In February the “Farming beyond Tomorrow” seminar was held at the stunning beach side location of the Cottesloe Hotel in Perth. The day was once again sponsored by John Ryan and Ausplow, a magnificent supporter of Nuffield in WA. The half-day seminar was attended by sixty five potential Nuffield applicants and they were treated to high powered presentations from some of the leaders in WA agribusiness.

Phil Longmire, the 2003 Nuffield Scholar, gave another informative and eloquent presentation on the topic of precision agriculture technology and the use of that technology to improve nutrient applications to crops. Peter Cooke of Agknowledge spoke about managing the process of farm succession planning. Dick Lester, a board member of Wesfarmers and the head of Dakin Farms, spoke about the management systems on his 8000ha mixed farming operation in the south west of WA and how it fits in with his investment strategies as part of his one hundred million dollar property investment portfolio.

Graham Laitt, the head of Milne Agrigroup presented the strategies of his diversified agribusiness. The company is vertically integrated and involves stock feed manufacture, livestock genetics development, pastoral beef properties in Northern WA, beef back grounding and feedlotting operations in the northern agricultural zone, as well as broad acre grain production, and lamb, pork and chicken production and marketing systems.

The final speaker of the day was Trevor Flugge, the chairman of Australian Wool Services and a Wesfarmers director, and former chairman of the AWB and the head of the advising team that rebuilt agriculture in Iraq after the war. Trevor spoke about global trade issues, particularly the process towards ‘free trade’, and how the outcomes would affect Australian agribusiness in the future.