Profitable Farmer

Pat Barrett has spent nearly twenty years at Walsh & Blair, and before that he was playing regional rugby for the Wagga Waratahs, learning lessons about mateship, discipline, and common goals that he still leans on today when he sits across the table from farming families trying to navigate succession.

In this episode, I sit down with Pat, director at Walsh & Blair and one of the most respected rural lawyers in the Riverina, to talk about what actually makes succession work. And what quietly wrecks it.

We started with rugby, and the idea that not knowing the rules can get you hurt. So often we throw the next generation into farming with no rules, no structure, and no shared understanding of what success even looks like. Pat's seen that play out again and again, and had some really practical thinking on how to fix it.

Here's what we got into:

What happens when everyone in a family business is carrying a different version of the common goal, and why that's the difference between touch footy on the beach and playing for real

The three stages of a proper transition: management, business, and land, and why trying to do all three at once is where things get messy and emotional

Why bringing your accountant, banker, consultant, and lawyer into the same room beats passing messages between them like a game of Chinese whispers

Why paying family members a market wage builds accountability instead of entitlement

Pat's a straight shooter, and what got me thinking was his point about timing. He reckons the older generation has a window early on, while it's still exciting and before any history's built up, to get things agreed on properly. His advice to the next generation was the mirror image of that. It might feel awkward going in, but as Pat says it's "a lot more awkward later on down the track" if you don't.

If you're the older generation holding on a bit too long, or the next generation wondering what you've actually agreed to, this one's worth your full attention.

👉 You can learn more about Pat and the team at Walsh & Blair at www.walshblair.com.au

A huge thanks to Pat for his time and his candour, and for the impact he and his firm have had on hundreds of farming families across the Riverina and beyond.

Here's to getting the agreements right, before you need them.

Hutch & The Farm Owners Academy Team

If a plan only lives in your head, no one else can help you make it happen. 

That's the line that sits at the heart of this conversation. Because so often on a family farm, there isn't one plan. There are two, or three, or four, each one living quietly inside a different family member's head, each one slightly different, and none of them written down anywhere everyone can see. 

In this episode, I'm joined by two of our senior FOA coaches, Elle Webb and Kerrie Smith. Both started, in their own words, at a zero out of ten when it came to having a clear, documented, common plan for their farm businesses. Both now run their businesses off a simple two-page, Clarity Action Plan that keeps the whole family and team pointed at the same goal. 

We explore: 

What life actually looks like without a shared plan: reactive decisions, disorganisation, and family members quietly filling the information gap with their own version of the story 

Why a BHAG (a big, hairy, audacious goal) needs to stretch 30, 50, even 80 years out, and how to break that down into 10-year, 3-year, and 1-year goals without getting stuck on the how 

What a Brick List is (anything left undone, sitting in your head and weighing you down) and why simply writing it down and prioritising it is one of the fastest ways to free up headspace and get moving again 

When and how to bring your employed team into the annual, quarterly, and weekly planning rhythm, and why that alignment is what turns individual effort into real momentum 

What it means to have a coach as your "unreasonable friend," asking the questions you can't ask yourself or your own family, and why that discomfort is so often where the growth happens 

It took Elle around 35 to 40 versions of her plan over three years before it finally clicked. And what came through clearly for both of them is that the ten-year goal was never just about a bigger business. It was about a business that could fund real holidays, hand genuine ownership to their kids, and give the whole family the freedom to build the life they actually wanted, not just the one the farm demanded of them. 

If you'd like a copy of our Clarity Action Plan template or the five questions every strategic plan needs to answer, email us at support@farmownersacademy.com and we'll send it straight through. 

Elle and Kerrie, thank you both for your honesty about where you started and for the wisdom and care you bring to our members every single day. You make an extraordinary team. 

Till next time,  

Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team

What if the best investment you could make on your farm costs nothing extra to feed, never needs a day off, and compounds in value every single year? 

That's the case Dr Mark Ferguson has been making for 30 years. And the numbers back him up. 

Mark is a sheep geneticist turned ag tech founder who grew up on a family farm in the Victorian Mallee. After completing his PhD in Merino genetics, he founded neXtgen Agri to help sheep and beef producers across Australia and New Zealand breed better and build more profitable enterprises. He also heads up Genesmith, an AI-powered sheep facial recognition platform and hosts the Head Shepherd podcast. 

In this episode, we reconnect to talk genetics, entrepreneurship and what it really takes to build a business that compounds in value over time. 

