A REID Review: 2022 the year of change

What one word best describes 2022? “Turbulent” would be one, “change” another, but if I kept thoughts centred around livestock agriculture, “optimism” also comes to mind. The dreaded C-word (it’s an acronym by the way) in a lot of ways refocussed us to appreciate the little things in our microenvironment; a sunny day, potting a plant, taking a stroll, real crowds at sporting events and a basic but necessary staple; food. While many industries and businesses crumbled under the weight of zero economic activity, food demand by-and-large remained unperturbed by the onset of a global pandemic.

Of course, challenges ensued. Shipping vessels and by association, containers became clogged in the East China Sea creating economic difficulties throughout the world with longer delivery lead times and very often price increases. Stockfeed was not immune to this with some of our macro ingredients and many of our micro ingredients sourced from overseas, particularly China. Those ramifications continue to the current moment with the added pressure of local commodities (think major grain and protein crops) being more difficult to coordinate due to floods. In addition, global lock-down stressed the importance of a transient working population. The tightness of our labour market has adversely affected the entire economy and having already had a shortage of truck drivers in the pre-C times this was only exacerbated further.

In terms of challenges this is the tip of the iceberg as we’ve most recently seen with the impact of floods in many rural communities especially those around Swan Hill, Echuca, Rochester and Shepparton. Despite the challenges of unpredictable weather, supply-chain constraints, and pricing pressures the Reid family remain buoyant and optimistic about our customer segments. One thing remains the same; in a world where the population continues to grow and is predicted to do so up until 2100*, food, especially good quality food with traceability and a supporting story will always be in high demand, regardless of what might transpire in alternative markets. I’m reminded of this each time I drink a cold, glass of full cream Gippsland Jersey Milk. I imagine a Wallace bred calf lapping up a trough of Reid’s Calf Rearer and think, ‘the future looks good’. True story 🙂

For Reid’s this past year has been focussed on improving our organisational structure to give better outcomes for customers while ensuring adherence to legislative requirements such as biosecurity and chain of responsibility.

Employing a group operations manager, transport manager, qualified driver trainer and quality manager have been central to the latter, while the recruitment of experienced stockfeed site managers with a strong ability for team development has improved our operational base.

We continue a multi-year journey of digitising the business across all our departmental functions. Central to this a CRM/ERP which we hope will deliver customer benefit in the next 6-months with a customer portal able to disclose important, value-add information to our customers, including the often-requested data on commodity usages and contract drawdowns.

Improved communications starting with our team, continuing into our customer base and the broader community with education around the important role stockfeeder near me plays in our food supply chain, remain central themes for continual development based on survey feedback and ownership ethos.

We proudly joined allegiance with Elite Dairy to improve upon the circumstances of bobby calves and give farmers an opportunity to diversify income. This program will continue to grow strength in 2023 as further grow-out facilities come online.

For the year ahead our focus is on better understanding our customer needs though formal and informal feedback; what are we getting right, where could we be better and what opportunities should be considered? Safety of our people will remain at the forefront of what we do, especially with consideration to manufacturing facilities and truck logistics. The adaptation of digital software to capture this information and plans for improvement are essential to the success in this area.

Throughout the Reid Group our biggest capital expenditure year is underway with investment regarding better diversity of storage, further automation of ingredient inputs and installation of biosecurity gantries where still required.

Headwinds remain in agriculture and always will be present regardless of industry. How we choose to respond and mitigate these risks determines our collective success. To our customers, thanks for putting food on the table and may this Christmas be a special one with loved one’s. See you in the outdoors.

To increase your livestock farming gains & expert nutritional feeding advice please call 1300 REID FEED or enquire here >

Author

Nick Reid
General Manager