Tell us a bit about your background?
I was born and raised in Warrnambool and completed my HSC (Year 12) in 1973. Then I went to Longerenong Agricultural College and graduated in 1977. I stayed in the Wimmera where my first job was selling International Harvester farm equipment before moving on to different roles including the Department of Agriculture working on the brucellosis eradication program for 18 months.
In 1981, I went back to study and completed a Post Graduate Diploma of Agricultural Extension University of Melbourne. After this, I joined Monsanto Australia in Horsham to work in market development focusing on the development of conservation tillage for broadacre crops.
Working for Monsanto took me from Horsham to Bendigo and eventually to Western Australia where I was based in Perth for 6 years.
Following a return to Melbourne in 1996, I worked on the introduction of Australia’s first GM crop which was an insect tolerant cotton (Bt cotton). Also in 1996 I completed a Post Graduate Diploma in AgriBusiness from Monash University.
In 1998 I was then asked to lead the introduction of the first herbicide tolerant canola into Australia (Roundup Ready canola). This brought me back to Horsham regularly as part of my portfolio was AgSeed Research (now NuSeed).
After the introduction of the GM canola moratoriums by State Governments in 2004, Monsanto sold off its canola business and after 23 years, I left the company and started my current consulting business.
What is your current role and what does it involve?
I operate SGA Solutions which is a consulting business specialising in providing services to private and public sector clients in the seed, grain and ag-biotech sectors. Services include evaluation of product, technology and service innovations, Business Plan strategy development and implementation, operational and Infrastructure strategy development, R & D and pathway to market strategy development and reviews of strategic investment reviews.
When did you develop an interest in agriculture?
My interest began as a 14-year-old working on a mate’s father’s dairy farm which turned into my first holiday job. I also did casual labour in irrigation and picking potatoes. It was on the back of these experiences that I decided to go to Longerenong and have a career in agriculture. Despite an initial interest in livestock, it wasn’t until I joined Monsanto that my passion for the grains industry started.
What are some of the highlights or challenges you have experienced in your career?
The development and adoption of conservation tillage as the platform for today’s cropping and pasture industries was one highlight. Back in the early 1980’s if you saw any more than 3 to 4 paddocks sprayed with a knockdown herbicide for weed control between Horsham and Birchip it was a highlight. Given in those days farmers would cultivate up to 18 – 20 times for weed control in a long fallow. The benefits that conservation tillage has delivered to sustaining Australian cropping systems and the environment will continue to deliver for generations of Australian farmers.
In 1991, my work in conservation tillage led to being awarded Monsanto’s International Distinguished Development Award (DDA). An Australian first.
Another was being involved in the introduction of all three of Australia’s GM crops – insect tolerant cotton, herbicide tolerant canola and more recently super high oleic safflower. While these, and other innovative technologies, are yet to be widely adopted in Australia they hold tremendous potential for addressing some of the key challenges that Australian farmers face in growing sustainable and profitable crops that will be needed to meet the rapidly growing global demand for food, feed, fibre and energy into the future.
More recently, a highlight was being appointed an Honorary Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Veterinary Science – University of Melbourne in 2016.
Where do you see are the next biggest change or opportunities in the agricultural industry?
Within Australia, our biggest challenge is to provide the platform and investment for many of the innovative agricultural technologies in the early stages of development. Particularly at universities or in small companies to provide a pathway to market for their development and adoption by Australian and global farmers. As a country, we seem to be fixated on the need to take agricultural technology innovation overseas to develop new products and/or technologies which then get exported back to Australia. We need to have greater confidence from industry and government in our own ability to support and undertake the value added pathway to market rather than being content to send them overseas.
Why did you become a BCG Board member?
Before making the decision to apply for the BCG Board I spent some time reflecting on the current BCG Strategic Plan. I also contacted a number of people within the grains industry with an intimate working knowledge of BCG.
I found the philosophies and objectives of BCG were very much aligned with my own objectives of wanting to work with leading individuals and organisations developing pathways to market for innovations and/or services.
Also, after spending so much of my developmental years in the Wimmera, Mallee and North Central, I felt it was the right time to start contributing back some of my experience to the regions and people who contributed to my success in the various roles that I have been engaged in over the last 40 years.
Are there aspects of the role you enjoy?
Working with a team of Board members, management and staff who are there for the one goal of contributing their knowledge and skills to improving the pathway forward for farmers throughout the Wimmera, Mallee and beyond.
What are you hoping to achieve through role?
Through BCG’s activities and the leadership of the BCG Board, I hope to see progress in farmer’s ability to sustainably manage their farming operations in a profitable manner. Achieving this will require exposure to innovation across many fields – the key is picking the right combination of innovations for each individual farming operation.
Farmers and their advisors will need to make the right management decisions with the best available information presented in a way that they can readily understand and implement.
Hence, organisations such as BCG will have a key role both in the short and long term by providing the platform for access to and evaluation of these innovations.
