Commodity Conversations

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. 

Weaners all round – Summer cattle update 14th January 2022

Red hot weaner cattle sales are the talk of the market, so this week we chat with Andrew Hosken from Hosken stock and land about who's buying the cattle and which markets they are destined for. As always, Andrew has his finger on the pulse when it comes to the cattle markets in Australia, tune in to hear the conversation.

What does 2022 have in store for us? - 7th January 2022

Join us as David Cornish and Robert Herrmann recap 2021 and look at what 2022 may have in store. This episode was originally recorded on the Marcus Oldham AgTalk podcast on the 20th of December 2021. 

David is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham Agricultural College with over 30 years experience in Agricultural finance. In his spare time, he is involved in a family farming operation based at Casterton in Western Victoria. 

Take a look at the full list of episodes on AgTalk - link here

Good signs for agriculture in 2022 - 22nd December 2021

For our final podcast of 2021 we have Michael Whitehead, head of agribusiness insights ANZ, on to discuss ANZ’s December Commodity Insights report. 

We hope you enjoy the episode and from the team at Mecardo we wish you have a safe and happy holidays and we’ll see you in 2022 for more episodes of Commodity Conversations.

Merino wool, a global perspective - 20th December 2021

For the 2nd last podcast of 2021 we have Roberto Cardellino, director of DELTA consulting Uruguay on to discuss his latest report titled, 'The volume and diameter of merino wool in the main producing countries of the world'.  Roberto shares his key findings from the report and also his outlook for merino wool production going forward.