The Full Episode Audio:
Show Notes:
Australia is heading into one of the biggest beef production years in its history — record tonnage leaving the gate. By every rule the market has ever run on, that wall of supply should be dragging the price down. It isn't. So what's quietly holding the floor up, and how long can it hold?
That's the puzzle at the centre of Episode 133, recorded live on the ground at the 3R Beef pre-sale dinner at the historic Goonoo Goonoo Station in Tamworth. Ben Law sits down with Angus Gidley-Baird, Senior Animal Protein Analyst at Rabobank — a man whose job is to read the beef market well before the rest of us feel it move. He spends his days talking to processors, retailers and buyers across the world and turning a mountain of global data into something you can actually use back on your own country.
This conversation is built around the side of the coin most producers never get to see: demand. Not the headline saleyard number, but what sits underneath the price you're being paid — who's really buying Australian beef right now, why one export market is quietly setting the pace for the whole world, and what a sudden change in that market would mean for the cheque in your pocket. Angus also gets into the strange gap between what the numbers are saying and what producers are feeling in their gut, and the moment in recent history when that gap cost the industry dearly.
For families building something to hand on, understanding beef market demand isn't academic — it's the difference between reacting to the market and reading it. If you want to make calmer, better-informed decisions about the operation your next generation will inherit, this is an episode worth your time. The audio is a touch rougher than usual because it was recorded live in front of a crowd. Don't let that stop you — the thinking here is as sharp as it gets.
Rabobank is a specialist food and agribusiness bank whose research team tracks global protein markets and turns a mountain of world data into practical, on-the-ground reading for producers. For farming families thinking generations ahead, that demand-side intelligence is exactly what helps you make calmer, better-informed decisions. https://rabobank.com.au 3R Beef (3R Livestock) is a leading Angus seedstock operation at Loomberah, near Tamworth, breeding versatile, functional genetics for the commercial cattleman — backed by an embryo and IVF program and an on-farm feedlot that tests those genetics right through to eating quality. Episode 133 was recorded live at their pre-sale dinner, where the industry gathers before their annual spring bull sale. https://3RBeef.com.au