Humans of Agriculture

Welcome to the Tom & Mick Show! In this episode, Tom & Mick sit down with Anna Speer to talk about her career across agriculture, AgTech, livestock operations and retail, and her current role with Stone Axe, a vertically integrated Wagyu business. From leading AuctionsPlus and working with Australian Agricultural Company and Woolworths to helping grow a premium Wagyu business, Anna shares what she has learnt about building teams, making commercial decisions and creating long-term value in an industry that never stands still.
Anna’s career has taken her from remote communities in the Northern Territory to some of the biggest businesses in the Australian red meat supply chain. After starting out in teaching and working in AgTech, she became CEO of AuctionsPlus, where she saw first-hand how transparency and competition could change livestock markets. She later moved into operations with Australian Agricultural Company before taking on a major red meat leadership role at Woolworths. At Stone Axe, she has found an opportunity to bring those experiences together, combining her interest in transformation, strong teams and purpose-driven business with the challenge of building a world-class Wagyu operation.
A big part of the conversation is about what it takes to run a vertically integrated business through changing market conditions. Anna explains how Stone Axe manages its supply chain from conception through to consumption, reducing its exposure to livestock price volatility while building long-term relationships with distributors and chefs. She also discusses the importance of planning well ahead, using a 10-year herd model to understand how changes in pregnancy rates, growth and production can affect future revenue. With rising feed, fuel and labour costs, the team is constantly looking at ways to improve efficiency, from reducing unnecessary livestock transport to investing in infrastructure and making better use of its property portfolio.
The conversation also gets into the bigger questions facing Australian agriculture. Anna shares her perspective on Wagyu’s place in the premium meat market, the importance of genetics and scale, and why building your own brand is not necessarily the right answer for every producer. Sometimes, the strongest commercial decision is to partner with specialists who can do parts of the supply chain better. Along the way, she reflects on leadership, the lessons she has taken from different working environments, and why understanding what makes each person tick can help them do their best work.
Anna’s experience offers a practical look at the connection between livestock production, commercial strategy and people leadership. Whether you are running a family operation, building an agribusiness or working somewhere in the red meat supply chain, there is plenty to consider about how you make decisions today while setting the business up for tomorrow.
Listen to the full conversation with Anna Speer for a candid discussion about Wagyu, business transformation, market cycles and what it takes to build a team and a business that can stand the test of time.
Key insights from the conversation:
How Anna’s career moved from teaching and AgTech into leadership roles across AuctionsPlus, Australian Agricultural Company, Woolworths and Stone Axe.
Why transparency and competition can create significant value in livestock markets.
What private equity means for an agricultural business, including the pressure to make timely decisions and deliver a return on investment.
How Stone Axe’s vertically integrated supply chain helps manage market volatility and build stronger long-term customer relationships.
The importance of long-term herd modelling and understanding how today's decisions affect production and revenue years down the track.
How businesses can manage rising input costs through supply chain efficiency, infrastructure investment, nutrition planning and better use of land.
Why Wagyu’s premium positioning, genetics, scarcity and customer experience create a different market to everyday beef.
What Anna has learnt about adapting leadership to individuals, building strong teams and knowing when to let go of control.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and catching up with Anna Speer
03:01 Anna’s career journey through agriculture and AgTech
07:49 From Woolworths to Stone Axe: finding purpose and impact
12:39 Private equity and making commercially sound decisions
19:29 The Stone Axe story, Wagyu genetics and business growth
26:14 Managing market cycles and building a resilient supply chain
31:20 Planning ahead: herd modelling and future revenue
36:00 Consumer trends, protein and Wagyu’s premium market
40:04 Managing rising input costs and improving efficiency
44:40 Wagyu versus Angus, branding and supply chain partnerships
50:17 Leadership, personal growth and building better teams

What happens when you step outside your own patch and spend time learning from some of the best operators in agriculture?

2026 Australian Zanda McDonald Award winner Bryce Neyland joins Oli after completing his mentoring trips across New Zealand and Australia. Bryce shares what he learned about risk, resilience, investment and leadership, and why seeing how other businesses operate has challenged the way he thinks about his own career and family farming business.

Importantly, Bryce didn’t win the first time he applied. He reflects on what changed between applications, the value of getting clear on where you want to go, and why sometimes the best thing you can do is put your hand up and have another crack.

In this episode:
What Bryce learned travelling through Australian and New Zealand agriculture
Why New Zealand challenged his thinking about productivity and getting more from what you have
What resilient Australian farming businesses do differently
How leading businesses think about investment, risk and long-term decision-making
Why Bryce is now thinking differently about planning for tough seasons on the family farm
Learning to expect pressure rather than being surprised by it
Why getting outside your own "sandbox" matters for personal and professional growth
What changed between Bryce's first unsuccessful Zanda application and ultimately winning the Award
Why the alumni network may be one of the Award's greatest opportunities
Bryce's advice for anyone considering putting their hand up

Applications for the Zanda McDonald Award are open from 1 October to 31 October 2026.

If you’re involved in agriculture, want to keep learning and are curious about where you could take your career, Bryce’s advice is pretty simple: get your application in and have a crack.

