Beef Central publishes an occasional summary of appointments, departures and achievements occurring across the red meat and livestock supply chain. Send details for entries to admin@beefcentral.com

• Farewell to retiring Centrals team member
• JBS appoints northern processing GM
• New managers at Camm Ag, Wonga Plains feedlot
• New chairman, CEO for Stockyard
• MLA analyst joins hedging tool provider StoneX
• David Carew to AMPC
• CA appoints environmental & sustainability policy manager
• Additional directors join AMPC board
• New directors join ALFA board
• Vale Reg Clanchy
• New CEO and Deputy for Food Agility
• Bionic arm bull catching device inventor passes

Farewell to retiring Centrals team member

ONE half of Beef, Sheep and Grain Central’s outstanding advertising sales team moves into retirement on Friday, after making a tremendous contribution to the business’s success over the last nine years.

After decades working in print media sales, Sally Inslay joined the Centrals back in 2015. From her base near Toowoomba, she cultivated and grew great relationships with a host of advertisers, especially in the property, stud stock and grains and cropping fields. Many are now core supporters of the Centrals website platforms.

Sally’s great connections and thorough understanding of the bush meant she related well with her large portfolio of clients, and cultivated strong business relationships with everybody from the largest corporates to the smallest individual advertisers.

Importantly, her friendly and helpful manner made it easier for many first-time digital advertisers to make their transition from legacy print media formats over the past nine years.

Sally and husband Steve are about to join the legion of grey nomads hitting the highways and by-ways around Australia, and she recently became a proud grandmother for the first time. We wish her the greatest of enjoyment and best wishes for the years ahead.

A recruitment process to find Sally’s successor in our advertising team will kick off early next year. Keep an eye out for our items flagging that process. It’s a great opportunity to join a small, agile highly effective sales team.

JBS appoints northern processing GM

JBS has appointed experienced meat processing operations manager Phil Buck to a newly-created position as general manager of processing operations for the company’s Northern division.

JBS Northern encompasses beef plants at Dinmore, Beef City, Rockhampton and Townsville in Queensland, plus JBS Scone in New South Wales.

Mr Buck started in the new role last month, answering to JBS Australia chief executive, Brent Eastwood.

Up to November he worked for the previous year out of JBS’s Grand Island, Nebraska US office as general manager of JBS USA operations, having spent a couple of years earlier in the company’s US business.

Up to October 2022, Mr Buck spent two and a half years as head of processing operations for Kilcoy Global Foods, having earlier worked in beef and lamb processing as plant operations manager for New Zealand processor, Silver Fern.

New managers at Camm Ag, Wonga Plains feedlot

The Camm family’s Wonga Plains feedlot near Dalby has appointed a feedlot manager, while the broader Camm Agriculture pastoral business has appointed a general manager of operations.

Newly-arrived as Wonga Plain feedlot manager is Tim Brennan, who a couple of months ago was crowned ALFA’s Young Lotfeeder of the Year.

Mr Brennan worked for the previous five years as livestock manager, livestock team coordinator and production officer at NH Foods’ Whyalla feedlot near Texas, having passed through the company’s graduate program. He graduated in commerce and business from USQ in 2018.

In a second appointment, Camm Agricultural Group, which oversees the Camm family’s northern pastoral and farming interests, has appointed Tom Green as the business’s general manager. He takes up the new role in January. CAG includes Natal Downs, Longton and Narellan around Charters Towers; Picardy, Nungaroo and Marracoonda around Moranbah and Clermont; and Wonga Plains farm, Morocco and Melrose near Dalby,  Surat and Kingaroy, respectively.

Mr Green was previously general manager of feedlot and farming for Thomas Foods International’s Southern Cross feedlot near Tintinara in South Australia, and spent four years with Teys Australia’s Jindalee feedlot.  He is also a former ALFA Young Lotfeeder of the Year, and currently sits on the ALFA council (see references below).

