Can you build a farm for an uncertain future? With Simon Wallwork

0:04Simon Wallwork: Hello, and welcome to AgTech So What, brought to you by Tenacious Ventures. I'm Sarah Nolette. I've wanted to do an episode for a while about someone who's experienced a climate shock and then fundamentally changed the way they think about their business. And then recently, I met someone. Fertilizer was over a thousand bucks a ton. In 2010 was our dry season on record, so we really bottomed out with production. and it was a bit of a wake-up call to the realities of farming and the challenges we face. That's Simon Walbrook, who, after starting his farming career in 2003, built a predominantly cropping business with his wife Cindy in Western Australia.

0:43Simon Wallwork: He jokes now how back then he thought farming was easy. But 2010 brought a combination of collapsing commodity prices, rising input costs, disrupted supply chains, and the driest season they'd ever experienced. Instead of running away from the growing challenges of climate change and shifting economics, Simon dug into the climate data, joined a group of like-minded farmers, and began thinking much more deliberately about adaptation and resilience. That led to changes in their farming system, including bringing livestock back into the business, changing agronomic practices, and ultimately becoming a more diversified enterprise.

1:18Simon Wallwork: But Simon's story doesn't stop at adaptation for his own farm. he became involved in Ag Zero, a farmer-led initiative focused on helping the industry have a more informed and proactive conversation about the energy transition. And increasingly, Simon's seeing the transition not just as a risk to farming, but as a potential source of opportunity. That thinking is seeing him experimenting with carbon farming, electrification and autonomy, and even being an energy host. So let's meet Simon. So I followed a unique path, I guess, because essentially most of my childhood was in the city, although my dad was an engineer with the Main Rose Department WA.

1:56So when he was a young engineer, he had various postings in country towns when I was quite young. I think that experience definitely I held on to and the idea of living regionally and just sort of that, you know, living with regional people really appeals to me. And I did have a bit of the green thumb as a kit. So I had a veggie garden out the back, I ran shooks and that sort of thing. So when I eventually finished high school and went to university, agriculture science was a good fit for me. So I studied Ag Science at UWA in Perth and that's where I met my partner, Cindy Stephens. She was a farm girl from Corrigan.

2:35And when we graduated from Ag Science, we both found after some backpacking through Europe, including working on a farm in Scotland during the landing season, which was quite an experience. When we returned to Australia, we both started our agricultural careers. And Cindy started working for the government. And I started with a group called the Condon and Group, which is quite well known across Australia. And then from there moved into agronomy advising farmers. And then we had another travel stint in two where we spent some time in North America and then three months down through South America.

3:11When we were in South America, Cindy's folks contacted us and put the idea forward, would we be interested in returning to Cindy's family farm? Now, she's one of three girls. The other two girls had married farmers and had started their farming careers with their partners in locations not far from where we live. So we had a good think about it. We said, yeah, let's give that a crack. So, yeah, 2003 was our first year of farming and I continued also to advise farmers. it wasn't a really difficult decision for me, although entering into someone else's family farm, I certainly needed to consider how we do that.

3:45And we probably did that quite uniquely in a way. Yeah, interesting. I wasn't planning to talk about that, but if there's anything to share on that. Yeah, just briefly, I suppose. So how we set it up is we suggested that we set up our own business from day one, rather than maybe become an employee of Cindy's father, essentially. so we effectively leased land off Cindy's folks and also another family member and yeah they backed us in 2003 which happened to be a really good year so I guess they took a punt on me or us but it worked out in year one you know at that stage everything seemed to go very smooth in year one it was obviously troubles and tribulations in farming that we had very good start I'll put it that way I think I remember you saying that when we were chatting the other day where it was like oh look, pretty easy.

4:31What are you guys talking about? And then maybe subsequent years, you realized that wasn't the case. Tell me a little bit about the journey. How has the farm expanded and how has your role in it changed and Cindy's role? Yeah. So we kept that model for a number of years. Cindy's father continued to run the livestock side through his own business that we worked in together. It was very much collaboration. Eventually we were farming 2000 hectares. And just for context, the average size farm in WA now is 4 ,000 hectares. And that sort of expansion has probably happened since we started farming. So we realised that some scale increase was important.

