GRDC in Conversation: Ben White

This series is a GRDC investment that takes you behind the scenes as we sit down with some of the people shaping our grain industry, uncovering their journeys, learning more about their passions and the projects that are part of their everyday. We are over in Western Australia. This is now the third part of what has been the GRDC in Conversation podcast. We've covered southern Australia, we've covered the north, across New South Wales and Queensland, and now we've headed west to meet with all sorts of growers, advisors, researchers and people involved in the Aussie grains industry. Welcome to the next series. When I was reading the different buyers of people and obviously I only had names on a page and I saw Seed of Light award winner and I've already talked to a few and then when I started to do a bit more research, I go, jeez, he's a bit young, so I do want to start there. Obviously a compliment.

I'm feeling pretty old, Ollie, I have to tell you. Oh, this time of year? Yeah, absolutely. It's flat out.

Well, this time of year it makes sense because you spen spent no time at home, so it's good to be able to track you down and be in your hometown of Perth.

Thanks.

Yeah, mate. GRDC in conversations. You're our first chat over in the west. So, as someone from the east coast who's traveled here a couple of times, talk to me about the ag space over here and what do I need to know to feel up to speed this week?

Oh, yeah, well, you probably do need to get up to speed most. I reckon most WA growers, they push the barrier pretty hard. Like, they'll adopt technology pretty early, they'll give things a go, they'll look for solutions, they'll source research where they need to. So they're pretty proactive in terms of getting their head around what they need to do to improve the bottom line in their business. And I ask a lot of questions, which is good for a research engineer like myself. I get asked a lot of questions about a whole lot of stuff and that's probably because we cover a lot of topics. But yeah, the Xbase here is good, it's positive, it's quite embracing. People will give you their spray it a test or they'll actively go out of their way to make stuff happen that helps you do your job.

So talk to me a little bit. You're a research engineer. What does that actually look like? What's a week in your life look like?

So at the moment it's pretty busy, but I'm an agricultural Engineer. There was only six graduates when I went through USQ in Toowoomba for that year. So most of us have stayed in Ag. Some have sort of drifted into other things. Typically we do a lot of research and extension work. So we'll actually go and get the data, collect the data, figure out a test protocol if we need to apply an Australian standard, whatever it might be, to get some data and some numbers around, whatever the topic we're looking at. And then we actually need to kind of translate that and so the communication part kicks in and we'll extend that information. So, you know, this month's pretty, pretty hectic. We've got a lot of GRDC grain harvester setup workshops on around the country. Also got a lot of grain storage workshops on as well. And then we've got some self propelled spray testing work going on with Condon Group. So it's a bit of a juggling act at the moment. September's a really busy month. It's probably the equivalent of my harvest, if you know what I mean. Yeah.

And so you an east coast boy? Originally. Yeah.

So Mum and Dad are still farming in the New England. So we're at 5,000ft above sea level there. It's pretty bloody cold. I'm reminded every time I go home to the farm just while I headed west. It's a lot warmer over here. Yeah, Everyone says, oh, it's freezing, it's winter. And I'm like, oh, you got no idea. It's like, yeah, been at Ben alone and it's minus 16. It's, yeah, pretty, pretty chilly.

So sheep over there. Cattle.

Sheep and cattle. Yep. And then I had an uncle who was based at Edge Roy and I'd go there and help out with harvest and seeding, whatever was going on. So got a bit of both, really. Yeah, which is great.

And so what was it about the grains industry that's pulled you a little bit harder than the livestock?

Probably Everyone likes machinery, don't they? They like playing with the big toys. And as an engineer, it's probably a lot more happening in that space that I could sink my teeth into. So, you know, we did a lot of work on harvester fires, we did a lot of work on, you know, machinery testing and. And you know, I started with condenting group sort of 23 or four years ago and yeah, we were straight into testing equipment and I suppose as an engineer, you know, I was that kid that got up at 6 o' clock and pulled alarm clocks to pieces because I wanted to see how they work. It Was an easy transition. You know, we wanted to see how gear worked. We wanted to make the most out of it. We wanted to get them improve the efficiency of it. So, you know, the grains industry has plenty of that and a lot of opportunity.

Yeah, it's one skill set to be able to pull something apart, but you could put that alarm clock back together as well.

