Oli Le Lievre 0:03
Good day and welcome back to another episode of the humans of agriculture podcast. I'm your host Ali live. And this week, we're in Ghana with the Ag grip field days, I'm sitting down with the fellas that clip x we're on Camila ROI country. I want to pay my respects and acknowledge the traditional custodians on the lands wherever you're taking our podcast this week, and every week. Now I'm sitting down with Locky Knight and Ned Olsen they're both from clip x we want to find out more about each of their backgrounds but also how this was a success story in the clip X business evolved from wanting to do the fence post slightly differently. I reckon that's bloody fascinating everything from how Ned's family moved over to China to establish and build the factory coming back and then evolving from just a fencing business into all these other different innovations. And I think it's pretty easy, fascinating chat that we're just having sitting just at their stand next to the Herefords barbecue. But yeah, let's just jump into it. I hope you enjoy it. We'd love to hear your thoughts on these different conversations because we're certainly hitting a little bit of diversity and different areas of the ag industry. Let's get into it. Ned loggie Welcome to the humans of agriculture podcast, a beautiful day here at AG. Where would you rather be?
Speaker 2 1:23
I'm a snow bunny. So I'd prefer to be on the slopes just about any day of the year, I think.
Oli Le Lievre 1:28
Tell me what the ski season was like because I saw some videos and it honestly it was like skiing overseas and it was skiing in Australia and it was just mud this year.
Speaker 2 1:35
I can't comment about this year. You haven't been yet. No way going. My brother lives in Canada now. He's married to a Canadian and living over on a ski hill over in Kimberley, just probably an hour from Ferny. So we're doing a trip for a white Christmas and January at the end of the year. So we're holding back here, urge to ski till then.
Oli Le Lievre 1:56
So you're saying you're a bit of a ski snob now you're too good for Australia if it's not at 6000 feet above me because he asked you don't look at it.
Speaker 2 2:03
No, actually, we're renovating an old Victorian at the moment it's cost a bit more money than I thought. And I've got five kids so Canada costs a bit more than I was hoping to.
Speaker 3 2:13
I was gonna ask her that I can come in your check luggage but then remembered you'd probably have enough of that.
Oli Le Lievre 2:18
It would be a bit taken on five with you.
Ned 2:20
Yeah, now it's why we traveled a lot to China over the years like we've done a few stints in China with different amounts of kids one kid the first time two kids and three kids so our kids did a lot of traveling when they were younger the older ones but the youngest one six now and he's never been overseas but it will definitely an experience
Oli Le Lievre 2:40
quite the adventure. What about for you like it you're just you're more of a Tropics man are you spending your time up
Lachie 2:46
north for work at the moment but it is on a little bit heavy set for that to tropical climate. Do firming and he a little bit of dry heats far better for here. But I've don't quite have five out of four. So my favorites sort of just out of the farm, tinkering out there and binding sausages on player played over fire and the horse riding motorbikes. Lots of stuff playing with gas.
Speaker 2 3:08
You look good after you trip up north a bit more chiseled, a bit more chiseled,
Speaker 3 3:11
sweated out when someone say to me earlier, it's like living in a sauna. Literally sweating. And that's amazing to be in torrential rain blowing sideways with a sweat up.
Oli Le Lievre 3:21
Yeah, I reckon you can keep that humidity doesn't work. Well with me march in Brisbane is about enough, I think. So.
Unknown Speaker 3:27
Going up there and Simon's bit Rafi hop off the plane in Townsville and go.
