In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia heads to California (well… via Zoom) to talk tomatoes, trust and teamwork with William “Skeeter” Bethea from The Morning Star Company – the processor behind around 40% of California’s processing tomato crop.

Skeeter lifts the lid on how Morning Star runs a massive, highly technical tomato operation with no traditional bosses, and what that actually looks like day to day for the people growing, transplanting, harvesting and moving fruit through the factories.

Together, we dig into:

• 🌱 From seed to sauce – how Morning Star handles transplants, harvesting and trucking across Bakersfield, Sacramento and beyond

• 🧠 Planning backwards – why they start with factory demand and work back through the whole supply chain

• 🤝 Trust and collaboration – building relationships in a no-boss structure and why staying in your lane helps the whole team win

• 📊 Data, timing and adaptability – using growing degree hours, soil types and forecasts to hit tight processing windows

• 🍅 Yield vs flavour – stories from tomatoes, berries and onions, and what happens when “through the windscreen” meets “it has to taste good”

• 🧭 Integrity in ag – what Skeeter learned from a short detour into cannabis and why he came back to mainstream agriculture

• 🏈 Football and field teams – how American football tactics mirror high-performing teams in ag and sales

Welcome back team to another episode of Selling in the Paddock!

Today I’m joined by Ben Van Delden — founder of Delco AgriFood, co-founder of We Three AI, and a key partner in the Australian AgriFood System Alliance.

If you’re picturing a simple job title, think again. Ben’s world crosses oysters, circularity, AI, livestock, climate strategy and big-picture system change in Australian agriculture and beyond.

And yes, we recorded this rugged up on the first day of Melbourne summer. Of course we did.

• ​Ben’s childhood in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty
• ​Canoeing to school and working on his parents’ oyster farms
• ​Early lessons in labour, risk and why he chose to pair agriculture with a business degree

Ben breaks circularity down in practical language:

• ​Using resources for as long as possible within a system
• ​Moving from “waste” to “value” in horticulture, livestock and processing
• ​Real-world examples:

◦Hail-damaged crops and second/third pathways

◦Nutra V and broccoli powder

◦Dairy by-products turned into new value streams

◦Using organic waste for energy and methane reduction

We dig into how We Three AI is building a kind of “virtual vet”:

• ​Using cameras and computer vision to:

◦Count cattle more accurately

◦Flag human–animal interactions and potential safety issues

◦Detect health issues, lameness and shy feeders earlier

• ​Reducing wasted feed and unnecessary antibiotics
• ​Helping animals reach target weights faster, with better welfare and lower emissions

Ben shares insights from his time in places like Denmark:

• ​Why strong social systems can fuel innovation
• ​How Denmark’s people voted for a 70% emissions reduction target
• ​Alignment between government, research and industry
• ​Carlsberg’s water reduction goals and what that means for Australian barley growers

We explore the work of the Australian AgriFood System Alliance:

• ​Bringing commodity groups, processors, retailers, finance and others into one system view
• ​Designing structures and strategies that sit above individual sectors and states
• ​Why climate, circularity and food security can’t be solved in silos
• ​The big challenge: shifting behaviour in an industry built on fragmentation and competition

This is where it lands for leaders, sales teams, and anyone working in ag:

• ​Why behaviours are so deeply ingrained and hard to shift
• ​The role of vulnerability and mission in changing how we work
• ​The importance of picking issues big enough that no-one can solve them alone

Ben also shares a powerful piece of advice from Barry Irvin (Bega Cheese / Regional Circularity Cooperative):

Share your problems widely – even with competitors. Human nature makes it very hard for people not to help you solve them.

Gold.

• ​Coffee order: Almond flat white (long black at home)
• ​Music: Bruce Springsteen – Should I Fall Behind (his wedding song)
• ​Watching: American Primeval
• ​Reading/Gaming: More systems and strategy than Netflix, but that series has him hooked

In the show notes I’ll link to:

• ​Delco AgriFood
• ​We Three AI
• ​Australian AgriFood System Alliance
• ​Ben Van den Delden on LinkedIn

🔍 In This Episode We Cover🌊 1. Growing up on an island & canoeing to school♻️ 2. What the circular economy actually looks like in ag🤖 3. We Three AI – computer vision for cattle and welfare🇩🇰 4. Lessons from Denmark, the Nordics and global leaders🇦🇺 5. The Australian AgriFood System Alliance🧠 6. Behaviour change, trust and sharing the hard stuff☕ Rapid Fire – Get to Know Ben🔗 Connect with Ben

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia sits down with Steve Fuller, Director of Buzz and Growth at BeeStar – and a man who’s spent more than 40 years working with bees.

Georgia admits she’s completely obsessed with bees, and Steve does not disappoint. He takes us inside the hive, explaining how colonies really work, why bees are so critical to Australian agriculture, and how technology like remote hive monitoring is changing the way beekeepers and growers work together.

From almonds and blueberries to canola, clover and seed crops, Steve breaks down how managed pollination can dramatically lift yield and tighten the agricultural footprint – and why trust and communication between beekeeper and grower is non-negotiable.