Or there's probably a few of my sister's toys that didn't quite make it all the way back. Oh, yeah, if I'm truthful. But yeah, it's the same in ag, you know, we'll. We'll pull a harvest at a bit and have a look at what's going on in there. And I've got some really great people I work with that'll throw ideas at me as to how we might be able to optimize the performance, get the most out of it. So there's lots going on.

So what are the options for someone who studies ag engineering? And for you, what were the options in front of you when you were leaving Queensland?

Well, it probably goes back a step prior to that. At school, the career advisor came around and they said, oh, what do you want to do? And I said, oh, look, I was pretty handy with numbers. Maths and science was something I really enjoyed, but I still wanted to work in the ag industry. You know, that's what I'd grown up. I had love of agriculture and it's been in our farming family for generations, the farmers there. And so she said, why don't you do ag engineering? I'm like, didn't even know there was such a thing and had a couple other mates are doing engineering so it all made sense to sort of bring that together. So, yeah, I think the natural transition to ag engineering was an easy one. Went up to Toowoomba, spent four years doing that and then got a stipend to do some work actually in the cotton industry. So did a field of work in water use efficiency in the cotton industry and then continuing group was just something that Mum and Dad have been members of for a while. I noticed there's a couple of engineers on staff and so I was like, maybe I should do my work experience there and toddle off down to Walla and yeah, did a month or so down there and yeah, sort of really got to work with the group and loved what they did and kind of been here ever since. Yeah.

So you came in as the coffee boy back then and you've literally stuck around.

Well, literally I got down there, we'd made arrangements to go down there. And I was going to stay at the boss's place. He just said, oh, there's a bed out the back, you can stay here. And got down to Wagger. And of course they'd all gone out skiing that day and I couldn't get a hold anyone. So I ended up camping at the caravan park and one of the other staff members, Cat Nichols, said, oh, this is ridiculous, you've got to come stay at my place. So yeah, it was great. We just sort of. I felt like I was part of a family and I think from that point forward really embraced the independence of the group and I guess getting to understand what they were there for and being a part of it was. It was exciting. Yeah, it's good.

So that trip to Wagga, how old were you at that stage?

Oh, good question. I don't know. Probably. Yeah, it would have been, I don't know, 20, 21. Yeah.

And that was the beginning. It was. You went from there and then like, talk to me about that work experience. What were they getting you to do?

You know, as you say, you know, you get all the crappy jobs when you're the work experience kid. But actually through a pile of. Someone had donated some power farming magazines to the group and they're like, oh, we need you to index these. I'm like, oh, okay, this is pretty interesting. So I'm going through and there's like, they were doing some pretty cool stuff back in the 40s and 50s, you know, working on, you know, incorporating lime at depth. And I'm like, geez, here we are, you know, 70 years later, we're still talking about doing some of this stuff. That was one of the jobs. But then we got into some harvest and loss testing. So I was working with. At that stage, Dr. Graham Quick came down, he was working with the group and there was myself, Jeff Hamilton, James Boucher. We're all out in the field on our hands and knees with little quadrants looking at how much grain was coming out the front end of a stripper front at that point in time. So that was really. It's great. It's hands on. If you're going to critique a piece of gear and evaluate it, you've got to make sure you cross your T's and dot your I's. You don't want to be, I guess, wishy washy in your approach. You've got to be certain that you know what you're saying is correct and you know, decisions will be made based on what you find.

So yeah, and so looking at it from the, I guess the lens of being able to critique what's there and I guess ask the questions of. And curiosities of why isn't it different, et cetera. How can. Or have you been poached by machinery companies to say, well, actually, why don't you come in house and come. And I'll say, put your money where you've been.

I've had colleagues that have had to do that.

Yeah.

So they've moved off and. Yeah, absolutely. I really enjoyed the breadth of what we do. So, you know, we could be testing mobile phones one month and we'll be testing sheep handles the next month and then, you know, seating bars, the following, you know, so there's a breadth to that that you're never going to get with, you know, one particular machinery company. Yep, sure, you can dig your teeth right into one bit of gear. But I probably enjoyed the variety, to be honest. Yeah.

Has there been one piece of research or something that you've looked at which has really been, I guess, close to home? Something that you were like, okay, this is a step change piece.