Oli Le Lievre 3:32
So let me just read both of you. But maybe I'll start with you like your background. I've had the chance to sit down with your mum before and have a bit of a chat, Isabel. And it wasn't about succession planning. I didn't have to go through that. So tell me a little bit more about where you grew up. And I guess that early influence of agriculture for you
Speaker 3 3:49
grew up on a property or family farm. So originally, dad was in a partnership with his brother. And they sort of separated that just before I came along, or around the same time I sort of did and stare on a place that we Calabar just between sort of being away and cooler. And we're there and we're sort of looking for a little bit more. Mum in particular, looking for a bit more to do professionally in her career. But then also for us it sort of reached that tipping point of do we go away to boarding school? Or do we move so that we actually had opportunities growing up and so they looked at businesses and things in Sydney and there was no way tear dad off the land. The reason he was looking for businesses in Sydney and things was he's actually allergic to grass and trees. So great thing to have for farmer. But yeah, couldn't get away from it. And so ended up buying a place over here in Tamworth because for schooling and the opportunity and things like that. So property just out at lubra. And so we grew up there and did school in Tamworth and dad's sort of approach to sort of ag was that he didn't want to over capitalizing country so didn't actually buy a Massive place. So just did a lot of trading and stock did breeding operations as well. In the early days, I've been running sheep, but the then more into the cattle trading side of things. And the best thing about that for him was he was able to get scale without over capitalizing and land and infrastructure and property. But also to usually it kicked off an adjustment place when it starts to get dry, usually just before the market starts to drop or get out. And it's a little bit flexibility instead of being tied to a block a land that's exposed for drought, floor and flood that is flexible and able to move. So there are times where we've sort of scaled in numbers from manually a couple of heads through to quite a few 1000. And at one point, they're having cattle spread from sort of Yes, Tamworth, through to Krakow, in Queensland, on all different types of country all different barriers and blocks and where it is so got a fair experience doing that. So a lot of time for me growing up was spent missing school to go to the saddle yards or go and master cattle in the territory for three weeks living out of stock camp there or disappearing for three or four days out of Warren to master draft and process and living out of the horse flight or a swag on the ground and back so the adventure or the attachment to it came from all of that was the hard work and everything that went into it, but also the nicer sides and the enjoyment from it. So I really enjoyed that doing that.
Oli Le Lievre 6:26
I heard your old man go did he do all of that himself with you guys like to actually make it possible to have a team of workers
Speaker 3 6:32
so he did it all himself good stock agent good relationships. He's someone who could walk into any town or any area and walk into the pub and say hi to five people. They just knew just amazing networker horrible with names like me absolutely useless, but never forgot a face. And for some reason was imprinted on most people he met so they'd always say hello to him. But he did most of that himself and did it with partners. So partners. So he started doing low stress stock handling with Jim and gray Marie's that then transferred into c'est que la marketing and that sort of things as well. And through that we did run adjustment with, say, Graham or he did stuff with Jim. So it often had partnerships along the way, obviously, RCS and executive link and things, opened the doors there with quite a few contacts and business partners. But a lot of the time was just having good relationships with the stock agent and stock buyers and things like that.
Oli Le Lievre 7:25
And you mentioned that you guys moved from wheat to Alibaba, so your mum could also build her career. So she both your old man was flat out covering the east coast of Australia, on the cattle side, your mum was building her career in business as well.
Speaker 3 7:37
So she wouldn't I came across the time was she started with a sort of Rabobank doing sort of succession planning there, and that sort of similar sort of role, and really identified that the succession structure within the banking sector was about the financial succession of businesses, and wasn't about the actual people side to it. And mums and dads sort of, there's a little bit of a toss and turn. And it was just a bit awkward in relation to their leaving the business and the partnership they were in. And she just was sort of going well, it's not just about the financial succession of business, it's actually about the people side of it. And so developed or changed the way succession sort of looked at that. Yes, that's a big side of it. And it's not just about the farm. It's also what about the people that are off farm? What value and contribution have they got? Where does that go? And then what happens with mom or dad afterwards? And how do people feel how do you have a relationship as a family at the end of it, without people holding resentment, and everyone sort of feeling that they've got what they want. And so the legal and financial side took a back step to the actual people side of the business. And she identified that was sort of a gap. And so that's what drove her to start her own business in it. So the connection with AG is just strong right through every region and spend forever going, Oh, you're reasonable. So now we're going to talk about just frightened on which side that person had landed in the planning. Occasionally,
Oli Le Lievre 9:03
so you just introduced this. As Locky. Just like yeah,
Speaker 3 9:06
that's right. That's right. So the touch got a little bit steady to work out whether they were the ones that were really happy with the outcome or not.
Oli Le Lievre 9:15
Good luck with that. Yeah. What about for you, Ned? We're like you're obviously a huge living now in Victoria. So you close to the scale of it.
