#26: Building businesses and going through succession with Emma Ayliffe

Welcome to Episode 26 of A Place To Call Home Podcast.

On this Episode we chat to Emma Ayliffe from Summit Ag. This is a great conversation, and we were privilege to have Emma share her knowledge and expertise on a range of topics.

Throughout this Episode we chat about.
- All things Cotton
- Starting a consulting business
- Buying their first farm
- Working through succession
- What it takes to start a business in Agriculture

You can find out more about Emma on the socials below.
Summit Ag - Agricultural Consulting
Yacker
Emma Ayliffe - Yacker App | LinkedIn
https://www.facebook.com/YackerApp/
https://www.facebook.com/summitagconsulting/

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This episode is brought to you by,
Maraboon Rural Veterinary Service
Maraboon Rural Veterinary Services (maraboonruralvetservices.com.au)

Transcript

Sam Fryer: [00:00:00] Emma, thank you very much for joining us on the place to call home podcast.

Before we get too far ahead. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Where do you live? Um, what do you do and throw in a family stat? 

Emma Ayliffe: Them.

Yeah. So I live between Lake Cajillo and Condobolin in the central west of New South Wales. My day job is an agricultural consultant working with irrigated and dry land farmers. My partner and I also operate a mixed them. Farming enterprise.

So winner cereals primarily and first cross lambs. Um, and then, yeah, a few other little side projects. Um, and my household consists of me, my partner, Craig, and our 4 and a half, 4 and a half month old son can. 

Sam Fryer: I do. We were just talking before we hit record about, um, kids and, and the joy of them, the joy they bring.

And then you said this is your first day, your little ones at kindy today. So oh, sorry. Daycare. So you're getting a bit done and all and you're and you're coping with that alright? 

Emma Ayliffe: Yeah.

No. [00:01:00] I, um, yeah. I've been super excited about this day for him to socialize because he's the only kid in our household and have some other kids around him, but also, yeah, just to have some brain capacity and be a bit productive for a day will be very nice. 

Sam Fryer: Yeah. It's, um, it, they definitely do take a lot.

They're joy kids, but they definitely do take a lot of thinking space. Sometimes it can be hard to spend. Look. Where did you grow up, Emma? 

Emma Ayliffe: So I spent most of my childhood on sheep stations out near Coober Pedy in South Australia.

So I was home Good. Until I was 13, um, my dad ran farms for, um, some well known them. Strillas, like, jump up pastels, so McBrides. Uh, we then moved to the Clare Valley when I started high school. I finished high school there.

I then went to Adelaide, uh, University of Adelaide, and did a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Science, Looking at [00:02:00] becoming a livestock nutritionist, which is probably the complete opposite of where I've ended up, Um, and completed that while I was at uni decided that I liked plants better than animals. They're a little bit Easier to keep track of. They don't run away from you. Things like that. Um, and then, yeah, when I finished my uni degree, I went Back to the Clare Valley and worked there as a high rainfall zone and pasture agronomist for about 14 months before deciding I needed an an adventure, and I headed east.

I got a job in the cotton industry, and 12 years later, I'm still out here bashing away in cotton crops. 

Sam Fryer: It. I wanna bring it back to that, that transition. Like you said, you're animal nutritionist, that you studied that. So what was the transition?

What were you doing to make you go from animals and plants or what helped? 

Emma Ayliffe: Yeah. So I just found plants. Them. So interesting at uni, like if you think about what they're able to do, they just, uh, in 1 spot, [00:03:00] their Substrate that they grow in is the soil that's around them and the nutrition that they can access and the moisture and all of that's them.

Confined to how and where their roots run and, you know, their ability to be able to to live, you know, in a little basketball, school, some of these plants and overcome things like soil constraints. So my real interest in plants began with old man salt bush. We had to do a case study on a crop top and that's what I started with and yeah, it kind of snowballed from there. Um, it's hard to make money doing odd things like growing salt Bush and stuff stuff like that. So I ended up in a bit more mainstream agronomy, but yeah, I love it.

And cotton, um, is a really fun crop. It's It's a broad acre crop, big areas. Um, it's a quick crop being annual, so you get to do something new every year, but because it's high value, growers are willing to spend a lot of money and do cool things. And we understand really well how it grows and how we can manipulate [00:04:00] it. And yeah, it's a lot of fun.