I do a lot of work at these harvester workshops on harvester fires and that is a little bit close to home because we had a harvester fire on the farm at Edjuroy. My cousin got burnt on his arms trying to put it out and I just really wanted to get my head around what the hell was going on. And that same guy, Dr. Graham Quick, who I mentioned before we're doing the harvester loss work with, he was really interested in the fire space as well. So we worked pretty closely together on that. And I think there's probably some work that's come out of that that I don't know. Hopefully we've been able to help people be more prepared, set them shown up better, be more, I guess, cognizant of what could happen and be prepared for, you know, what happens if there is a harvester fire, you know. So, yeah, it's probably been one that sort of sticks out in my mind. And then we always get asked about the mobile phone stuff, you know, it's the most popular research report that Continent.

Group do, is it every year?

It normally would be annual. So, you know, we go to the middle of the high plain. So there's one tower there that we know is the landscape around it is perfectly flat. So there's no topography. We know we've got a perfect signal there. So we just go with a whole heap of handsets and we make call after call. After call and you could technically look at all the RSSI values and the technical numbers that sit behind the signal strength, et cetera but we actually make a two way call. So there's some poor bugger at the end of the line that cops a lot of calls that day.

Huh? What?

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, there's a fair bit of that going on and I suppose, you know, we just want people to have the best handset they can get. Mobile communications is really important to people and it was back I think when CDMA switched across to NextG and now we're seeing that go out the door. There was a, you know, it was a big impact on a lot of farmers and we actually got called in as into federal court in Melbourne in a case between the ACCC and Telstra. Now Josh and colleague of 20 something years was the poor bugger on the stand and got absolutely drilled by Telstra silks. You know, not something you want to do but what that did tell us is or teach us I suppose is that we need to as I said before, cross the T's, dot the I's, make sure you document absolutely anything and everything. And so I think for anyone who's working that research space that'd be the one thing I'd say to them. Just make sure that you are absolutely sure and you've got really good documentation because you never know when it might save you bacon.

So for those playing along at home, I guess anecdotally we say services are getting worse. What have you guys actually seen as the trends there?

Oh, there's a fair bit happening at the moment. There's a lot of transition. We're in a sort of in this weird space where there might be some signals that are tuned down, some that are phasing out. Obviously that 850 meg band is going, it'll be repurposed to 5G. How that's going to perform we don't really know and we won't go phone testing again until everything's sort of settled down in that space. So we haven't done it. We normally do it in April every year and yeah, again we always just go to hay set up there. We know the tower there's had some changes as well. So yeah, we'll just re eval where we end up. But yeah, it's a pretty crazy process out in the, out in the middle of nowhere with a whole heap of phones and there's one farmer who always sees us. I don't know, it's like so remote but he always comes up, he's like still trying to test those phones out, eh boys? We haven't seen him for 12 months. He's a really funny guy.

Yeah.

How would it work?

Like say if the phone company's cotton onto it, like couldn't they potentially distort your figures?

Yeah, they could. So if they gave us a handset that was tweaked somehow. Yeah, possibly. But we go and buy them all and then we sell them later on. But Samsung are onto it. They've been phoning us up saying look, we want to. We figure we've got some issues, we need to replicate what you guys did. They went and replicated it, rang back and said, yeah, you were right actually. So we're going to make some changes to some of the firmware, which is cool. It's nice to know that you can, I guess, influence things and make them better for the end user. And the end user in our case is farmers around the country. I guess we're a little bit like Choice magazine in that respect, but for farmers. Yeah.

And I think it's so important because it's like what you guys are covering is not just the day to day business efficiencies, it's not just checking in on family members. It can be at cases of when things go wrong and it becomes life or death or. Yeah. At points of when there's fires and you need people to be able to access the information as quickly and effectively as they can.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you're right. So there's one part of it's efficiency and making sure that piece of equipment that we've got is operating at peak efficiency but there's also safety and we operate in an industry that's inherently dangerous. We operate big gear in a lot of cases there's not that safety training we probably should have or other industries might have. So I guess making sure that we can make it as safe as possible is important and if that's just straight communications, well that's a good start. You know, being able to get the message out, call for help, whatever you need to do. Yeah.

So one more question, maybe just on some of the topics and things you cover, like there is so much that you could talk about in ag and at different times it feels like this is. Yeah. Number one priority versus that. Like how do you actually decide what you're talking about and when and how do you get choose those topics?

