Agricultural
29 July, 2026
GRDC delivers comprehensive Farm Business Update for growers
The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) welcomed about 90 growers, advisers and agribusiness professionals to its Farm Business Update at the Pittsworth Function Centre on Tuesday, 21 July.
The guest speakers came from as far as Western Australia to provide current insights and conversations on how to strengthen farm business decision-making.
First off the rank was Ben White from Kondinin Group who spoke about managing risk around infrastructure and machinery purchase decisions.
He said machinery supply is variable and prices have risen significantly, which makes planning for purchases critical, to ensure access to the required equipment with adequate lead times.
Comparing farm investments in machinery, to other farms in the area, can also provide guidance for benchmark investment levels.
The second speaker was Tom Coggan, a fifth generation farmer of the mixed farming enterprise Coggan Partnership at Meandarra.
Mr Coggan highlighted his experience with autonomous optical spot sprayers - the return on investment and how they can change capital, labour and management allocations.
Another interesting fact was learning that the Coggans are the first beef producer in mainland Australia to adopt the Halter virtual fencing system.
Mr Coggan briefly explained how the process came about and the development and trial of the autonomous herd management practice.
Before morning tea was served, Rob Dawes highlighted the Fat Farmers initiative, a health program that encourages rural communities to improve their health and wellbeing through physical activity - started by farmers for farmers.
With groups in South Australia and Victoria, there’s currently only one active group in Queensland.
Mr Dawes returned as guest speaker after morning tea, to discuss how growers can best manage input costs.
He said fertiliser movements can be hard to forecast, particularly for urea, which regularly moves up and down rapidly due to global issues that are hard to predict.
The Middle East conflict has shown how volatile fertiliser pricing and supply can be.
Mr Dawes said in 2025, 57 per cent of urea bound for Australia came through the Strait of Hormuz.
He highlighted the importance of growers maintaining regular contact with their retailer, suggesting a quarterly catch up to gauge where prices are on the market.
According to Mr Dawes, glyphosate prices are coming back down but paraquat is not.
If using paraquat, he suggested speaking with a retailer, as the long term supply is not available.
The next speaker was Rick Llewellyn of CSIRO, who guided the attendees through the clear process of making effective decisions that are ‘more right, more often’.
He suggested using the RiskWi$e DRIVE steps - define the decision to be made; reflect on how decisions like this have been made in the past; identify the key risk and uncertainties involved; evaluate the possible outcomes; and enact the decision.
The final session after lunch began with Dr Jane Foster from Emotional Resilience Training.
Dr Foster spoke about positive and productive communication language and techniques to enhance emotional resilience.
The final speaker was Andrew Whitelaw, on grain price outlook and global and domestic drivers.
With the Middle East conflict, Mr Whitelaw explained how exposed Australian farming businesses are to global energy, fertiliser and freight markets.
He said tariffs, sanctions, trade restrictions and government intervention can change the value of commodities and farm inputs very quickly.
