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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Mentor. I'm Mark Boris rich Been welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Mentor.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Mark, and thanks for the gift.

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Speaker 1: Already it's called Ashgrove Tasmania Signature range. So the ash

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Speaker 1: Grove is the name of your cheese business or that

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Speaker 1: your branding or has it worked?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct. So Ashgrove Ashgrove Cheese is our family's

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Speaker 2: dairy business that's based in Tazzy. The signature is our

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Speaker 2: premium brand. So we brought you out.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: Maker's choice.

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Speaker 1: So we've got Queen's Pace, the vintage Jedder and I

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Speaker 1: can't requiver from you to do I think it says

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Speaker 1: Bushberry Lancashire.

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Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, it was that one. So that one's

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Speaker 2: got the native Tasmanian pepperberry flavored in a like a

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Speaker 2: Lancashire style of.

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Speaker 1: Cheese, so as in a bushtucker.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, bushtucker. We've been doing that since since nearly when

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Speaker 2: we started. So it just works. Grows in the mountains

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Speaker 2: that kind of surround the farms back.

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Speaker 1: Home, and it grows wild.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it grows wild. The stuff we gets a commercial

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Speaker 2: product and yeah, good good tassy bush taco. But it's

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Speaker 2: nice and sweet and pay and.

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Speaker 1: What's this stuff here? Black cheese crunch heads, black truffle geese,

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Speaker 1: gourmet morsels made with pure Tasmani and cheese and black truffle.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's part of our signeature crunch heads. So

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Speaker 2: a couple of years ago we got some we got

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Speaker 2: some technology from Vancouver in Canada.

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Speaker 1: Yep.

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Speaker 2: Basically a big vacuum dryer, vacuum microwave dry and it

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Speaker 2: puffs the cheese up, takes all the moisture out. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and we get this the rice bubbles, well, the cheese bubbles, cheese.

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Speaker 1: Bubbles, same sort of yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's basically an ambient stack so we don't

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Speaker 2: have to refrigerate. It takes all the moisture out. So

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Speaker 2: last four years.

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Speaker 1: That's cool.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's great little snacking product. So been really

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Speaker 2: popular with people on a Keto diet because you know

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Speaker 2: it's full of all the nutrition of cheese. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: no no carbs and no carbs, no sugar.

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Speaker 1: I can't say I'm on a Kido diet, but maybe

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Speaker 1: you were going to get me started. So Richard Bennett,

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Speaker 1: so you're you're running the joint, You're the CEO or

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Speaker 1: something like that.

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Speaker 2: The managing director a few different titles there.

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Speaker 1: You just mentioned maybe early on, I don't know if

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Speaker 1: whilst we're filming, but you said something that about your

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Speaker 1: great great grandfather's or a great grandparents house or something

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Speaker 1: like that. Send me back to historically now, like what's

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Speaker 1: the deal? How does all start?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so Ashgrove is owned by the Bennett family. So

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Speaker 2: we traditionally have been a farming business in northern Tasmania.

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Speaker 1: Where about some we're talking about, So we're.

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Speaker 2: Talking a place called Elizabethtown. It's on the main highway

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Speaker 2: between Devonport and Nonsenstin right, so it's about ten kilometers

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Speaker 2: from Lorraine.

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Speaker 1: And what do we talk about in terms of weather

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Speaker 1: et cetera, Like what's.

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Speaker 2: So this morning it was minus three going for a

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Speaker 2: top of nine, So it's it's it's cool at this

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Speaker 2: time of year.

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Speaker 1: And we too, we elevated, we up high. Yeah, on

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Speaker 1: a level.

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Speaker 2: We're at two hundred and twenty meters above elevation YEAP,

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Speaker 2: so above sea levels. So you can see the mountains

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Speaker 2: in the background. So there's there's snow on them at

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Speaker 2: the moment. But we get mild summers and winters aren't

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Speaker 2: too cold, so it's a perfect kind of climate for

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Speaker 2: growing rye grass. We've got nice volcanic red soils and

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Speaker 2: different types of soils across the farms these days. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's perfect for dairy farming.

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Speaker 1: So and you and do you Tasman is not that big,

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Speaker 1: so like do you get the sea breeze? The salt

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Speaker 1: air is a salt in the air.

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Speaker 2: Not not not where the main farms are, right. We

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Speaker 2: have kind of expanded our farming business over the years,

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Speaker 2: so we do have some closer to the sea and

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Speaker 2: some further up.

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Speaker 1: So all the farms joined together or you've got them

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Speaker 1: sort of spread either joint.

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Speaker 2: So most of them are in the Elizabethtown area. So

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Speaker 2: we've got five dairy farms all up on Nashco Farms

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Speaker 2: part of the business. So three of them are in

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Speaker 2: Elizabethtown and another one's in Delarain, so they're all within

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Speaker 2: ten minutes of the cheese factory. There's another one that's

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Speaker 2: a bit further up in South Rona. It's about an

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Speaker 2: hour away, and we kind of lose a few farms

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Speaker 2: in the area as well. And we also have some

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Speaker 2: properties up in the northeastern part of Tazzy, so kind

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Speaker 2: of diversified as we've gone along.

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Speaker 1: So who was it that went to Tasmania in your family?

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Speaker 1: Do we have a convict there somewhere or.

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Speaker 2: There's quite a few convicts back back early on. So

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Speaker 2: so a lot of my ancestors come from from a

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Speaker 2: different different backgrounds, whether it be convicts or kind of

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Speaker 2: coming to Victoria for the gold Rush, but they ended

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Speaker 2: up in Tazzy.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any idea why they went to Tasmania

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Speaker 1: when you think it was pretty pretty damn remote.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was pretty remote. So yeah, well, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I guess it was the ones that came early on.

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Speaker 2: Melbourne was you know, colonized from Tasmania, so Tasmania was

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Speaker 2: probably early on was probably more of a place to be.

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Speaker 2: You know's there's a pub in Lonceston where they mapped

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Speaker 2: out the streets of Melbourne. So really yeah yeah, So

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Speaker 2: so I guess that that was one of the attractions

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Speaker 2: early on, and a lot of my ancestors that kind

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Speaker 2: of came from a convicting background that they did quite

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Speaker 2: well for themselves when they when they kind of came

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Speaker 2: out of that and got into farming, I guess, and

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Speaker 2: there was opportunities going forward. And and yeah, and our

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Speaker 2: farming business. You know, where we're where we built the

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Speaker 2: cheese factory, as I said, was my grandparents, my great parents'

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Speaker 2: house site. So they started with one hundred acres there

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Speaker 2: and the house was looking a bit old and it

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Speaker 2: was in a prime site. So back in nineteen ninety

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Speaker 2: three when my parents and my uncle and Arnie were

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Speaker 2: looking to build a cheese factory, it was the perfect site.

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Speaker 2: So unfortunately the house went, but the location was good.

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Speaker 2: So we built that there and it kind of sits

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Speaker 2: beside the highway and that's been important because it gives

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Speaker 2: us a kind of very public presence. And we've always

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Speaker 2: had a shop there at the dairy Door, and we've

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Speaker 2: kind of grown that with the business. And now that's

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty, we rebuilt that and it's now a

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Speaker 2: major you know, it's a major tourist attraction for the

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Speaker 2: area and something we're very proud of. And we use

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Speaker 2: that as our brand flagship.

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Speaker 1: Dairy door as opposed to a cellar door. Correct, Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: is that a thing, like, I mean, that's what someone

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Speaker 1: I heard, that term dairy door. But that's the thing people.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's that's our thing. Yeah, certainly we were aiming

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Speaker 2: for a premium cheese tasting. We've got a cafe there

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Speaker 2: which highlights all of our cheeses as the main parts

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Speaker 2: of what we do. We do high tea, we do

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Speaker 2: lots of different things and we have a lot of

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Speaker 2: other great tasty products that you can come and try

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Speaker 2: alongside our great cheeses.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, wines, whiskey's gin.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, all of those, all of those, so you can

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Speaker 2: do a bit of tasting alongside you alongside your cheese

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Speaker 2: and make a good day of it.

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Speaker 1: If you were to go back in history, like I don't,

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Speaker 1: I was wondering with your great grandfather was making cheese?

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Speaker 1: Was he just producing milk? Was he just a dairy

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Speaker 1: farmer and then sold the milk to the co op?

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Speaker 2: No, he's very much mixed farmers. So the dairy the

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Speaker 2: cheesemaking was certainly the vision of my dad and my

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Speaker 2: uncle John. So they were farmers in the eighties and

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Speaker 2: the seventies and in that time enormous amount of rationalization

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Speaker 2: in the dairy industry. Particularly it kicked off when the

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Speaker 2: UK joined the EU, and one of the main markets

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Speaker 2: for the dairy in Australia was basically wiped out. And

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Speaker 2: what that meant was.