Yeah. So the GRDC stored grain work that I do. So grain storage, that's ongoing, that's always on the table and I will answer my phone at any stage for anyone who wants to talk about that. So that's a given harvest of workshops they're on at the moment. They're always around this time of year. So we're around the country sort of pre harvest trying to get people up to speed with what they need to think about. And then the conduit and group research work that'll be on whatever topic it might be at the time. So there's a list that gets generated from a survey that's sent out to. Actually it's all farmers around the country we can get our hands on. So we get about 450 responses from them and we sit down, actually go through the top three items that are on their, you know, effective in their business and then we ask them also, what are the top 33 pieces of machinery you want us to look at? So we sit down and distill that. Number one always in the what are the three factors influencing your farm business?

Rain.

Just send us more rain. You know, it's like, oh, come on guys, you've got to be a bit more inventive than that. But yeah, it does. It's things like succession planning have really evolved as a big issue on farm and that's something that I think we've put a couple of reports out on that. It's pretty varied I suppose in terms of where we might go with that. But again, you know, people love machinery. They love high horsepower harvesters, sprayers, tractors, whatever it might be. Toys. They love those big toys because they are an important part of their business, but they're also a bloody huge part of the investment they've got on farm as well. So getting the most out of them is essential.

And it's only getting more and more too.

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I mean, I went to the CR11 launch here in Perth the other day. We're talking about, you know, most harvesters now start with the one and I saw some quotes come through, you know, for that particular machine. Option dried up with everything was started with a 2. You know, that's a lot of money to be tied up in a machine that might be operating for six to eight weeks a year.

Yeah, talk to me. One thing that. So I did a little bit of background research on you and I talked to a couple of people. They said if there was something they really credit you for, it's being able to grab that research but actually being able to talk about it in terms that people can understand and that you're as good as Anyone else at, I guess the extension side of it.

That's very kind. Look, I think there's some great research that's done in Australia and I think we've got people who spend a lot of time and a lot of effort getting data and gathering numbers and I guess, you know, going down into minute detail, being able to put that into practice for me is what's important. So what can you do practically on farm that is going to like, improve what you do? It's going to make you more profitable. We'll talk about economic sustainability on a farm is that's got to be first and foremost because otherwise a farm doesn't exist. Right. We've got to make sure that people are economically able to keep that farm going so they can concentrate on the other aspects of sustainability that are absolutely important. So making sure they can apply their research is essential. And like I said, the research is great. It's out there, I think, where we can find ways that they can apply it. And, you know, I'm one for just dumbing stuff down. You know, I kind of need to do it for myself. So I'll read a scientific paper and then just like write a dozen notes as to or key points that we can apply on farm. And like I say, you know, again, trying to bring it back to that practical. What can be applied on farm and how can it make a difference and how much of a difference is it going to make? Then we'll talk about what the compromises might be.

So if you were chatting to someone who's, I'll say, in their 20s, not long out of uni and starting to look at those early job opportunities, if someone and in ag extension is a huge opportunity, as you say, grabbed all that research to actually like make the tangible impact on a graduation, what would be your advice to people? How could I get better at being a good extender of knowledge to farmers?

You do a lot of listing, I think you obviously do in your current role. So, you know, you're absorbing a lot of information. I think that's. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. You're pulling all these bits and pieces of information together and then the other parts of the puzzle come from the growers. So you've got to listen to a lot of people and be able to join those things together, find out where the needs are. You know, it's like if we're talking about machinery that costs a bomb, well, how can we either get it cheaper? Well, that's pretty hard to do. How can we make it better. How can we get more efficiency out of it? That's where the two pieces come together.

Is there one topic or one piece of machinery if you could do anything that you'd really want to jump into and do?

Look, I just think that, you know, and it's probably front of mine, but the harvesting side of things at the moment do big dollars. You know, I've been out testing with guys like Brett as far Rod Gribble, you know, we know that we can put bits and pieces inside those machines that will improve them in their operation in Australian conditions. We operate in some pretty crazy conditions for harvesting. You know, like most other places in the world, they're trying to battle snow and not whatnot. We out there bashing around in huge amounts of heat and dry, dusty conditions. So we have different requirements and we're using the same machine out of the box, but expecting it to, we know, work miracles. So that's probably one where I think we can actually extract a lot of benefit. And look, the grain storage side of things, just make sure people buy the right silos. It's one thing to harvest it and bring it in, but buying upfront right in the first place is an absolute requirement when it comes to grain storage.

And I'm glad you talk about that, because for me, I'd say I kind of look at a silo as a silo, but a silo is not a silo.

