Commodity Conversations – Details, episodes & analysis

Rob is joined by John Francis, Director at Agrista and the author of a recent AWI report into the profitability of specialised wool sheep enterprises.  John discusses the data, modelling and outcomes of the recent report into why there is a profit argument for staying in wool. 

https://www.wool.com/globalassets/wool/news--events/2024/why-stay-in-wool-sheep/why-say-in-wool-sheep---report-by-john-francis-of-agrista.pdf 

This week Olivia Agar is joined by Erin Lukey - Senior Market Information Analyst with Meat & Livestock Australia (mla). Erin joins us to discuss the latest sheep and her projections and the drivers behind the figures MLA landed on. 

This week Rob Herrmann is joined by Jo Hall CEO of Wool Producers Australia to chat about some of the major policy debates currently shaping the farming landscape including shedding some light on the proposed live export ban. 

Although Australian only produce around 1% of total goat meat in the world – demand for Aussie goat meat locally and internationally, has been steadily growing since around 2013 - pushing the price of goat meat on par with it's 'bigger cousin', lamb. This week on commodity conversations Gus Foot, Livestock account manager for Nutrien, based in Charlesville QLD, joins us to share his insights into this increasingly popular market.

What can kangaroo’s teach us about livestock farming methods? Tune in to commodity conversations this week to hear Lachlan Campbell, CEO and founder of ProAgni, explain their innovative new product, what problems they aim to address and some of the inspiration behind it’s creation.

This week Mecardo's Rob Herrmann and David Myers take a look at what's been happening in cattle, sheep and wool markets recently. Join us to hear the latest market developments and jump on the Mecardo website to read the full articles that are discussed briefly today. 

Biosecurity issues have dominated agricultural headlines recently as South Africa grapples with another foot-and-mouth outbreak, meanwhile Lumpy Skin Disease outbreaks among cattle in Indonesia have Australian officials worried. This episode Rob & Olivia discuss these issues as well as pay a special tribute to two friends and colleagues. We hope you have a good Easter break, from the Mecardo team.

Russia’s war on Ukraine is still having ramifications across the global grains & oilseeds markets and indirectly across a whole raft of agricultural commodities. We’re seeing stronger demand for most agricultural commodities than we’ve ever seen before, as governments around the world try to secure essential food items to keep their populations content. China of course is no small fry when it comes to the global trade market, being one of the biggest if not the biggest importers of redmeat & grains and oilseeds. Geopolitical tensions aside, this episode, Mecardo analyst Adrian Ladaniwskyj has a chat with Rob Herrmann about China’s demand for Aussie red meat in 2021 & 2022, amongst other key highlights of the grains, wool and livestock markets. 

Prices for most agricultural commodities (and inputs) have increased to record levels due to the trio of tight supply, stretched supply chains & the war in Ukraine. But are we really in unprecedented times? We’ve seen prices shoot up for commodities before, like during the GFC of 2008, but this time round, while some things are the same, there’s certainly a lot more factors at play & uncertainty in the global economic outlook. To help us untangle the current volatility in the market, we’ve got our regular guest Michael Whitehead, head of agri-insights ANZ on to talk with Rob Herrmann.

With the Russian war on Ukraine dragging on, we’re taking a look at how this war is reverberating around the globe and in particular it’s flow-on effects on markets that are directly affected, such as the wheat & oilseeds,  to the in-directly affected livestock & wool markets. Rob & Olivia are back in the drivers seat this week for our podcast.