Chapters
00:00 Catching up with Bryce
02:15 Life as the 2026 Zanda McDonald Award winner
03:11 The Australian and New Zealand mentoring trips
05:20 What New Zealand agriculture taught Bryce
06:32 Productivity versus resilience
08:04 How great businesses think about investment and risk
10:34 Bringing the lessons back to the family farm
11:30 Leadership, negotiation and personal development
13:27 Learning to expect pressure
14:39 What successful dryland farming businesses taught Bryce
17:00 Why apply for the Zanda McDonald Award?
19:01 Bryce didn't get through the first time
20:18 "I only know what I know"
22:04 What changed between Bryce's two applications
23:31 Bryce's advice to future applicants

Fourth-generation beef producer Stafford Ives-Heres is building Shanford Park on Tasmania's north-west coast with one eye firmly on the generations still to come.
From starting with 10 cattle and working cray boats to fund his growth, to succession, leasing land and questioning whether owning more country always makes commercial sense, Stafford shares how he's thinking about building a family business that's valuable enough to be taken on, not simply sold.

We chat about:
Growing up at Shanford Park and being the last of four kids to become interested in farming
Starting with 10 cattle as a teenager
Working cray boats along Tasmania's remote west coast
Using off-farm income to build livestock ownership
Why the family moved from dairy into beef
The beginnings of Tasmanian Seaweed Fertilisers
Separating family businesses to make succession work
Growing livestock numbers through ownership, leasing and share farming
Why Stafford questions the need to own every hectare
Building equity and optionality for the next generation
Creating pathways into agriculture without owning land
Why professional development and strong networks matter
Chapters
00:00 The realities of regional connectivity
05:09 Meet Stafford Ives-Heres
06:17 Farming on Tasmania's north-west coast
10:21 Starting with 10 cattle
12:15 Leaving farming for the cray industry
16:24 Lessons from working at sea
18:01 From dairy farming to seaweed fertiliser
23:40 Separating businesses and navigating succession
25:36 Growing the beef business
28:29 Having children and thinking generations ahead
31:04 Playing the long game with land and scale
32:22 Professional development, equity and what's next
36:18 Leasing land and creating pathways into agriculture
39:05 Rabobank's Executive Development Program

Jack and Lisa Beattie didn’t set out to build a strawberry propagation business. After leaving Jack’s family dairy operation and trying several different ventures, an unexpected opportunity at Ouse in Tasmania changed their direction.

Today, JCLM Farming produces around 10% of Australia’s strawberry nursery plants. Jack and Lisa share the decisions, setbacks and lessons behind that growth, and their ambition to become the provider of choice for Australian strawberry growers.

In this episode:
Leaving the family farm and starting again
Why their early businesses were important stepping stones
The unexpected move from dairy into strawberry propagation
The moment they decided to back one business rather than keep diversifying
Why Ouse is uniquely suited to growing strawberry nursery plants
Growing JCLM to around 10% of the Australian market
Finding and bringing new strawberry genetics into Australia
How six plants can become millions through propagation
Digitising the customer journey from ordering through to delivery
Building a team around Jack and Lisa’s different strengths
Their goal to double JCLM’s share of the Australian market
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and JCLM Farming today
02:20 Jack’s farming roots and moving from the UK to Tasmania
05:09 Leaving the family dairy business
07:25 The difficult first decade on their own
09:06 Their first businesses and lessons from things that didn’t work
12:12 Lisa’s perspective on money, growth and building the business
16:11 How strawberries unexpectedly entered the picture
18:55 The two phone calls that changed their direction
22:43 Building JCLM into 10% of Australia’s strawberry plant market
24:44 Creating value for customers and aligning the team
26:29 Jack and Lisa’s different strengths as leaders
28:45 Global genetics and the story of six Eclipse plants
32:34 Building a digital-first strawberry nursery
37:47 The ambition to double JCLM’s Australian market share
39:14 What are the chances your strawberries started at JCLM?
40:41 The strawberry needle scare, COVID and labour challenges

Michael Spencer has spent more than 30 years across livestock agency, corporate agriculture, cattle processing and pastoral operations, including roles with Elders, AACo and Bindaree Beef before helping build Adcock Partners.
In this episode of The Tom & Mick Show, Michael joins Tom and Mick to unpack what good livestock agency actually looks like, why Adcock Partners deliberately operates under the radar, and what he is seeing across cattle markets from northern Australia through to the eastern states.
They discuss:
 Michael’s unconventional path through Elders, AACo, Bindaree Beef and into Adcock Partners 
 Why relationships and people remain the foundation of a strong agency business 
 Building a business around agility rather than corporate complexity 
 Why Adcock Partners has deliberately stayed relatively quiet and selective 
 How livestock agency has changed over the past 30 years 
 What good service looks like when clients span enormous distances 
 Seasonal conditions across Queensland and the Northern Territory 
 Why producer confidence can move cattle prices quickly 
 The relationship between live export and domestic cattle markets 
 Why live export remains critical to northern Australia and Indonesia 
 What Michael expects from cattle markets heading through spring and into 2027

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Michael Spencer and Adcock Partners
05:24 Michael’s path from Melbourne to livestock agency
12:41 From Elders and AACo to Bindaree
18:05 Building Adcock Partners and the business philosophy
23:34 What good livestock agency service looks like
29:48 Seasonal conditions across northern Australia
35:12 The cattle market and influence of the farmer
40:36 Live export, Indonesia and changing cattle markets
46:18 What happens next for the cattle market
50:20 The Charbray question and wrapping up