Well, if you think about the value of grain you've got inside that thing, it can be huge. If you've got chickpeas in it at the moment, or a thousand bucks a ton, you're silo full of chickies, and they're, you know, discoloring and getting downgraded. And all you needed to do was push some cool, dry air through it to maintain color. And there's some research that shows that that's entirely, you know, possible. You know, let's do that. And we've worked so hard to get the crop to that stage, and it's probably arguably the one time where we've got some control over the environment that that crop is in. So we haven't got a. We can't do much about it when it's in the paddock, but once you've harvested and brought it in, put in a silo, we can actually do something about the climate, since we can push a mare through it. And we can. If it's a gas tight, sealable soil, I can fume it and eradicate the insects in there. So there's a. But We've got to have the right tools, really, only to do that. Yeah.

I do want to ask you, and I'm glad you brought that up. You were the man at the end of the. Was it 1, 800 weeviline? Now, tell me, was there a jingle or something that you came up for it?

So we were talking about this last week. This is a Friday afternoon, couple of beers and Chris Warwick, who heads up the project, and he's a really good mate of mine, we probably talk most days. And he was working with Condinna Group with me at the time, and in Toowoomba, we'd sit at the back, we'd have a couple of beers, and I was like, you know, we just need a national hotline, you know, like a 1, 800 number or some sort. And I'm like, It's gotta have six digits after it. And I'm like, what about 1,800weevil? I'll go and have a look. So I'm on there and I'm like, well, it's not taken. Maybe we should just register, you know. But of course, it had to go up for auction because, you know, all those 1, 800 numbers go up for auction. So we're sort of sitting there and it was due to be auctioned, I don't know, two weeks later. And we got the number and it's kind of been there ever since. So in wa, that will come straight to me. In South Australia, that number will come to me. Well, with GEO sort of. GEO directed it. So if it's in Victoria, it'll go to Chris, and if it's in the Northern Region, it'll go to Alex there. Because, yeah, if it was just me handling all the calls. Yeah. Hey, you know, would you. Couldn't. Calls at all times of the day and night. But, yeah, it's good. I think people do use it. And we get a lot of calls around pre harvest and a lot of calls at seeding time when people crack silos open and find a whole heap of insects in there that they didn't know they had. And we'll have a chat about how we can do that better next year. And, yeah, to me, that's. Yeah, it's a great thing. And everyone remembers the number, which is awesome. So, yeah.

Is it more of a knowledge hub line or is it more of a, like, emergency. Oh, crap.

Oh, no, it's a knowledge hub. So, you know, I'd rather people, you know, before they invest a heap of money in a grain storage facility, that they give us a Call on that number, we can sort of talk them through some of the considerations. Think about where your power is, think about your drainage, think about lighting, think about the layout, think about doing it in stages so that you might tell. I'm going to put these. I can afford to invest capex in this sort of storage this year but I also need to think about what I'm going to do in three years time. So kind of planning, I suppose you're planning the investment. Yeah, but we do get the emergency call where people are like, I've just cracked open a grain bag and it's full of insects, what can I do? So then we sort of step through the process of well, do you have gas tight sealable storage? Right. Well you need to transfer the grain to that, fume it according to the label and make sure you can outload it and not get pinged for anything that, you know, excess fumigant or whatever might be in the grain. So we just try and step them through that process, get them out of a hole. Yeah.

Question on grain storage, grain bags, are they becoming more and more common and let's ask you your opinion on them too.

Yeah, grain bags get used, they're a good short term option. They're great for logistics. There's plenty of them get used particularly in the southern part. There's a couple of growers down Esperance way that that's all they rely on because it keeps their machine running and they can then outload later on. But they're a short term option so you don't want to sort of go any further than sort of four months. Otherwise birds, foxes chasing mice across them, all that sort of stuff, they tear them up and of course then you get a lot of spoilage. So good short term option, got to be done well, got to be prepared. Site's got to be nice and flat and well, sorry on a slight grade but you don't want it to be on a really steep slope. Don't put it in a table drain. A couple of guys in South Australia rang me last year and said, I did what you said and I put it beside the road but it's in a table drainer now. It's half full of water. It's like, oh man. Yeah, it's hard.

And make sure you got that tractor steering straight.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you need to get it straight. Nothing worse than seeing like a big S. And typically the one near the road, right, that everyone drives past didn't do that too well, did they?