5:08At some point, we had to address the succession process. So we drew in a sort of independent advisor to help us out through that process, which took a number of years. And that's about transferring ownership of the lamb. So we could have security to expand, but also ensuring my WUS folks had a stable retirement and they just over the road from where I'm talking from now and also considering the sisters as well. So I think we've had a really positive experience with succession. It's not always the case, but it allowed us to buy some land adjacent to us, including some leases, expanding our business to near 4 ,000 hectares, which is about an average size farm.

5:49Look, I think it's one of our greatest challenges of an industry if that trajectory continues of farm scale increase, which it's been a very important tactic, but it does affect the social fabric of the regions, that's for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Tell me about the enterprise mix. What were you guys farming at the start and what are you farming now, if different? Yes, I was very much cropping focus. That was my passion and my wife continued to work for the Department of Agriculture over here. Then we started to have our children. She actually did a diphead and taught secondary science for a number of years locally.

6:24But we started to face increasing climate variability, I call it, in our region. And yeah, there were some pretty tough years. 2010 was a really tough year. It followed the financial crisis where markets crashed, commodity prices crashed. I remember feed barley being as low as 130 bucks a tonne and input costs had increased dramatically. Fertiliser was over a thousand bucks a ton. The supply chains had been disrupted. In 2010 was our dry seasonal record. It was 30 % dry over the next dry year. So we really bottomed out with production and it was a bit of a wake-up call to the realities of farming and the challenges we face.

7:05Not so easy maybe as the 2003 experience. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So we're all cropping up to then. And then we started to reintroduced livestock into the system. We just thought in our area we needed a bit more diversity to improve the resilience of our farm. And I don't actually start a small cattle herd at that stage. So nowadays we've got the cropping enterprises runs on about 75 % of the area and the rest of the area are split between cattle and sheep. And Sydney runs a sheep enterprise, other calf and cows. And recently we've introduced some other commodities, which is carbon. I'm curious if you can imagine back to 2010, you had that rough year, were the words you would have used to describe it?

7:47Like, oh, this is about the climate changing, like there's something in that language or just, oh, farming's harder than we thought. And so we need to think about it differently from a business. How did you kind of characterize the problem at that time? It was interesting because during ag science years, climate change was certainly touched on, but to me, it just seemed like a faraway concept and there's nothing like lived experience to wake you up and provide some motivation to interrogate things a bit deeper. Actually, GRDC had a program called the Climate Champion Program going on at the time, which was focused on climate variability and pulling farmers together and working with the science community, whether it's CERA or Bureau of Med, et cetera, to understand what happens with climate, how it varies and how we respond to it.

8:32I think there's about 35 farmers from around Australia and a whole variety of different types of farming enterprises. And when we got together and started having conversations, it was quite interesting. I think all of us had experienced a significant, what I'd call a climate shock. And 2010 was that climate shock for me. During that process, I really started to dig into our local trend, our seasonal trends and what was happening with the bigger picture. And it was quite clear that, yeah, there was this significant drying in the Southwest Land Division of WA, way, particularly in the autumn and early winter months.

9:05So once I understood that, I started to really focus my decision making, and I guess we call it adaptation to those climatic shifts. Did that feel like a risk at the time or like the opposite was risky? Was it just obvious? Okay, I've lost the data, let's do it. It created a lot of uncertainty about what the future looked like. Obviously, when you go through years like that and the financial pressure comes on, it puts a lot of pressure on your whole life and your family. So you sort of start questioning, you know, are we in the right spot right now? But we decided to hang in there and work our way through it.

9:44I think one of the best things for me was I had a strong involvement in our local grower group, the Corrigin Farm Improvement Group. I think I was vice chair at that point. And with my agronomy background, I'd always done lots of trials on farm, lots of farm demonstrations and it was a great way not being from the community to meet other local growers and work with them and in those situations where the stress is on I think those grower groups are really important as a social interface to share the stresses and to work through problems together so when I look back on it I think that's it built resilience in me as a person it's quite different from growing up in the city and going farming to growing up in a family farming business as such, you sort of learn, I think, through that process of the ups and downs of farming.