It's, 

Sam Fryer: um, It's certainly popping up here than everywhere. Like I'm, I'm based up in north Queensland and there's a few places starting to grow cotton up this way. And it's, it's interesting. Um, when harvest time comes and you do see the trucks on the road and, you know, majority of the time it is just, you know, 6 decks of chaos going here, there and everywhere. But Next minute, you've got all these trucks filled with cotton on the back, cotton, uh, cotton bales.

What do you call it? Rolls or bales? How what's the Rounds. Rounds. Okay.

There you go. Them. They're like, I can get I'll get terrorized for that 1, but I'm quite happy to throw myself under the bus. Yeah. So you see all the rounds running around everywhere.

So it's it's interesting to see the growth of that. And is the driver like for those unaware of cotton, like you said, there is, there is money in it money to be made in cotton or what's where does it usually suit? What land types is in areas. Yeah. 

Emma Ayliffe: So the big draw card with cotton is that it is a high value crop.

Um, so, yeah, you can you can make some good money out of it. It's entirely water efficient. So if you're an irrigator, you get [00:05:00] a lot of crop for your drop as we like to say. Um, and then the GM component of it is Very cool. So, um, the new cotton that we grow at the moment is a triple stack herbicide tolerance.

So it's resistant or tolerant to Roundup, them. Chlophosinate and dicamba. So we've got a really good spectrum of weed control. The paddocks where we've got issues with them. Resistant weeds or just a really dirty, um, cheap, safe chemical options that we can put over.

They've got insect genes in the plants, which means that, you know, we flat out probably spraying for insects twice a year on average. Um, yeah. So it's just, it's just a nice crop to grow and yeah, it's a bit of fun and it's good return on your water, which is our most valuable asset that we have. Them. Yep.

Thank 

Sam Fryer: you for that. Um, look. You just mentioned that you've given us a pretty good wrap of what you've done after school and that and that Jerry that's been. And along the way, [00:06:00] I do wanna touch on when you've met your partner because the next thing I wanna chat about is succession. But can you tell us how you guys met and and and I suppose a bit of the love story behind 

Emma Ayliffe: it?

Um, so Craig and I were actually set up on a blind date. Um, yeah. And I think my exact words when we got set up was, I'm not gonna like this guy, so let's get it over and done with. Um, yes. So, uh, we went them.

To Nitro Circus in Griffith. Um, yeah. And then went out for the pubs after and had a few beers, and I had to get up the next morning and go to work, and, um, I got a message about, uh, just before lunchtime to say, did you want some KFC? Cause he was still in town and he went and got takeaway and swung back around to say good day again. And the rest is history as they say 7 years later and yeah.

Sam Fryer: So is this when you started, when did you guys start working or were you, was Craig always working in his family's [00:07:00] operation? Oh, and, and, and what was that like? That part of, uh, or starting out, like coming as an outsider in, it's something I'm trying to delicately work my way through the podcast. Cause it's so, so interesting. There's so many different partners come into an our family operation.

And how, how did that go with you? 

Emma Ayliffe: Yeah. So, um, Craig and he's, he's got 2 older brothers, so he and his 2 older brothers basically finished school and went home to the farm. Um, they were super fortunate. Their dad had worked really hard and got quite a large enterprise.

So they had, um, about 28000 acres that they were cropping about half and running livestock on, so there was plenty of capacity to have everyone at home. Um, Craig was the youngest. I'm the last onboarded, uh, Entity into the Newham chaos that they run, uh, which is interesting because, uh, I guess The others had all been kinda part of the business for quite [00:08:00] a long time, like 10 years plus the partners and stuff like that. So the dynamics were pretty well Established prior to me getting there. I had a bit of a draw card in that I am an agronomist, so I I guess I added value to their cropping business Because I could come in and, um, give them some advice basically for nothing, um, and help to to run that side of side of their operation, but at the same time, it's always, you've got to be mindful to not step on toes, undermine people, um, family dynamic, them.

Uh, it's and it's difficult because emotions come into play and you need to be need to be mindful that them. What is business is business, but you've still gotta be able to sit around the kitchen table at Christmas time. At the end of the day. Yeah. Yeah.