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Speaker 1: Is that because we exported to the UK.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so there was there was The UK was

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Speaker 2: one of the main exports for Australia and I guess

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Speaker 2: there was a bit of protection, isn't in that when

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Speaker 2: they went part of the EU, and that probably for

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Speaker 2: the next twenty or so years, there was massive rationalization

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Speaker 2: in the in the dairy industry in Tasmania which saw

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Speaker 2: herd sizes you know, go from fifty cows to these

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Speaker 2: days they're more like five hundred to one thousand. So

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Speaker 2: so in that time were we went from being very

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Speaker 2: much a mixed farm into pretty much completely dairy and

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Speaker 2: we built a new, big, new dairy and my uncle

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Speaker 2: was on the He was the head of the Australian

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Speaker 2: Dairy Board and traveling basically around the world helping the

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Speaker 2: markets were building up and Dad was very much into

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Speaker 2: cheese and they had a vision for making to value

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Speaker 2: add So at that time Australia was getting some of

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Speaker 2: the lowest milk prices in the world because we're very

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Speaker 2: much a commodity based, price based which which we still

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Speaker 2: are to a degree, but it's certainly turned around the

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Speaker 2: last few years, but very low prices in Tazzy. So

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Speaker 2: they wanted to value add and kind of control their

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Speaker 2: own destiny, and for that they needed cheesemakers. And the

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Speaker 2: next generation, which was my sister Jane and my cousin Paul,

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Speaker 2: were leaving school, so they got talked into Paul got

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Speaker 2: talked into running the farming part of the business and

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Speaker 2: Jane ran into the cheese making part of the business.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's it's funny you should say, because I

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Speaker 1: don't remember it was aware. It was only recently I

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Speaker 1: bumped into somebody. I think it was a taxi for

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Speaker 1: some reason. But my property, my farm up in northern

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Speaker 1: New South Wales, was a dairy farm. It's a cattle

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Speaker 1: farm now, but it was a dairy farm in the

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Speaker 1: days when Noorco North Coast, which was a collect all

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Speaker 1: the milk from everybody, had a big factory in the

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Speaker 1: middle of Barron Bay. But it was in prime real estate,

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Speaker 1: like prime prime real estate. But in those days the

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Speaker 1: milk used to the milkie get transported from the North

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Speaker 1: Coast just about anywhere on the whole East Coast of

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Speaker 1: Australia by ship. And when Norco closed down because the

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Speaker 1: real estate was too expensive and turned into houses, of

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Speaker 1: course expensive houses on the coast. The poor old dairy

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Speaker 1: farmers had nowhere to sell the milk. Oh if they

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Speaker 1: did that they did, but they would have had a transport.

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Speaker 1: It just made it unviable. And a lot of the

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Speaker 1: farms that are only like one hundred acres, so there's

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Speaker 1: no economies of scale, even less sometimes sixty seventy acres,

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Speaker 1: and they might have not the many head of cattle

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Speaker 1: on there. And there was also it was expensive to

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Speaker 1: look after dairy in those days, and as a result

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Speaker 1: of a lot of the people lost their whole livelihoods,

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Speaker 1: you know, and properties were sold. To some extent. One

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Speaker 1: of the reasons I bought the property because you know,

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Speaker 1: it was no longer a viable dairy farm from the

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Speaker 1: family that had been there for more than I think

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Speaker 1: nearly one hundred and fifty years, similar to probably to

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Speaker 1: yoursel to some extent. And then I started and the

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Speaker 1: guy said to me, I told him that story. And

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Speaker 1: the guy said to me, yeah, I said, dairy farming

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Speaker 1: is a tough business. At seven days a week, throughout

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Speaker 1: six five days of a year, you've got to keep

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Speaker 1: milk and their bloody cows. No matter what. You can't

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Speaker 1: just say I'm going to Europe degrees for two weeks

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Speaker 1: and stuff the cows that they'll be all right, just

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Speaker 1: eat the grass, because you've got to get up there

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Speaker 1: and milk them. And it's a tough gig.

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Speaker 2: In it, absolutely, absolutely, so dairy farming hasn't always has

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Speaker 2: been a tough gig. And and I guess, you know,

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Speaker 2: in my professional career, I've watched you know, a lot

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Speaker 2: of the family farms around us have been sold. The

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Speaker 2: next generation doesn't want to go and do so, yeah,

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Speaker 2: and dairy farm has become with a lot of money,

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Speaker 2: so to sell them up. You know, you can set

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Speaker 2: up the next couple of generations by selling a dairy farm.

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Speaker 2: So a lot of them going into corporate ownership. And

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Speaker 2: what does that mean, you say, there's are you talking?

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Speaker 2: Are you saying that fund managers or whatever they are.

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Speaker 1: You know, people raise money to go and buy a

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Speaker 1: whole lot of dairy farms to sort of build actually

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Speaker 1: a proper business around dairy farming.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Correct, So there's a lot of that. So the

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Speaker 2: industry has switched. It's probably a higher percentage of his

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Speaker 2: corporate dairy farms. A lot of them are international superannuation funds.

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure why Australian superannuation funds don't get into it,

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Speaker 2: but a lot of them are from Canada and South

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Speaker 2: Africa and other parts of the world.

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Speaker 1: Because I heard China's controls a lot of the dairy

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Speaker 1: farms in Australia, I don't know if that's right or wrong.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the Chinese have some ownership in so Wool

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Speaker 2: North is currently for sale, so that's had Chinese. That's

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Speaker 2: the biggest dairy farm in Tasmania at the moment. I

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Speaker 2: think it's nine and a half thousand hectares with about

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Speaker 2: twenty deer. I'm not sure how many dairy farms are

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Speaker 2: left on it that's currently for sale, but yeah, there's

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Speaker 2: a whole host of different different countries that are involved.

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Speaker 2: And then there are other just corporate dairy farms and

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Speaker 2: they're probably as much interested in the the appreciation of

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Speaker 2: the land value going.

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Speaker 1: It's more more land value players it I think.

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Speaker 2: So with the superin information funds, they usually have a

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Speaker 2: seven ten year kind of turn around on them.

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Speaker 1: But because you know, like often we hear on the news,

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Speaker 1: apply to the dairy farmers. Is that the big retailers

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Speaker 1: are they greet me if I'm wrong, because I don't

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Speaker 1: quite remember now if this is right, But the big

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Speaker 1: retailers sort of squeeze the dairy farmers on the supply price.

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Speaker 1: And I would say the dairy farmers with this or

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Speaker 1: were prepared to pay you for your milk. And if

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Speaker 1: that's and if the two the two big retailers food

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Speaker 1: retailers control eighty percent of the shopping market, probably more,

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Speaker 1: then they pretty much control the biggest demand for dairy

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Speaker 1: farmer's milk. And it's very difficult for a dairy farmer

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Speaker 1: to find someone else who wants to buy the milk

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Speaker 1: at a higher price. And if the big retailers want

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Speaker 1: to use milk as a lost leader. In other words,

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Speaker 1: I want to sell milk cheap because I know I'm

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Speaker 1: a retailer. I want to sell milk cheap because I

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Speaker 1: know that someone wants to come in and buy the

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Speaker 1: milk for the family, and I'll sell it at a

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Speaker 1: really reasonable price. And then I'm hoping that when they

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Speaker 1: come in to buy that milk, then will go and

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Speaker 1: buy you know, maybe you a loaf of bread or

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Speaker 1: some vegimide or four or five other items which I

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Speaker 1: pick up my margin. So the blended margin for all

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Speaker 1: the products is pretty good. But the sort of lost leader,

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Speaker 1: so to speak, is the price of milk, which by

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Speaker 1: definition means that the person who's producing milk and the

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Speaker 1: other rent it's got to cop a pretty low price.

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Speaker 1: Is that for real I mean? Or is that my

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Speaker 1: just imagining? That's what I've heard over the years.

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Speaker 2: No, Yeah, lost lost leading and being the hero product.

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Speaker 2: So milk was the hero product of lost leading for

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Speaker 2: ten years, if not longer, and a dollar or a

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Speaker 2: lead of milk I think started about two thousand and nine,

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Speaker 2: two thousand and eight and it's stayed there for at

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Speaker 2: least twelve years. And that you know, liquid milk is

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Speaker 2: a huge part of what Ashgrove does, so we've kind

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Speaker 2: of we bought a little milk plan in the the

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Speaker 2: late two thousands and we thought we could sell a

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Speaker 2: couple of thousand liters a week. But we've managed to

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Speaker 2: grow to one of the main brands in Tasmania in

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Speaker 2: terms of milk, in terms of milk, and that's been

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Speaker 2: huge for our business. But lost leading has been enormously

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Speaker 2: damaging to the dairy industry because what it does is

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Speaker 2: it is it from a consumer point of view, it's

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Speaker 2: devalued what milk is worth. So there's an expectation that

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Speaker 2: milk can be delivered for a dollar or a dollar

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Speaker 2: fifty a liter and for that to happen, for the

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Speaker 2: farmers to get a reasonable return to do what we

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Speaker 2: want to do ethically right through the system, it just

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Speaker 2: doesn't work, so and that two dollars kind of stayed.