10:28So I had to come to terms with that. Was it just the sense of like, our chips are down and we're taking a risk at this time or what was actually hard about it? Yeah. I mean, I had other jobs I've mentioned before. And I think in most careers, if you work hard and you're well-informed and you try your hardest, you get what you're hoping to. In farming, that's not necessarily the case. Like you can work really hard, tick all the boxes, have very strong attention to detail, yet there's still lots of things outside of your control. And maybe I was a little bit of a control freak, I'm not sure. Definitely a perfectionist and they are not characteristics that are conducive to farming all the time.

11:09So yeah, probably had to hold back my expectations a bit, I think. Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. How did having that group impact your change? Like were many of them going on the same journey and you could kind of lean on each other? Were some absolutely not? How did that group play a role? It was amazing. We actually became really good friends. The program went for four or five years and it did shift actually from a focus on climate variability to climate change, which was a little bit controversial at the time. I remember a couple of examples, there were some farmers in South Australia that had sealed their road catchments into their dams with a plastic liner.

11:43So every mil of rain that fell would end up in the dam. There was wine growers that had relocated their businesses because the heat shot was affecting their grapes too much. There was station owners in Northern Queensland who had built extraordinary water systems for their cattle so their cattle didn't have to walk as far. It was very much focused on the adaptation piece and I needed that point in time. When you talk about, you looked at the data and you thought about adding in more of these types of practices and adaptation resilience. Was it like you sat down and made a plan? How much of this was sort of formal?

12:18I think it was 2011. Western Australia was given the opportunity to run the drought pilot program by the Department of Ag and one of the universities over here. And it was all about taking a different approach to drought response, more of a proactive rather than a reactive sort of approach that typically has happened in the past. And what it was, was a series of modules where they brought information on climatic shifts, but also a planning process where you looked at your business, almost like a SWOT-like process. You identified your risks and opportunities, challenges, threats, and all those sorts of things, and planned out a five-year period.

12:57So we did that. And my learnings from the Climate Champion Program, I certainly brought that into that process. Just that process of strategic planning is something we've taken with us. And in recent years, we've took it out to a 10-year plan and the past would be five-year plans. But when we reflect back on those plans, even though we didn't pull it out on a weekly basis, we'd more often than not achieve what we said we would. How would you describe the plan? Was it really prescriptive? Like we want to electrify this and we want to have this many sheep? Or was it more directionally, we want to be more resilient?

13:28Yeah. How would you describe the plan? It's quite interesting, even though the climate's watering as such, our frost risk had increased because the sort of weather patterns had changed and there was more high pressures, which meant clearer nighttime skies, lower temps. In terms of practices, some things that really we focused on was trying to make the most of every mill of rain that had fallen and also removing any constraints in our soil profiles. We tested chemical fallow, which is sort of keeping some land fallow in the first year and storing moisture and utilizing that moisture in the second year.

14:02As I mentioned before, we brought livestock back into the system. So all amelioration was one of the most significant things we've done. Non-wetting was a big issue for us. We've got a lot of light sandy soil, so we've inverted a lot of our top soils to manage non-wetting and improved genetics as well. We tried to take on the latest genetics where possible. So yeah, really focus, I guess, the agronomic decision making through that planning process. Any things that didn't work, like any sort of scar tissue or stuff you tried that you go, that was definitely a fail? We were still 2 ,000 hectares around that time and we were looking to expand.

14:42Half our land was on light sandier soils west of Courage and the other half was on some heavier soils, clay-based soils, east of Courage and quite light, low-lying. Climatically, we just had a really tough run there and we just couldn't make money off that land. And I'd invested a lot of time and effort into sort of finding solutions, testing different practices. And I think I was getting there, but ultimately we made a decision to quit that lease and focused out efforts on the lighter country. And lighter soils tend to be a bit more efficient, particularly in dry years. They're less fertile, but yeah, that was probably the most significant thing, this changing spread of land, I guess, and where it was located.