And how do you approach that and manage that? And it's It is. It's hard. Um, I like to well, I've I've tried to make a very conscious effort to be quite neutral in everything that was happening when we were operating As a group, um, and [00:09:00] that's just understanding their chain of command, you know, talking to making sure that we talk to Craig's dad, not just Craig and I make decisions on the cropping enterprise that flowed through and affected everybody else and just having some stuff like that in place. Um, but, yeah, It was, it was good.

It was fun. Uh, it was, yeah. Could be part of an operation like that, where you got to be, you know, hands on from the decision making at the start to helping sit on the air. Say it is that sewing time and head as a harvest and yeah, it was good. 

Sam Fryer: How early on or when did they start the succession process or do they start having some discussions pretty early?

Cause I do want to touch on the next part of your story, but I thought I'd just mentioned that first up. Yeah. 

Emma Ayliffe: So like the succession was always implied. Um, that's why they were all working so hard to accumulate land and do what they were doing. So, um, but it was kind of an unspoken plan.

So, uh, Craig's dad had a bit of an idea of what was gonna happen and how it was all gonna unravel. [00:10:00] Um, and for the rest of us, it was kind of a bit of a wait and see until that time where there was a push, uh, to split things up. A big driver probably of the split up is that each of the brothers were at quite different phases in their lives. So, um, you know, kids going to boarding school, Uh, people wanting different operational systems on their farm or livestock focused. You know, 1 brother wants cows, 1 brother wants sheep, 1 brother wants no livestock.

Stocks. So you started to get to that point where everyone was kind of pulling in different directions, and it started to get a bit of tension. And that was just, yeah, kind of indication that It was time to put a bit of heat on and make some tough decisions. 

Sam Fryer: Yeah. So around this time.

You guys are actually had the opportunity to farm come up nearby. Is that right? Can you talk us through the process and and how that came about and and the steps of that you guys went to it actually acquiring that property, the farm. Sorry. Yeah.

Emma Ayliffe: So Craig and I hadn't been together very long at all. It was less than a [00:11:00] year. Um, and 1 of our neighbors had decided to sell off a portion of of his farm and, um, Kind of over the back fence conversation was had about this farm coming up for sale and, um, or is Craig and I hadn't really seriously talked about buying land because we hadn't really been together for all that long, but this opportunity came up. Um, and I think both of us Thinking quite businesslike and logically, we're like, this is kind of too good of an opportunity. Location was right.

Price was right. Um, Yeah. Mad not to have a go at it. And then decided to go and talk to Craig's parents about it, um, And whether we had we were not prepared at all to buy this farm. We had no savings.

We had no deposit. We had no Free approvals with banks, nothing. It was, oh, we're gonna sell some of our dirt. Do you wanna buy it? Oh, shit.

It's in the right spot. We probably should. [00:12:00] How the heck are we gonna do this kind of scenario? Um, so Craig's parents agreed to guarantor for us, And the way that we worked it was we use 1 of the farms that we are getting as part of the succession and farm split up as the guarantee So that we basically take that guarantee when we take that farm as part of our succession split. 

Sam Fryer: Did you work with anyone through that bit of the process, or were you just guided by Craig's parents, like, bit of mentoring 

Emma Ayliffe: there?

Um, oh, we're guided primarily by Craig's parents. Um, but, you know, we're lucky out here that a lot of the lawyers and bankers and stuff like that have seen a lot of different things unfold and could Put their 2 bobs in about ways that they'd seen it done previously, and that's where we ended up. 

Sam Fryer: Yep. So following up from that, you. You you got this.

You got the got the farm and the succession started happening. Is that right? Where the splitting up started going on? Was this very [00:13:00] soon. Or was it like a couple of years after?

How quick was that process going on in the background? 

Emma Ayliffe: Um, so the Formalities of succession plan probably started, like, 3 years after, um, we bought that farm. And then With that all kind of coming to a head, um, at the end of last financial year, so the end of June last year, The business is split into 3 entities. There's still some unraveling to do around titles on land and them. Like that around capital, making sure we're not paying too much capital gains and whatnot.