Speaker 2 9:23
I wish Yeah, at the moment on the between a little town called Oxley in between mellower Wangaratta kids are going to school down there. And we're mainly my wife is renovating an old Victorian that we bought down there. And in between there and the family farm in golden. So when I'm not working for clip X, and I get spare time between the five kids and the rhinos, I oversee the family farm we run a few sheep down there and golden. Also just, they're passionate about the land and just been connected with what we do. And that's what I do to center myself a bit, is just get on the land and round stock and enjoy doing that with the kids.
Oli Le Lievre 10:07
And I'm interested with both of you like, starting with you ned packing, we've looked at the opportunities outside the farm gate, and maybe you didn't just stay on the farm and golden
Speaker 2 10:16
Hill, it's been one big roller coaster didn't know exactly where we're turning up or down or what was going on. But yeah, we left the family farm when we started clip X. We tried to get old to start with when we first developed the idea of the fence posts. We just thought, you know, it's a cracking idea. Why wasn't it being used, while people still tying off fence posts after all this time. And no one that we approached was really interested in doing anything with the ID. So we just, we thought it was too good an idea and the need was too great just to let it die. So we thought we'd give it a crack ourselves. And we had a few manufacturing issues trying to outsource the manufacturing of the product. And we decided we just go for broke and really have a good crack. And we'd moved to China ourselves and set up our own factory. And that's when we left the family farm. All of us except for my 17 year old brother at the time, he stayed and flew the flag at the field day saying, you know, we're coming, we'll make it. It we might have fencepost next year. And you know, it wasn't meant to go the way that it did. But you know, we ended up just taking a lot longer to set up the factory in China and distribution needs and things I ended up moving to Brisbane and Sydney for a bit. And then to Brisbane, we settled in Brisbane for a while and then decided that I was just missing the country a bit too much. And opportunity came to sort of relocate to Tamworth actually, we're setting up our first sort of regional branch down in Tamworth. And I thought it was a good place to raise kids and good school network. And so we moved to Tamworth and started trying to look for a bit of country down there to get back on the land a bit. And that year, my role in clip X ended up growing with the business was the CEO at the time and just found myself traveling a lot and not really probably having time to look after farm as well as the kids and do those things. So we put that on the back burner for a bit. But then it sort of got to a stage in our business where we change things up a little bit. And my father moved back from China, he'd been living there for, you know, over 10 years, and sort of decided that I'd work a bit more strategically in the business and on the business. And then he would take over sort of the day to day, operational side. And that's where we decided that moving back to the family farm was the right thing for us at that time. And so the plan still do actually end up in golden on the family farm but just haven't got there just taken a detour. My sister in law convinced me let's say my wife that yeah, moving down there next to them for a little bit and renovating a house and kids doing bit of life together with their cousins and stuff was a good idea which it has been really good for us. And you know, eventually looking forward to getting back on the farm and being based on a goal.
Oli Le Lievre 13:08
I'm gonna come back to in a second Lockheed. So I think we glossed over maybe that decision so you guys are farming the frustration was looking at well, why people still using wire to talk to the fence versus other ways to do it.