15:24Yeah, it's interesting. Some of these decisions are quite big decisions, right? And to your point before, not know how they're going to work out. And the trend of weather might be going in one direction, but that doesn't mean the next three years will be like that to prove it out. And it's interesting, you know, if we talk about the shifting climate, it's not necessarily a negative for everyone. When I was at Young Agronomist, I worked on a project in the high rainfall area and water logging was a significant barrier to productivity. So some drying in the high rainfall areas has actually been a positive for those farmers, particularly if they're focused on cropping and cropping has expanded.

16:00So we can't assume that it's a net negative everywhere. And that can also affect how farmers respond to those issues as well. Yeah, of course. I mean, so much of the narrative, I think to your point about climate change being a controversial way to frame things is like, it's coming, it's your fault and you need to change and we're not going to support you. And it's like, who wants to swallow that pill? I think most farmers park that idea of climate change. They have a fairly good understanding of what's happening with seasonal shift and they get on with the job of adapting to it. That's their focus.

16:32There's other farmers probably like me that have spent more time talking about it and sharing views, etc. But I think most farmers understand it's happening and yeah, they don't let it get too much in the way of getting on with business and improving their farming systems. As you've highlighted in this journey, like they are the same thing, right? It is about business resilience. Tell me when you started to shift to think more about like reducing emissions or sequestering carbon, those kinds of things, as opposed to maybe just the resilience and adaptation side. Yeah, so around 2018, 19, and Twitter had kicked off and farmers had keenly participated in Twitter.

17:10It was actually quite a good way of sharing information. Most farmers keep abreast of the broader issues in society and globally. We're export focused, so we like to understand what's happening overseas, etc. And we've got a big mining sector in WA, and they were addressing issues of emissions and how they were sort of decarbonising their operations, etc. You look overseas, a lot of our markets were setting carbon neutral targets. So myself and others were starting to have these conversations on social media. And eventually we got to the position where I guess there was some frustration there about how our industry was having conversations around climate and decarbonisation.

17:52So a group of us got together and it was almost 70 farmers and industry folk got together at UWA in Western Australia, university here, and had a discussion around what agriculture's role is in mitigation and the energy transition and how we may prepare ourselves. We formed a group called Ag Zero, which went for the next seven years. A voluntary organisation really focused on having this conversation in our sector, providing opportunities such as forums for farmers and industry folk to come together to learn about the changing technology, the process of the energy transition, what agriculture can and cannot do, all those sorts of things.

18:36And generally, sort of just checking that conversation a bit from purely, I guess there was some defensiveness to more of a proactive, positive sort of approach. And for you, what was important about doing that? I don't know. I always think ag's interesting where you can just get on with it on your own farm, but there's so much willingness to really move the community and move the sector forward. And sometimes the community part, I understand, because it's where your kids go to school and the regions are only so big. But for something like this, it almost seems a bit risky to take on, especially given the positioning around climate.

19:05Like what was important to you to get involved with and champion something like that? I reckon a lot of it comes back to the sort of an evidence-based approach. You know, obviously I have a science background. I think clearly we're facing some challenges, particularly in Western Australia. We've adapted very well. And globally, there's a change in how we source and utilise energy. And that's going to impact agriculture at some point. And unless we're prepared for that, it may impact how we access finance, how we access markets, whether we're insurable or not. So these are also all potential risks for our business.

19:45So we wanted to future-proof our own business, but also contribute to a broader conversation in our industry that this is a really important issue for farmers and we need to be well-informed so we can make really good decisions so our industry can continue to thrive. And looking back now, seven or eight years ago now, Ag Zero started, you said, yeah. What did the initiative achieve that you're proud of and maybe where did progress fall short of what you'd hoped? I think farmers that have participated in our events, fellowships, et cetera, are now more informed and hopefully take some of those learnings into their own planning and decision making.

20:25I think we've created a little bit more safety around this issue in our industry. It is contentious at times, but we've had lots of support through those years as well and encouragement, which is really important. And we've also helped shape some policies as well, like provided some on-ground farmers perspective, because there's obviously been a lot of policy development over the last 10 years and some of that's impacting agriculture. But you know what? I think fundamentally, I see a lot more opportunity for agriculture and farming than I see risk with the energy transition now and mitigation opportunities.