But, yeah, on on paper and on operational fronts, them. Um, yeah. The family enterprise is now just, uh, Craig's mom and dad and their little hobby book, And then the 3 brothers now each run their own entity. Did 

Sam Fryer: you guys work with someone? Did you bring in a consultant or something like that for succession?

Emma Ayliffe: We had our financial adviser that has worked with the black [00:14:00] case very long time who's, Yeah. Done a lot of it and who kind of, yeah, helped guide us through the process and and, yeah, put the steps into place and divide everything up. And In the as an agronomist, I've seen a lot of succession plans go down and more often than not, they're not very pretty. And, um, Every succession plan is tough. This 1 was no different, but on a whole, I would say that, um, the boys and the extended families have handled it them.

Really well and very maturely, which is a refreshing change from what I've seen for other people. 

Sam Fryer: How important was it to have, like that outside or someone else in the table that wasn't part of the immediate family, that consultant, the middleman. I don't know. There's so many names around it that you put, but how important was it to have someone like that at the table 

Emma Ayliffe: helping? Yes.

Super important. Do you need someone that can drag that emotion out and everyone else tends to be less emotional. If there's a third party there, that's kind of regulating what's going down. If you don't [00:15:00] have that third party, then Yeah. Emotions can take hold, and things can get a bit, um, wayward, and anything done with emotion He's pretty crappy.

Um, a decision's made on emotion arguments bought on by emotion. So to have someone that can just simmer everything down and them. Bring it back to the realities of the situation makes life a lot easier. Yep. Yeah.

Sam Fryer: It's it's it a hundred percent does. You need someone else at the table. And and And probably the other thing that I was gonna ask, did you guys go away or did you do that do that at the farm when you guys were meeting up, go working through this 

Emma Ayliffe: process? Um, so we took turns hosting it so that everybody got so, yeah, there's a big thing about that comfort level around If it's held at your house, you feel a bit more bullish because you're in your space. Yep.

Yeah. So we we shared it around. Everyone everyone had a turn to host it, which kind of gave everyone, you know, their moment of power in the discussion for 1 of a [00:16:00] better term. 

Sam Fryer: It was for us personally, like, we've we've gone through 1 1 lot or a couple of different times, succession processes and meetings and stuff like that, but it was huge difference. It played when we had it, not at the kitchen table.

Like we went somewhere else and held that. And it was a totally different environment, totally different how everyone reacts as talks. And, um, you know, especially as children, when you grow up at that dining table uh, and it happens like, you know, if you look in behind there, the mindset behind that as a, as a child and you have your parents, your whole life telling you what to do, and then you go and trying to have a meeting like that at your kitchen table. You still have that same mindset, so you have to get away and get out. And it's good to hear that you guys gave everyone a bit of a crack, I suppose.

And and not just at the dining table where the parents are, because that would have been, I think, a bit of a play a bit of a role in that. So, um, what what were some of the struggles that you guys faced during this process, during this discussion process that really came up [00:17:00] and I suppose hindered or changed things a little bit. Was there anything like that? 

Emma Ayliffe: So probably the, the land side of things was all relatively straight them. Forward.

Um, we're like I said, we're pretty lucky in that, um, Craig's family had done such an amazing job at acquiring land and kind of setting everyone up, them. Um, with a good size operation and and with all things succession plan, I think it's important to remember that It's about being fair. It's not about being equal. You're never gonna get an equal share, but you need to get your fair share of what's happening. And I think Most parties came to the table with that in mind that it wasn't gonna be equal, but we'd get it as fair as we could.

Um, so that that was really good. The biggest challenge for us is probably around machinery and things like that. So 3 brothers and 2 of everything pretty well. Um, 2 spray rigs, Tucson bars, 2 tractors, you know, 2 [00:18:00] trucks, 2 decent trucks. Uh, we did have 3 headers, 2 newer ones, 1 older 1, but so negotiating, um, you know, who got what, who got the shit box And who got the good bit and how's that gonna happen?

And I don't know. Uh, like I'm a pretty pragmatic person. Like I'm just kind of a throw the, like throw throw the things in a hat and pull it out. And what you get is what you get and what you don't get you go and buy and you move on. Um, when you have people who have worked on a farm their whole life, they they have attachments to strange things.