Speaker 2 13:19
Oh, actually, no, that's we still the farm. The family farm had been cut a few different ways. So the land that my father had inherited of my grandfather wasn't really enough probably to sustain you know, the family and a few boys. So we had off income and a business in Golden at that time actually ended up selling cars and machinery and stuff for a while there actually I was a buyer and seller. And I went you know, bought a lot of things at auctions and found things for people and friends that wanted to buy vehicles or cars or trucks are used to, you know, go and find it for them and sell it to them. That was sort of our bit of off farm income at the time. So always looking at you know, I was always sort of passionate about business as a kid, I had a lot of family growing up, we background, his Olsen's salt blocks and Pacific salt, my cousin started greens group with the pancake mix and cake mixes and stuff like that. And always just from, you know, a young kid, I always wanted to sit at the grown ups table. And you know, I was interested in business and starting your own thing. And that was always a passion of mine. So I was always, you know, we traveled around Australia when I was 17 for 18 months in a motorhome that we'd built. And my mom tried but she could never get me actually doing the homeschool work that she paid for. I'd learned how to use Excel on the computer and I was passionate about doing my little business plans and coming up with ideas and trying to convince dad that maybe we could start a business or something was always a passion of mine. So when we moved to the farm, it was always a bit of a passion or looking for off farm income. In setting up businesses, and yeah, that, you know, the pitch actually came, Dad was driving home from the workshop where we had the car business and vehicles. And he saw an old farmer trying to pull down an old fence actually wasn't building a new one. And my father is a praying man, and he's praying at the time just going God, there's got to be an easier way. And, you know, he got a bit of a picture or vision, you know, when he got home, I've just thought, you know, an idea for fence posts for me and my brother got home that night, he showed us and we're going, oh, yeah, that could, that's got legs, maybe that could work. Next day, we got onto a patent attorney and their cousin, TIG Olson, he always had a few things on the go, and you'd patent attorneys and stuff. So we thought, you know, maybe we can get a bit of protection on this if we develop it. And one thing led to another and, you know, we developed the product and just saw that it would actually work. And it would solve just a major problem that farmers had of just that manual labor of fencing. It's the one job that now I want to do, I remember being a kid going down to help grandparent my uncle's fence, and I was always the whippersnapper, pull on the bottom wire through the, you know, the posts covered in the only have to do you have felt like doing, you know, days and miles at a time, but I probably did 300 meter stretch and it just felt like a huge job. Now we're, you know, building fences, with some clients, you know, simple fences and barbed fences are done on, you know, six, eight kilometers a day, not 300 meters. So yes, always knew that fencing was harder than that should have been. And that's what led us to really pursue the idea.
Oli Le Lievre 16:33
It's pretty funny, isn't it? What when you think of some of the, I guess, inventions that have really changed Australia, like the Hills Hoist in the backyard, something as simple as the fence post, just looking at it a slightly different way, what that can go on to when you actually look around, I guess you start here at quip and actually look at now the products that have evolved from there. And in quite a short period of time, because like what year was it when the you guys actually started that process of patenting? And
Speaker 2 16:57
I was 2007. Yeah, so we launched the product in 2008 Bit of a false start, but we launched it. So we won in Venter Of The Year that year. And we probably didn't need too much encouragement, but that probably gave us a bit more encouragement. So we're Swedish background, my family Olson and we just always say it's the Viking that comes out in us that for a fight and bit of a challenge and explore that, I suppose always grew up as a kid in our family that if there's a problem, you know, it's just because there's a solution, you know, waiting to be found. So that was always our approach to things. And just hurdle after hurdle that we struck, we just, we just find a way to push through and that we hit some delays in the fence, both sides of the business, we moved over to China had everything lined up, you know, battled for six months with the government to let them to let us set up a wholly owned company over there, we didn't want any Chinese business partners. And that took that was a challenge in itself that we spent all this time setting up we were only planning to buy the steel effectively steel posts and then do the manufacturing you know, the cutting the points, putting the clips on controlling that side of the quality. And then the day that we turned up to a manufacturer who'd been working with to place our first order, they showed us that the production line to make the steel posts was all in pieces, they'd want to be railway contract, which was the main part of their business and the fence posts line just go on and we're like, you know, we've been talking to you every week or you tell us that your lines gone more or just you know, typical Chinese waiting for you to come here and see whether maybe we could you know, still get some money out here or get you to place an order or and that just led to another challenge we had criss crossed China and we just knew that the quality of a lot of the other manufacturers with fenceposts were producing in China was just not up to standard and we weren't happy with the way that they operated with their workers and other things. So we sort of had a major supply issue like we got a great clip and put a slot in but we need an actual post put it on. So we worked on developing our own painted sort of fabrication method of actually we made the posts ourselves now in house through a different sort of method to traditional steel post making. But while that was developing, you know, we needed cash flow we needed other ideas and just an opportunity came about to manufacture cattle panels for another company and that's sort of where our cattle handling animal handling journey began needing