What’s in a week at Beef Australia?

Cheyne Twist, Communications Officer

The Angus Foundation recently provided three young members of the beef industry the opportunity to attend Beef Australia 2021 at the beginning of May.

Angus Australia members Georgia Laurie, Damien Thomson and Jock McGregor were each selected for the Angus Australia Beef Australia scholarships, which saw them take on and take in the multitude of seminars, trade stands and beef cattle on display during the event. The scholarships aim to increase the recipient’s knowledge of the beef industry, expose the recipients to different agricultural production systems, develop their personal skills and strengthen relationships between the World’s beef industries. Kicking off the Beef experience, as a requirement of their scholarship the recipients each had several events they had to attend, which began with the Rabobank Industry Awards dinner. Georgia, Jock and Damien joined the Angus Australia team at the dinner, which featured the presentation of numerous awards to industry leaders across the supply chain and featured speeches from industry leaders and guests including the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison. “The Rabobank Industry Awards dinner on Monday night set the scene for the rest of the week,” said Damien. “It highlighted the changes the beef industry has undergone and how the industry has innovated to generate value along the supply chain. Ultimately producing a high-quality eating experience for consumers.” Jock also expressed his enjoyment of the evening and the opportunity to ease into the week with an excellent networking opportunity. “The highlight of the first day was attending the Rabobank Industry Awards Dinner that was included in the scholarship. The night allowed me to network with the other scholarship receivers and the Angus Australia staff over dinner whilst listening to Scott Morrison and his thoughts on the beef industry.” Tuesday saw the Angus stud cattle judging, which as part of their scholarship requirements, the scholarship recipients assisted with the judging as stewards for the event, which was a new experience for some of the recipients. Georgia, Damien and Jock were also in attendance at the Angus Australia seminar, “The Angus Influence – From Performance to Profit”, which hosted a number of industry consultants, producers and branded beef owners sharing their experience with Angus and Angus influenced cattle in both northern and southern beef production systems and the key profit drivers for beef businesses. Tuesday was wrapped up with a networking opportunity for Georgia, Jock and Damien with Angus Australia and Achmea Australia hosting a drinks session with industry partners, sponsors and fellow producers. Outside of the required events, the scholarship recipients also had a plethora of opportunities to take in the latest that the industry had to offer. Jock highlighted the magnitude of the event itself, and how much opportunity to develop there was during the week. “Upon arrival I couldn’t comprehend the number of people, marquees and hats that were present at Beef. The raw scale of the event was much to my surprise which excited me to get into the week and explore all of the opportunities that were on show,” he said. “I used the first day to soak it all in with an intent to note down the tents, talks and people that I would like to investigate further and get to know more about later in the week.” Damien utilised the week to visit a range of different locations around the event to take in as much as he could during his time in Rockhampton. “I split my time between listening to seminars, tech talks and product launches, watching the cattle showing, walking around and visiting each stand, chatting with industry contacts and having a good time catching up with mates each night,” said Damien. “It was wonderful to reconnect with so many people after a year of very little contact.” The diversity of what attendees could enjoy and learn from during the event was a standout for Georgia. “I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the week and I’m very grateful for the experience. The cattle judging was an amazing spectacle to watch, I especially enjoyed the judging of the larger Bos Indicus breeds,” she said. “It was great to attend seminars from industry leaders, including Angus Australia and the Meat and Livestock Australia: Linking Innovation with reproductive performance seminars. Beef provided a great opportunity to network and to catch up with new and old friends.” “The Tech Yards at Beef featured a range of new and innovative technology, aimed to aid producers throughout all stages of production. This is where I learnt the most and took away ideas to implement into our own operation.” There were a number of key take homes for each of the recipients and they expressed that they were looking

forward to how they can utilise them within their own systems back home. “The key takeaway for me from the week was the technology focus throughout the beef supply chain and in a broader sense the hope and prosperity of the beef community. I believe the technology focus has stemmed from the ability to increase efficiency in operations, ultimately leading to enhanced profitability,” said Jock. “The highlight for me within the technology space was the Truck Tracker app and I will definitely look to implement this into my own farming enterprise. Further, I noticed that there was a real sense of community at Beef as everyone was there with common interests and to support the beef industry. With the current beef climate proving to be very successful, many stakeholders of the beef industry are excited for the future.” Georgia also highlighted the emphasis on the developing technologies available to the industry as a key message from the event. “Optiweigh was a technology that stood out to me, due to its complete mobility and its simplicity. I believe this will aid producers to make timely and effective management decisions to ensure that setbacks are avoided,” she said. “The vitality of accountability was a take home message, whereby software programs such as AgriWebb pose as a simplistic and effective management recording tool. This is a program I wish to implement at home, to increase traceability and accountability.” Damien echoed these sentiments and added that the promise for the future of the industry was evident during the week. “The biggest take home for me is the confidence and positivity in the beef industry at the moment. Record high prices certainly go a long way to contributing to that, but it really comes down the community and collective effort of so many people doing great things,” said Damien. “The most exciting innovations and technologies for me were FutureFeed, Optiweigh and Ceres tag. I think the pursuit of carbon neutrality is going to be critically important in the near future and the beef industry has the opportunity to lead the way.” Angus Australia Breed Development Officer Jake Reynolds, who heads up the Angus Youth Program within his role, believes that the industry is in good stead with young members like Georgia, Jock and Damien actively contributing to it. “A personal highlight for me is just how much of a good place the Australian beef industry is in with people like Georgia, Jock and Damien coming into it in the best part of their careers and their lives. And I think that the skills that our young people have in this industry are going to be needed in jobs that probably aren’t even created yet.”