Um, and sometimes it was the littlest of things that caused the largest of arguments of, them. You know, who was gonna get this this certain bit of gear because everyone wanted it, um, which for me is someone who was completely Relatively emotionally unattached to everything I struggled with. Like, I was just like, boys, like, seriously, I don't know, go punch it out or whatever and come back. Like Whoever gets it gets it. So we'll just move on.

Um, so yeah, so that was [00:19:00] always interesting. And then Some quirky little things to sort out, like particularly around livestock. Um, my partner's not that interested in livestock generally. I don't do cows. We had cows.

We didn't want cows. How do we, you know, shimmy it that we don't end up with cows, but we don't end up missing it. You know, it's not fair at the other end. So just some stuff like that to kind of not out. 

Sam Fryer: Them.

And flipping it around, what were some of the joys? What were the process that you that that you had? Like, was something at the end of the day where you feel good moments throughout it? 

Emma Ayliffe: They're a hundred percent. Like, seeing like, seeing everyone rise above and just make fair and logical decisions on Staff that could have been made really difficult was brilliant, particularly around land.

Um, Yeah. And Now kind of what are we with? 7 months post split. Yep. Um, seeing each [00:20:00] Of the brothers doing their thing, like chasing the things that they like doing, you know, the 1 that's chasing cattle, you can see he's going hard on that and, You know, one's buying and selling lambs because that's what he's mad on.

And, you know, just, just being able to really see, yeah, each of the individuals become individuals Rather than being shrouded by the family business, yeah, has been amazing. 

Sam Fryer: It's, um, thank you for sharing, Emma because it's it it is tough and and I've already had a couple of interviews I've done with the podcast because I try and stack them all up. And It's been interesting to hear the different sides and stories of succession, and they're not all pretty. And so it's really nice to hear a good story where it's panned out well. And it's a succession process, not a will.

Like, that's a big 1. It's like so much of it is it's just a will. Like, it's just at the end of the day when the parents die. This is how it's gonna go. It's not a successful session process where the kids are enabled to grow and and go off on their own like that.

So it's thank you very [00:21:00] much for sharing that. And 

Emma Ayliffe: that'd be my biggest reflection. Like, obviously, um, Craig and I have a Have 1 child, whether there'll be more in the future, who knows, but that's kind of our biggest lesson and take home is that every time we make decisions now, particularly around big things like purchasing land and stuff like that, you know, how do we structure our business? Yes. How do we buy land?

How does that look? Because that's been, our biggest holdup has been around, um, you know, who holds titles and whose name is stuff in, and It hasn't really been set up well to make that unraveling simple. Um, so that has been our big take Why is that as we're doing stock, brother? How do we structure this? So if we do have 2 or 3 kids and in 20 years, it's time to divvy it 3 ways that we're structuring it right now to make that process in 20 years simple and easy.

That that's some 

Sam Fryer: , Emma, thank you very much for sharing your succession style of you and your partner. But them. The 1 1 of the other reasons why I wanted to chat to [00:22:00] you is that you've got a long, long history and a great knowledge of building businesses and creating businesses. Now I've kinda lost count.

I think it was 4 or 5 business that you started in your time. Um, can you give us a bit of an overview of a brief overview of each 1 Forest. Yeah. 

Emma Ayliffe: For sure. So, um, it all started with some of that.

Um, so When I moved east, I've worked for a few different, um, businesses. I worked as an on farm agronomist for a while, and then I ended up, um, at Elders pink shirts and, um, worked with a another agronomist, Heath McWhirter. Um, and Heath and I Gelled really well. Um, we came up with some cool, um, little things with elders there. And after 14 months, We realized that, um, we were missing a few opportunities by aligning to a reseller brand.

So A big part of what we were doing was around research and development. [00:23:00] And, um, if you do research in a pink shirt, Then they're usually pretty reluctant to give that to an agronomist that wears a green shirt, um, and all of that sort of capers. So we decided to start our own agricultural consultancy business to try and give us a bit more opportunity. So that was back in 20 18. We, um, do dry land and irrigated consulting for family operations right through to corporates about 30 percent of our business is agricultural research.

