AgTalk Episode 21 - Collaborative Farming with John Gladigau

Marcus Oldham AgTalk

It was, I think, 2007 when on a typically cold Ballarat day I had the pleasure of sitting down with John Gladigau for a coffee and chat about corporate investing in agriculture. John was in the process of completing his Nuffield scholarship looking into the concept of collaborative farming. It wasn’t long till John and his good mate, Robin Schaefer from the South Australian Northern Mallee put the theory into practice, forming a single farming business called Bull a Burra. The farming operation today comprises 11,000 hectares. The two families lease their properties to the farming company as well as lease another 6,000 hectares owned by others. In today's podcast, I am hoping to understand the decision making process that took John from managing the family farm on 2,000 ha to now running, what is a considered by many as benchmark farming operation that could provide many of the answers to current farming families thinking about where to from here when comes to running a successful farming business in the future