21:01Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious to hear about that. I want to talk about technology too at some point, but I guess that's such a big shift right now, especially for where you guys are. What's the conversation like around energy transition and how is that intersecting with farming for you? Because you can imagine it's being a host, it's electrification of your operation, it's supply chain requirements. Yeah. How is it intersecting with you guys? Yeah. Well, the timing is kind of interesting because at the moment we're obviously facing this energy security issue with what's happened in Iran. But when you think back, we've had COVID, we've had Russian invasion, Ukraine and now Iranian crisis, all within the last six or seven years.

21:39So it's creating a lot of disruption to agriculture through particularly fertilizer and fuel, et cetera. And then at the same time, we're experiencing this big shift in energy and renewable energy as a source of energy, but also some of the technology that's derived from that. Australian government's got its net zero policies and that's driving investment and expansion in renewable energy projects, a lot of them in agricultural regions. And depending on how they're rolled out and how our communities are involved in that process, it can all go very well or very poorly. I think the idea that we had this, it's like a new commodity that we can potentially farm, right?

22:24We produce food, we produce fibre, can we produce energy as well? And that could help us diversify or provide diversification of the economy, the regional economies and provide real benefits to farmers. But there's challenges with that. I do understand that in some communities, it's really tough at the moment, but there's also examples of how it's worked really well. Well, that's just renewable energy. There's a whole other discussion around the technology as well and also carbon farming. Yeah. I guess in your current strategic plan that is going out 10 years from whenever you had it, which of those three things are on it?

22:59Which are kind of active priorities for you? This 10-year strategic plan, it's the first time we've included sustainability as a pillar. And we've put a fair bit of detail into that. We engaged an independent farm advisor to facilitate myself and my wife through this process and it took a year or two to do. We needed to consider our own personal goals and values in that process as well. But fundamentally, this sustainability pillar includes most of these issues at this point in time to make profit on. We've also considered the electrification of our operation. It will be a patient process. Everything has to be based on the fact that it's a good financial decision.

23:42We've also got some goals around emissions reduction and moving our farm to a lower emissions profile so we can access markets, so we can access finance, so we're insurable or manage all those sorts of risks. I'm really interested in this because you started by talking about values and obviously that makes sense. it can sound like, oh, it's not a commercial decision. And so you ended with no, all of this has to make financial sense. Like how much of the initiatives that you're thinking about are financially driven or kind of impact or values driven, or everything actually has to pass through the filter of being both.

24:24And the things that we do are really both like where are the trade-offs, I guess, is another way of saying it. Okay. So there is a strong component of values in this and legacy. And I think most farmers are like this, they want to leave their land in better shape than they started with. They want to pass on to the next generation a healthy, vibrant landscape and farming business. And I have different days. I guess I've been really production focused and Cindy's very in tune with the natural environment, the remnant vegetation and the landscape health. And she's forged a career out of that as well.

24:57In terms of the economics of it or the profitability of the decision-making. I reckon there was uncertainties, but we're learning as we go. For example, we're implementing a revegetation carbon project. And when you start pulling out some marginal land that's not producing profitable crops, all of a sudden that becomes a more efficient allocation of resources for the rest of the paddock. Plus you've got an asset that's growing over time and potentially become really important in succession down the track. It's not something we really understood when we started. And we had to be mindful that this is self-managed projects with some advisory support.

25:36We had to fund this. So the West Australian government had a land restoration program going. We come to an agreement that you'd return a number of carbon credits to the state government in return for some funding. We've recently got a green line through our bank, which is helping with the costs as well. So yeah, these are all part of the process of working out how we would fund it, how we'd implement it, but less sure about the financial inflows later on, but they're becoming more clear over time. How has, to the extent you've done measurement, whether that's carbon accounting or kind of measuring some of these changes, like how has that changed the decisions that you're making, if at all, or are still too early to tell?