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Speaker 2: So there was always supermarket branded milk which was always

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Speaker 2: slightly cheaper, and that could be done via certain methods,

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Speaker 2: as in you're not spending the same on marketing and

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Speaker 2: the volume and the consolidation of transport, et cetera, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: But when it's significantly and it's actually being used as

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Speaker 2: a lost leader, you know, the expectation from consumers when

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Speaker 2: when it's not twenty cents difference, it's dollar fifty or

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Speaker 2: two dollars, is that, you know, everyone's trying to make

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Speaker 2: a huge bark and the reality is no one in

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Speaker 2: the food game and the supermarkets is making a huge

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Speaker 2: huge margin apart from a couple of companies which are

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Speaker 2: the supermarkets. So it's definitely not the milk producer certainly

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Speaker 2: not the milk producer. So yeah, so it's you know,

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Speaker 2: it is a tight game dairy processing. Dairy farmers have

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Speaker 2: had some pretty good prices in the last couple of

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Speaker 2: years and that's been challenging too, is as inflations kicked

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Speaker 2: in and it has been you know, some good dairy

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Speaker 2: prices have been paid to the farmers in the last

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Speaker 2: two years, which has been great for milk off for

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Speaker 2: farms for milk. So yeah, for milk. So the raymal

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Speaker 2: price actually shot up in the last couple of years

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Speaker 2: as processes have kind of competed. But it's got to

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Speaker 2: the point now where we're uncompetitive with some of our

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Speaker 2: exporting businesses. And this year was the first time that

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Speaker 2: we're actually imported more cheese than what we exported.

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Speaker 1: Wow, you know, maybe you could explain it to me,

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Speaker 1: like as you were speaking, I just remembered when I

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Speaker 1: was a kid about a long time, basically when I

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Speaker 1: go to school, when I first started school, and I

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Speaker 1: started school pretty young, four and a half years of age.

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Speaker 1: I remember, and I really clearly remember this that every

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Speaker 1: morning the whole school would be let's call it in

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Speaker 1: and assembly. We'd all be lined up in the in

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Speaker 1: the tarmac and there was this There was his crates

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Speaker 1: of milk in the small bottles, very like I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how much it was in there, two

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Speaker 1: and fifty mil maybe a little silver cap on it

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Speaker 1: and like a peel off cap, and we all had lineup.

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Speaker 1: We all had to walk down and grab one of

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Speaker 1: these little bottles of milk and drink it. And that

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Speaker 1: was every day, every single day of the week. And

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Speaker 1: I don't remember paying for it, so it must have

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Speaker 1: been free. It must have been a government initiative to

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Speaker 1: get kids to drink milk. And I don't know how

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Speaker 1: many years it went on for it, but it seems

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Speaker 1: like to me went on my whole of my primary school.

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Speaker 1: And I know my brother, my younger brother and sister

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Speaker 1: also did it, so it must have went on for

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Speaker 1: a few years. I don't know if it still happens

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Speaker 1: these days, but there was this perception that it was

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Speaker 1: important in terms of public policy to get milk into

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Speaker 1: us as kids. Are you able to explain anything around

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Speaker 1: that policy, thinking, well, I think milk is the new

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Speaker 1: South Wales. So I don't know. I've Partasmania and victory anywhere

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Speaker 1: else for that matter.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think from a nutrition point, milk

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Speaker 2: has always been really important for the development of kids.

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Speaker 2: We've seen that, you know, in Australia because it's such

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Speaker 2: part of our diet. I don't think there's as much

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Speaker 2: government push in these days. But it's been interesting to

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Speaker 2: see China in the last fifteen years and some of

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Speaker 2: their policy. So it started with a boom of infant

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Speaker 2: milk powder in Australia and it's for a while there

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Speaker 2: they were also rushing to import milk from fresh milk

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Speaker 2: from Australia. But they've massively invested in the dairy industry

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Speaker 2: in China to the point where they're pretty much self sufficient,

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Speaker 2: which is which is why our experts are suffering a

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Speaker 2: little bit as a country. And they've done that because

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Speaker 2: you know, the kids actually grow taller with darius part

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Speaker 2: of their diet and that high protein and it's meant

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Speaker 2: to be good for your mental health as well. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's very much, very important development.

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Speaker 1: Was an economic not economic policy? Was it like a

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Speaker 1: nutritional policy as part of government? Like so someone obviously

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Speaker 1: said down and work this stuff out in government. Someone

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Speaker 1: like whether it's in China or Australia. But is I

385
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:35,760
Speaker 1: often wonder to myself because there are some people push

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Speaker 1: against milks, say, you know, milk's actually not necessarily good

387
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Speaker 1: for us. And we'll get into the politics of that

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Speaker 1: in a moment in the second half of this talk.

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Speaker 1: But who how does it work? Like, is there lobby

390
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Speaker 1: groups behind this or pushing milk as a part of

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Speaker 1: being part of important as part of a nutritional diet,

392
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Speaker 1: especially for kids. How does it or is it science

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Speaker 1: based or are coming from?

394
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Speaker 2: Well? I think most of its science space. There are

395
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:07,919
Speaker 2: certainly lobby groups and farmers groups like Dairy Australia that

396
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:13,480
Speaker 2: you know, helped support research into into nutritional importance of

397
00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:19,720
Speaker 2: milk and dairy products. So yeah, there's there's certainly a

398
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Speaker 2: lot of science behind it, and it's been a good

399
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:30,280
Speaker 2: anecdote in my lifetime has been butter. So butter for

400
00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,800
Speaker 2: thirty years has been on the nose.

401
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Speaker 1: I remember I remember there was Marjarine ads on television

402
00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:40,680
Speaker 1: when I was a kid or maybe a teenager, and

403
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Speaker 1: my mum buy majorine because everyone was worried that butter

404
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 1: was going to give you a heart attack.

405
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:48,080
Speaker 2: Correct and light milk was when we first got into

406
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,760
Speaker 2: liquid milk in about two thousand and nine. You know,

407
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:53,200
Speaker 2: first three or four years, light milk probably outside full

408
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:53,640
Speaker 2: cream milk.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Mum was going for the light milk to.

410
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Speaker 2: And then would have cream, would have butter, and you

411
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 2: had to try and find play is to sell that

412
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Speaker 2: to kind of offset that. And then you know, there's

413
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:10,640
Speaker 2: been studies and research into it, and the whole thing

414
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Speaker 2: of that it's been contributed to heart disease has kind

415
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 2: of been dispelled. So all of a sudden, full cream

416
00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:20,360
Speaker 2: is you know, light milk has has fallen in sales,

417
00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:27,240
Speaker 2: but a pricing sorry, but butter demand and creame demands

418
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Speaker 2: gone through the roof. I've actually gone back to a

419
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:29,880
Speaker 2: more natural products.

420
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Speaker 1: I've heard the margarine is bad for you now like so,

421
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:35,399
Speaker 1: and it has other effects on us, and then that

422
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 1: and actually we should never have had margarine in the

423
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:41,199
Speaker 1: first place. That's what I've been hearing and or reading,

424
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Speaker 1: and it's it's sort of interesting because I don't know,

425
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: like who takes That's sort of my point earlier. I

426
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 1: don't know who takes control of this, the lobby to

427
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:54,679
Speaker 1: push margarine, or the lobby to be anti butter, and

428
00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: or how the science can be so let's call it

429
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:03,159
Speaker 1: wrong or at least manipulated in favor of one or

430
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 1: the other. And I just was trying to work out

431
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 1: how does this stuff all happen. Does it come out

432
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:10,720
Speaker 1: of America? Or where does these Where do these things start?

433
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:13,440
Speaker 1: Like where does this whole process get margarine? Does that

434
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:15,879
Speaker 1: start in America? Was that somebody in America start, like

435
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 1: some big manufactured America started saying that we should be

436
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:24,679
Speaker 1: using these things to overtake, say, your industry. Was it

437
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 1: really all commercial at the end of the day, to

438
00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 1: try and stop us having milk and buy their product.

439
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,959
Speaker 2: It's a good question. I couldn't say I'd be an

440
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:37,199
Speaker 2: expert on that. I guess it comes from. Yeah, the

441
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:40,720
Speaker 2: margarine one is a really interesting one. So that came about.

442
00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 2: And I mean, yeah, I grew up. Margarine was everywhere

443
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:49,480
Speaker 2: and we're always a butterhouse old because we're dairy farmers. Yeah,

444
00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,720
Speaker 2: but you know, margarine was huge and.

445
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:55,480
Speaker 1: No one buys it now. I don't think. I don't

446
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:56,480
Speaker 1: think many people buy mate.

447
00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:59,199
Speaker 2: Yeah. I wouldn't know what the Star's rates were, but

448
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 2: I know butter side rates have gone through the roof

449
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 2: the last ten years. Yeah, as and I think part

450
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 2: of that's there's two parts. Is one is the health

451
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,120
Speaker 2: part and the other part is the rise in home

452
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:16,679
Speaker 2: cooking and watching cooking shows and going. You know, but

453
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 2: it tasts a lot better than Margarine, let's face it.

454
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 1: So it says it's funny like, how do you during

455
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:27,760
Speaker 1: your period in the family business, how do you navigate yourself?