You know so, yeah, yeah, the judgment I want to ask you about, I guess. So we talked a little bit about the condiment side, the other side of the work you do as a consultant. Talk to me about coming together and the early opportunity that came up with, I guess, uncommon kind of collaboration with some knowledgeable people and yourself.

Yeah, absolutely. So that industry work that we do, I mean, it's an opportunity that popped up, you know, it was driven by grdc, to their credit. And I don't know who was at the helm at the time, but they probably saw a bunch of young guys who were keen, enthusiastic, wanting to have a crack with half a clue on grain storage. Like we'd written a book about it at that stage. So we had a reasonable idea of what we were talking about. And then we had another group of, you know, I guess they were probably the custodians of grain storage knowledge and they'd been there for a long time, they'd done some work with various, you know, csiro, with grdc, all that sort of stuff. And yeah, GRDC just sort of, I guess, said, well, no, neither of you got it independently, but we want you guys to sit down and have a chat. And I'm pretty sure they were. Well, no, because they told us afterwards, like, we just thought, who are these bloody young punks, you know, rocking up, thinking they know everything about grain storage? Quite the opposite, you know, the collaboration worked beautifully and combining their experience and knowledge with our probably enthusiasm and probably a different approach of to communications worked fantastically well. And they're lifelong friends, you know, like Pete Botter, who we worked with. We've lost him now, but he came to him a wedding and, you know, like, great people. Great people. Yeah, yeah.

What did you learn about, I guess, coming in probably, obviously with credibility and a track record, but actually then coming in and were there moments of humbling from.

Oh, God, yeah, absolutely. And there still is. So we've got a little WhatsApp group. Those guys like Philip Burrell, who is another seed light winner, his knowledge on grain storage and entomology is hard to surpass. I can't think of anyone else who would know more about the practical application on farm than Phil. You know, he's still on our WhatsApp group and he quite regularly sends us little notes saying, oh, I found this, guys, you know, you might find this bit of information useful and we'll still throw questions at him. Hey, Phil, when you do that research, you know, all those years ago, what did you find? So, yeah, we've been in my Whole career, I've been super lucky to work with mentors that have provided me with huge amounts of patience in terms of putting up with lots of questions. And we ask a lot of questions, you know, like, I want to know. That's the thing. Bill Ryan, who worked at Conden Group, I was there as well. You know, he's a research scientist specialized in meats, of all things. So long distance from engineering. Scientific rigor is one of the things that he taught us to really get our heads around. And so they taught us a lot, you know, that experience and wisdom and knowledge is something that we've benefited from greatly. Yeah, it's important.

So you've done some extraordinary work and been able to hang your hat on different areas, like, what. What is this still ahead for you? Like, what are the things that are really exciting you? Or what are some of the challenges that you'd love to really sink yourself into?

I love getting. I don't love it at the time, but then in hindsight, I do. It's funny, we just did some work on mouse bait spreading, and. And we got a call late in the season last year, and it was to do with lodging. You know, how does mouse bait lodge in three different crops of different, you know, yields, you know, so really heavy crop, really light crop, and we need it done in, like, three or four weeks. And I was like, oh, wow, we're going to figure this out. And I'd been lucky enough to do some work with Steve Henry from csiro, who worked on the mouse side of things. He told me about this fluorescent dye they'd used on the mice, you know, just to work out where they were getting around from their burrow at night. And he'd also then use that on some wheat seed to emulate bait. I thought we could do that, you know, so three weeks out from this crop being harvested, we've made this fluorescent glow in the dark bait, go on and spread it, and then we're out. Josh and I are out there at midnight with black lights, and we're shining around, trying to find this glow in the dark, but it's ridiculous. It kind of looked like something out of Star Wars. But those challenges, to me, they're great, and they'll just pop up. So we panic a little bit at the time. We're trying to get our heads around whatever else has been done, but in a lot of cases, it'll be reasonably unique. No one will have done it before. So trying to find a solution and as to how to test it, and for that To a level where it could be peer reviewed. Ultimately, you know, it has to stand up and be irrefutable. It's gotta be. Yeah, bang on. So to do that will be something I'm gonna continue to do and I think the harvesting space, as I said before, all that post harvest work is something that I really enjoy. So. Yeah, more of that. Yeah.