a bit of work and cash flow to keep our fence posts dream alive. And you know, one thing led to another and I'm sort of going we're in China we can produce a quality product. Why are we competing with you know, every Mr. Wong making cheap panels, we should be making crushers we should be developing this innovation to be had in the industry. So we went down a pretty steep development path on animal handling side trying to develop the world's best sort of product, we always thought if we're going to develop a product, it should be sort of our own thing, it should be new, it should be unique. We didn't want to just copy something else. So we worked with some of Australia's leading designers for cattle crashes and things and worked with register theory is behind a lot of other crash manufacturers, and to develop our first things, and just one thing led to another and I was helping another cousin actually add a child of all that background cattle at the time for ACC, it also induct a lot of cattle for that area, they'd bring them into his yards, he didn't ask them put them back on trucks to go to other adjacent properties they'd had. And he had a fairly simple yard set, but was really well designed. He'd worked with bud Williams and other people to design his cattle yards, and he had a good tub system and on the Temple Grandin principles and an air crash. And after operating his yards for a couple of days, and seeing just him and his wife operated, um, just like everybody in Australia should have a set of yards like this, why don't we and he told me how much he had to pay for the tub and the crash and the race at the time, which was the unique part and I was just there going, that's, you know, we've got to be able to do it more affordably than that are different and better. And that sort of led to that, you know, next step in our animal handling development of why can't we, you know, make the world's best yards for, especially for the family farmer, to make them safe and operate efficiently. And it shouldn't be beyond the reach of the, you know, the average farmer, what's driven us a lot is the we don't want to make just unique niche products, we want to make products that are available for everybody, really, that's our passion. So, and with our manufacturing capability and engineering, we sort of been able to help accommodate for a broad spectrum of, you know, price ranges and applications, you know, animal handling products. So that's been a good part of our journey. And that's where we've got to today, I suppose it's just never at the time did I think we're gonna have 1000s of SKUs of items and all that stuff you started with, just try and even have one fence post. And that was, I thought that was hard enough trying to manage having one product that you're making now, making 1000s. But it's been a good journey. And it's different things have happened over the years and introductions and meeting people. And we now have a good business over in Europe, based in Ireland, and one in Uruguay, in South America, working with some local boots on the ground over there, in Uruguay, and then saying we've got a good guy, Kevin, who started as a fencing contractor actually using our products over in Ireland, and was interested in, you know, seeing if we could start a business together over in Ireland. And we've done that. And we've been over there now for the 10 years now in the UK, and Ireland. And those businesses are just sort of exploding at the moment over and, and all the development that we've been doing here in Australia sort of is applicable for those overseas markets as well. In Maine, if you've got to handle cattle, you've got to electronic identification and safety and it applies everywhere. You know, you go now overseas, especially in the bigger markets. And so yeah, that's,
Oli Le Lievre 23:10
it's a heck of a story, my God. Like, yeah, I'm interested for you. There's such a strong family story, which has come as part of it, you've been with the business seven or eight years now, just over seven now. So I guess initially, what was it that drew you into the business too, but also, like, how important is it for you, I'm gonna say, as an outsider, as someone who's come into the business, but not as part of the family to Yeah, I guess, feel aligned to that purpose and vision, I guess, which I took from it being about making high quality, affordable products available for the everyday farmer so they can use it in an operation which makes it safer for their operations, better on animals more efficiently, etc, etc. The biggest
Speaker 3 23:51
thing off the back of that, which is where all that leads to is that in sort of solution driven outcome for people is actually going here's a problem that exists in agriculture at the moment, whether it be labor, whether it be safety, whether it be efficiency, whether it be how we're actually doing things, how we can actually make this job more enjoyable, so that more people actually want to stay in farming, that it's mum and dad who are getting older, can still stay and do and help. And that piece for me is the piece that really by connect to a lot is that fixing a problem for someone and not something that's going to break the bank knots and something that they might have thought before. That's one of the things that I see they often see really well is go well, here's a problem that exists. How can we help fill that gap or fix that for everyone, not just a corporate customer, not just guys that have been in the business or in the industry for 567 generations but someone that's just come into it that might not know much about the but he's a leading market leading product that actually meets She'll needs that's easy to use that is affordable. That fixes that problem, particularly nowadays with what I see a lot of with labor shortages, and also the cost of labor and things like that mum and dad being able to do that job in a way that is quick, safe, efficient, the accuracy that's required around what you're actually doing, there's not just crazy margins, it's tight. So being able to maximize that. And the roll on from that is the actual infrastructure side of the side of the business, not costing a fortune. And being easy to your ongoing maintenance side of stuff being reduced, it's simple for you to do it, it's not something you've got then got to get an expert out to fix or whatever else. It's obviously a service that we offer to actually service and maintain and look after all the products that is out there. But it's not something that is going to cause a headache, or be down for months and months.