456
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,200
Speaker 1: How do you navigate the business, I should say, during

457
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:36,639
Speaker 1: these periods where you're trying to rebuild the public trust

458
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 1: in your product and perhaps push to the side the

459
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,880
Speaker 1: new brand let's call it Margarine. That's sort of arising,

460
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: like how do you how do you deal with that

461
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:50,320
Speaker 1: sort of stuff as a family.

462
00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:55,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's one of those things we've been doing.

463
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 2: As I said, we started in ninety three, so it's

464
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:02,840
Speaker 2: we've been doing it for a while. We're an independent company,

465
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 2: so we have to tread carefully. We don't have big

466
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:12,040
Speaker 2: purse backers to come behind us, so you know, we've

467
00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:15,240
Speaker 2: got to make responsible decisions. So we're always looking at

468
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:21,639
Speaker 2: what is happening here and overseas. I guess with butter,

469
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,680
Speaker 2: we probably got into butter at a good time. We're

470
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:27,640
Speaker 2: not a big butter producer either, but that was kind

471
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:31,400
Speaker 2: of a byproduct of our milk, and as trends changed,

472
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,159
Speaker 2: we just happened to have some butter there and that

473
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:38,879
Speaker 2: that was really good for us. But yeah, you know,

474
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 2: and the other thing is lot we deal with the supermarkets.

475
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 2: So lots of companies choose not to deal with supermarkets.

476
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,240
Speaker 2: But as you said before, eighty percent of the market

477
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:51,640
Speaker 2: is with supermarkets. So if you're not having a conversation

478
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,359
Speaker 2: with him, you're excluding yourself from a huge part of

479
00:26:54,400 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 2: the Australian market. And supermarkets go on style, go on trends,

480
00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:05,000
Speaker 2: and you know, the products go in and they go out,

481
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,119
Speaker 2: and you need to be you know, if you've got

482
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:10,159
Speaker 2: a product that's selling well, it'll stay there for years.

483
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 2: If it's not, they remove you, They remove you. Or

484
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:15,360
Speaker 2: but you know, you might have a chance there where

485
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 2: you're going, well, that one's not working well. But we

486
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 2: have this great product and then you need to be

487
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 2: able to support it with is it just a good

488
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:27,240
Speaker 2: flavor or is it behind a trend or or you know,

489
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:32,600
Speaker 2: some research or whatever it might be. So innovation is

490
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,680
Speaker 2: a really key part of being a sustainable or long

491
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:40,199
Speaker 2: term food manufacturer, I guess in this country.

492
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,399
Speaker 1: So it could go on together. We when I come

493
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 1: for the break as you want to talk about that,

494
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to work out where does the idea start.

495
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 1: Does it start with the super market saying hey, Richard, mate,

496
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: people are right into I don't know, trouple flavored butter,

497
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,159
Speaker 1: for example, and then you respond to that or is

498
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:05,920
Speaker 1: it richer goes to the supermarket and says, guys, people

499
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:10,400
Speaker 1: are really after truffle flavored, but you should start putting

500
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:13,239
Speaker 1: on the shelves and we're happy to supply it. I

501
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 1: just want to know where these things start. I want

502
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 1: to go to break first so and come back and

503
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 1: talk with these things because it's about having the right

504
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: product fit, product right for purpose, product right for market,

505
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,280
Speaker 1: and of course being out to price it correctly. I'm

506
00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:28,919
Speaker 1: trying to work out where these things start because that's

507
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:32,199
Speaker 1: this type of thinking applies to every business, particularly if

508
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:33,879
Speaker 1: you're dealing through the supermarkets, and you know a lot

509
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 1: of obviously a lot of businesses do do deal through

510
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:39,400
Speaker 1: the supermarkets because they're the biggest retailer. So I think

511
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 1: a lot of people would be interested to know how

512
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 1: this works. So I'll go to the break and I'm

513
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 1: going to come straight back I'm back from the break

514
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: and I'm here with richer Bet and he's managing director

515
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 1: of ash Grove but a dairy cheese and probably a

516
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 1: million other things that come out of Cowes, and we

517
00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,560
Speaker 1: talk about the difficulty in relation to the dairy industry.

518
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 1: It's a tough industry, but the very basics and cows

519
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 1: have to be fed. They have to have enough grass

520
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,320
Speaker 1: and or grain if that's what they're being fed. They

521
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 1: have to have enough water and you know, of course

522
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,440
Speaker 1: Tasmania just went through a drought. Might still well be

523
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 1: in a drought, is it.

524
00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:22,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, still still quite dry, still very dry, and it's

525
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 2: this spring is going to be a big telling point.

526
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:28,880
Speaker 2: So hoping our dams fill up this winter. But the

527
00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 2: blocking high that's making all the rainfall here in Sydney

528
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 2: at the moment is the complete opposite in Tasy at

529
00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,280
Speaker 2: the moment. So you need some of our water correct

530
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 2: because we've got too much water and we got dams

531
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:41,400
Speaker 2: that are flowing and you know we're spilling dams at

532
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 2: the moment and we have been pretty much.

533
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:47,560
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny about that in this time last year.

534
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 1: It's time last year. The weather, because farm always the

535
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 1: weather and always considered out bushfires because the dude next

536
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 1: door to me, when I say next door with the

537
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: farm that joins me, decided that he was going to

538
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 1: turn his He just fattened scattle. But a new owner

539
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 1: came in and he was environment an environmentalist, and he

540
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: decided to re establish his property into what was what

541
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 1: it was before it became a farm, and effectively what

542
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 1: it was before he came became a farm was a wetlands,

543
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 1: and so he decided to re establish wetlands. And as

544
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 1: part of the establishing the wetlands, you know, that's ducks

545
00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 1: and unfortunate mosquitoes as well, but part of it was

546
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: building trees everywhere, like building planting trees everywhere, so like

547
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 1: it's that I've never seen something like the trees just

548
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 1: grow up northern New South Wales, like because it rains

549
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 1: up the real time. It's good, it's good grounds, good

550
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: as volcanic soil, and there's just over the last ten

551
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 1: years there's just amount of trees has grown ridiculous, which

552
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: is fine, But what I was thinking about when this

553
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,360
Speaker 1: time last year in June, we were getting told that

554
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: we were going to have a really dry season and

555
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: as a result, of that, he's got a lot of

556
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: fuel on the ground. He doesn't pick the fuel up

557
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:21,720
Speaker 1: because it's more a natural thing to have the fuel

558
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 1: on the ground. And I kept thinking to myself, I

559
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:27,480
Speaker 1: got a couple of pine forests on my property and

560
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 1: they sort of adjoined his property the boundary and pine

561
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 1: as you know, pine pine trees just go up there

562
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 1: because there's so much oil and they just just let it.

563
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:41,360
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if it's dry and not just they'll

564
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: go if they get a flame in it. And I

565
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: got a bit nervous about it all. So what I

566
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: did is I went and bought a fire truck. I

567
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 1: went and got someone from the firey Gay to come

568
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 1: out and put actual proper fire hoses, you know, the

569
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: big red one around all around the houses. I've got

570
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 1: a few houses there. You know. I went a bit

571
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: berserk about all this, and I went over the top

572
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 1: because I've got I thought shit, and you know, because

573
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 1: I was worried about my insurance premium because up there

574
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,600
Speaker 1: we've had bushfires, we had fires, and the premiums all

575
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:14,800
Speaker 1: got a mental up there. I'm sure it's everywhere the same.

576
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 1: And I thought, I'm not going to give the insurance

577
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:20,040
Speaker 1: companies any excuses to jack me again. You know they're

578
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:22,800
Speaker 1: jacking you by like forty fifty percent increases. I mean

579
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 1: when we had in the Northern Rivers, when we had

580
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:29,920
Speaker 1: all those floods in twenty one twenty twenty one. My

581
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:31,960
Speaker 1: probably is on a mountain. I didn't I never got

582
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 1: flood once because all the water runs down the bloat

583
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 1: neis down the bottom. But that my insurance premim went

584
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: forty percent. And I said, well, what are you doing

585
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 1: that for. They said, well, there's flood insurance. Because this

586
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 1: is the plight of a farmer. Flood insurance. You know

587
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 1: you're in a wrist zone. I said, yeah, but I

588
00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,480
Speaker 1: live on the mountain. I never even had a leak

589
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: in my house, and I never made a claim and nothing,

590
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 1: never had made a claim in twenty od years. Anyway, Sure,

591
00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: it's a big issue. So I thought I went to

592
00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:59,000
Speaker 1: this extent based on what the weather patterns were showing,

593
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:03,920
Speaker 1: and of course the weather patterns it never stopped raining

594
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 1: at my farm in the last two months. My guys

595
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 1: get out on the machines said to me, we haven't

596
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 1: had yet because when it's really wet, you can't do it.

597
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: Can't attract you, you sink. They told me that we

598
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:22,760
Speaker 1: haven't had We've only had three five weeks where we've

599
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:24,920
Speaker 1: been able to spend a full week on attracting the

600
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 1: last two months. Yet prior this time last year, we're

601
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 1: getting told by the weather people that we're going to

602
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 1: have the dry summer correct and we're going to be stuffed.