26:16I'm always interested in a gap between like measuring a problem or measuring opportunity and then actually being able to do something about it? Yeah, so in terms of carbon accounting, I think we've been really fortunate to have a farm advisor who identified this as a really important issue probably 10 years ago. He started including carbon accounts in our annual farm business review. They're not really as complicated as you may think. It's just a matter of pulling together some data, how many litres of diesel you use, tons of fertiliser, how many livestock you have, what chemicals you're using, all the sorts of things that you'd normally include in a farm business review.

26:54He could put that into the University of Melbourne calculator linked into his report and that appears at the back of our report. So we started to understand some of that language and what our emissions were like and they do vary from year to year. And then the industry is continuing on with the conversation and industry has come to a point now I think where they're really focused on emissions intensity. And when I begin to understand emissions intensity, say for example, how many tonnes of CO2 we emit per tonne of wheat or kilo of lamb or beef, you can find some direct relationships with farm production efficiencies or how we apply nitrogen, for example.

27:34So that's when I said earlier, I think there's more opportunity than risk. I think most farmers are always looking for efficiencies. So there's that strong synergy. If we're doing that, we're probably going to be reducing our emissions intensity of what we produce. And I think you'll find that the best farmers have the lowest emissions intensity production. I think longer term, there might be a focus back on outright emissions, particularly as other sectors decarbonise. And if agriculture doesn't reduce emissions, there'll be a stronger focus on us. But there's emerging technology that will help us deal with that.

28:08If your 2003 or 2010 self heard you talk about the farm and the operation in the way that you do today, especially around some of these sustainability bits, do you think it would be like a surprise or like what would the reaction be? I think the idea that somehow we're playing a small role in this massive energy transition globally, it's just, it's seen so far-fetched. Adaptation, you know, that makes perfect sense because climate, whether it's changing or not, is just so critical to how we perform as farmers and impacts our business directly. But if Europe is taking a really strong stance on the energy transition and emission reduction, is that really going to impact me as a farmer?

28:50Well, I guess we've probably said yes, it will at some point. So we need to prepare ourselves. So yeah, that would probably be the surprising thing that we've got to this point. On the tech side, I'm curious kind of what technologies have been important on the journey and what else is on your wishlist that sort of doesn't meet the need today, but you think needs to come in the future? So recently in the last few years, we have moved to a disc seeding system, which is not really an uncommon thing. I think there's been some changes with agronomic opportunities, such as herbicides and things like that, which have allowed a disc to fit into our farming system.

29:26But there's certainly more efficient machines. We can seed faster, use less diesel, et cetera. So that's been a step up in efficiency. Probably more excitingly, I do think electrification provides real opportunities for us. And what we're seeing with diesel prices at the moment, there's probably another incentive to move down that path. We did actually buy ourselves a passenger electric vehicle about 18 months ago. It's been interesting just to learn about that technology and the potential benefits it could bring to farmers in terms of machinery. There's certainly lower cost to run, less repairs and maintenance, and the idea that you can source the energy for it on farms through renewable energy seems really appealing.

30:15So, you know, recently I've had a bit to do with a Dutch company that's looking at the Australian market to bring in a fully electric autonomous tractor to Australia. Whether that happens or not, I'm not sure, but potentially that helps us manage some of our staffing issues, utilisation, like those sorts of machines you can run around the clock. You could power it through energy sourced with, say, solar farm on farm using mobile batteries and that sort of thing. I think what we're facing at the moment is the terms of trade for farming is declining. The costs are certainly on a sharp increase, in particular machinery.

30:52When I look at my machinery repairs and maintenance costs for the last five years compared to the previous five years before that, and they've increased by 70%. And we've actually reduced the age of our farm fleet as such, and also the capital costs have probably doubled in the last decade. So if that continues, my thoughts are that probably scale continues to be the response, which would be unfortunate because that has social impacts on our regions. But if there's new technologies such as electrified equipment, autonomy that can come through, that can offer efficiencies and reduce costs, then perhaps we don't need to keep growing and farming businesses to cope with that decline in terms of trade.