We explore: 

The research behind the modern Merino, how fat and muscle selection transformed lamb survival and what that means for your flock today 

How to make genuinely objective breeding decisions and break free from the emotional, vision-driven choices that quietly hold most operations back 

The kitchen table origins of neXtgen Agri, what a trip to Stanford University sparked, and the lessons Ferg learned building a 19-person trans-Tasman business 

Genesmith: the AI-powered facial recognition platform trying to solve one of the sheep industry's oldest problems, dam-lamb matching at commercial scale, and what it needs to get there 

How to attract and retain great people in ag, give them the freedom to grow and build a team that performs beyond any individual 

To connect with Dr Mark Ferguson, visit www.nextgenagri.com or email mark@nextgenagri.com. The Genetic Plan and other resources are available at thehub.nextgenagri.com. If you are interested in Genesmith, whether as a supporter, partner or someone who wants to help drive the project forward, get in touch via the details above. And if you haven't already, search Head Shepherd wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Ferg, thanks for your time, your openness and your complete dedication to helping farming families get more from their genetics. The industry is better for it. 

It was great to re-connect again.

Some friendships change your life. This one changed Australia. 

When Tracy Bevan met Jane McGrath at an airport café in 1996, they were simply two British women far from home, trying to find their place in a new country while their husbands travelled the world playing cricket. 

What neither of them knew was that a friendship forged over cups of tea, loneliness, laughter and life's challenges would go on to impact hundreds of thousands of Australian families. 

Tracy co-founded the McGrath Foundation with Jane in 2005. Two cricket wives, a kitchen table, no roadmap. Before Jane passed away in June 2008, Tracy made her a promise: to keep going, to honour what they had started together and to ensure no family would ever face cancer alone. She has spent nearly two decades since keeping that promise. 

Today, 367 McGrath Cancer Care Nurses, 174,000+ families supported, and a mission that has changed what a cancer diagnosis looks like in Australia. 

In this episode, Tracy shares the story behind one of Australia’s most loved charities - not from a corporate lens, but from the heart of a best friend who has spent nearly two decades honouring Jane’s legacy. 

We explore: 

How a difficult childhood taught Tracy resilience and the powerful lesson that helped her break free from the past 

Jane McGrath’s breast cancer diagnosis that changed everything and how one moment between two best friends sparked a national movement 

How one extraordinary nurse helped Jane navigate her darkest days and inspired a mission to ensure no family faces cancer alone 

What it really takes to build a lasting organisation from scratch, growing from a kitchen-table idea to one of Australia's most trusted charities 

Today, one in two Australians will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. You may already know someone who has. 

It's a sobering reminder that the work of the McGrath Foundation is far from finished. Behind every diagnosis is a family navigating uncertainty, fear, and change and that's why the Foundation's support is needed now more than ever. To learn more, seek support, or contribute to this incredible mission, visit the McGrath Foundation website. 

Tracy, thank you for keeping your promise to Jane and reminding us that one act of care can become a ripple that reaches families we may never meet, in places we may never see. 

Sincerely,  
 
Jeremy Hutchings & the Farm Owners Academy Team

There’s an old saying that uncertainty creates opportunity. 

But if you're a grain grower right now, uncertainty can also create confusion, hesitation, and some pretty costly decisions. 

Over the past few years, we've seen massive swings in commodity prices, input costs, weather patterns, and global politics. For many farm businesses, it feels like the rules keep changing. One minute we're talking about record production and oversupply. The next, global conflict, fund money, and drought concerns are driving volatility back into the market. 

In this episode, I'm joined by Market Check’s Managing Director and Founder, Brett Stevenson and CEO, Nick Crundall to unpack what has changed in global grain markets over the past nine months and what Australian grain growers need to be thinking about right now. 

More importantly, we explore the mindset and disciplines that separate consistently successful grain marketers from everyone else. 

We cover: 

How global conflict, rising fertiliser costs, and speculative investment are influencing grain prices and market volatility. 

Why global wheat stocks are tightening after record production years and what that means for the outlook for Australian growers. 

Insights around hedging, forward selling and grain storage, including why many growers continue to leave money on the table despite producing excellent crops.  

The common mistake of allowing tax planning and cash flow pressures to drive grain marketing decisions instead of following a clear strategy  

Nick shares some compelling analysis comparing hedging versus traditional forward selling and the long-term performance difference between growers who actively manage risk and those who don't. You can access Market Check's analysis here. 

This conversation also reinforces themes I explored with Jeff McDonald around financial clarity, proactive planning, and leading your business with confidence rather than reacting to circumstances. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, I'd encourage you to do so here. 

Nick and Brett, thank you both for your time, your honesty, and your willingness to share what you've learned over many years working alongside growers. 

Here's to a great season ahead, 

Sincerely, 

Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team.