Future Farmers Network (FFN)

This episode of the FFN Mentor of the Month series sees FFN Director Lauren Roellgen speak with Jaime Painter.

Jaime works in strategy at Loam Bio, a fast-growing Australian biotech company enabling farmers to capture and store stable carbon in the soil by utilising the power of microbes.

Jaime is a little different to our usual guests – she didn’t grow up on a farm, and she didn’t study agriculture, nor is she now in what most would consider a traditional agricultural role. She’s an engineer by training and spent two years at a top-tier management consulting firm before venturing into the world of agriculture, first in Africa and then back on Aussie soil.

As one of ag’s newest recruits and having taken a path less trodden, Jaime shares a little about how she got to where she is and why she chose agriculture to be where she makes her next mark.

Tune in for an exciting story.

Episode 20 of the FFNs mentor of the month see's director Amelia Shaw interview Aly Bunton. Aly Bunton is the public affairs manager for Bayer’s Australian crop science business, looking after government and stakeholder relations in Australia and New Zealand.

Born and raised in Sydney and Newcastle, Aly had little exposure to the agriculture sector before her first full-time job at the Federal Department of Agriculture.

There, she worked on issues including biosecurity, coal seam gas, water, and grains policy before moving to industry body NSW Farmers’ Association.

At NSW Farmers, Aly led a national campaign to increase Q fever awareness and improve access to the Q fever vaccine; she also covered grains, horticulture, biosecurity and ag vet chemical policy, and managed the NSW Young Farmer Council.

Tune in for an amazing chat

Episode 19 see's FFN director Amelia Shaw interviewing Tristan Baldock. Tristan operates a 6,000ha cropping enterprise at Buckleboo in South Australia.  In 2020, the Baldock's were named Cropping Farmer of the Year by the Weekly Times .Tristan is passionate about agriculture and the challenge that has been given to farmers to feed the world in a way that is sustainable given the earth’s finite resources, and in a way that is safe and enjoyable for employees. He considers the search for and adoption of new practices to always be a driver, and has an ongoing role within the Buckleboo Farm Improvement Group committee. Tristan is also a member of the GrainGrowers' National Policy Group.

Episode 18 of the FFN's 'Mentor of the Month' see's director Tim Flynn catch-up with Nigel Kerin. Nigel is Founder and Director of Kerin Ag. Kerin Ag is based on approximately 4000ha near Yeoval in Central West NSW. Encompassing the industry leading @kerinpollmerino Stud, a livestock trading business and around 1000ha of pasture cropping. Nigel is a prominent figure in the Australian agriculture industry and has developed amazing set of communication and leadership skills to compliment his extensive agricultural knowledge. Listen in to this informative chat about Australian Ag!

Episode 17 of the FFN 'Mentor of the Month' see's Dan Coulthurst catch up with good friend AJ Riley. AJ is the principle and part owner of Ray White Rural Roma specialising in rural property and livestock sales. The Roma heartthrob is a part time cowboy, plays nearly every sport available to him, is the vice president of the Roma Echidnas Rugby Club and president of the local cricket side. AJ will try his hand at most things regardless of the consequences. After growing up in Tamworth, AJ went north in search of wide open spaces, working as a jackaroo outside of Julia Creek, North West Queensland. Following that, AJ started as a livestock salesperson for Ray White in Roma. AJ has been in the industry since 2015 and after just 3 years, went in to partnership with Jack Clanchy in 2018 by purchasing half share of Ray White Rural Roma.

In Episode 16 of the FFN ‘Mentor of the Month’ podcast, FFN Director Samantha Noon speaks with Katie Turner - an incredibly accomplished and capable 30-year-old who grew up on a 230,000-acre cattle and sheep station near Quilpie, in Southwest Queensland, which she later managed on her own. It was there she first learnt to fly her father’s light aircraft – and later got her pilot’s license. Flying has become one of her great loves, along with the feeling of freedom that it brings when you’re  8,500 feet in the sky.  

Katie has had a colourful career, filled with adventure, from living on the land, working in banking to exporting livestock and even modelling for Revlon’s Drought Angels campaign. Today she works for AAM Investment Group in Brisbane as their Operations performance manager.

Her resilience and can-do attitude has been a great foundation to her success – which she’s very humble about and takes life as it comes. Her advice to young aggies is to not stress if you don’t know which direction you’re heading in. “There are no straight lines in life – sometimes you’ve got to ride the wave and I think by doing that, your purpose will follow.”