So doing label registrations and industry trials, stuff like that, them. Um, and seed production and yeah. You name it. We've probably had a crack at it. Um, so we cover the Central West and River Regina region, and we've now got 6 agronomists that work for us.

Um, so yeah, so that's been a fun little business. That's kind of grown exponentially in the last 6 years. Uh, then obviously the farming enterprise with my partner [00:24:00] Craig, which has expanded now with succession. I love, um, so CGL farming. Uh, then we have a agricultural plastics business called BetterFlex.

So, um, a couple of years ago we partnered with a company out of Brazil, uh, called Azul and they specialize in ag plastics. So think silent covers, think cotton module wrap, that sort of thing. Um, so we're dabbling with importing, uh, their They're plastics out of Brazil into Australia, so we did cotton module wrap last year, which was a really interesting experience. Didn't a hundred and 10 percent go as planned, but That's fine. We're saddling up and having another crack this year, um, and bringing in some silage covers and stuff like that too, which will be really fun.

And then the fourth business that we have is, uh, Yaka. Uh, so Yaka is a communication platform or app, which we are looking to make a safe space for agriculture. So once again, it's a Heath and Emma project. [00:25:00] We as agronomists spend a lot of time connecting the dots, farmer to farmer, farmer to researcher, farmer to advisor. Um, we thought, well, there's heaps of people outside of our networks that we don't even know, um, that could be answering these questions and helping people.

Them. Um, there's, yeah, opportunities there for people to meet across industry types and states, How do we create a place where these people can connect, ask questions, explore silly ideas? And we all know that um, best content and conversation comes out of a phone call, not 120 characters on say Twitter. Um, so how can we create a space where people can connect, um, build some rapport and then feel comfortable enough to make a phone call and discuss and explore ideas? 

Sam Fryer: Them.

It's it's incredible. It's incredible what you've what you've done. Um, and and out of that, what have what have been some of your key learnings when it comes to from starting [00:26:00] a business that you could give. Yeah. 

Emma Ayliffe: So you at some point, you've got to stop thinking about it and just do it.

None of the businesses that we've done have been by any stretch shoot from the hip. They're educated risks, but You can talk yourself in and out of doing stuff a million times over. So at some point, yeah. At some point you you do the spreadsheets and you do the pros and cons and you do the pros and cons and you go around in circles. You just gotta stop that and go, yep.

I'm going to give it a crack or I'm not. Them. Um, and the other big thing has been whatever you start out with an idea in your business, don't fall in love with it because 90 percent of the time, it's not how it ends up at all, and you've gotta be flexible and roll with the punches around what comes at you and where your niche is in the market and what the It is. And if you fall too in love with an idea or a concept, you'll go hard on that and you'll miss opportunity. Um, yeah.

So it's just about come up with an idea like it, hit, go [00:27:00] on it. And then you've kind of just got to let go and ride the wave. 

Sam Fryer: Um, 1 of the businesses I've found really interesting was Yacker. I think it's a great way to knowledge base to share that. And can you give us a bit more of an overview of how to get involved?

And you've already given us a bit of view of Yacker itself, the app, but how can people get involved if they do want to start joining? 

Emma Ayliffe: Yeah. So jump onto the app store and just look up Yacker, y a c k e r. Um, you can create a free them. I can't with us and put some basic information in.

It's gonna ask you for your postcode. Um, it's gonna ask you what you're interested to know about. Uh, the reason for that is there's some pretty cool functionality in the back. So for example, if I was driving from Lake Kajelego to Brisbane and I ended up in Morey And I wanted to know about cotton. I could type in Morris postcode and cotton, and it would show me everyone that registered with that postcode that grows cotton, likes them.

Cotton. Um, maybe I can ring [00:28:00] 1 of them up and go for a farm visit and find out what they're up to. Same thing if you're into cattle And you go into the Northern Territory where you can put in their cows, Northern Territory, and anyone on the platform that's registered from the Northern Territory with an interesting interesting cattle will pop up for you and allow you to connect. Um, Yeah. Once you're on the platform, it's pretty simple to use.

You can check-in what you wanna talk about. Um, you can link what sort of people you wanna get notified about it. So for me, anytime anyone puts anything about cotton on there, I'll get a notification because I love cotton. And if I don't know how to answer a question, I probably know someone who will be able to answer a question. And then you've got 2 choices.