Along the way, Georgia and Steve explore what human teams can learn from bee colonies: shared purpose, calm leadership, and treating others how you’d like to be treated… just maybe without ripping anyone’s head off.

• From sawmilling to beekeeping
  How Steve went from a sawmill job to beekeeping after his brother “found a great job” – and why he still isn’t sick of bees after four decades.

• How a hive really works
  The roles of workers, drones and the queen, how queens mate and lay up to seven million bees’ worth of eggs, and why everything in the hive is done for the good of the colony.

• Pollination and yield – why bees matter
  How managed bees support crops like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, macadamias, almonds, stone fruit, citrus, melons, pumpkins, canola seed, lucerne and clover – and why bringing in bees can boost yield by 10–48%.

• Monocropping, genetics and “missing” pollinators
  What happens when large monocrops push out natural pollinators, how modern varieties can unintentionally lose nectar or pollen, and why that changes what we see – and don’t see – in the paddock.

• Bees vs other pollinators
  Where bees fit alongside flies, moths, bats, birds and wind, and why managed hives are such a powerful, controllable tool for growers.

• B Star and remote hive monitoring
  How B Star uses in-hive sensors to track temperature and humidity, feeding data to an app that shows hive health using a simple traffic-light system – and how this helps both beekeepers and growers know if hives are truly working.

• Working with growers (and preventing bee carnage)
  Why spray timing and honest conversations matter, what happens when bees can work under a full moon, and how mis-timed spraying can undo months of work.

• Leadership and culture lessons from the hive
  What Steve’s learned about calm energy, respect and reciprocity: treat bees (and people) how you’d like to be treated, don’t barge into their “house” and take everything, and know when to walk away on a bad day.

• Rapid fire with Steve
  How he winds down (hint: 2,500+ bee books…), why he still finds bees endlessly fascinating, and the mindset he takes into every hive.

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia sits down with Andrew Kelly, Executive Director of BioPacific Partners, to unpack a career that’s anything but linear – from veterinary science and epidemiology through to leading research institutes, venture capital, and now guiding global corporates through the innovation landscape in food, ag and health.

Andrew shares how growing up in rural Victoria and choosing vet science with “farm animals in mind” led him into regional disease control, research leadership and eventually across the ditch to New Zealand, where he saw first-hand how a more commercial, customer-focused approach to publicly funded R&D could get good ideas out of the lab and into the paddock faster.

Together, Georgia and Andrew explore what really builds trust between innovators, researchers, corporates and farmers – and why prep (in capital letters, three times over), empathy and genuine curiosity still beat any slick sales script.

• From rural Victoria to global life sciences
  How a kid from a small country town became a vet, then an epidemiologist, then a leader of major research institutes and finally a venture capitalist and adviser to global giants.

• Why Andrew chose New Zealand over Australia (at the time)
  What he saw in NZ’s “corporatised” R&D system that Australia hadn’t yet nailed – and how thinking globally is baked into New Zealand ag because the domestic market is simply too small.

• When research actually meets the customer
  The difference between chasing revenue vs chasing profit and impact, and why “we’re doing good for people” isn’t enough if real customers aren’t lining up to buy.

• Inside BioPacific Partners
  Why Andrew describes his work as a consultancy in life sciences – spanning food, ag and health – and how his team helps both global corporates and local innovators navigate the Australia–NZ region.

• Trust, relationships and the limits of Zoom
  Why remote communication can’t fully replace being in the room, and how cups of tea, idle time and noticing the “whole person” help build genuine trust across cultures and continents.

• Lessons from Māori culture on connection
  How starting with “who am I and where have I come from” changes the tone of a meeting, and what Western business can learn from relationship-first approaches to doing deals.

• Prep, empathy and selling complex ideas
  Why Andrew puts huge emphasis on preparation – researching people, their history and their deals – to fast-track rapport, and how empathy and compassion sit at the heart of selling complicated, unfamiliar ideas.

• Working with senior decision makers
  Understanding the pressure they’re under, why you only get one short window to show you can genuinely help, and the power of knowing the three people they’ll ask about you before they say yes.

• Follow-up, nurturing and long-term business
  How five-year-old clients end up coming back because of small, thoughtful touches – sharing relevant articles, checking in, and treating relationships as compounding trust, not one-off transactions.

• Quick-fire: coffee, music and Netflix
  Andrew’s coffee order, his current dive back into ’90s “angry white man” rock courtesy of his kids, and why he’s hooked on The Diplomat.

In this episode, we cover:

Welcome back team to another episode of Selling in the Paddock.

Today I’m joined by Michael Young, an agro-economist with Farm Optimization Group, beaming in all the way from Western Australia. Michael grew up on a mixed farm in the south-west, took a detour towards engineering, and eventually found his way back to agriculture through a simple but powerful question:

“Why are farmers doing what they’re doing – and could they do it better?”

In this conversation, we dig into the world of farm systems modelling, profit, risk and decision-making in real farm businesses.

