Elders managing director Mark Allison calls for government jobs to be based in regional South Australia
Public service bureaucrats could be pushed to start new lives in SA’s regions, a major business leader says. They just need their bosses to do one thing get them moving.
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Government jobs and innovation centres should be relocated to regional areas to boost population and economic growth, says Elders chief Mark Allison.
The head of one of the state’s oldest companies, Mr Allison has urged state and federal governments to put departments and staff in country South Australia.
Mr Allison, managing director and chief executive officer of the 184-year-old agribusiness firm, cited the switch from Canberra to regional NSW of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority headquarters.
Almost 130 staff worked in the authority’s Armidale office at its 2019 opening, including more than half of its 96 scientists.
“Rather than building another bureaucracy in Canberra, say ‘You know what, wouldn’t it be great if we had the Sustainability and Environment Centre of Excellence being in country South Australia’?,” Mr Allison said.
“I think it’s a combination (of state and federal governments), because in South Australia we’ve done it with Lot Fourteen and made a centre of excellence.
“It does attract really good people, attracts families, gives South Australians an opportunity for advancement and being at an elite level, if that’s what they want to do, without having to go to Sydney or Melbourne.”
Mr Allison, the president of industry group Agribusiness Australia, said that from a public policy point of view, living in rural Australia needed to be as attractive as in the cities.
“I think that really requires focus and public policy to say ‘You know what? If we want Adelaide to be a powerhouse or SA to be a powerhouse, we can’t be just Adelaide-centric’,” he said.
“We need to understand that it needs to be attractive for people to come through, and it can’t just be ag companies like us who support local towns. It needs to be much more broadbased and much more thought through. That’s my sense.”
Of 1,781,516 people in SA at the 2021 census, 1,387,290 live in Greater Adelaide – or just 394,226 outside that statistical area.
“The downside of being a small state and Adelaide being relatively close to a lot of the regional areas is that, therefore, it’s just easy to live in Adelaide,” Mr Allison said.
He said there also was a demographic issue, because younger people wanted to make their own way in places with good facilities and infrastructure.
“So, they tend to just make the call and say ‘Okay, now I’ll do something else in Adelaide’,” Mr Allison said.
This was contributing to rural skills shortages, which became a global issue during the Covid-19 pandemic and had been exacerbated in Australia by reduced numbers of backpackers and other immigrants. Horticulture, in particular, was affected.
Mr Allison said an explanation, at least anecdotally, was that young people had been conditioned to working online at home, including starting part-time businesses, and were travelling less.
“I can’t validate that but it just seems to be the case, because there’s shortages around the world, and it’s not just Australia in that respect,” he said.
An Agribusiness Australia report on the Australian workforce challenge, published last October, found a surge in advertised jobs both on farms and in off-farm agribusiness and highlighted a need for more qualified workers to fill them.
The pandemic had triggered concerns about domestic food security, global supply chain strength and a resurgence in support for domestic manufacturing and self-sufficiency.
“For agriculture, this suggests that more and different local jobs will be generated into the future. This heightens the challenge of creating a greater supply of students to undertake agriculture and related studies than has hitherto been the case,” the report found.
Riding on the back of our golden fleeces
By Andrew Hough
South Australian wool farmers are harnessing technology advances to produce some of the world’s best sheep products and help underpin a multibillion-dollar industry.
In decades gone by, a farmer would once only observe their flocks, and relied on experience, before selling.
But today, data is being used to finesse a world-leading product by monitoring a sheep’s age, fleece micron – or the fibre diameter – birth weight and muscle scans, which reveals how much meat an animal will produce.
Industry leaders say wool is growing in popularity as more people turn to natural, sustainably produced fibres for use in clothing, carpets and other textiles.
But the industry is being hobbled by a serious shortage of shearers, according to Meat and Livestock Australia. Top shearers can earn up to $5 per sheep, which can equate to up to $1000 a day.
David Michell, owner and executive director of Michell Wool and ioMerino brand founder, said technology had helped produce better “clips” since World War II.
This has reduced a wool fibre’s diameter from an average 22-24 microns pre-war to a typical 18-19 today, which he said allowed for more uses, it being softer on skin and better fabric properties.
“We’re renowned for being a centre for breeding excellence in this state,” said Mr Michell, the Wool Industries Australia president, whose 152 year-old family business is considered Australia’s oldest and largest wool company.
“We have done some fantastic breeding work here.”
Mid North wool farmer, Ian Rowett, 74, has almost 3000 sheep alongside canola, wheat, lucerne and hay crops on his Marrabel property, 110km north of Adelaide.
Mr Rowett, a father-of-three and grandfather-of-eight who has been on the land for 58 years, is considered one of the state’s leading producers and an industry pioneer, along with his sixth-generation farmer son, David, 40.
He said his Mernowie Poll Marino Stud farm was among a growing number that relied heavily on data and better technology to improve their wool’s quality and animal’s meat traits.
“When I was growing up, a wool jumper, or pure blanket, was prickly on the skin – some people would even rather go cold than wear one,” he said. “Now, the wool is so soft and that’s because the quality is so much better through advanced breeding and technology.”
His neighbour, mother-of-one Brooke Humble, 33, is another wool farmer who uses technology to manage flocks on her 1330ha Riverton property, she owns with husband Mark, 32.
“Our input costs are going up, but having data driven farming helps us manage that and produce the best quality product,” she said.
“The younger farmers are definitely more agile but the older generations like Ian are also seeing how much technology can help. It helps us make more money.”
Ms Humble, a former agriculture teacher, said the shortage of shearers and farmhands was dire.
“It’s a major issue,” she said. “There is a massive shortage of labour and honestly that’s our number one struggle. It’s a phenomenal pain.”
Elders general manager of agency Dave Adamson said wool prices had stabilised after China’s Covid-19 lockdowns lifted. He said worker shortages were a real problem. “It’s really hard work and the industry is really struggling to get wool off the sheep,” he said.
Elders is establishing a leading automated wool handling business, investing $25m and setting up hubs in Perth and Melbourne, which it says will help supply chains.
Brightest minds in farming should test new tech
By Shashi Baltutis
Technology is revolutionising the agricultural sector and South Australia is at the cutting-edge of innovations to increase efficiency in the industry.
A set of evolving tools and technologies which allow businesses in agriculture to innovate and become more efficient is being tested at a farm at Struan in the state’s South East.
The farm, which has been running as a joint venture since 2019 between Elders, Meat and Livestock Australia and the Department of Primary Industries, is leading the technology takeover of the industry.
“It’s forcing us to become more in tune with what’s happening on the farm,” Elders AgTech development officer Andrew Phelan said.
The 1100ha property at Struan is a testing ground for companies approved to trial their innovations at the site.
Interested farmers can also visit the property to see how AgTech can be implemented.
“It’s a place where people can see it first hand and the data it spits out,” Mr Phelan said.
“Time is money and if there’s money to be made in making your farm more efficient then people are interested.”
Senior agricultural engineer at UniSA’s Agricultural Machinery Research and Design Centre, Jack Desbiolles, said AgTech was already making farming more efficient across the state.
“The very best example would be GPS-guided machinery that can accurately drive within two centimetre accuracy across the paddocks,” he said.
Mr Desbiolles hoped the introduction of more technology would make the sector more attractive to younger people.
“AgTech is big and we think it’s going to make the whole industry much more sexy for young people to get in and it’s got so much potential,” he said.
Mr Phelan is excited by the potential of new technology flowing through the sector now and in the future.
“I think the future of AgTech in the short term is farmers understanding what they have available to them and in the long term it’s about understanding what technology can improve what they have in front of them,” he said.
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