New chairman, CEO for Stockyard

Celebrating its sixty fifth anniversary this year, integrated Queensland grainfed beef producer Stockyard has a new chairman and chief operating officer.

After 13 years as Stockyard’s managing director, Lachie Hart will step aside to become chairman of the Stockyard Group, focusing on the strategic direction of the company. In this new capacity, Lachie will continue to drive the group’s overall direction from the board, “ensuring growth potential is realised while upholding the core family values that define Stockyard”.

This has created an opportunity for a chief executive officer, for which Stockyard has appointed Lisa Sharp, who is currently the company’s general manager of marketing and innovation and a former board director.

Prior to joining Stockyard Ms Sharp was chief executive of Herefords Australia and chief marketing officer of Meat & Livestock Australia, responsible for the global marketing of Australian beef, industry corporate affairs and the industry’s production data and market insights. Earlier she held leadership and management roles with branded-goods businesses including Coca Cola, SPC Ardmona and Mondelez.

MLA analyst joins hedging tool provider StoneX

Promising young red meat and livestock industry analyst Ripley Atkinson has left his employment with Meat & Livestock Australia to take up a new position with livestock market hedging tools provider, StoneX.

StoneX, part of the global commodity trading giant formerly known as FC Stone, manages Australia’s feeder steer swaps facility, a variation on a futures contract launched two years ago.

As of last week, Mr Atkinson is now Livestock & Commodities Manager for StoneX Group Australia. He replaces Tim Jude in the role, who has moved to a new commodities trading position with National Australia Bank.

During his three years with MLA, Mr Atkinson proved to be an insightful, perceptive and energetic analyst, aware of the many influences that drive the industry’s price fortunes. He worked for two years as a senior MLA market information analyst before moving most recently to become acting National Livestock Reporting Service general manager.

After completing a Bachelor of Business at Marcus Oldham in 2020, Mr Atkinson spent a year with Heytesbury Beef on Victoria River Downs, before being recruited by MLA.

David Carew to AMPC

Respected food industry executive David Carew has joined the Australian Meat Processor Corporation in a new role as senior co-innovation manager.

His role will principally be around working with processors, value-adders and others, mostly in Queensland and northern NSW.

A professional chef by training, Mr Carew has had an interesting and varied career in the red meat industry, most recently spending three years with Northern Cooperative Meat Co at Casino as business development manager. Prior to that he had various roles exploiting his skills and knowledge around red meat in processing and product innovation and development, both in Australia and overseas in Singapore and Beijing, working with MLA and other clients.

CA appoints environmental & sustainability policy manager

Grassfed cattle lobby peak council Cattle Australia recently appointed Katelyn Lubcke as policy manager for the environment & sustainability portfolio.

After growing up on a mixed grazing and cropping farm in Western Australia, Ms Lubcke worked briefly with agtech developer Farmbot, and spent earlier parts of her career as a project manager with MLA, where she led and coordinated initiatives to enhance the environmental and economic performance of the red meat industry and as an MSA project coordinator

Additional directors join AMPC board

Two additional independent directors have been elected to the board of the Australian Meat Processor Corporation. This follows earlier board elections (see Beef Central’s earlier story).

Governance specialist Dr Saranne Cooke has joined the board as an independent director. Dr Cooke is deputy chancellor of Charles Sturt University, where she specialises in corporate law.

Also joining the board as an independent director is Allira Hudson-Gofers, who has board experience across sport, innovation, legal services, and not-for-profit sectors.  Ms Hudson-Gofers holds a Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering, a Master of Biomedical Engineering, a Master of Intellectual Property, an MBA, and a Master of Legal Business. She is currently completing a Graduate Diploma of Applied Corporate Governance and Risk Management.

New directors join ALFA board

There’s also been two new directors appointed to the board of the Australian Lot Feeders Association, following the body’s annual meeting on 22 November. Joining the board are Marcus Doumany, general manager of livestock operations with Stockyard, and Jeff Dight, feedlot manager at Bindaree’s Myola feedlot neat Moree.