Oli Le Lievre 25:52
What's your favorite part of the job? Now,
Speaker 3 25:54
my favorite part of it is having people abused me because they got to sell their dog. So we deliver a set of yards or something like that. And I get a phone call going, I just bought this bloody dog, what are we going to do with it? Now? What are you talking about? Well, I don't need it. Oh, well, we're close the back gate. And they're already running up through the handler and the sheep were falling through, or the best one was in a feedlot probably two years ago, where they hadn't actually they'd started using the work area and the crops and the yards and the auto functionality and everything that they bought. They had started using it before we've done an induction or training on how to use it. And so there's three of them working in the yards, and then sort of processing and doing their induction through and I arrived and we did a run through on the auto crash and showed them the that extra functionality and that next level of how easy it is to do. And the poor young fellas standing on the top behind me went, Oh, there goes my job. But the owner turning around going now, you just not needed he got jump in the tractor and start feeding. Why was that freedom of they weren't going to lose a worker or drop them out of it. But they were able to actually get on to other jobs that they weren't able to do. Having even some of the local guys here going. I don't know about this Locky. I'm going Sorry, what I'm not sure whether we've done the right thing. All it's very permanent. It's very concrete. It's not going anywhere. Yeah, might it's taken us a day what used to take us to what are we going to do with the spare time. That for me is what the end result. That's what I love about it. That's the eddies that in that problem that's fixed. It's that end outcome for the customer. And it's the Hey, I wish we'd be able to do this or I wish there was something out there that could do this. And that's what I love with working with the Olsen's is that you go, Hey, we're customers that want this. Alright, let's see how that fits. Let's see if what we can do to deliver that, let's say that incorporates or fits in with our solutions.
Oli Le Lievre 27:47
So where do you sit going for the mum and dad, farmers, the family, farmers and whatnot? Where do you see, I guess the business going to support the evolution of farming now, with
Speaker 3 27:57
what we're doing, what's available is a lot of it. It's always constantly emerging and growing, but it's always sort of seem to be taken up by large corporate companies. The guy's a big checkbook. The guys that have got the workers, that's one of the biggest things we get when people see the setup, particularly say here at AG quip. Where they go, gee, you gotta be working a lot of cattle to justify something like this. And I'm going well, it's designed for one or two people. It's designed for a single operator, it's so you're not on your own working in a race and racing up here to quickly shut that gate or racing back there to shut that gate it is automated is is remote controlled. And you've got guys that are say trading enterprise where they're going on Monday running sort of 100 150 head all how often you putting them through the arts 1012 times a year, are you putting 1015 102,000 head through the yards a year a lot of those bigger guys that are running those larger numbers might bring 2000 in once Well hang on a second when you put it that way we spending a lot of time in there and having that so that it's not a job that you hate doing I think the first sort of hook that was in was off just after I started was a customer looking at a sheep handler and said I'm going I'm looking at it for safety and doing the typical sales spiel of all the definitely safer and you're out of the yards and it takes that manual handling it goes no Locky not for that. Oh yeah, I can see that. That's fine. I can see that. But no no for that. And so what do you mean Peyton he goes safety at home. My wife said if I come home with the sheets one more time speak to the kids like that after a day in the sheep. Yeah, it's I think she's gonna shoot me softball for safety at home. And that was the end thing was just that being able to go and do that job that you might necessarily want to do, or is often hard labor staking backbreaking tying off the bottom and wire on offense, that it takes that out of it that you get to come home with a smile on your face and play with the kids. You're not broken by the time you're 40. That sort of stuff is where it's really going is that not needing a full work crew or team to be able to do it to be able to take that operation on and enjoy Read and do the job you probably should have done three weeks ago, but just kept putting off. But now it's critical that you actually go, You know what, it's nothing, we just run the stock, and we'll run around and draft him.
