't have to happen every year. But imagine every now and again, if something seriously, industry changing came from that, you know, these kids that are thinking differently about it. So you know, be amazing, I reckon.
Oli Le Lievre 42:33
Yeah. And I think it's something so interesting about, I'll say, children, teenagers, when they come out, it's not naivety, they just don't come out with these blockers that we get up as you go through life. And so it's actually this whole different way of thinking in business as an industry we actually need, particularly
Speaker 2 42:47
if we're taking them on the journey young and saying it's good, it's good. We want you in it like, you know, think about and so they're coming with a positive mindset towards it not? What's this sort of industry about? You know, so? Yeah, they're the future.
Oli Le Lievre 43:01
Yeah. So one question I asked everyone on the podcast, if you had the chance to go down and chat to your 10 students in a metro school, what would you say to them about a career in agriculture,
Speaker 2 43:10
it would probably take a long time, I think there's so much to say to them, but it would just be that I'd want to give them the opportunities that they would resonate with inner city, like, I'd want to show them CEOs or, you know, Senior Technology, you know, CIOs or people that are working in and around the sector that made good money, good livelihoods, they live in a city, they have a great career, and just probably paint a picture that's probably not there. You know, I wouldn't show the farmer on a tractor. You know, I think that's a picture they've gotten. I'd want to show them the pictures they don't have, which is so much of what we do, and so much more of what we need. Just try and open their eyes to that a little, I think.
Oli Le Lievre 43:51
Cool. Well, Anthony, I know. You've got a lot on out here with the whole team.
Speaker 2 43:55
has been good. I've been keep going. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Oli.
Oli Le Lievre 44:02
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 guest 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. We really do welcome it. So look after yourselves. Stay safe. stay sane. We'll see you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file