In Episode 15 of the FFN ‘Mentor of the Month’ podcast, FFN Director & Secretary Caitlin McConnel sits down with fifth-generation beef producer, Tess Camm. Tess grew up in Central & North Queensland on cattle stations and feedlots, and is now at the helm of Signature Beef as General Manager, which is a vertically integrated branded beef company currently constructing the bespoke processing abattoir in Central Queensland. Tess is also a 2020 Nuffield Scholar, which through the support of The Yulgilbar Foundation, she is investigating ways to increase the value of beef co-products, particularly their potential use in biodegradable packaging, opportunities in emerging markets for nutritional and pharmaceutical products, and alternatives to the rendering process. Tess has been a proud advocate and passionate contributor of the Australian beef industry from a young age, tailoring her business acumen and further research to ensure that the overarching benefits are for the industry, and the next generation of producers as a whole.

Episode 14 of FFNs ‘Mentor of the Month’ see’s FFN director Tom Rookyard sit down with Wundar CEO Rupert Ballinger. Rupert grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in outback Queensland near a small town called Muttaburra. Here he completed primary school via correspondence over the VHF radio and then attended high school in Brisbane. He has since undertaken many roles across a variety of industries within Australia. Rupert’s father suffered from depression and severe mental health problems when he was younger and died from a heart attack when Rupert was 12 in the year 2000. Losing his mentor and role model at an early age spurred Rupert onto create Wundar an online mentoring platform that connects and empowers your community. Whose mission is to unite, strengthen and empower communities. Rupert wanted to give everyone access to good mentors and role models when they may not have had that opportunity. His passion for building communities and meaningful relationships is also a driving force behind creating Wundar.

Episode 13 of the FFN ‘Mentor of the Month’ see’s Vice-Chair Oli Le Lievre sit down with Robyn Alders. Robyn was born and raised on a grazing property on the Southern Tablelands of NSW and for over 30 years, has worked closely with smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia as a veterinarian, researcher and colleague. She’s Honorary Professor with the Development Policy Centre within the Australian National University, a Senior Scientific Advisor with the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security and is our mentor in Timor Leste with a program focused on improving nutrition. Listen to how want to become a drover and then a sick horse led to a life of travel and some amazing stories

Episode 12 of of the FFN's 'Mentor of the Month' podcast see's FFN director Tom Rookyard catch up with AuctionsPlus CEO Angus Street. A global agribusiness executive who loves to be apart of growing businesses within start-up, corporate and rapid-change environments. As CEO of AuctionsPlus for the past two years, Angus is focused on taking the $2.3 billion transactional business to the next level. Passionate about helping businesses evolve to stay ahead of the pack through the use of digital technology, listen to how Angus manages family and work life; why empathy is the most underrated value and why Liam Hemsworth is the right person to play him in a movie.

Episode 11 of the FFN's 'Mentor of the Month' podcast see's FFN director Susannah White catch up with Isobel Knight. Isobel is a succession planning specialist and has been the owner and a director of Australia’s leading family farm succession planning business Proagtive since 2004. Isobel is a mother of three has degrees in business law and psychology, is a trained counselor and mediator. Her association with family farm businesses stems back to her family’s farm near Junee, and now at Loomberah NSW where she and her husband Rod run a cattle-trading enterprise. 

A very special episode 10 of the FFN ‘Mentor of the month’ podcast has director Olivia Falkiner interview her father George Falkiner. George is the managing director and owner of ‘Haddon Rig’ a mixed enterprise and Merino stud at Warren, NSW. Liv and George discuss the challenges and fun of working in a family farm. How a combination of whiskey and yoga help with dealing with drought, and the importance of mental health in living life
on the land. George touches on the importance of gain skills outside of ag and experience off farm if you are planning on working long term in a family operation.

Episode 9 of the FFN ‘Mentor of the month’ podcast see’s director Simon Kensit chat with Brooke Kaveney. Brooke is a PhD student at Charles Sturt University currently finishing her Thesis at CSU Wagga. Brooke and Simon chat about how to balance being a PhD student but also taking that knowledge back on farm in a practical sense, taking part of a three-week production course in Vietnam and trying rice whisky, and how you can’t always use the approach of ‘just hit it with the hammer and it will work’.

Episode 8 of the FFN ‘Mentor of the Month’ podcast see’s FFN director Oli Le Lievre combine a cross over with his ‘Humans of Agriculture’ podcast and share an honest an frank chat with co-founder of TradeMutt Ed Ross. Ed is a qualified carpenter, holds a diploma of Business (Agriculture), the co founder of TradeMutt Pty Ltd and is a founding director of the This is a conversation starter foundation Ltd

Born and bred in Longreach Queensland and growing up on sheep and cattle stations, Ed has always been a hands on type operator. Spending majority of his schooling life in boarding schools in both Toowoomba and Brisbane. During his years at boarding school he enjoyed the inter house competition as well as cricket and debating. Finishing their with the Agricultural science award and vice house captain he tried his chances at working on one of the largest cattle stations in the world, Lake Nash.