Oli Le Lievre 30:09
Get it done right away. Now, I'm interested. So as a kid, before, you were saying you're quite a dreamer, thinking about the way that you could start a business, grow a business, etc. But what's it like, now you've got the business going through the UK, Ireland, Australia? How did you, I guess, manage it, the dreams of what could be in those early days. And actually, I guess, manage and just focus on the core of what the business was,
Speaker 2 30:33
I suppose we've been blessed as a family to have different giftings and different roles. And that's the only reason that the club X story exists. So that we are where we are now is the fact that we were a family unit that had different gifts or things to contribute and different lines to stay in or run. And, you know, my dad, the fitter machinist by trade and good with his hands and good on machinery and things. My older brother, he's a real creative and engineer, he's good with self taught now, but you know, on SolidWorks, and 3d modeling and designs and solving problems on that side of things. My, you know, my next younger brother, Stafford, he's just a super diligent worker, as honest and trustworthy as they come. And just diligent works hard. And he's just committed. And he's really, you know, passionate about what he does. I mean, he stayed back in Australia when he was 17. And did, I don't know what he did maybe 30 Field Days by himself, we bought him a one ton ute and a trailer. And he grew up real quick, and went around Australia to all the field days and sleeping on the truck at most of them. Yeah, and just, you know, working big days, and, you know, move around the country to different spots, and just, you know, and he's more analytical, and he's more, you know, operational and, but he's been a tremendous salesperson, because it just, you know, customers just want service and honesty, and he's been able to deliver that. And sometimes it's just solutions like, made, I've got a problem, don't just tell me, you don't have heard or what I can't have just presented back at least solutions and options. And he's been really good at that, and his role in sales over the years as well. And then now my youngest brother, who sort of joined the business, sort of halfway through our journey, he's in the marketing side, and a real creative, you know, help take care of videos and all that stuff, just to the next level, and branding and things in our business. So yeah, we've sort of really worked well, as a family, I was always sort of, in different roles, sales and marketing more, like largely in the beginning, and also probably, on the product development side, helping sort of analyze which products we should develop first are where they needed to sit in the marketplace, price wise, or options and feature wise involved in that. But it got to a stage where we were just trying to tread water and just survive, you know, just start growing and things happen. And you've just got to keep it, keep the wheels spinning, you know, and then you have droughts, and floods and issues. And, you know, all of a sudden, it's all hands on deck for a different problem that wasn't there last month, and we've been able to adapt it over those last 15 years, those obstacles that have come our way, who had been fortunate just that, you know, I always used to say, No, my grandfather would say to me, you know, let's a lot of businesses down or business plans or whatever it's just, it's people, like people is the thing that is harder to control that you build a machine and that machine will do, you know, hopefully what you programmed it to do or set it to do. And it'll do that same job day in day out. People aren't just machines, you know, you've got and so that's been a real learning side for all of us really, over the last, you know, especially probably the last 10 years is just learning on that people side, how to work well with people and you know, and it's different you know, when it's your own business and you started the business from scratch, you just you know, you do what you've got to do and you understand the business, then understanding if you bring somebody in, you can't just expect them just to to know what's going on or treat it like their own like you've got to teach them you've got to set up processes and that's been just the the biggest probably learning curve for us. But we've been fortunate along the way just to have some really good people coming into the business and that's helped us get to where we are, you know, Locky coming into the business for me was I loved his approach to that solution side of things too. And just he's, you know, to find somebody with the experience that he had at that young age, you just don't find that you know, and through his dad and what his dad dad had done and taught him and just through you know Locky as well he's hard work and he's really passionate about livestock and handling stock and you know, we sort of grind together in that that we would like to say that we know what we're doing but it's probably a bit more fake it till you make it approaches me that like we had the family farm I'm growing up. And you know, it's been more school holidays and stuff down there mainly with my grandfather's spraying spray to Tasik in the world, you know, but always enjoyed at least if we got to, can we move cattle today grandpa, can we jump on the motorbikes or something and most of the time was just spraying weeds. But so our exposure really to farming like versus slow hair clients was really little, like it always been around it, but never had to really rely on it. So, you know, our experience was a little bit limited, but here, but then, you know, bringing someone like Locky that has had a broad exposure to cattle and that he's grown up with his dad rod that was Rodney that, you know, on the low stress stock handling, and really being interested in how to handle animals well and safe and look after the animal welfare. And it's not just about one plus one equals two or getting the designs, right, and the operator and that was something that we didn't have. And we knew that we, if we want to be offering the best solutions and doing the right by our customers that we we need to not just convince them by somebody, but we need to get them into something that's going to solve their problem and be the right solution. And the training side, if they're going to do something different to how they've always done it, grandpa's done it, then we're going to need to educate and train and lock is really good at that as well that that training piece of educating customers about animals and you know why to do this and not to do that. And, you know, so that's been, you know, still been a roller coaster? Isn't it lucky?