603
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 1: So how does it you know, so that someone got

604
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:42,520
Speaker 1: it wrong, really wrong. All they know is it cost

605
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:45,320
Speaker 1: me a lot of money. How is it? How do

606
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 1: you deal with as a farmer, as a dairy farmer.

607
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 1: And I don't know if rain is a problem for you.

608
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,080
Speaker 1: I know drought would be a problem for you, but

609
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 1: I don't know if rain is a problem for you.

610
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:55,760
Speaker 1: For you, probably is an additional problem because you're when

611
00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 1: to probably put them up in the higher land. You

612
00:33:57,560 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 1: don't want to do you move it? Do you move

613
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:01,400
Speaker 1: dery caller to higher ground when it's wet.

614
00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:04,719
Speaker 2: It depends on which farm they're own, So if you're

615
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:06,960
Speaker 2: dead a bit down low, you want to get there.

616
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 2: So if they're on flat ground, you want some hilly

617
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 2: ground in the winter.

618
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 1: If you need to muscle them up to do they

619
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:14,400
Speaker 1: need to move up a hill to get water or

620
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 1: to get grass. Do you need to keep it moving.

621
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 2: You've got it, they've got it. You don't want them

622
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 2: in the wet too long, so.

623
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:23,279
Speaker 1: You need to get it. Do you want them walking

624
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:23,680
Speaker 1: up a hill?

625
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:23,919
Speaker 2: Though?

626
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,799
Speaker 1: Like in terms of let's call it exercise, I mean

627
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,319
Speaker 1: I had a stud before, so just before we went

628
00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 1: to if we were going to the Echo in Queensland,

629
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:35,640
Speaker 1: we would we would make our cattle go up the hill,

630
00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: walk up the up the top of the hill to

631
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:39,160
Speaker 1: get get feed and stuff like that.

632
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:43,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, yeah, we don't need to do that. Dairy farms,

633
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:47,319
Speaker 2: they're going to walk every day anyway, so they've got

634
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 2: to go back to the dairy. This is saying in

635
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 2: dairy farming you can always make money in mud, but

636
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 2: with dust it's a bit harder.

637
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,839
Speaker 1: So the critical thing is you to the grass to grow,

638
00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:02,240
Speaker 1: which will happen when it is raining.

639
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:07,399
Speaker 2: Correct, correct, So Tazzy has been the absolute opposite this year.

640
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 2: So with the no no forecast the whole country, the

641
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 2: cattle price dropped, the beef price just fell as confidence

642
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 2: of farmers fell away. So that's been tough because one

643
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 2: of the things we do is we rare all of

644
00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 2: our male calves, so that we're not doing any bobby calves.

645
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,439
Speaker 2: So we have a lot of dairy beef as well.

646
00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,280
Speaker 2: So we've got a lot of cattle running around northerns.

647
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:35,840
Speaker 1: Well, what's the difference between dairy beef and just normal

648
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 1: beef like my sort of beef.

649
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:42,120
Speaker 2: The well, the breder cow, so the freezing or the

650
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,920
Speaker 2: frieze and cross they don't put weight on as fast

651
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:55,799
Speaker 2: as what what angus? Yeah, beef breed will. But you know,

652
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,719
Speaker 2: we've got three thousand dairy cows carving, and half of

653
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 2: them are going to be male car so you and

654
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:05,839
Speaker 2: we've we've set up so that we can efficiently raise

655
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 2: them and so we do that. And you know, in

656
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:12,640
Speaker 2: the last few years we b prices being so high.

657
00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 2: Selling them off to other farmers once they've kind of

658
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 2: got to a certain stage has been reasonably easy. With

659
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:23,040
Speaker 2: this year. No one wants to go near near a

660
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:25,560
Speaker 2: freezing till it's ready to kill. So, yeah, they can't

661
00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:28,160
Speaker 2: get because they don't have to give it the water, correct,

662
00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:30,520
Speaker 2: And I guess, and what do you do when when

663
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:31,920
Speaker 2: it's not raining, the grass not growing?

664
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:34,319
Speaker 1: So what do you supplement them or what do you do?

665
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:40,520
Speaker 2: Yeah? So tay. Tazzy's great advantage and is it generally

666
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:42,879
Speaker 2: raised in the winter or at some point of the year.

667
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 2: But we do get dry and we know all about

668
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,480
Speaker 2: bush fires. I'm the brigade chief of the local local

669
00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:53,319
Speaker 2: fire brigade, so I've been doing that for twenty odd years,

670
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:56,560
Speaker 2: so i know all about that and getting ready for

671
00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:57,760
Speaker 2: bush fire season.

672
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:00,840
Speaker 1: It's pretty anxiety Reilly, I mean it is stressful.

673
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 2: Yeah. So property I have in the northeast part of Tazzy,

674
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:05,560
Speaker 2: which is an old dairy farm and the kind of

675
00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:08,000
Speaker 2: borders on a national park. We've got a house there.

676
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,320
Speaker 2: It's got to push around a beautiful spot. Yeah, great spot.

677
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 2: But you get that anxiety because.

678
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:15,759
Speaker 1: The fire jumps, I mean you need to win and

679
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:16,800
Speaker 1: a few embers and you go on.

680
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know that property there were right next

681
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:22,840
Speaker 2: to wind farms, so you get plenty of winds, so

682
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,480
Speaker 2: you get plenty of fire weather. But the great thing

683
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:30,200
Speaker 2: in Tazzy is we generally have brilliant water storages. So

684
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 2: we've invested, you know, millions into into building dams and

685
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:40,840
Speaker 2: pivots and and ow into being able to feed cattle

686
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:44,359
Speaker 2: in dry times. And you know, during the good years,

687
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 2: you use those as well, and you probably expand the business.

688
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:48,920
Speaker 2: You've got to shrink back a little bit. But your

689
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:51,919
Speaker 2: core core, you know, the core part of the farm

690
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,719
Speaker 2: there can be run off off the irrigation infrastructure that

691
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:58,120
Speaker 2: we've had there. The challenge is if you get two

692
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:01,120
Speaker 2: or three years in a row where where the water

693
00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:03,759
Speaker 2: doesn't come and then that's that's where it gets pretty tough.

694
00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:05,920
Speaker 2: As you know, anyone in this part of the world know,

695
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:06,799
Speaker 2: so are.

696
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,160
Speaker 1: You're bringing water in at this stage.

697
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:13,080
Speaker 2: So most of most of our farms there's enough water

698
00:38:13,160 --> 00:38:16,759
Speaker 2: that we'll hopefully be able to we do get some

699
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 2: water off some schemes that that are in the local

700
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:22,799
Speaker 2: areas in near Dela Ray and so I if need be.

701
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:26,320
Speaker 1: But he had to do is walking around with the

702
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:30,120
Speaker 1: if you looked at bollwater or the yeah yeah, actually

703
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:33,040
Speaker 1: because I got mates up and near my joint who

704
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,960
Speaker 1: absolutely swear by them. I got one of my mate really,

705
00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:39,719
Speaker 1: he's passedway these days. A very famous guy called John

706
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:42,360
Speaker 1: Cornell Strop out of you know, he was on the

707
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 1: Paul Hogan Show and created Crocodile Dundee. He was the

708
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,480
Speaker 1: producer and director of that show and was in the chasing,

709
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:53,439
Speaker 1: and corney used to say to me, here's my neighbor

710
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:56,480
Speaker 1: to a lot or three long. Corneys say to me, mate,

711
00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 1: I got a bloke. Everyone's got a bloke who's got

712
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,880
Speaker 1: the diviner? And he said he actually told us to

713
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 1: put a well down here, like a bore hole down here,

714
00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:09,239
Speaker 1: and he said and he said, I did it, and

715
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:12,279
Speaker 1: the water just came out like crazy. And I never

716
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:13,879
Speaker 1: did it because we're going through a pretty big drought

717
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,880
Speaker 1: at one stage. And I thought of himself whole guarantee,

718
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:20,000
Speaker 1: Blake's I'll be the bloke who doesn't work for and

719
00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:21,520
Speaker 1: because you've got to pay for every hole that you

720
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:24,799
Speaker 1: you and if there's no water then it's just you're

721
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:28,160
Speaker 1: blowing out. And unfortunately the rain came back, so I was, okay,

722
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 1: I'll turn around. But is that a thing? Do you

723
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:32,959
Speaker 1: go around sinking boreholes in the joint.

724
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:35,120
Speaker 2: I haven't done it for a while, but certainly growing up,

725
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:39,880
Speaker 2: I can remember diviners out, you know, looking for bollhole.

726
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 2: I remember before we build our dairy, we had diviners

727
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 2: looking for water.

728
00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:46,840
Speaker 1: And can you explain to those who don't know what

729
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:47,440
Speaker 1: I'm talking about?

