The Weekly Grill

S5 Ep40: Jack Sykes, AgriDrone

The use of drones on farms and grazing properties has grown dramatically over the past few years. Drones are now routinely being used for monitoring, mapping, spraying... and in some situations mustering stock. This week podcast host Kerry Lonergan caught up with one of the industry's early adopters, Jack Sykes, co-principal of AgriDrone, to discuss the rise of the use and application of drones for agricultural purposes, and how they're changing the way people farm.

The crowd of 480 cattle producers attending the recent CA Cattle Connect annual event in Dalby saw a demonstration of a specialised eight-rotor drone employing a hopper with 30kg capacity, used for woody weed control in larger areas.

 

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S5 Ep39: Sam Burke, MLA Corporate Executive Chef

On the eve of next week’s Cattle Australia seminar and AGM in Dalby, MLA’s executive chef and Product Business Development Manager Sam Burke chews the fat with The Weekly Grill, host Kerry Lonergan.

The pair discuss consumer trends during the current cycle of rising beef prices, how food service operators are adjusting their businesses to remain competitive, the role value-adding is playing in delivering beef products with greater convenience and time saving, and other issues.

Industry stakeholders attending Cattle Australia’s Dalby event will see Sam in action, and get to taste some of his creative ideas for beef, lamb and goatmeat.

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One – the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.

 

S5 Ep38: Global red meat in pivotal moment - analyst Simon Quilty

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill, host Kerry Lonergan chews the fat with independent red meat and livestock analyst Simon Quilty, covering the opportunities ahead for Australian beef and lamb in a global market facing shortages, tariff challenges, and trade access issues for the next year or two.

 

 

Barring weather setbacks or some form of exotic disease incursion, it's hard not to be bullish about red meat export prospects for 2026 and 2027, Mr Quilty suggests.

 

 

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One - the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.

 

S5 Ep37: Red meat wholesaler David McNally

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill, host Kerry Lonergan chews the fat with red meat wholesaling identity David McNally, head of Australian Wholesale Meats.

  

Since 2001 AWM has grown to become one of the largest domestic beef wholesalers in the country, with offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne supplying food service customers across the restaurant, pubs and clubs sector, retail butchers, supermarkets and hospitality venues across the nation.

The pair discuss the level of demand for beef and lamb this year, how the food service sector is performing, consumer reaction to higher red meat prices, the role of Meat Standards Australia and other topics.

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One - the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.

 

S5 Ep36: Remembering BTEC - Australia's herculean animal disease eradication feat

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill, host Kerry Longergan catches up with two veterans who took part in Australia's incredible feat in the 1970s-80s era in eradicating Brucellosis and Tuberculosis from the national beef herd.

Ron Granville was Queensland's chief veterinary officer during the BTEC era, and Brian Radunz was a senior cattle vet in the Northern Territory. The pair talk about the herculean task of eliminating the diseases, the challenges faced, and the ultimate success of the $1.2 billion project.

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One - the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.

 

 

S5 Ep35: Stephanie Frankham, Young Organic Industry Champion of the Year

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill, host Kerry Longergan catches up with newly crowned Young Organic Champion of the Year, Stephanie Frankham. 

Stephanie has been instrumental in developing the organic red meat sector, transitioning more than 50,000 cattle to organic production, and pioneering sustainability initiatives, including emissions reduction strategies for producers.

 

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One - the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.

 

S5 Ep34: Patrick Hutchinson, Australian Beef Sustainability Framework

This week, podcast host Kerry Lonergan dials in Patrick Hutchinson, Chair of the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework.

The pair discuss the hot topics of environmental stewardship, animal welfare and economic resilience.

Sector by sector, how is the industry performing in the sustainability space, and how best to achieve our future sustainability targets?

A lot has already been achieved and a lot of money invested (industry funds, government contributions and third party investors) so what are the future targets?

 

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One - the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.

 

S5 Ep33: The live cattle export outlook, with Livecorp CEO Wayne Collier

This week, podcast host Kerry Lonergan catches up with Livecorp CEO, Wayne Collier. The pair's wide-ranging discussion covers:

• Indonesian, Vietnamese and Middle Eastern markets, and how they are performing
• The current mood in Western Australia
• Crewing live export ships - staffing shortages/who foots the bill?
• The success of shipboard management and improvements of mortality numbers
• Biosecurity issues
• The key issues addressed at "Live Exchange” - the upcoming Trade Conference in Perth
• ... and more

 

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One - the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.

 

S5 Ep32: Embracing AI & Machine Learning technologies in Ag, with Dr Tom Lee

Artificial intelligence is now starting to creep into the Australian red meat supply chain, whether it is accurately counting sheep or cattle off a truck into a meatworks holding yard, or picking the shape of tri-tips from a range of primals passing down a processing conveyor belt and packing them in a carton.

In today’s Weekly Grill podcast, host Kerry Lonergan chews the fat with Dr Tom Lee from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Tom classifies himself as a ‘middle man’ between AI technology developers/designers and potential end-users like farmers and meat processors.

Haw far has AI progressed in ag? While certain early-adopters and innovator farmers are on the front foot, uptake is still pretty niche in ag, Tom says, but things are changing rapidly. But right now, for the bulk of farmers, AI is still something they are hearing about, rather than applying.

He says it’s important to make a distinction between AI and a second second technology term, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

“People think AI will eventually mimic a human being, if we keep investing in it – but that’s AGI, not AI,” he said.

“AI is great at playing a game of chess – solving ‘small world things’ where all the inputs are known, and it can work through all the permutations, using massive amounts of data in really powerful ways – but it can’t do the things that a human mind can do.”

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One – the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.

 

S5 Ep31: September market wrap with Chris Howie and Matt Dalgleish

With sweeping tariff changes and drastically declining beef production in the US, global instability in the Middle East and Ukraine, lingering effects of drought in southern Australia, there was a lot to talk about in the latest Weekly Grill markets update podcast with regular commentators Chris Howie and Matt Dalgleish.

In today’s episode Kerry Lonergan catches up with the pair on cattle price trends and what’s driving them, this year’s extraordinary number of sale yard cattle transactions, weather conditions and the spring rains in the south. Are they drought breaking?, Live export markets, feedlot numbers – will we get to 2 million cattle on feed?  Lotfeeding lamb. Is it viable? … and more

 

 

The Weekly Grill is brought to listeners by Rhinogard and Bovi-Shield MH-One - the One Shot, One Spray, One Time BRD Vaccines by Zoetis.