If you're not comfortable in making a phone call, you can just pop a little comment underneath. Um, and if you're feeling bold and brave, Uh, and you love a good chat like me, you can just touch the little phone icon and it'll put a phone call through and you can have a good chat to that person. 

Sam Fryer: So you've really built a [00:29:00] community around that and that sharing of the knowledge. And what have you figured? Had many people come up to you after and be like, thank you for helping connect the dots.

It's helped me in this or that in my farm. Yeah. 

Emma Ayliffe: So probably 1 of the coolest case studies that we had, um, is a guy on the east coast wanting to grow, uh, a permanent pasture crop for his merino enterprise. Um, he had in his head that he wanted to do premier digit grass. No 1 in that district had ever grown premier digit grass.

He was struggling to find the expertise. He checked it up, them. On Yaka, he had 1 farmer and 2 agronomists from, uh, Western New South Wales ring him, them. Go through the process. 1 of those agronomists is still helping him now growing that as a pasture, and he's basically the pinup boy for premier digit grass on the east coast now.

So He's had incredible success. Um, yeah. For his enterprise, for his knowledge base, for The supplies of the seed, like, it's a win win [00:30:00] win for everyone involved in the chain. 

Sam Fryer: Yep. That's cool.

What does the future look like for you ever? Like with all these businesses and the farm and now baby, do you plan on slowing down anytime soon or still got a bit 

Emma Ayliffe: on? Uh, no. I've got a couple little side projects in the wing, um, which maternity leave has been good to try and Get some runs on the board and get an understanding around how those businesses can fit into all of the other chaos that we have going on. Um, so no look, no signs of slowing down whatsoever.

Absolutely Have the best team in summit, which is allowing that as a business to kind of poke along and do it sing and and really enjoying nurturing, you you know, that next generation, not that I'm that old in the scheme of things, but having that next generation coming under us and, um, helping to, to see them thrive is really cool. And, um, [00:31:00] yeah, we'll just keep playing around with some of these little side businesses and, and see if they take off and where they end up and them. Yeah. Launch a few more maybe in the next couple of years. 

Sam Fryer: What what is it that's drawn you to agriculture?

Like, You can see the passion, whatever you when you've spoken the whole time about farming about cotton, your eyes light up. What is it that's that's drawing you to it? 

Emma Ayliffe: Them. Oh, look. Farmers are just the most resilient people you will ever meet.

Um, floods, droughts, production issues, supply issues. You know, we always seem to make it happen. We always seem to pull it off. It is you know, we have to be getting better at doing more with less, and we're doing that constantly. And, I mean, the cotton industry is phenomenal.

We've seen a 40 percent reduction in water use in the last, what is it, 15 years. You know, the ability of us to to really be able to manage and monitor crops and, and really get bang for our buck and bang for [00:32:00] our water. And it really is a leading crop. And so the big thing for us now is, well, how can we now replicate that through everything else that we do on irrigation. And how does that translate into a dry land scenario?

Um, how do we help dry land farmers adjust to things like climate change. How do we react and navigate things like carbon crediting, greenhouse gas emissions? Um, there's gonna be a point in time where them. What we do and how we deal with things like banks is gonna be dictated by some stretch through, them. You know, our environmental credibility.

So how do we how do we benchmark and manage that without having major setbacks, them. Uh, to our businesses and what we do, and and probably the most important thing is how do we keep operating it with our social license and ensuring that them. The next generation appreciate what we do and understand what we do and why we do it. So I think a scary stat that I read a while ago now. And I don't know whether it's a hundred percent, [00:33:00] right?

But something like 50 years ago, pretty much every kid in the city had an aunt, uncle, cousin who lived on a farm. They understood agriculture and, and now something like 70 percent of the kids in cities have got absolutely 0 them. Connection to what happens out rural and regionally, and 80 percent of Australia's population lives east of the great dividing range. We can't get them over the range and understanding what we do out here and why it's important. Population tells us That politics is gonna dictate be dictated to by the east of the divide, and and now is our time to stand up and be counted and them.

Trying to do a really good job of showcasing just how bloody awesome we are out here. Yeah. 

