Commodity Conversations

Unprecedented times or history repeating? - 25th March 2022

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.

Russian roulette, volatility on the rise - 18th March 2022

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.

Market wrap with Adrian & Dave - 11th March 2022

This week Adrian & Dave from Mecardo discuss the main movements in the wool, sheep, cattle & grains movements this week. As always, there's plenty happening for us to talk about - head to the website if you want to read the full analysis of each topic we've covered this week. Our thoughts are with all of the flood victims up north, we hope that the clean up efforts continue and the towns and communities recover. 

Wheat sweats on New World order – 4th March 2022

The wheat market has been up and down like a yo-yo in response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The two countries together provide more than a quarter of world wheat supply, so we asked our resident grain expert, Nick Booth from Next Level Grain Marketing, on to help us understand the seismic impact this terrible situation is having on global grain market dynamics.

Online is on trend – 25th February 2022

Online platform AuctionsPlus has gone from strength to strength in the past few years with more and more producers getting on board. AuctionsPlus is now arguably the nations largest livestock ‘selling centre’ which now not only provides cattle & sheep auctions, but auctions for everything from farm machinery, properties, goats, working dogs, cars, charity fundraisers and more.

 On this episode we’re fortunate to have AuctionsPlus’ chief economist Tim McRae on to give his perspective on why the platform has grown so much in the past few years, as well as the innovative ways the data is being used by producers and stock agents.

Tipping the protein scales - 18th February 2022

Livestock prices have rarely been higher but what does the global protein supply and demand balance tell us about the outlook? Robert Herrmann and Simon Quilty presented on this topic at Gippsland Red Meat Conference recently and have joined us for this weeks episode to discuss the key factors.

The profitability playoffs: 2020/21 benchmarking review – 11th February, 2022

There were many price records broken last year and plenty of profits made in the process for some (despite the increasing cost of production and inputs). And although it’s easy to get distracted by the ‘hype’ around livestock markets, we’re lucky to have Sandy McEachern, Director of Aggregate Consulting, explain just which enterprises were the most successful, or profitable, in 2020/21, according to his latest benchmarking review.

Herd rebuild in the hands of the north, MLA cattle projections update - 4th February 2022

This week Rob & Olivia from Mecardo help tell the story behind some of the key figures in Meat & Livestock Australia’s latest cattle projections update along with the usual market overviews for grain, sheep & wool.

Global grains & oilseeds outlook – 28th January 2022

Mark Tully, senior grains analyst for Nutrien Canada, shares his perspective of how the Canadian grain & oilseed growers are going coming off the back of some of the worst droughts in Canadian history. We also dive into the geopolitical tensions in western Europe & discuss what impact escalation of conflict there could mean for grain & oilseed markets internationally. Finally, Mark gives us his outlook on the global supply & demand equation and key market drivers to watch out for in 2022. 

Shear gas: beer, shearer wages & GHG emission - 21st January 2022

What’s beer and gas got to do with livestock and wool? This week we go left of field with our resident wool guru Andrew Woods from ICS commodity services to take a broad look at greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and revisit whether the beer purchasing power of shearers has improved in the last few years, some good conversations starters for your local pub.