What's Your Beef

One of the greatest benefits to come from the Beef Australia event is the focus on the Queensland town of Rockhampton. Well known as the Beef Capital of Australia, the community has risen to the occasion for decades to share their city with thousands of visitors and showcase all the region has to offer. 2024 is no exception and coming off the back of Beef21- the greatest event of its history, there’s a multitude of events, exhibitions and experiences to feast your senses. In this episode of What's Your Beef we hear from Zac Garven, the Tourism and Events Manager for Advance Rockhampton and how he and his team have curated four City Tours to complement the events at Beef2024.

Beef Australia’s Celebrity Chef program is a draw card unto itself, tantalising even those with a reluctant palate to experience beef like they never have before. 2024’s event will be no exception, with another stellar lineup including Iron Chef Sakai, John Torode MBE, Justine Schofield, Jess Pryles, Miguel Maestre, Mark Olive, Hayden Quinn & Andy Hearnden. But in this episode of What's Your Beef we’re hearing from two southern Queensland icons in Matt Golinski and Australia’s chef of the year Tom Hitchcock. Just in time for Christmas the pair have some hot tips on how to get more beef on the celebratory table as well as what you can expect from them at Beef2024. But be warned…. you’ll be salivating before you know it.

When Michael Patching was mulling over his career choices as a teenager, morality and a passion around animal production were at the centre of his decisions. Initially settling on a veterinarian degree, Michael has spent the years since travelling the world with various roles in the beef industry. He's a fierce advocate for helping farmers and abattoirs to improve animal welfare outcomes, whether that be through investment in training, technology or innovation. More recently he's taken up a stakeholder engagement and ambassador role with Better Choices, a self certified community of livestock farmers, industry individuals and organisations who are committed to improving welfare outcomes through pain mitigation.

Carbon is no longer a buzz word in modern beef businesses- it’s here to stay. But many producers and land owners are still in murky territory around their understanding of the applications to our businesses. Luckily we have enough early adopters that have led the charge and can explain the situation. Hamish Webb is the CEO of Precision Pastures and a beef producer in New South Wales’ Northern Tablelands. In the latest episode of 'What's Your Beef', Hamish talks about grappling with difficult truth around the health of the soil on their property and how he and his wife Jess have asked the tough questions around what role the carbon industry has and how to apply it to their place.

One of the jewels in the Beef Australia crown is the Westpac Property Tours. There’s another stellar lineup of properties for the 2024 event and in this episode we’ll meet two of the owners opening their front gates for visitors; Justine and Matt McLeod at Lake Pleasant, Goovigen and Ainsley and Rob McArthur at Mystery Park, St Lawrence. As a property tour guest, you will experience firsthand some of Northern Australia’s premier properties, and why the Rockhampton region is acknowledged as the true Beef Capital of Australia. Tune in to the latest episode of What's Your Beef, supported by Better Choices as we explore some of Central Queensland's premier cattle properties.

It’s not often you can find animal scientists performing award winning musical paraody videos on YouTube, but in the modern world- mythbusting is every bit in the job description of science extension. It takes a special combination of humour and intelligence to get the combination right. Alison Van Eeneennaam is a cooperative extension specialist in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis and runs the animal Genomics and Biotechnology Laboratory, but is currently completing a secondment with the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation or QAAFI, looking into genome editing. Tune in to the latest episode of What's Your Beef as we explore how Alison is exploring some of the cutting edge research going into advancing the beef breed in genomics, with a very refreshing take on communicating complex science information.

There is something about Chloe Gould's commitment to bettering the beef industry for everyone from paddock to plate that is infectious. As the chair of Beef Australia's 2024 Next Gen Committee, Chloe and her team are steaming ahead with a program that will entertain, engage, inform and delight, including some new and exciting online events being rolled out in the lead up to Beef2024. Chloe is currently the Strategic Initiatives Manager for Greenham, after a number of other roles with Meat and Livestock Australia and Teys Australia. Chloe is also a past Beef Australia Graeme Acton Beef Connections Program mentee, an experience she sights as being pivotal to her career successes. Tune into the latest episode of What's Your Beef as we chat to Chloe about where her passion for the red meat industry was sparked, the importance she places on listening to consumers in order for the beef industry to survive, why mentoring is key and sneak peak into what's in store for the 2024 Beef Australia Next Gen Program at Beef2024.

