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Features include:

> No sponsors, so no commitments. Just relevant Farming topics with people in the know.

> Five separate opportunities to network and talk to people during the day.

> No Farm Tender talks, however all of our staff will be there.

> Individuals with a business associated with Farming are welcome to attend (at extra cost) but they can bring flyers, cards, they can wear their uniform and they will have opportunities to network with Farmers.

> Get a car or bus load of people from your local area, and make it a day to remember.

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Agenda:

9 am arrival for a 9:30 kickoff. Morning tea 11-11:30 am. Lunch 1:15-2:00 pm. Afternoon 3:15-3:45 pm. 5 pm finish.

9:30-9:45 - Welcome by Dwain Duxson - CEO of Farm Tender

9:45-10:30 - Buying Land and funding it - Interviewer Dwain Duxson. Panel - Danny Thomas, LAWD Real Estate, Jeff McDonald Riverland Lending Services and Nigel Kerin, Kerin Ag.

10:30-11:00 - Succession, is it the biggest issue in Ag? - Interviewer Dwain Duxson. Speaker Jess Cavanagh - ProAgtive.

11:00-11:30 Morning tea

11:30-12:30 - The Grain, Hay, Fertiliser and Livestock hour - Interviewer Dwain Duxson. Panel - Vic Dohle (Hay) Green and Gold Hay Contracting, Ellen Garland (Fertiliser) Prime Ag Centre, Chris Howie (Livestock) Livestock commentator, and Leonie O'Driscoll (Grain) Evo Farm.

12:30-1:15 - Supply Chains and Input costs - Speaker Peter Law - Former CEO of Airr.

1:15-2:00 - Lunch

2:00-2:30 - My Farming story - Interviewer David Cornish. Speaker Nigel Kerin - Kerin Ag.

2:30-3:15 - Carbon - As Farmers what should we do? - Interviewer David Cornish - Director of Centre for the Study of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham College. Speaker Professor Richard Eckard - Professor of Sustainable Agriculture, University of Melbourne.

3:15-3:45 - Afternoon tea

3:45-4:30 - Is your business Farming model going to stack up in a high interest rate, high input cost world? - Interviewer Dwain Duxson. Speaker Jeremy Hutchings Farm Owners Academy

4:30-5:00 - Over to you. Any topic, any speaker

5:00 - Drinks (supplied by Farm Tender)

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Speaker list and profile

Peter Law - Former Managing Director & Founder, AIRR

Click here for Peter's presentation profile.

Peter is the Founder and former CEO of AIRR which sold to Elders for $187 million in July 2019. Along the way, Peter established IO Animal Health and the Apparent crop Protection brands. Peter has just stepped down from his involvement in AIRR and we look forward to finding out what he has planned next.

Peter is a dynamic speaker and will give attendees a great insight as to where input prices and supply chains will be going forward. Don't miss Peter's presentation.

Danny Thomas - Rural Property Agent, Senior Director, LAWD

Danny Thomas is a Senior Director with LAWD and brings more than 25 years’ experience to the role, having held senior agribusiness leadership positions in commercial real estate companies in Australia.

Widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading agribusiness transaction advisors, Danny has stewarded many of the largest transactions in Australia’s farm sector in the past decade, and notably oversaw the sale of Lawson Grains (as a going concern) and the Corinella Portfolio (in 27 separate contracts) in his inaugural year at LAWD for a total of $950 million.

Danny brings practical, on-farm experience and genuine passion for agriculture to his work, having grown up on dairy farms in Victoria’s Western Districts, Kiewa Valley, Northern Victoria and East Gippsland region, and today is a specialist sale advisor to the owners of large-scale holdings and agribusinesses. Additionally, he is a Certified Practising Valuer with key expertise in valuing complex agribusiness assets as well as for litigation support and assessing compensation for compulsory acquisition.

Danny resides in Yea, in the Upper Goulburn region of Victoria. He is a strategic thinker who seeks to maximise every sale outcome for his clients by tailoring a sale process that drives maximum market engagement. Danny has unparalleled connections to large-scale farmers and farmland investors globally, and his insights are regularly sought by the full array of market participants.

Danny is also a director and shareholder in Murray River Land (PropCo) and Ulupna Pastoral Company (OpCo), which owns and operates more than 10,000 hectares of irrigated cropping land in northern Victoria. Danny also holds additional private investments in a significant number of dairy and beef cattle.

