Our Partners

Nigel and Kate Kerin – mentors, friends, and neighbours!

First and foremost, we would like to acknowledge the massive support and mentoring provided to our fledgling business by Nigel and Kate Kerin. Nigel and Kate employed Justin as their farm manager from 2008 to 2015. They operate Kerin Poll Merino Stud, in conjunction with their livestock-based farming operation – situated right next door to our property.

Nigel and Kate provided tremendous guidance while we were acquiring our property, "Coolah", mentoring us through monthly Working on the Business (WOTB) meetings and discussions. The regular WOTB process forces us to take a "helicopter view" of our business, makes us accountable for our decisions, reduces opportunity for procrastination on decision-making, and generally ensures we have a solid understanding of our business position.

We enlisted Sean Martyn from Business By Design, Coffs Harbour, as our business coach in 2014 to help guide us in key decision-making processes, and to help generally keep us on track with our business. Sean takes a no-nonsense approach to his role and ensures all members of the business are held accountable, goals are clearly defined, and milestones are being achieved. Sean is a former Managing Director of PrincipleFocus. Justin and Amy are both graduates of PrincipleFocus' StrategicFocus program. Amy has completed the PrincipleFocus Business of Farming School, while Justin has completed their Cell GrazingFocus course - having completed the Grazing for Profit School with Resource Consulting Services (RCS) in 2007. Both Justin and Amy completed the RCS GFP School at Roma in July, 2016.

ProAdvice - accountancy and benchmarking

We began working with ProAdvice in 2014, with Andrew Dunbabin as our client manager and Aiden Sutherland as our key accountant. Based in Geelong, Victoria, ProAdvice offers an integrated service that is based around accountancy, for us, and we also utilise their benchmarking service - mainly to compare ourself with ourself, year-on-year. Our results are compiled with other businesses' in the annual Holmes Sackett AgInsights benchmarking results publication.

Practical Systems - Our farm accounting software provider

We utilise Practical Systems' Cashbook Platinum farm accounting software and particularly like the reporting capabilities of this software.

We produce a Business Position Statement (BPS) at the end of each month to provide a snapshot of the business at that time – not just the financials, but also the ecology and how the people in the business are travelling.

The team at Practical Systems is helpful and always on-hand to answer any query Amy might have.

We first started benchmarking with Wagga Wagga-based Holmes Sackett in 2015 (benchmarking the 2014/15 year) - mainly to compare ourself with ourself, year-on-year. We became members of a new Holmes Sackett Central West NSW Benchmarking Group, in which there are 10 businesses in this group - all with a major focus on livestock production. We meet three times a year, at a different group member's property each time, and "crunch the numbers" with Holmes Sackett's Sandy McEachern and David Brown.

Our annual benchmarking results combine with others to form the annual Holmes Sackett AgInsights benchmarking results publication, which is a fascinating read!

ANZ Bank - Our biggest investor

There is no doubt that the biggest investor in JAD Agriculture is our financier, ANZ Bank. We enjoyed a fantastic relationship with our initial ANZ Bank Manager, Lucinda Hawkins, Dubbo, when we began working together in May, 2014 - following the purchase of "Greenvale". Upon Lou's promotion to ANZ State Agribusiness Manager, we started working in 2016 with a new ANZ Bank Manager, Ian Horsburgh. We look forward to many more enjoyable years working in partnership with Ian and ANZ.

In 2016, we embarked on a new journey that has been four years in the making - Speckle Park seedstock! We carried out our first embryo transfer (ET) program on 1/11/16 and chose renowned artificial breeding services expert, Ced Wise, from Ced Wise Artificial Breeding Services, to carry out this rather expensive investment and highly technical task. Apart from being a terrific character, Ced comes with a resume as long as your arm! 

Ced and his lovely wife, Rowena, have become highly valued members of the JAD Ag team!

For cattle pregnancy scanning, artificial insemination (AI), and freeze branding, we choose Damien Sotter from Beef Genetics, Bathurst. Apart from being enjoyable company, Damien is highly professional, and generous with his time and sharing his experience.

Hogan's Transport - Stock arrive safely with Darcy, guaranteed

We use Darcy Hogan to transport our livestock as much as possible, and we guarantee the safe delivery of our stock to buyers who also elect to use Hogan's Transport, based at Cumnock. Apart from being a champion bloke, we have built up a great trust, understanding, and systems with Darcy and look forward to loading and unloading many more loads with him in the future.

Tony Walsh Sheep and Cattle Pregnancy Scanning

Pregnant? With twins? We ask Tony Walsh. Tony carries out our sheep pregnancy scanning and we enjoy his visits for this important task in the livestock management calendar. Tony is based at Narromine.

Blue Shearing Services, Yeoval

We use Ralph Blue and his contracting team for all our shearing and recommend their services to anyone seeking an efficient and reliable shearing contractor.

Little River Landcare Group - Little River, Big Picture

We are members of our local Little River Landcare Group. We enjoy taking part in this active group's regular workshops and field days to improve our knowledge and then implementation of natural resource management (NRM) practices.

We have been members of the NSW Farmers' Association since purchasing "Coolah" in 2012, and are also members of the organisation's growing NSW Young Farmers' Group. This group can be found on Facebook, Twitter (@nswyf, #nswyf), and Instagram.

We decided to add our "farmer story" to Meat and Livestock Australia's (MLA) Target 100 initiative to play our small part in raising awareness among the broader public about what sustainability practices are being carried out across sheep and cattle properties across Australia.

We value and commend any strategic efforts by industry to improve the overall image of agriculture and livestock production among the general public - our customers - and hope other producers add their weight to this initiative as well. Like many other farm business owners, we too have observed the growing disconnect between the producer and the consumer about what's involved in getting "food to fork", and hope initiatives such as this help to counter misconceptions and untruths often pedalled by well-funded groups with ill-informed agendas.

Follow Target 100 on Facebook, and Twitter.