730
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,719
Speaker 2: The diviner is, well, it's basically, you've got to have

731
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:54,040
Speaker 2: a guy with the right neck in the field and

732
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:58,520
Speaker 2: he's got basically two wire rods or two sticks points

733
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:01,360
Speaker 2: out and you walk along and you walk along holding

734
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,000
Speaker 2: him over the ground, and all of a sudden they'll

735
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:07,719
Speaker 2: swing in or cross over and apparently that's where the

736
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:10,479
Speaker 2: water is. And then you drill and sometimes you find

737
00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:16,279
Speaker 2: water and sometimes you don't. And yeah, people swear by it.

738
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,799
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if just drilling holes haphazardly would have

739
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:23,839
Speaker 2: the same success rate or but no, it's fascinating watching them.

740
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I met the guy, but I didn't end

741
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:28,319
Speaker 1: up going wrong with it. But like when something like

742
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 1: John Cornell like swears by it, like you know, like

743
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 1: this guy like John's not a pushover and only swears

744
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 1: by swears by by virtue of the success rate that

745
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 1: he was having, Like I just like I was like

746
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,960
Speaker 1: giving me like I just can't believe it, because I

747
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,000
Speaker 1: believe in the sign something well, hang on always is

748
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:53,279
Speaker 1: there some sort of magnetic force or something like that

749
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:56,200
Speaker 1: that's pulling the stick down or the wires down, But

750
00:40:56,239 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 1: it can't be one's wooden ones one's timber, but a

751
00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:00,719
Speaker 1: little bit of timber, like twigs by basically or the

752
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 1: other ones a bit of wire. They're different sort of materials.

753
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:06,239
Speaker 1: I just used to freaked me out a little bit.

754
00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 1: But when you get desperate, you do as you do

755
00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:11,719
Speaker 1: anything you find water.

756
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, water gets you know, it's one one for

757
00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:19,040
Speaker 2: growing grass. But even you know, this year in Tazzy

758
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 2: there's been a lot of farms that were struggling to

759
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 2: have stockwater, which is pretty unheard of in some parts

760
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:27,560
Speaker 2: of the state. So and once you haven't got stockwater,

761
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 2: then you can't run cattle. So yeah, it gets pretty desperate.

762
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:35,279
Speaker 1: So the current drought in Tazzy has that drought look

763
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:37,399
Speaker 1: as are you're getting advised that it looks like it's

764
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:37,919
Speaker 1: going to break.

765
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, look we've had rain, so we've had rain, so

766
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:46,880
Speaker 2: the grass has grown a little bit. Dams no, I

767
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 2: know where you're filling dams yet. So July augusta, are

768
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,760
Speaker 2: you're wet, very our wet day, you know, that's always

769
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:56,360
Speaker 2: our wettest period kind of going into So if the

770
00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:58,880
Speaker 2: ground is saturated at the start of September and the

771
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,920
Speaker 2: dams are full, your general pretty right, you know, but

772
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,360
Speaker 2: it springs out a big grass growing season in Tazzy

773
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:06,319
Speaker 2: that's when we grow probably eighty percent of what we

774
00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:11,000
Speaker 2: grow for the whole year. So that's that's a critical period.

775
00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:13,920
Speaker 2: And July started off with you know, ten days of

776
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:17,359
Speaker 2: fine weather, so frosts, so we'll see what happens. You know.

777
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 2: It's one of the things you can do with the

778
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:22,400
Speaker 2: farming game is to roll with the punches.

779
00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:25,080
Speaker 1: So as But I mean, I think that, like you know,

780
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:27,440
Speaker 1: this is really a show around business owners, and as

781
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: a business owner, the things you got to contend with

782
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:35,560
Speaker 1: as a farmer are crazy, like literally sitting there hoping

783
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:41,879
Speaker 1: that there will be enough rain to put water into

784
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: the dams so your cattle and on the grounds of

785
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:45,840
Speaker 1: the grass will grow, so you don't have to go

786
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:48,719
Speaker 1: buy any anything else other than you can at least

787
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:51,320
Speaker 1: you've got the basics that got the grass for them

788
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 1: and or water for your cattle, for your dairy cattle.

789
00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:00,360
Speaker 1: It's such a big deal. It's such a fundamental.

790
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and our biggest investment in the last twenty years

791
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:07,720
Speaker 2: has been in dam building, in water licenses, and in

792
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:13,799
Speaker 2: irrigation infrastructure. So you know, only two years ago we

793
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:15,680
Speaker 2: bought a new property at the mussel ro Bay and

794
00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 2: Northeast Tassy and we built an eight hundred megaloaded dam. There.

795
00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: That's a big dam.

796
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:23,880
Speaker 2: It's a big dam. It's a massive dam. So, but

797
00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:27,640
Speaker 2: that's a couple of thousand acre property. You had a

798
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:30,640
Speaker 2: big river beside it. But you know, if this year,

799
00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:33,160
Speaker 2: if we were running, and you know, we run eleven

800
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:35,920
Speaker 2: hundred f's on it, if this year we didn't have

801
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 2: that dam, we would have had, you know, two hundred.

802
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:41,440
Speaker 1: So and what people don't understand too is when you

803
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:44,320
Speaker 1: say you build a dam, you're talking about some serious

804
00:43:46,719 --> 00:43:49,960
Speaker 1: Apart from getting surveyors and all the other account you've

805
00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 1: got to get approvals. But apart from getting the surveyors

806
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:54,879
Speaker 1: and all the other people to how to build it.

807
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: It's not just a and you just don't get a

808
00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:02,760
Speaker 1: track there. You're getting big excavators. Yeah, yeah, huge costs

809
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:03,439
Speaker 1: you a lot of money.

810
00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:05,480
Speaker 2: It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money.

811
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:09,960
Speaker 2: But it does, you know, transform what that farm is

812
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:13,680
Speaker 2: capable of, and from a business point of view, it

813
00:44:13,680 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 2: gives you security. So you know, there's a big river

814
00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:21,759
Speaker 2: running beside it, but if there's no water in the

815
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:23,799
Speaker 2: summer and you can't take water out of that river,

816
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:26,360
Speaker 2: you need somewhere to put that water so that you

817
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:28,960
Speaker 2: can use it when you need it. And hence why

818
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 2: we've been doing that. We've done that previously on our

819
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:37,279
Speaker 2: other properties as well. So which is you know, it's

820
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,880
Speaker 2: a key art because you know, I can remember as

821
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 2: a kid before we had irrigation in a dry year,

822
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:45,600
Speaker 2: you know, like you get past spring and if it

823
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:49,400
Speaker 2: was dry, they would stop milking the cows, and that

824
00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:53,959
Speaker 2: stopped milking the cows in February. We're in liquid milk.

825
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 2: We've got to produce milk three hundred and sixty five

826
00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:00,200
Speaker 2: days of the year now, so in big volumes. So

827
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:02,400
Speaker 2: we need the water in the summer and we need

828
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:06,200
Speaker 2: and we need the fodder in the winter to be

829
00:45:06,239 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 2: able to get through it. So because it gets quite cold,

830
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:11,080
Speaker 2: it's tommy you too, in and tazzy, so it doesn't

831
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 2: grow much grass when it's cold.

832
00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:17,360
Speaker 1: So just I think before I close off, I just

833
00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:22,720
Speaker 1: to ask you quickly about your products outside of milk.

834
00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:27,160
Speaker 1: Milk we've talked about. So we've got butter and cheeses.

835
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:30,879
Speaker 1: How well are they selling? And how do you work

836
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:32,759
Speaker 1: out how you do these value adds? I mean, so

837
00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:36,480
Speaker 1: how do you know, for example, apart from a black

838
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:41,400
Speaker 1: truffle cheese, crunchettes or the chadar cheeses. How do you

839
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:45,759
Speaker 1: work out how does Ash Grove and your team work

840
00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:49,600
Speaker 1: out what value added products should we look at producing

841
00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:52,280
Speaker 1: and how do you work out whether they're good for exporter?

842
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: Are you just doing it for local?

843
00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:57,719
Speaker 2: Yeah? So good question. So we have an m an

844
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:03,040
Speaker 2: MPD team, so new product development team. We don't that's

845
00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:05,840
Speaker 2: not a full time position. So they're different parts of

846
00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:08,560
Speaker 2: our business and we kind of come together on a

847
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:12,880
Speaker 2: monthly basis and we start projects and we have to

848
00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:15,919
Speaker 2: be quite disciplined in what we do because you could

849
00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 2: be doing too many new start way too many things,

850
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:20,600
Speaker 2: and you end up with too many skews. And the

851
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 2: flip side of that is you have to do this

852
00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:26,160
Speaker 2: process of deleting all the stuff that has been there

853
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:28,560
Speaker 2: and it's not moving or you know, because otherwise you

854
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:30,919
Speaker 2: just end up with way too much, too many things

855
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:34,359
Speaker 2: and too much complexity. So we have an MPD team

856
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:38,879
Speaker 2: and we have an MPD channel. So an idea comes in,

857
00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 2: So it could come from a supermarket, I want this

858
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:46,520
Speaker 2: product in what it might come from someone's read something

859
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 2: or you know, we've seen something overseas that we think

860
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:54,719
Speaker 2: could work here. It could be trending correct, yeah yeah,

861
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:57,000
Speaker 2: or it could come from you know, could be a

862
00:46:57,080 --> 00:47:00,160
Speaker 2: trend I could come from the cheesemakers going off to

863
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:06,239
Speaker 2: do this, this product will taste amazing, etcetera, etcetera. Or

864
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:08,399
Speaker 2: can we try this product? So we'll go and look

865
00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 2: at that and we'll go, Okay, well, what's the size

866
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:12,320
Speaker 2: of the market it's going to fit because.