Spending 2 years in both stock and weaner camps and learning valuable skills like mustering cattle at a large scale as well as how to shoe horses and drive heavy vehicle machinery, he decided to further his education at Marcus Oldham college in Geelong. He graduated after one year with a Diploma of Agribusiness at a Distinction level. Returned then to Lake Nash in a leadership capacity, as Leading hand in the stock camp before finishing up in September of 2014 to move back to Brisbane to begin a mature age carpentry apprenticeship. In Brisbane, Ed met his now business partner Daniel Allen and spent 3 years working together for a local residential builder before leaving and starting TradeMutt pty ltd.

Episode 7 of the FFN 'Mentor of the Month' podcast is 2019 NSW Royal Agricultural Societies Rural Achiever James Cleaver. James is born and bred in the gateway to the outback Nyngan, NSW. A 5th generation of a proud farming family James is passionate about building successful farm business practices and creating a sustainable future for Australian Agriculture. After briefly practicing law at a well regarded Dubbo law firm, James now works as a Rural Support Worker for the NSW DPI. Listen into a great yarn between James and FFN Director Tim Flynn where they cover everything from to peoples core values through to the importance of the 'one finger wave' country folk give to each other!

Our next guest for Episode 6 of the FFN 'Mentor of the Month' podcast will be Aline Teixeira, the Managing Director Agribusiness at FTI Consulting. Aline has more than eleven years experience in corporate finance transactions and over 15 years commercial experience. Aline has extensive experience in management of the planning and control functions of medium and large enterprises. She also has experience in working through complex investigations and due diligence analysis in various industries, primarily focused on agribusiness, but also including mining, retail and manufacturing.

Working across Australia and Latin America, Aline specialises in advising clients around business transformation and operation performance reviews including financial modelling and cash flow analysis. She has worked extensively on advisory projects and transactions within the beef, horticulture, broad-acre cropping, and a number of sectors of the agribusiness supply chain. Aline owns and operates an Arabica coffee and beef cattle farm business in Brazil, where she is responsible for overseeing all operations of the business and complying with regulatory obligations. Aline is a qualified veterinarian and a CPA.

Episode 5 of the FFN 'Mentor of the month' see's FFN directors Richard Kohne and Henry Gratte chat to WA farmer Kallum Blake. Kallum is a broadacre farmer and transporter from Katanning in the Great Southern Region of WA. He has also worked in corporate agribusiness during in his time at the ANZ bank. He is active in Agro-politics and sits on the WA Farmers grain section and is also a member of the Graingrowers national policy advisory board. Finally, Kallum played an integral part in establishing AgConnectWA a social networking and extension based orginisation for the under 35’s in agriculture based in WA.

Episode 4 of the FFN 'Mentor of the month' see's Oli Le Lievre chat with Matt Linnegar from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Oli & Matt touch on the transition from growing up in the city but being destined for Agriculture, the fabrication of a 'divide' and the desire for constructive and progressive collaboration to face the problems in which Rural Australia faces today and will face.

Episode 3 of the FFN ‘Mentor of the Month’ see’s FFN director Olivia Falkiner joined by Will Gilbert of Gilbert Family Wines at Mudgee, NSW. Olivia and Will discuss the challenges of working in a family business, the opportunities that wine making holds and what it’s like to overhaul a nearly-100 year old family brand!

Listen in this episode of “Mentor of the month” as the Future Farmers Network features mentors from across the agricultural sector, to learn about their career journey, learnings, recommendations and the opportunity to ask their own questions.

Episode 2 of the FFN ‘Mentor of the Month’ see’s FFN director Tom Rookyard joined by James Millner of Rosedale Charolais stud at Blayney, NSW. James is the principal of Rosedale Charolais one of Australia’s biggest polled Charolais studs, selling more than 150 bulls a year. James’s business also has a commercial enterprise and also recently involved in a paddock-to-plate brand (Rosedale Ruby) which is feeding the growing Asian appetite for quality beef. James won the 2017 Farm Weekly Beef Farmer of the Year award; in 2018 the Rosedale Ruby striploins won the 2018 World Steak Challenge, beating over 200 entries. Listen to chat about James career journey and learnings.

The Future Farmers Network is a non-for-profit organisation that focuses on youth in agriculture. Our members are from diverse agricultural backgrounds but share a passion for developing and learning from industry leaders.

“Mentor of the month” is a new initiative for FFN in 2019-20, a podcast that features mentors from across the agricultural sector. FFN members will have access to a candid conversation with an industry leader, to learn about their career journey, learnings, recommendations and the opportunity to ask their own questions.