Beef industry sustainability and the growing influence of consumer expectation, two of the most contentious subjects currently before the agricultural sector, will feature at the AgForce 360 Series Roma event on 25 June.

Industry identity, Richard Rains, will provide a keynote address based on decades of pioneering work in beef marketing throughout the world. Mr Rains’ experience includes developing market access to McDonalds North America for Australian beef as well as securing McDonalds Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and much of South East Asia as customers. He is also a shareholder and member of the board of The Arcadian Organic and Natural Meat Co, a member of the Board of Certified Australian Angus Beef and on the advisory board of the Australian Export Council as well as on the Cattle Council committee for marketing, market access and trade.

“As someone heavily involved in organic meat production as well as having had a lifetime of selling beef around the world, I believe it is important to have a point of difference,” Mr Rains said.

“I also believe it is critical to listen to our customers and to meet their demands if we are to continue to be one of the world’s leading beef producers.

“I look forward to meeting with beef producers and other industry stakeholders at the 360 Series event in Roma to further discuss these matters and to speak more about my experiences marketing Australian beef all over the world.”

Mr Rains will be joined in Roma by international speaker on change, effectiveness and emotional resilience, Dennis Hoiberg. Mr Hoiberg said he would, in what is currently a challenging rural environment, he would seek to provide guidance as to how to successfully navigate the way through change.

“We often hear people in regional and rural Australia describe themselves as ‘resilient’ and ‘tough’, but unfortunately this is just not true,” Mr Hoiberg said.

“Resilience is your ability to bounce forward through challenging times – it’s about your ability to thrive through change and challenging times and not just survive.

“I see a lot of surviving but not thriving.

“Resilience is far more than having positive thoughts and is about the individual having a plan to look after themselves, their family their friends, their communities and their businesses.

“My session will present these strategies to increase the thrive in regional and rural Australia.”

Other speakers at the 360 Series Roma event include:

Deputy Premier of Queensland, Jeff Seeney
The Deputy Premier will speak about key policy reforms pertinent to agriculture including leasehold land and conversion to freehold, vegetation management and coexistence of agriculture and the mining and resources sector.

Don Chandler – Executive Director, Client Adviser, UBS
Don joined UBS Wealth Management in November 2012 after a 21-year career with Ord Minnett. Don was the Queensland State Manager of Ord Minnett for eight of those years. During his 23-year career Don has provided investment advice to a broad range of Private and Wholesale investors. The move to UBS has provided the platform and resources to significantly expand his expertise and offering to High Net Worth clients.

Ben Cameron, Managing Director, Bentleys Brisbane
Ben Cameron has been with Bentleys since 1991, and is the Brisbane firm’s Managing Director. He is an advisor and business confidant to some of Queensland’s most successful family businesses, and his work in agribusiness has included undertaking the most recent Queensland Rural Debt Survey on behalf of QRAA, which showed that debt and production disparities indicate major viability issues in the future for rural industries. Ben is also on the Regional Round Table with the Queensland LNP and is a regular contributor to industry and Government forums.

Ari McCamley, Partner – Thynne + Macartney

Ari McCamley is a partner in Thynne + Macartney’s Agribusiness team, which has a long-standing relationship with AgForce. Ari has acted in several of Queensland’s headline rural property transactions in the last 10 years, guiding clients through negotiations and consideration of taxation consequences and due diligence towards timely completion. Ari’s areas of expertise include land access issues relating to resource developments, environmental and planning laws (in particular those related to tree clearing, feedlots and rural subdivisions), water entitlements, leasehold land tenures and tenure conversion, compensation for statutory resumptions, leases, agistment agreements, share farming agreements and management and consultancy agreements.

Dennis Hoiberg, Lessons Learnt Consulting

Dennis is one of Australia’s most sought after speakers on building human resource capacity in the agricultural sector. He works with individuals, families, teams, organisations and communities to help them cope with change. He strongly believes that everyone needs a range of strategies and solutions to deal with the challenges they face in daily life. In his presentation, Dennis will provide you with practical strategies to better deal with information in your world.

Andrew Simpson, MLA Regional Manager, South-East Asia/Greater China

Andrew commenced the role of Regional Manager, South East Asia and Greater China in March 2013, after joining MLA in September 2012 as Business Manager, Global Marketing. Andrew has more than 20 years experience in corporate management roles in the red meat industry including Stockyard Meats, Kilcoy Pastoral Company, JBS Swift and Stanbroke. He is also a former Cattle Policy Director with AgForce.

Arnel Corpuz, Australian Agricultural Company
Arnel is Feedmill Manager at Goonoo Feedlot owned by Australian Agriculture Company located at Comet, Queensland. His past work includes nine years at Barmount Feedlot at Marlborough and ten years at Dealco Farms – a Philippine feedlot that imports live cattle from Australia. In recent year years, Arnel has become involved in helping Australian Feedlots and Pastoral Companies find trustworthy and reliable Filipino workers and has been instrumental in successful transition, integration and retention of Filipino workers in Australia. In 2014 he was awarded the prestigious Bagong Bayani (Modern Day Hero) Award from the Philippine Government which seeks to recognise and pay tribute to outstanding and exemplary overseas Filipino workers for their contribution to the socio-economic development of their communities and the country as a whole.

Professor Roger Stone, Director of the International Centre for Applied Climate Sciences and Professor in Climate Science at the University of Southern Queensland
Professor Stone has a career in meteorological and climatological research extending more than 30 years, particularly in climate science and systems modelling applied to agricultural production, globally. Roger received his PhD from the University of Queensland in 1993 in climate science and has since held a number of positions mainly as director of climate applications research centres in government, although mostly externally funded directly from industry. Professor Stone also occupies major international positions such as Program Chair within the United Nations/World Meteorological Organisation Commission for Agricultural Meteorology in Geneva to provide leadership and planning in the field of Climate Variability, Climate Change and Natural Disasters in Agriculture, globally.

Other 360 Dates:

· Biloela – September 3/4

· Charleville – October 1/2

· Blackall – November 5/6

· Brisbane – November 25

Source: AgForce Queensland