We unpack:

• 🌾 Michael’s journey from farm kid to agro-economist and why he turned away from engineering

• 🧠 Why farmers make such different decisions with the same conditions (e.g. one goes all-in on wheat, the neighbour won’t touch it)

• 🖥️ What the Australian Farm Optimiser (AFO) model actually does – and how it helps test ideas on a computer before risking five years and big dollars in the paddock

• 🌦️ Farming under uncertainty – using modelling to adjust stocking rates, rotations and tactics when the season starts good… or turns bad

• 💰 Profit, risk and greenhouse gases – what happens when we start overlaying emissions on top of farm profitability

• 🧮 The real complexity behind “simple” questions like “What stocking rate should I run?”

• 🤝 Working with grower groups, government and researchers to crunch numbers and turn trial results into practical, on-farm decisions

• 🛠️ How Michael and his partner used the model on their own 100ha block to decide how much to crop, how much to keep in pasture, and how many sheep to run

• 🤖 Where AI fits now (coding support, machine learning on trial data) and where Michael thinks it might go in future for farm decisions

We also get to know Michael a bit more in the rapid fire:
☕ Hot chocolate over coffee
🎧 Red Hot Chili Peppers on repeat after reading Scar Tissue
🚜 Evenings spent farming rather than binging Netflix

If you’ve ever wondered how to put better numbers behind your gut feel, or how economists actually turn trial results into real-world decisions on mixed farms, this episode will give you a clear, practical window into that world.

Welcome back team to another episode of Selling in the Paddock.
Today I’m joined by the brilliant and refreshingly down-to-earth Dr Aurelie Quade, founder of Soil Resilience — a scientist who has built her career on helping farmers understand soil health without the complicated jargon.

Originally from France and now 19 years deep into Australian agriculture, Orélie blends plant pathology, soil science and human behaviour to help farmers make practical, profitable changes on-farm. And yes… we even talk about changing nappies — and how that unexpectedly became the perfect analogy for explaining the difference between sounding clever and actually getting the job done.

In this episode, we unpack:
🌱 Why soil health is more than a product list — and why most farms still don’t have a real plan
🌱 The shift from “fighting nature” to “working with it” in modern agriculture
🌱 The chaos of this new era in ag… and why it’s a good sign
🌱 Translating complex science into everyday farm language (without dumbing anything down)
🌱 Why resilience matters more than perfection — for soil and for people
🌱 Authenticity, strengths, and building a career that fits your natural wiring
🌱 Orélie’s journey from plant pathology to whole-farm diagnostics
🌱 Her rapid-fire favourites: coffee, music, knitting, and raising three kids

This conversation covers science, psychology, language, leadership, parenting, and the future of farming — all through the lens of someone who truly understands how to connect knowledge with real-world change.

A powerful, practical, heart-warming chat.
You’re going to love this one.

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia sits down with Bonnie Jupp from Regen WA — a passionate advocate for regenerative agriculture and natural capital. Based in Perth but deeply connected to her farming roots in Northampton, WA, Bonnie shares her story of how a love of nature, a family legacy of mixed farming, and a drive to make a difference led her to a career at the intersection of environment and agriculture.

Together, Georgia and Bonnie unpack:
🌱 The evolving meaning of regenerative agriculture — and how it’s about improving, not polarising.
🤝 Why listening and having “two ears and one mouth” might be the most underrated leadership skill in ag.
🫖 The power of a simple cup of tea in building trust, collaboration, and community in the paddock.
💰 The real-world funding and perception challenges in regen ag — and how WA farmers are leading change.
📊 How measuring natural capital is helping verify the impact of sustainable practices.
💬 Advice for emerging leaders on finding their voice, asking the “dumb” questions, and building genuine relationships.

From storytelling and soil health to collaboration and curiosity, this conversation highlights what happens when passion meets purpose in Australian agriculture.

🎧 Tune in to hear how Bonnie and the team at Regen WA are helping the industry move beyond buzzwords — one conversation (and one cuppa) at a time.

#SellingInThePaddock #RegenerativeAg #LeadershipInAg #WomenInAg #RegenWA #AgricultureAustralia

In this episode of Selling in the Paddock, Georgia chats with Jeff Kleypas, agronomist and Regional Sales Manager with Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA), joining us all the way from South Texas — just 30 miles from the Mexican border.

Jeff shares how his journey from conventional agronomy to regenerative agriculture completely re-shaped the way he views farming, soil health, and human nutrition. From his early days driving tractors in the Texas Panhandle to now supporting growers across the United States and Europe, Jeff talks about what it really takes to lead change in an industry steeped in tradition.

💬 In this conversation:

• What regenerative agronomy really means (and how it differs from organic farming)

• How to help conventional growers adopt new practices without force or fear

• The role of trust, education, and storytelling in creating mindset shifts

• How nutrient-dense farming connects to human health and profitability

• Why patience, thick skin, and timing matter in sales and communication

Jeff also shares his personal passion for small-scale farming, his love of college football, and why he’s finally come around to drinking black coffee.

This one’s a grounded, real-world conversation about change, curiosity, and the future of agriculture — from the paddock to the prairie.