Commodity Conversations

With a season of extremely low cattle slaughter and exports, the door has been opened for other exporters to move in on Australia's market share. South America is one of the competitors we are keeping a close eye on and this week Álvaro Pereira from the National Meat Institute (INAC) in Uruguay shares his insights into developments in Uruguayan beef production and markets.  

With a new season lamb supply not far on the horizon, we had Will Barton from Gundagai Meat Processors on to talk us through some of the challenges and opportunities in the months to come. We also got a unique insight into some of the innovative technologies they are incorporating into their day to day operations.

Heard of 'nudie' sheep before? This week we have John Keiller from Cashmore Park on to Chat with Rob Herrmann about some of the history of Cashmore Park and the interesting breeding programs they have implemented there. John discusses some of the challenges and opportunities unique to their environment and how they have adapted.   

With plenty of rain continuing to soak most of the country and more to come on the horizon, will the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator nudge over the 1000 cent mark? This week we have the full team, Adrian Ladaniwskyj, Robert Herrmann and Olivia Agar, to discuss the EYCI's continued rise upward, droughts in Canada and what it means for Australian grain growers and finally a look at how far the wool market has come since this time last year as it moves into a three week recess. 

Market recap with Olivia Agar and Adrian Ladaniwskj from Mecardo. This week the team discuss what’s driving the cattle market on its continued record-breaking streak and what the outlook is for the near-term future for cattle and commodities in general in Australia. Sheep prices have continued to do well also so the team looks a bit closer behind the numbers there with a brief finish up look at the wool market.

Queensland's pastoral grazing zone is the backdrop to this weeks episode, where we're joined by Gordon Begg from Westfield Station near Longreach. Robert Herrmann caught up with Gordon to chat about their operation, the country and some of the challenges of running cattle, sheep and goats on their land.

Corn, soybeans, canola and wheat are under the spotlight this week as the world watches the weather and crop conditions in the northern hemisphere. Hear more about what’s happening in that region and the rest of the world with our resident Grain analyst, Nick Booth, and Mecardo’s Olivia Agar.

The newly announced Free Trade Agreement between the UK and Australia is nothing but good news for Australian farmers, and for those that like a nice UK scotch. With a lot of hype surrounding the new deal, we’re joined this week by David Cornish, Director of Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham Ag College, to chat about what the likely impact is for our trade and markets.

More records broken - 11th June 2021 On Commodity Conversations you'll hear about what records have been broken again - it feels like we have been saying this a lot at Mecardo, but agricultural commodities keep going from strength to strength at the moment, in the middle of a world wide pandemic which is hard to believe. This week we have the full team from Mecardo giving you a breakdown of key movements in the markets this week. 

This week on Mecardo we travel to South America to hear from Director of Delta Agri Consultants, Uruguay, Roberto Cardellino, on the cattle situation in Argentina, after their government's recent 30 day beef export ban was implemented. Roberto chat's with our Roberto, Mecardo's Managing Director, Robert Herrmann, to help understand the possible reasons for and impacts of the ban, as well as give an overview of the main challenges of being a livestock/grains producer in Argentina today and South America more broadly. 

How confident are livestock producers in their financial future? This is one of the questions asked by AuctionsPlus in a survey on the challenges and opportunities faced by producers in Australia. This week Tim Mcrae, Chief economist at AuctionsPlus, joined Olivia Agar to chat about what they learnt from the research.

This week we delve further into MLA's latest cattle projections update with Mecardo's managing director Robert Herrmann and our resident livestock analyst, Angus Brown. The two discuss the details of MLA's latest updates and what this could mean for the pace of the herd rebuild as well as price expectations going forward.   

 This week on the podcast we had Stephen Bignell, Manager of Market Information at MLA, to unpack  MLA's latest cattle industry projections update. Could we be seeing a reverse of the big decline in recent years in terms of the aussie cattle herd size? Tune in to hear Stephen chat with Manager of Business Development at Mecardo, Olivia Agar, about the key points in MLA's recent update.     

Canola prices are at extraordinary levels, with the whole oilseed market booming on tight supply and very strong demand. This week on commodity conversations our senior analyst Adrian Ladaniwskyj chats with Mecardo's managing director Robert Herrmann about the strong rises this year in oilseed prices. The two discuss ways in which producers can capitalise on strong prices through hedging strategies while at the same time minimising risk. 

This week on the podcast we have managing director of Mecardo, Robert Herrmann, and Manager of Business Development at Mecardo, Olivia Agar, on to chat about the recent increases in agricultural land prices and whose behind the buying, as well as a brief recap of the latest key moves and trends in the sheep, wool and cattle markets.