20 years ago, Nhaya Nicky Hatfield, a proud Darumbul woman from Central Queensland and her husband Trevor took a vow they were no longer going to speak their language in secret. They wanted to use it not only to preserve their culture within their family, but bring the wider community of Australia together. It’s their ethos of inclusiveness and sharing of ideas across cultures that has made Nhaya, or Aunty Nicky an icon in Rockhampton. In this episode Aunty Nikki talks about what reconciliation means to her- and how language is central to how it will work. It’s also her story… of growing up on country, and the passion she has for teaching as well as her community and the lands in which she lives. We also talk about how she’s turned her experiences of racism on their head and the fact that despite eating it for most of her life, she still finds cooking with beef mince irresistible.

The Beef Australia event has long been hailed as the epicenter of innovation and business for the global beef industry. Nathan McPhee attended Beef21 with a seed of an idea for a beef business, but after a chance encounter with some industry leaders, the idea blossomed into what’s now a world first in farming investment through his app Invest Inya Farmer. Attending Beef Australia’s study tour to the USA, he says the experience not only opened doors for his business, but he learnt more in the few weeks travelling with industry peers, than he would in a couple of years researching from the comfort of his desk. In this episode of What’s Your Beef, Nathan outlines his passion for connecting farmers with consumers and how his experience with the Tech and Innovation Hub at Beef21 opened doors for his current business Invest Inya Farmer.

When Adam Coffey finished school, he seriously toyed with the idea of becoming a chef but skip forward a couple of decades and he and his wife Jacynta are instead more interested in producing what goes onto your plate at a grassroots level. Having done a ringer’s apprenticeship across various parts of Australia, the high school sweethearts from Tasmania eventually settled in Central Queensland, rejuvenating an old forestry block into a stellar example of regenerative farming practices. In this episode of What’s your Beef, Adam outlines what he thinks are the greatest challenges for our beef industry around engagement and education. He also talks about the evolving use of social media to reach outside agricultural echo chambers.

Luke Chaplain is a fourth-generation grazier from Cloncurry in Northwest Queensland with a big passion for developing UAV’s. After purchasing a drone on a study trip in Hong Kong in 2017, he began investigating its functions and capabilities which soon led to a solid business idea. He was later awarded a Nuffield Scholarship which led to funding for trails from MLA and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Fast forward a few years and that business idea has evolved into a successful business now known as @SkyKelpie, providing innovative musting and farming solutions, particularly to those struggling with labour shortages. Luke shares his passion for his creation, his journey as a start-up in the Ag Tech and Innovation space and how Sky Kelpie is providing the industry with cost saving benefits, higher productivity, and increased safety for livestock producers in the latest episode of What’s Your Beef.

The Beef Australia Commercial Cattle Championship is a hotly contested highlight on the event’s calendar, with record entries expected across all categories. For next year’s event, there’s a new chair Angus Creedon, who is StockCo’s Business Development manager, based in Rockhampton. A Central Queensland boy at heart, Angus has spent time all over the State in a variety of roles, eventually returning to the Beef Capital to raise his young family. In the latest episode of What's Your Beef, Angus goes through some of the exciting new additions to the competition as well as some of his own personal motivations to be involved in the Australian beef industry, including an adoration of the Brahman breed.

With the return of international visitors to the 2024 event, the Beef Australia International Program and Handshakes Program will once again be taking center stage, connecting the global beef industry in Rockhampton. In the latest episode of What's Your Beef, we catch up with Peter Milne who was the driving force behind the inclusion of an international program in the Beef events. While being in the industry for decades, it was previous roles in industry bodies including the President of Cattle Council of Australia that gave Peter the idea and network to bring people from across the world to do business in person at the events. Tune in as we head back to our roots with Peter and Beef Australia's International Coordinator Jackie Kyte, and chat about how the International Program and Handshakes Program came about and how you can best get involved in 2024.