Re-elected were existing board members Paul Vogt, representing Associated Feedlots, NSW, and Thomas Green, representing Camm Agricultural Group, Penang Feedlot, QLD.

ALFA full Board members elect for 2023/24 are Barb Madden (President), Amanda Moohen (Treasurer), Grant Garey (Vice President), Paul Vogt (Vice President), Scott Braund, David Bailey, Thomas Green, Lauren McNally, Grant Melrose, Lucy Morris, Andrew Rushford, Andrew Talbot, Marcus Doumany and Jeff Dight.

Board structure allows for up to 11 Directors, including up to two appointed directors, facilitating external perspectives to complement the existing collective skills.

Vale Reg Clanchy

One of the last of the ‘old school’ northern meatworks cattle buyers, Reg Clanchy, passed away on 30 November, aged 90.

Mr Clanchy spent a lifetime traversing Queensland, the Northern Territory, northern parts of NSW and Central Australia buying slaughter stock for eastern meatworks.

At different periods he worked with Tancred Brothers, Teys Australia, Norwest, based out of Katherine, and others.

His service was held in Brisbane on Tuesday, attended by a legion of older industry stakeholders.

New CEO and Deputy for Food Agility

Food Agility CRC chief executive officer Richard Norton has resigned from his position, and has been replaced internally by Dr Mick Schaefer and Professor David Lamb.

Mr Norton remains committed to supporting Food Agility’s network of partners in delivering innovative agrifood projects, and will lead a newly formed subsidiary, Food Agility Consultancy (FAC), as managing director.

The organisation’s decision to promote Dr Schaefer as CEO, and Prof David Lamb as Deputy CEO and Chief Scientist, showed its commitment to recognising and promoting high-performing individuals within the organisation, it said in a statement.

The success of Food Agility has been built upon the exceptional contributions of Dr Schaefer and Prof David Lamb, it said.

“Mick has a strong track record of successfully delivering projects and aligning stakeholders with a common vision. As CEO, Mick will continue the reporting obligations of the CRC and the management of over $200m in projects, which will be completed within the next three years,” Food Agility said.

“Prof Lamb will continue to be the industry’s go-to expert for digital agriculture. Prof Lamb has built the Global Digital Farm and the profile of the Digital Agrifood Summit with CSU at Wagga Wagga, NSW. He will concentrate his efforts on providing scientific oversight across both entities and creating new projects.”

Bionic arm bull catching device inventor passes

Kal Carrick, the man widely credited with inventing the vehicle-mounted mechanical arm device used in bull catching in Northern Australia, passed away recently.

Mr Carrick received an Australia Day award in 2018 for his contribution to the top end.

The Carrick Bionic Arm revolutionised feral livestock handling in northern Australia. It was developed to help men chasing wild buffalo and scrub bulls for the game and pet meat market in the Top End of Australia, also the lucrative export game meat market.

Various methods were tried to capture animals alive for loading out to mobile abattoirs. People were lassoing animals from bull catchers, as well as bowling the animals over with large bull bars, putting at risk both animal and human.

The Bionic Arm is a mechanical arm mounted to a 4×4 vehicle, fabricated from spring steel and shaped to enclose the neck of a feral buffalo, scrub bull or any animal from these species.

Click here to read Beef Central’s earlier tribute to Kal Carrick and his invention.

 

Are you advertising for staff for the 2024 season?

Beef Central’s enormously popular recruitment platform, AgJobs Central, regularly features upper and middle management and operations positions available across the red meat and livestock supply chain. Current listings include station managers, export meat sales positions, quality assurance managers, logistics managers, health safety and environment officers, and experienced boners and slicers. Click here to access these and other supply chain jobs currently listed on Jobs Central.

A listing costs just $195+GST. Listings appear for 4 weeks, or until the position is filled. Click here to place a listing.