867
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:14,560
Speaker 1: Totally just will market what they call it.

868
00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:18,040
Speaker 2: Tam Yeah, you know what's it going to retail for?

869
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:20,960
Speaker 2: Are we going to be competitive at making it? Because

870
00:47:21,040 --> 00:47:24,360
Speaker 2: we're not a mass producer. If we want to go

871
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,720
Speaker 2: and make twenty ko Cheta blocks, then we'll kill ourselves

872
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:30,439
Speaker 2: pretty fast trying to take on that market because there's

873
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 2: people that make what we make in a year and

874
00:47:32,719 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 2: a day, so we don't have that scale. But so

875
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:38,520
Speaker 2: we put all of that together and then we look

876
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 2: at where that product might go. There's lots of different

877
00:47:44,640 --> 00:47:48,920
Speaker 2: opportunities and there's lots of people. Export can sound very sexy,

878
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:52,760
Speaker 2: but probably one of the most important decisions we made

879
00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:56,439
Speaker 2: years ago was we need to be really strong at

880
00:47:56,440 --> 00:48:00,560
Speaker 2: home first, and so we look for being a Tasmania business.

881
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 2: We're really focused on the Tasmanian market to begin with,

882
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:08,319
Speaker 2: and then the national Australian market as the second part,

883
00:48:08,360 --> 00:48:12,200
Speaker 2: and then export being a third part. And being really

884
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:14,319
Speaker 2: strong at home means that we have a really good

885
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:21,800
Speaker 2: local following. We sell our milk you know, would probably

886
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:26,359
Speaker 2: be the main selling milk brand in pretty much most

887
00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 2: of the supermarkets in Tasmania and which when we started,

888
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 2: we were a nobody in the in the milk business.

889
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:36,000
Speaker 2: It was hard to get a bottle of milk into

890
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:38,960
Speaker 2: it into the local store, so that that's been a

891
00:48:38,960 --> 00:48:43,880
Speaker 2: massive transformation for our business. But on the national front,

892
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:47,800
Speaker 2: so we're selling i think seven lines into nationally into coals.

893
00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:54,840
Speaker 2: We have a really wonderful support from the from the

894
00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:59,239
Speaker 2: independent supermarkets right around the country. But we also sell

895
00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 2: into milk kit delivery companies, so that's been a real

896
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,560
Speaker 2: kind of feature for our business in being able to

897
00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 2: make MPD products for them and do sizings that fit

898
00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:13,759
Speaker 2: their meal sizes. And then you know, we also do

899
00:49:13,800 --> 00:49:16,160
Speaker 2: a little bit of export as well, so we've currently

900
00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:19,319
Speaker 2: got a pretty good deal with the SNR and the Philippines.

901
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:24,799
Speaker 2: We do that through some third party distributors because you know,

902
00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 2: I think if we end up flying around the world,

903
00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:32,399
Speaker 2: which would love to do, trying to chase supermarkets through

904
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:35,200
Speaker 2: Southeast Asia. You're just distracted from your core business.

905
00:49:35,560 --> 00:49:38,160
Speaker 1: And that's my point because I think you know how

906
00:49:38,239 --> 00:49:40,359
Speaker 1: important has it been for you, because at least how

907
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:42,439
Speaker 1: important has it been for you to make sure that

908
00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:47,280
Speaker 1: you a stick to your lane and do that really well,

909
00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 1: like what you do into say Tasmanian relative to people

910
00:49:50,719 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 1: buying milk and Tasmania, but at the same time making

911
00:49:53,680 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 1: sure you're open minded enough two take a take whole

912
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 1: sort of any advantage that may offer itself with one

913
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:07,680
Speaker 1: of your more unusual products. I mean, like this is

914
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:09,800
Speaker 1: a bit of a push and pull all the time, trying.

915
00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:13,000
Speaker 2: To to wow, we'd enough to be a global organization,

916
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:15,360
Speaker 2: you know, like being the number one GeSe exporter of

917
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:18,080
Speaker 2: jedder or whatever it is to around the world, because

918
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 2: that's an ego to some extent. But other people will

919
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:23,880
Speaker 2: push you to do these things compared to say, why

920
00:50:23,920 --> 00:50:27,040
Speaker 2: don't we just be the best at distributing milk in Tasmania.

921
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:29,720
Speaker 1: I mean, how does that work in your mind?

922
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:34,919
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's having that balance, so I guess, so, yeah,

923
00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 2: doing core business really well, but also part of our

924
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:42,160
Speaker 2: core business is looking to what our strengths are. And

925
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:44,759
Speaker 2: one of our strengths are is we can be more

926
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:48,920
Speaker 2: nimble than a large multinational firm, and so we can

927
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 2: respond to trends a bit quicker and we can try

928
00:50:52,160 --> 00:50:57,560
Speaker 2: new things. But we've also got to be careful there

929
00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:00,480
Speaker 2: because if you know, we want to throw the baby

930
00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:01,440
Speaker 2: out with the bath water.

931
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:03,800
Speaker 1: Exactly what's going through mind that that's saying went straight

932
00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:06,640
Speaker 1: into my mind that stick to what you're really good

933
00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:07,840
Speaker 1: at because it's working.

934
00:51:08,200 --> 00:51:09,880
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

935
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:12,560
Speaker 1: And then because often we get you know, we we

936
00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 1: can get seduced because the world around but is the

937
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:18,919
Speaker 1: world is being seduced, most people being seduced, seduced into

938
00:51:19,040 --> 00:51:22,960
Speaker 1: saying Australian products are really great, great providence and you

939
00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:25,440
Speaker 1: know everybody loves the fact that Australine something might be

940
00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:29,480
Speaker 1: just Tasmania. It's more healthy for you, and the conditions

941
00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:32,719
Speaker 1: are great and it's not there's no there's no degradation

942
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 1: of the product, et cetera. You know, you can look

943
00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:38,880
Speaker 1: at the providence, the product from the moment, you know,

944
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:42,480
Speaker 1: you guys farm at the water flying falling in Tasmania

945
00:51:42,520 --> 00:51:44,200
Speaker 1: is really nice and clean and the grass and the

946
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:46,880
Speaker 1: soil is really good, and the cows are pretty healthy.

947
00:51:46,920 --> 00:51:51,880
Speaker 1: And there's this whole providence discussion about Australian products, specially

948
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:55,600
Speaker 1: when it comes to food, and therefore the world wants it,

949
00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:59,640
Speaker 1: which is probably correct to some extent. You can usually

950
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:02,560
Speaker 1: get seduce used to these things, compared to saying, let's

951
00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:06,600
Speaker 1: be bloody good at one market first at least, and

952
00:52:06,760 --> 00:52:09,440
Speaker 1: what and when we become good at that, let's not

953
00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:12,319
Speaker 1: lose that, let's hold onto that.

954
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:15,600
Speaker 2: That's absolutely critical because as soon as you forget about that,

955
00:52:16,520 --> 00:52:21,080
Speaker 2: you can lose your actual core business. And so you

956
00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 2: can't forget about that and rush off to chasing a

957
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:28,000
Speaker 2: fancy cheese off to some part of the world that

958
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:32,360
Speaker 2: you know may or may not work over time. And

959
00:52:33,480 --> 00:52:37,840
Speaker 2: you know, providence is really important. But you know, currently

960
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 2: with the study of the economy, you know people are,

961
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,080
Speaker 2: don't it tough, so pricing becomes important, so you know

962
00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:48,719
Speaker 2: you're competing with that as well. So yeah, so it's

963
00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 2: interesting times. But yeah, well I.

964
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:54,160
Speaker 1: Have seen it happen in other businesses. I saw it happened.

965
00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:57,279
Speaker 1: I won't say the name of the business, but when

966
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:02,600
Speaker 1: a brother, a boy, one, two cousins too, my cousins

967
00:53:02,800 --> 00:53:08,000
Speaker 1: controlled a chocolate business here in Australia and sometimes one

968
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 1: of the cousins, they're both their dads set it up originally,

969
00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:16,840
Speaker 1: but I'm talking about the eighties now. But in the

970
00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:20,840
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties ego got to one of them and the

971
00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:22,960
Speaker 1: other one was very conservative. One was very ego driven,

972
00:53:23,360 --> 00:53:27,200
Speaker 1: and they were always arguing with each other about, you know,

973
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:29,840
Speaker 1: what they should be doing with their chocolates. It should

974
00:53:29,840 --> 00:53:34,320
Speaker 1: be instead of sticking to the the type of chocolates

975
00:53:34,360 --> 00:53:36,239
Speaker 1: that they were making that they were really well known for.