A question like, it's more, I guess, just from a general interest. So for someone who's so busy when it comes to something thrown in at you like that, how do you actually manage your capacity and your ability to show up and be able to do it for 20 plus years?

They always say that, like a farmer who's always backed up by someone at home. You know, if you're out in the tractor or doing all this stuff, you're flat out all the day, there's always someone at home. And my family are incredibly accommodating to my wife, Verity. She, you know, we've got three kids, we had a 12 week old at home, you know. Oh, do you? Yeah, yeah. So they are just amazing. I couldn't do what I do without their support. And that extends, you know, Verity's family. I got a farm at Darren, you know, I'll ring Andrew up and I'll say, oh, mate, I need some wheat seed. Yep, it's in the shed, just go and grab it. Or I need to come and do this or need to do that, or can we, you know, test this or that. And you know, they're super accommodating. So I'm blessed to have a family that allow me to do what I do. Yeah.

What's your favourite part of working in agriculture?

Just the people are amazing, aren't they? You know, you're in the same boat, Ollie. You know, we work with some incredible people. They're so generous, I mean with their time, with their equipment, with their farm. You know, it's like, yeah, you know the mouse baiting work that we've been doing, we want to just borrow your SP so we can mount it really high, do this lodging work that we're doing. Yeah, no worries. When you want to do it? Oh, I don't know, later in the week. Yeah, fine, no worries. You know, so we just rock up, attach some gear to the back of the SP sprayer or we want to borrow a sprayer for boom stability testing. We work in an industry, I think, where people are, are generous with their time, with their equipment and they genuinely appreciate what you do for them. And I think for me that's the rewarding part of what we do, you know, they're appreciative. Yeah.

Kind of like the agriculture version of like a Top Gear or something really, aren't you?

We have talked about this a bit. So one of the things that we do every couple of years is we go to this massive ag show in Germany called Agritechnica. So Mark, Josh and myself go there. Mark's a machinery specialist. He knows everything there is to know about machinery and who's who in the zoo in terms of what's coming out next. He's the editor of Farminghead magazine now and I handed the reins over to him a few years ago and he's a great guy, does a lot of research with us. And Mark, Josh and I go off to Agritecha. We're there and we'll go through all these stands of equipment and have a look at new stuff that's coming out. It's kind of mind blowing, you know, and so at one stage we did talk about, you know, we're in Germany and maybe we go to, you know, somewhere where we can do some, you know, high speed tractor driving around a racetrack or something. Yeah, so that was kind of thrown around and. Yeah, but look, you know, Jeremy Clarkson's done a pretty darn good job in the farming space for us in any case. Yeah, so absolutely, yes.

Now, one final question. We need to talk about the Cedar Larder Award. I think we've come full circle. What does it mean to be recognized?

Initially, I was a little bit embarrassed, to be honest, Ollie, because I think there's people who have done way more than I have. But I think in hindsight, I think it demonstrates what I was able to do because of the people who mentored me. So really that will award was for all the people who had mentored me to that spot. You know, people like Bill Ryan who really, you know, drilled into us the importance of scientific rigor. People I work with, you know, Josh Romelli with the Chris Warwick's of this world, Mark Saunders, you know, they're guys that are, have really, I suppose, got me to where I've gotten to. And so that award was as much for them as it was for me. So yeah, it was amazing to receive it. And you know, they're a beautiful. I don't know if you've seen the actual award itself, but it's a glass, it's beautifully made. I think Maureen Cribb, who's been at GRDC forever in a day, has some hand in getting those made, but they might buy a glass artist in Canberra somewhere and they just. Yeah, they're an incredible piece of art. Yeah.

So it holds a very significant place in the house.

Yeah, it does, yeah. Yeah, it's. It's important and I think I'm humbled to. To have received it. Yeah. But feel. Still feel like I've got a fair bit more to give too, so. Yeah, absolutely.

You do now. Well, Ben, thank you so much for having a chat with us. I think I've enjoyed the morning and make sure you stay safe out there while you're driving around and big few weeks coming up for your harvest.

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, thanks very much, Ollie. And you too. Stay safe travels. And thanks for the chat. Appreciate it. Cheers, mate.

Thanks for joining us for the GRDC In Conversation podcast. This series is a GRDC investment that's sharing the stories of the people who are living and breathing the Aussie grains industry. Make sure you check out some of our other conversations and hit follow on your favourite podcast app. To never miss an episod.