31:38Yeah, fascinating. I think it's cool to hear how, I feel like trification and autonomy were talked about synonymously like 10 years ago, but they were both sort of in the future. And then in between it was like they often got separated. And the more conversations I have now, they're kind of coming back together. And this conversation about how the system could be different as opposed to how, oh, this robot's going to save this human kind of thing. I feel like that's an interesting shift again. Yeah, the idea that this electric tractor, what they've developed at the moment is equivalent to about 200 horsepower, which isn't insignificant.

32:12It's not as big as the tractors we have at the moment on farm, but they do believe they can develop a 500 horsepower equivalent, which would be interchangeable with what we're already using. But also maybe our approach should be multiples of smaller implements and that may have less impact on our ground and compaction and things like that. But from my understanding, these machines are capable of finding a recharging point autonomously and recharging themselves and then returning to duty. So that's where autonomy is really integrated there, isn't it? Yeah, super interesting, right? Some of the constraints like we see now with the storm farm journey where it's had to be bigger.

32:48you need a bigger boom so you can spray more. And then, well, why do you need a 24-meter boom? You can have two 12-meters. But how is that the same thing? Because there's no human. Just the psychology of it is pretty tricky. And so the same thing. Well, the robot can charge itself. And by the way, the energy is free. And so you don't care how slow it goes. And, oh, wait, speed was so important before. But now we don't have to think about that. So, yeah. Safety is becoming a real issue for our farming businesses as well. It always has been. but increasingly we're asked to pay closer attention to it, rightly so.

33:20And if you've got an employee at two in the morning and they're first panic from the homestead on his own, cleaning out an air seater, there's some issues there, but perhaps autonomy helps solve some of those safety issues. Yeah, absolutely. Anything else on your wish list or areas where you could see a path to change but the business case doesn't stack up or the tech's sort of not there yet but you think might be in the future? Yeah, so we're currently in the process of setting up a little microgrid on fire. And it is a step-by-step process. As I mentioned before, it probably started with the EV passenger vehicle.

33:52Got an EV. How do we charge that most cheaply and be in control of our own energy supply? So we are grid connected at the moment with a limitation on how many solar panels we can have. We've got lots of shed space. Solar panels are really cheap. And so we just bought a battery. potentially that battery, we could have another battery that's mobile that we could take out to the paddock to recharge electrified equipment, whether that's drone sprayers, aerial drone sprayers or electric tractors. There's also electric trucks on the market, and we're only eight kilometres from our local grain bin. And that battery could also become a source of storage for other implements.

34:32So piece by piece, I can begin to imagine how this may look in the future, for sure. I suppose beyond a theme, some of the camera technology on sprayers and really improving the efficiencies of how we apply inputs such as herbicides and using some of the radar technology for in-paddock imagery analysis of biomass and things like that and making real-time decisions for fertilizer applications. So there's a whole range of tech that could help us in our sort of push for efficiencies and cost reduction, I think. What do you see in terms of how the business models might change? Do you see more things being community owned or like able to be done at regional scale and a fleet of equipment or I don't know, does your imagination go that direction at all?

35:16I think the more community involvement, the better. I think that gives people ownership of what's happening in their energy future. I think the worst examples are where companies come and push through. If their community drives these processes, whether it's a regional community with its own community battery and shared lower cost power, or it's farmers setting up microgrids and sharing information, community driven is critical. How radical are those ideas? Is that pretty crazy talk in the conversations you have in community with government? Probably more conversations happening than people realise.

35:51And I think there's examples where communities have had success with these types of projects around the place. Sometimes the negative stories capture a bit more media attention, but behind the scenes, I think this good conversation has been had. Yeah, it probably does depend on the values of that individual and the demographic of that community as well. Some communities are moving quicker than others, but there's nothing like an energy crisis to push a long change a bit quicker. Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to ask you maybe a last question about the market access piece. How do you see that playing out?

36:27I mean, there's the argument of we produce commodities and it's mostly export. And so this whole narrative of any of these sustainability aspects or climate resilience, that isn't a path to go down for economic reasons, but you raised that term earlier. I'm curious how that's playing out for you. Yeah, I think there's already examples of it happening. For example, we supply canola to the biodiesel market in Europe and you get a price premium if you meet the criteria of their sustainability criteria. So there's a sort of process you go through to register for that program. You get a price premium for that market.