Oli Le Lievre 36:34
Well, and truly fumbling your way through it.
Speaker 2 36:36
But ya know, one thing that I've always enjoyed working with Locky is that, you know, he's, he's passionate about what we do. And you know, he's brave enough to stick up his hand if he doesn't know or need help or drops the ball. And that's what we really like in our business is that integrity, and that honesty is a big backbone of how we like to operate.
Oli Le Lievre 36:58
A question for both the owner, you've got things to go on and do so. Same question. I'll let eight to be answered. But I think, Ned, I'll get to you first, knowing what you know now about just I guess, the breadth of agriculture and what you've been exposed to, through growing this business, globally. If you had the chance to go and chat to your 10 students about what a career in agriculture could offer them, what would you say to them?
Speaker 2 37:21
I suppose it's whether it's buyers, or it's just me personally, like I was saying before, my farm is a bit of my, you know, where I get my energy and, you know, enjoy doing with my kids and things. But for me, I just think it's such a rewarding industry. You know, we're not just producing some digital tech that no one sees, or some ones and zeros, like we're actually, you know, there's just something good and natural about growing things and growing them with your hands or handling animals. And I think it's a really a find it's a really rewarding industry to work in. And it's I'm just amazed, you know, just how much actual opportunity and different roles there is. It's not just sitting in a header, or sitting in a tractor or on a motorbike or in yards or selling agents, you know, it's the science side of things, the processing, it's so broad, and there's so much opportunity. And I think it's that one thing that the world's got to eat. So I think it's going to be there for a long time. So I think if you're choosing a career that's rewarding, and has a lot of opportunity, and I think has legs, I think agriculture is definitely one of those industries that you won't regret.
Oli Le Lievre 38:36
Thank you. And what about villagey?
Speaker 3 38:38
I think with it, it's about that nature and nurture. It's that you're growing, protecting, you're carrying your series, a tangible reward in return for your effort in what you're doing, whether it be say, from a labor perspective of building fence, it's that stand back at the end of the day of hard work and go I built that, look at that. And that's going to last and stand it's from raising and caring for stock. There's very few people that that don't get a kick or a reward out of actually having an animal grow and look after it not only from just a actual growth perspective, but a demeanor and mannerism and how they behave and things and the community involvement that's in it is phenomenal. And one thing about the ag sector is there is absolutely every opportunity in every interest and bench you have. It's not just about sewing lines in a paddock. It's not just about cows and sheep. It's got everything in it like you wouldn't think and I that's one of the things I love about this job is the diversity in it from flying drones to map and plan and survey land for areas that lead to then how we manufacture and go for that. It's the whatever interest you've got. There's guaranteed to be an agricultural application for it. So if you've got an interest in ag or you want that wholesome sort of lifestyle, that comes with hard work, that whatever your interests there is going to be an application or bent to it as well. And you might not realize it now, but there'll be an emergence or maybe you're the one that brings that emergence to it. So it's an industry that people are willing and always willing to take on new ideas. And if it can better or improve their operational their quality of life, they're gonna get behind it and support it.
Oli Le Lievre 40:22
And I think that yeah, it's definitely something we've just come through, isn't it? Identify a problem and come up with a solution that's going to make people's lives better, easier, more relaxing, whatever it might be? Yeah. So Nick loggy. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 40:34
Thanks for listening.
Oli Le Lievre 40:37
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 comm get in touch with any guests recommendations topics, or things you'd like us to talk and get curious about. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Right subscribe, review it, any feedback is absolutely awesome. And we really do welcome it. So look after yourselves. Stay safe, stay sane. We'll see you next time. See ya.
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