“It’s a movement that the whole nation will again turn the spotlight on to Rockhampton and the beef community. It’s a story of good people, coming together in the pursuit of something that they love. From all walks of life right here in the heart of cattle country, right here in Regional Queensland, we will again deliver one of the greatest events the globe has ever seen...”.Those are the words of Beef Australia Chair Bryce Camm officially launching the 2024 event. Which can only mean one thing, we’re officially less than 12-months away before the gates are thrown open again to bring together the beef community from across the world. Almost 200 people gathered in Rockhampton to officially mark one year to go, celebrating the coming together of plans and ideas and to get a taste of the big changes coming. Join us in the latest What’s Your Beef episode as we chat to some of the voices who joined us at the event and are involved in the planning of Beef2024.

There wouldn't be many people in Australia who haven't been impacted directly or indirectly by mental health, and the rural community is certainly no exception. For many people who do struggle, the hardest thing in the world is to talk about it, but fortunately our amazing service providers are arming the community at large with ways that we can help. In the latest episode of What's Your Beef, we have an all important and very real conversation with Jason Banks, the Head of Partnerships at This is A Conversation Starter to do just that, to start the conversation and help break the stigma around talking about mental health. *Disclaimer: This episode talks about mental health issues with mentions of suicide.

The Gyranda Santa Gertrudis stud in Queensland’s Arcadia Valley has long been synonymous with the cutting edge of Australian beef innovation, under the stewardship of Burnett and Louise Joyce, and more recently with their daughter Nikki and her husband Pete Mahony. Not only do the family and the business prioritise innovation and the constant improvement of genetics, landscape and their people, but for generations they’ve committed to giving back to the broader industry and community through various roles. In this episode, Louise, Nikki and Peter talk about transitioning the business, Burnett's legacy and the challenges facing the broader industry and how to turn them into genuine opportunities.

Prue Bonfield is no stranger to the Australian beef industry, having built Palgrove into one of the most successful seedstock businesses in the country, together with her husband David. The pair have spent their careers doggedly pursuing genetic supremacy in their animals suited to a variety of clients. In the last few years, they’ve taken a step back from the business after it was sold to the New Zealand Superannuation fund - instead concentrating on other industry roles, family and spending more time in their home at Dalveen in Southern Queensland. In this episode, Prue speaks candidly about how she made a role for herself in the business and how building a successful beef business isn’t always done from the paddock.

From designing high end T-shirts to growing high end seaweed… Sam Elsom has had a career change that’s been every bit dramatic as it’s been rewarding. As an environmentalist, Sam and his business partner Stephen Turner are determined to combat climate change in meaningful and scalable ways. So, they’ve created @SeaForest, the first company in the world to cultivate asparagopsis at a commercial scale, supplementing cattle and sheep to cut methane emissions by over 90% in some cases. But how has the industry reacted? And what has the take up by producers been like?

From sharing a childhood to cramped living quarters, then to a business, sisters Casey Bowie and Sara Anning are the gold star example of making family businesses work. The dynamic duo grew up around Western Queensland’s Hughenden district and have built a paddock to plate frozen food business called Black Rock Beef Co.  In this episode we delve into how they built their business and what is slowing up their distribution- the reason will surprise you! They also give a very candid reason why the storytelling aspect of the beef supply chain is an elephant in the room for the industry.

Beef Australia’s National Beef Carcase Competition is one of the most anticipated competitions within the industry. With fierce competitors from around the country, Committee Chair David Hill says there’s an unprecedented number of processing plants involved with the competition for Beef24, as well as some new categories involved in the competition.  In this episode hear from David, whose industry experience and family’s commitment to breeding high quality beef has seen him at the forefront of some of Australia’s most innovative approaches to meat grading.