37:05And there's sort of talks around carbon border adjustments and things like that in Europe. I know this cooperative CBH done some market research into what their consumers want going forward. Chemical residues are certainly high on the list, but sustainability, carbon emissions reduction. I have supplied some cattle to a carbon neutral supply chain to one of the supermarkets. It didn't continue on, but it was just toe in the water, I guess that there may be opportunities for those niche markets. But on a larger scale, I think maybe in the future, it may just be a standard part of running a business that we need to provide some information around what we're doing as farmers to address these issues.

37:50Again, that's a conversation that I've seen really shift from sort of, maybe there'll be all these premiums to no way and almost resistance to then, And when you talk about market access, it can feel so much like a stick. But the way you've characterized it is like, these are good business practices that you were kind of doing anyways, or they have made sense for you anyways. And then it also improves another dimension of risk in terms of accessing different markets. You mentioned you've got kids. Are they going to come back in? We've got three kids. Our daughter's currently studying law, which is first year law.

38:23And then our middle one's just studying science, Darcy, our son. and then our youngest is still at high school. I think they've really valued their upbringing on the farm and then having the opportunity to go to secondary education in the city. There's certainly some interest there to take on farming as a career. Like most farmers, we like to see our kids experience the broader world there initially, and that helps create good ideas and learn what it takes to run modern businesses, I guess, and just come back into the business if they want to, eyes wide open and really aware of the complexity of a modern farming business and what it takes and the commitment as well, because it's not something you can come in for a short time and get back out.

39:06I think you really commit yourself and ride out the highs and lows.

39:12Simon Wallwork: A huge thank you to Simon for being so open and honest about his farming journey and all the challenges and learnings along the way. You can hear the passion in his voice for farming, which is just infectious and why it's such a privilege to have these chats. In terms of my takeaways, my first is how Simon's perspective on climate and the energy transition has shifted from adaptation to seeing genuine opportunities for agriculture. Rather than viewing decarbonization simply as another obligation that's being imposed on farmers, he sees potential for agriculture to become part of the energy system, producing food, fiber, and energy.

39:47Simon Wallwork: That thinking is reflected in his farm's long-term strategy, because he sees how it could influence future market access, finance, and insurance, and he wants to be proactive to capture the benefits. Second, there's a fascinating shift in the conversation around autonomy and electrification that we're seeing, and Simon's an example of this. Instead of asking how technology can replicate what farmers already do, maybe without a human or for lower cost, Simon's an example of preparing for what may be possible when the constraints of the current system start to disappear. An autonomous electric machine doesn't necessarily need to be big or fast in the same way a conventional tractor or sprayer does.

40:23Simon Wallwork: It could potentially be smaller, work for longer, recharge itself, or operate as part of a broader energy system on farm or owned regionally. Simon's planned microgrid is an example of this systems thinking. Connecting renewable energy, batteries, electric machinery, and eventually autonomy to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and potentially move the needle on safety too. And finally, I'm struck by Simon's thinking, or underlying thesis, if you will, that farming is fundamentally about making decisions under uncertainty. Weather, commodity prices, input costs, geopolitics, technology can all shift the operating environment in ways that farmers can't control.

41:01Simon Wallwork: Rather than trying to predict exactly what's going to happen, Simon's approach is to build a business that can adapt when it does. For him, that means having a long-term strategy, continually looking at new technologies and opportunities, and being willing to rethink assumptions about what a farm should look like. The goal isn't to know what's coming. It's to build the capacity, including in himself, to respond when it arrives. That's super hard and super impressive. And that's it for another episode of Ag Tech So What. Thank you again to our guest, Simon Walbrook, and thank you for listening.

41:31Simon Wallwork: Make sure you please hit follow so you automatically get our episodes. and maybe share one with a friend if you like what you hear so others can listen too. For any more information on the resources mentioned in this episode, please visit our website, tenacious.ventures, or check out the show notes. My name is Sarah Nolette. I'll catch you next time.