The Weekly Grill

In this week's week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat on Red Meat Advisory Council chair, John McKillop. The pair tackle sustainability, fake meat, red meat's carbon footprint, the red meat industry's ability to cut-through in Canberra, the evolving scope of RMAC, and other related issues.

 

How does the future look for stud cattle shows in Australia?

While the 2021 Royal Queensland Show has unfortunately been cancelled due to COVID, this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series sees host Kerry Lonergan turn up the heat on RNA councillor and Beef Cattle Committee chairman Gary Noller, and Northern NSW stud cattle breeder and exhibitor Rob Sinnamon.

Both have had a life-long connection with stud cattle exhibitions across Queensland and NSW, and suggest that the competitive showing of stud cattle remains as popular as ever, despite rising costs and other challenges. The pair also discuss the growing importance of the RNA's Paddock to Palate Performance Classes, which have risen in prominence over the past ten years - providing a great opportunity for cattlemen to benchmark their herd's performance against some of the best in the land.

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat again on veteran Victorian meatworks cattle buyer, David Ronalds, who this year clocks up his fifth-eighth year buying cattle across eastern and central Australia. How has the industry changed? What was cattle buying like back in 1964, when he first started? Did he ever foresee slaughter cattle making the money they are today?

Tune-in to hear David's account of how cattle buyers used 'dead reckoning' on cattle weights, and other challenges facing buyers from days gone by.

 

 

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat again on StockCo's Chris Howie and Thomas Elder Markets' Matt Dalgleish, as the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator this morning crashes through the magical 1000c/kg barrier for the first time in history.

Have we yet seen the peak in young cattle prices? Both Matt and Chris are forecasting a softening trend between now and mid-September, but market fundamentals among restockers, lotfeeders and processors jostling for scarce young cattle remain buoyant, to say the least.

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat on Queensland beef processor and supply chain manager, Australian Country Choice's David Foote.

Mr Foote is currently in gradual transition out of his full-time role as ACC's group managing director, which he has filled for the past 22 years, handing over the reins recently to Anthony Lee.

Over the years Mr Foote has become well-known for expressing strong, well-argued opinions about red meat industry matters - ranging from labour reform to industry representation, the industry's response to recent challenges over its environmental footprint and animal welfare and a host of other topics - many of which are touched-on in this podcast.

 

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat on orthopaedic surgeon, Gary Fettke, who this year has emerged as a powerful advocate for a diet containing adequate amounts of red meat.

The sense that red meat industry is under attack from powerful and aligned forces, and urgently needs to better align its own resources and “get off the back foot”, has been a central and recurring theme across the meat industry this year.

An independent medical practitioner with no commercial ties to, or any financial interest in, the red meat industry, Dr Fettke explains that over the past 30 years he started seeing more and more complications arising from diabetes and lifestyle disease, that led to him having to perform amputations  which he believed should have been avoidable.

The further he delved into the science, he said it became clear that diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates were the underlying cause - diets that effectively reflect the recommendations of Australia’s (and most other developed countries’) official dietary guidelines.

He spent several years exploring the evolution of plant-based vegetarian guidelines, and has uncovered the extent to which powerful processed food corporations and anti-meat religious groups have influenced global dietary guidelines and policies universally in place today, which effectively demonise red meat while promoting increasing consumption of grain, sugar and carbohydrates.

 

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat again on low-and-slow BBQ competition king, Grant Coleman.

In his day-job, Grant is general manager at NH Foods' Oakey Beef Exports plant on the Darling Downs, but come the weekend, he is one of Australia's best known BBQ smoker competitors.

Three years ago he was runner-up in the World BBQ championships in the United States, and regularly travels for weekend competitions anywhere from from Townsville to Port Macquarie.

Is the low and slow BBQ movement just a fad, or is it here to stay? Hear what Grant has to say...

 

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat again on StockCo's Chris Howie and Thomas Elder Markets' Matt Dalgleish, on whether the industry has yet seen the peak in young cattle prices.

Both believe an Eastern Young Cattle Indicator above 900c/kg is going to be around for at least the next three months, and that market fundamentals among restockers, lotfeeders and processors jostling for scarce young cattle remain buoyant, to say the least.

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat on Tracey Hayes, who led the live export industry's successful Class Action over the impact of the Federal Government's 2011 Indonesian live export market suspension.

Tracey explains the background the the action, and where the process of funds distribution goes from here. It has been suggested that up to $800 million will be distributed among the northern stakeholders who took part in the claim.

A former chief executive officer of the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association, Tracey is regarded as a senior business and industry leader, having also previously served as chair of the Darwin Waterfront Corporation and as a Member of the Order of Australia Honours Council. She is a director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Northern Australia, sits on the board of the Australia Indonesia Institute and is a member of the advisory board of the National Drought and North Queensland Flood Response and Recovery Agency.

In this week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat on Signature Beef founder and soon to be meat processor, Blair Angus.

Beef industry leaders and entrepreneurs Blair and his wife Josie are undertaking the biggest risk of their business lives in establishing their own meat processing business on their property near Clermont in Central Queensland.

In this wide-ranging discussion, Blair shares their vision for the project, some innovative new practises he hopes to embed in its operations including a novel form of tenderstretching carcases, and the new business's focus on "the customer, rather than throughput." "If we wanted to chase throughput, we would very quickly sink into the commodity beef game, and that's a dangerous place to play," he says.