Sam Fryer: Sounds like you're doing a run for politics, Emma, or angry politics the way you speak. Them. Um, look.

I've got a couple of questions I always ask at the end of the pod. And 1 of them that kick us off is, have you done any courses that have really helped you along your journey. Um, I'll I'll take you at uni and stuff like that because you [00:34:00] already talked about that. But have you done anything else? Business courses or personal development courses that have really helped you?

Yeah. Look. 

Emma Ayliffe: I've been pretty proactive in in chasing professional development. Um, I think soft skills is something a lot of people lack In agriculture, so the ability to be able to communicate, to have tough conversations, negotiate, time management, I really think I think agriculture lacks in having availability of a lot of those courses, and I think them. Farmers in particular are pretty lax at seeking out opportunities to do it.

Um, so Future Cotton Leaders, um, is a program run by the cotton industry, which is them. Focusing a lot on kind of those soft skills and leadership skills, and I found that to be phenomenal. Um, and I'm currently, uh, in what are we? The second round, I think, or the third round of the, um, them. Australian Rural Leadership Foundation's drought resilience program.

So the [00:35:00] mentoring mentee, I'm 1 of the mentees as part of that, and, Um, the the skills and tools that we've been given in that has been phenomenal, and and I've been lucky enough to be paired with an incredible human as a mentor. Um, so be hopefully, I can convince her when our next 6 months is up and the formal course is over to They're still beyond speed data bounce ideas now because it's been invaluable. 

Sam Fryer: So touching on mentors, you've obviously had a few that have played a big part in your journey. How much have they played? And did you want to share that to any?

Emma Ayliffe: Uh, so many people like There's official mentors that you've got your, your, um, you know, monthly catch ups and your agendas. And then there's those unofficial mentors that Just float around and probably don't even realize, um, yeah, how helpful they've been. A big mentor of mine was my first boss when I started in [00:36:00] the cotton industry, a guy by the name of Rob Lowe when we're out at Tandau Menindee. Um, he was the farm manager and and, um, seeing now agronomist on that farm. And to be able to watch how he managed a team of like 60 staff to, um, learn from him and his style of teaching.

So he wasn't a he He wasn't the person that if you walked in and said, I have this problem, he'd go, oh, here's your solution. You'd walk in and go, oh, I have this problem and he'd go, yep. That does sound like a problem Off you go. And kinda leave you to to, you know, battle it out and need to float around the wings and push you in the right direction them. When you needed it.

Um, but, yeah, just to to be able to watch him and see how he operates, um, was probably the big them. Starting point of my journey and yeah. Look. There's been so many people along the way that I could be here for an hour rattling. 

Sam Fryer: Them.

That's alright. [00:37:00] Um, look. What would be your 1 piece of advice that you give to someone on their journey towards land ownership or in life? 

Emma Ayliffe: Um, the more uncomfortable that the opportunity makes you feel probably the better the opportunity is. So That's what I found when I felt like I'm live teetering on the precipice of chaos and out of control or Scared shitless.

Um, it usually to me is a pretty good indicator that I'm pushing into something pretty exciting and, um, fun, whether that's starting some in ag, starting our Charles business and trying to get money out of big companies, You know, starting that from scratch, whether it was buying a farm with my partner of a whole 9 months, not knowing whether we were really gonna stay together long term or not, you know, whether it was flying to Brazil to meet a company that we knew next to nothing about and spend 10 days, You know, [00:38:00] learning about a product that we're going to go and spend a couple of hundred grand importing and hoping like, heck it works. Like every time I found myself in those situations where I've been like, this This is pretty this is stretching me. This is pretty uncomfortable. Yeah. And that's that's where I really found some 

Sam Fryer: nuggets ago.

That's good. Um, look, Emmett, thank you very much for being so generous and sharing your time, but also also a lot of your knowledge and wisdom. It was It's been a really good chat, so I appreciate it. So thank you very much for this. No.

That's alright. 

Emma Ayliffe: If anyone wants to talk about the good, the bad, the ugly of Any of the things, they can look me up on. 

Sam Fryer: Thank you very much. I'll make sure they will. Cheers.

Emma Ayliffe: Thank you.