976
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:39,719
Speaker 1: One of the cousins was always trying to go into

977
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:44,520
Speaker 1: really exotic sort of stuff and and it ended up

978
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:48,319
Speaker 1: being an error. And over time that particularly companies still

979
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:50,959
Speaker 1: just saved us. Now owned by a fund and they've

980
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:53,759
Speaker 1: gone back to the basics. And basics work, particularly in

981
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:55,920
Speaker 1: Australia because we don't have a big population for a start,

982
00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:58,719
Speaker 1: and exporting stuff sounds great, but it's got lots of

983
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:00,920
Speaker 1: bump side. It's not that easy to do, particularly in

984
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:03,160
Speaker 1: terms of marketing and who you're competing with too.

985
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:08,120
Speaker 2: Exactly a very very high risk. I did it. I

986
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:10,560
Speaker 2: did a trade tour a few years ago. The bank

987
00:54:10,600 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 2: took me off to China and I think I came

988
00:54:12,719 --> 00:54:15,840
Speaker 2: back from it it is twenty nineteen and kind of

989
00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:19,080
Speaker 2: came back from that thinking it's probably not something that

990
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:21,799
Speaker 2: is a good fit for us at this point in

991
00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:26,359
Speaker 2: time to even consider going going there, because I mean

992
00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:28,240
Speaker 2: we'd gone to Hong Kong and there was ten thousand

993
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:31,759
Speaker 2: people in their arrivals hall protesting, so you know, from

994
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:34,560
Speaker 2: a political stability point of view at that point that

995
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:37,040
Speaker 2: part of the world was, you know, maybe not the

996
00:54:37,080 --> 00:54:41,560
Speaker 2: best fit. So you know, we're happy, you know, still

997
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:44,560
Speaker 2: looking after Tazzy and the rest of Australia and that's

998
00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:46,200
Speaker 2: that's really where we're about.

999
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:48,640
Speaker 1: So there's been a lot of push around about, you know,

1000
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:51,640
Speaker 1: the importance of the importance of catdile. But the worst

1001
00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:54,759
Speaker 1: thing bacadle as they produced methane. As we know, there's

1002
00:54:54,800 --> 00:54:56,960
Speaker 1: been a lot of innovation around Hey, fed, what are

1003
00:54:56,960 --> 00:54:57,879
Speaker 1: you guys doing around that?

1004
00:54:58,680 --> 00:55:03,640
Speaker 2: Well, we we've recently come up with a partnership with

1005
00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:08,320
Speaker 2: a company called sea Forest who have set up in Tasmania.

1006
00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:11,520
Speaker 2: So sea Forest have got a mission there to reduce

1007
00:55:12,520 --> 00:55:17,719
Speaker 2: methane in livestock and they've got big global ambitions. But

1008
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:21,160
Speaker 2: they've kind of come across from and what they're doing

1009
00:55:21,239 --> 00:55:24,919
Speaker 2: is they're growing a seaweed and from that seaweed they

1010
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:30,680
Speaker 2: can basically produce seafeed which we can feed to cattle

1011
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:34,280
Speaker 2: in the like a capsule. And by feeding a little

1012
00:55:34,280 --> 00:55:36,839
Speaker 2: capsule a little bit of oil actually it's ten yals

1013
00:55:36,840 --> 00:55:40,120
Speaker 2: of oil that we're dropping onto the cattle's feed, it

1014
00:55:40,200 --> 00:55:43,440
Speaker 2: will reduce the methane production in the cattle.

1015
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:47,480
Speaker 1: Okay, you're not. The seaweed is not a substitute for

1016
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:51,040
Speaker 1: grain or feed or grass. It's just something that sort

1017
00:55:51,080 --> 00:55:54,799
Speaker 1: of stops and farting more corrects.

1018
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:57,520
Speaker 2: What it does is an I'm no expert on the

1019
00:55:57,560 --> 00:56:02,120
Speaker 2: actual the science behind, but what it does is it

1020
00:56:02,239 --> 00:56:04,480
Speaker 2: changes the reaction in the stomach of the cow. So

1021
00:56:04,880 --> 00:56:09,160
Speaker 2: instead of producing methane, they produce carbon dioxide. Right, And

1022
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:12,000
Speaker 2: the importance of that is methane is twenty eight percent

1023
00:56:12,520 --> 00:56:18,480
Speaker 2: more contributing than carbon dioxide for global greenhouse effects greenhouse warming,

1024
00:56:19,320 --> 00:56:21,520
Speaker 2: but it does break down the atmosphere fairly quickly. So

1025
00:56:21,560 --> 00:56:27,480
Speaker 2: if we stop producing methane or minimized production of methane,

1026
00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:30,960
Speaker 2: it will it should have a more profound effect on

1027
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:39,040
Speaker 2: global warming. Europe is pushing some pretty heavy, heavy reductions

1028
00:56:39,080 --> 00:56:42,200
Speaker 2: on methane production to the point where they're coloring herds

1029
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:44,960
Speaker 2: back by thirty percent. We think that's a terrible idea.

1030
00:56:46,560 --> 00:56:49,640
Speaker 2: But you know, this company c for Us is set

1031
00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:53,719
Speaker 2: up in Tazzy and they were looking for partners and

1032
00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:59,239
Speaker 2: here in Australia it's it's there's no regulation push for

1033
00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:04,279
Speaker 2: reductions in methane yet for cattle. So they're kind of

1034
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:08,520
Speaker 2: at a crossroads of finding partners because for a farmer

1035
00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:12,360
Speaker 2: there's an extra cost into feeding this to the products.

1036
00:57:12,360 --> 00:57:15,239
Speaker 2: So being a vertically kind of integrated business without two

1037
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:18,200
Speaker 2: businesses of ashgrot Farms and ashgrad cheese, we're in a

1038
00:57:18,200 --> 00:57:20,400
Speaker 2: position where we can kind of say to the market, hey,

1039
00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:27,640
Speaker 2: we can do this and produce basically, you know, produce

1040
00:57:27,680 --> 00:57:34,280
Speaker 2: milk that in its production stages reduces methane. But yeah,

1041
00:57:34,880 --> 00:57:36,920
Speaker 2: so we've come up with that product and we're selling

1042
00:57:36,960 --> 00:57:39,720
Speaker 2: that as an eco milk. So there's a slight premium

1043
00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:43,120
Speaker 2: to that, and I guess that product, like all our

1044
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:46,000
Speaker 2: MPD that we were talking about before, were living die

1045
00:57:46,120 --> 00:57:47,720
Speaker 2: by its commercial success.

1046
00:57:47,800 --> 00:57:49,920
Speaker 1: So if consumers are more aware of the fact that

1047
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:51,560
Speaker 1: they want to know if they actually believe that they

1048
00:57:51,600 --> 00:57:55,600
Speaker 1: shouldn't be drinking milk because it creating a methane problem.

1049
00:57:55,920 --> 00:57:59,000
Speaker 1: Then also they can buy milk now because the milk

1050
00:57:59,040 --> 00:58:01,439
Speaker 1: that you're talking about, premium milk that you're talking about,

1051
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:05,360
Speaker 1: because it is producing less methane then ordinarily because of

1052
00:58:05,400 --> 00:58:06,360
Speaker 1: this seaweed.

1053
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 2: Correct. So it's you know, it's an actual way people

1054
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:14,320
Speaker 2: can contribue to reducing methane. And it's not going and

1055
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:18,240
Speaker 2: buying a brand new electric car. It's just spending another

1056
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:20,080
Speaker 2: twelve cents later on your milk.

1057
00:58:20,480 --> 00:58:23,880
Speaker 1: Well, Richard Bennett, I'm sure your great grandfather and anyone

1058
00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:26,720
Speaker 1: else who sort of comes into your lineage would be

1059
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:29,320
Speaker 1: very proud of what you and your your cousins and sister.

1060
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:30,440
Speaker 1: Is that right now?

1061
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 2: Oh so, my sister's out of it, but my cousin

1062
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:36,440
Speaker 2: Paul and my cousin Ann, who does our marketing, is

1063
00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:38,120
Speaker 2: still very much part of the business.

1064
00:58:38,120 --> 00:58:40,960
Speaker 1: And your great grandparents would be very proud of you guys,

1065
00:58:41,000 --> 00:58:43,680
Speaker 1: what you're doing at Ashgrove. Thanks very much for the

1066
00:58:43,720 --> 00:58:47,480
Speaker 1: signature range and I'll be tasting that today, mate. And

1067
00:58:47,720 --> 00:58:50,040
Speaker 1: because I do love my cheese, I particularly love Jeddar.

1068
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:51,800
Speaker 1: I don't know what is old school, but I just

1069
00:58:51,800 --> 00:58:53,480
Speaker 1: love Jeddar, thanks very much for coming in.

1070
00:58:53,680 --> 00:58:54,960
Speaker 2: Thanks Mark, great pleasure.