Qualifications
• Agent’s Representative Certificate (Victoria)
• Fellow of the Australian Property Institute (Victoria)
• Certified Practising Valuer (Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia)
• Registered Valuer, Queensland
• Licensed Valuer, Western Australia
• API Accredited Specialist Water Valuer
• Associate of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
• Bachelor of Business (Property), RMIT University
• Member, Australian Institute of Company Directors

Notable transactions
• Corinella Portfolio (Victoria and South Australia) – circa 22,386 hectare cropping portfolio (sold to 27 individual parties), $370 million
• Lawson Grains (New South Wales and Western Australia) – circa 103,006 hectare fully integrated grains business, PND
• Adveq/Olam Almond orchards (Victoria) – 12,000 planted hectares and 89,000 megalitres of water entitlements, $860 million
• Gundaline Station (New South Wales) – circa 15,000 hectares with circa 20,000 megalitres of various water entitlements, $60 million
• Kalanga (Queensland) – circa 12,840 hectare irrigated and dryland cropping enterprise, $80 million
• Wyadra and Cowl Cowl (New South Wales) – circa 19,900 hectares with 43,000 megalitres of various water entitlements, $140 million
• Mooral Almonds (New South Wales) – circa 800 hectares of mature almond orchards with 12,000 megalitres of water entitlements, $98 million
• Moora (New South Wales) – circa 24 hectares with 7,800 megalitres of water entitlements, $55 million
• Euroley (New South Wales) – circa 2,419 hectares, $17 million

Ellen Garland - Fertiliser sales at the Prime Ag Centre - Part of Farm Tender

Ellen is part of the Farm Tender team and runs the Prime Ag Centre, dealing mainly with Fertiliser. Ellen has been in the Fertiliser space for about 2 years now and has bought price transparency to the game, something Farmers have appreciated. Those that get her Monday Fertiliser text will attest to that.

We look forward to Ellen giving us a snapshot of where the current Fertiliser market is at.

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Professor Richard Eckard - Professor of Sustainable Agriculture, University of Melbourne

Professor Richard Eckard is a world authority on sustainable Agricultural production, with a focus on carbon neutral Agriculture and Agricultural adaptation to climate change.

He developed the first greenhouse gas accounting tools for agriculture and his research provided the science basis for six carbon offset methods in Australia.

He is a science advisor to the Australian, New Zealand and UK governments, the International Livestock Research Institute, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, and the European Union, providing advice on climate change adaptation and mitigation in Agriculture. He is also the Australian representative on the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases.

Jeremy Hutchings - Farmer & CEO, Farm Owners Academy

With a life-long passion for the agricultural industry, Jeremy Hutchings brings his unique experience as a leading company strategist and business coach to the role of Farm Owners Academy CEO. Jeremy grew up on a highly productive mixed farming enterprise at Yerong Creek, NSW; studied Agricultural Science, Economics and Trade, and has a professional career in farm and agribusiness consulting.

He now lives with his wife Jane and four children on a farm near Cootamundra, NSW. With well-established business acumen and his extensive background in strategy, growth, team- operational- and financial-performance structures, as well as a special interest in farm performance analysis and benchmarking, Jeremy is well placed to lead FOA toward its vision of helping progressive farmers across Australia and beyond.

Victoria Dohle - Farmer & Chief Allrounder, Green & Gold Contractors

Click here for Vic's presentation profile.

Vic comes from a Family run Hay Contracting and mixed Farming operation in the Western District of Victoria.

Vic's father, Jim Hoffmann is a pioneer of Hay Contracting as a service, and the family has continued that tradition with many satisfied customers across Australia.

They also buy and sell Hay for a range of clients.

Nigel Kerin - Farmer & CEO, Kerin Agriculture

Nigel is the chief executive officer of Kerin Agriculture. Nigel oversees the business direction to provide guidance on how it can continue to be a leader in the Merino industry and provide genetics to allow clients to be profitable and productive. His superpower is to be able to make business decisions based on fact and not emotion. He also has the ability to make decisions ahead of time.

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Jeff McDonald - Executive Director, Riverland Lending Services

Jeff was born and bred on an irrigation property at Loxton in the Riverland region of South Australia. Instead of becoming the third-generation male on the property, he took on a career in finance instead. After 20 years with a major bank, Jeff established a finance brokerage business in 2002 – Riverland Lending Services (RLS).

RLS has grown over the last 20 years to 15 staff, spread across the country. The RLS Agribusiness Brand was developed five years ago to assist with facilitation work with Primary Producers. This ranges from acting as Independent Chairman on Farm Boards, to Succession Planning – and much more!

Jeff’s experience in all areas of Agribusiness makes him well qualified to facilitate and advise on business decisions in agriculture. He has created a number of collaborative farming models over the last 15 years and still Chairs most of these boards. Assisting farmers to manage and grow their businesses in an ever-increasing compliant world – is Jeff’s passion.

Chris Howie - Business Development Manager, Stockco

Chris has 40 years involvement with the Australian livestock industry. Working as a shearer and mutton boner out of school. Then moving into stock and station agency in 1988.

After 21 years as an agent and 10 years as the National Livestock Manager for Elders Chris then moved into his current role National Business development for StockCo 100% Livestock finance.

South Australian born Chris’ career has allowed him to develop national and international networks within the livestock and wool industries.

This experience has allowed Chris to assist producers and service providers through common sense initiative creation, marketing, buying, number consolidation, genetics selection and trading as a cornerstone of his career.

Chris’ considerable involvement with the adoption of next generation livestock production acceptance to increase understanding at producer and agent levels is underpinned with his continued delivery of Agency and Supply Chain training, Certificate 4 in Agriculture run by Wodonga TAFE.

Chris has held board positions with Auctions Plus, SALEA and the Australian Livestock and Property agent’s association (ALPA). Chris has developed an extensive network throughout Australia and New Zealand covering producers, agency, processors, live export, finance, lamb, beef and dairy industry service providers.

Driving understanding and capture of commercial production data and how to use it within a livestock enterprise aligned to understanding how many kilograms a pasture can provide is a key point in articles Chris writes for Beef and Sheep Central.

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Jess Cavanagh - Farmer & Succession Planner, ProAgtive.

Click here for Jess's presentation profile.

Jess Cavanagh is passionate about the evolution of modern agriculture and seeing that farming families are using best practice to ensure longevity and sustainability of the industry. Jess holds a double degree in Arts/Laws. Jess has previous work experience in private law firms and in Local Government in Economic Development and Integrated Planning and Reporting.

Jess is 4^th generation in a family farming business based near Harden, NSW. Jess’ Dad and husband are both active in the business and she loves watching her children immerse themselves in their own agricultural journey.

Jess is the General Manager of Proagtive and is the first point of contact for new families. Jess enjoys spending time getting to understand the intricacies of each family, and assisting to find outcomes that suit the perspectives and circumstances of each family, and knowing that those outcomes can be achieved.

David Cornish - Farmer & Director of Centre for the Study of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham College

David has over 30 years experience in Agriculture Finance including roles such as Agricultural Economist, Agribusiness Marketing Manager and senior banking roles in regional NSW and Victoria for the National Australia Bank. He was the initial CEO of Rabo Financial Advisors and spent five years as a Farm Consultant with Mike Stephens & Associates focusing on agricultural investment opportunities for wholesale investment funds.

David has worked at Landmark as the Regional Manager for Western Victoria and then as a strategy manager for the organisation. Since 2012 David has consulted to agricultural investment companies supporting their farm investment strategy in Australia. In his spare time, he is involved in a family farming operation based at Casterton in Western Victoria. David is a full-time lecturer at Marcus Oldham, in Marketing and Business Communications.

Dwain Duxson - Farmer & CEO of Farm Tender

Dwain Duxson founded Farm Tender in March 2012, a former Sheep farmer himself from a small country town in the Wimmera district, he knew there was something lacking for farmers to buy and sell their on-farm items. On starting the business Dwain identified that buying and selling was heading online and he wanted to create a platform that combined that buying and selling option with next-level customer service, Farm Tender came to life!. 

Dwain has a number of visions, ideas and plans, however, planted firmly is and has always been the importance of good customer service and making sure you go the extra-step for the client. Dwain currently lives just outside Daylesford where he is enjoying the farming life again. Dwain now works predominately on the development side of the business.

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Accommodation

For accommodation onsite, click here to book or ring 03 5443 8166.

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