FarmLink Annual Dinner - Temora
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Date:
28 Jul 2017 - 7:00pm
Anyone involved in agriculture throughout Southern NSW is invited to get some friends together and enjoy the annual FarmLink dinner.
The dinner will be held at Bectric Hall, located south west of Temora. The ticket price of $50 per person will include entertainment by Josh McKellar, while Michele Seymour will serve a three-course dinner. Drinks will be courtesy of AGT who have generously offered to sponsor the bar for the evening. Dress will be lounge suit.
Bus transport will be available, with pick-ups to be determined by demand.
For more information, and to purchase tickets: http://www.farmlink.com.au/news/guest-speaker-for-annual-dinner
Peter Mac Smith, one of the driving forces behind a fully integrated oilseed crushing, refining and packaging operation located at Manildra in the central west of New South Wales has agreed to be guest speaker at the dinner, where he will share his farming, business and life experiences.
Peter Mac Smith of MSM Milling left school in 1980 and returned to the family farm at Cudal which had been in the family since the 1850s. Peter started out at Hawkesbury Ag College in 1983, but never finished, and in 1984 joined his brother to purchase their uncle’s farm. Peter admits their timing was horrendous as the US and the EU started a trade war which saw wheat prices drop below $100 tonne, and interest rates soar to 17-18%.
Wanting to find a way to value add to his farm production, Peter and his brother looked into canola crushing.
“We managed to claw our way through that period and in 1992 we started Australian Country Canola which over the last 25 years has grown from 300 tonnes in year 1 to over 100,000 tonnes now, we export oil, meal and stockfeeds to over 10 countries and employ around 65 people on site at Manildra,” Peter explains.
“The business has three distinct units, crushing and refining, Manildra Packing which assembles 20 litre steel drums and packs oil in drums and BIB and Manildra Stockfeeds which produces a range of feeds for domestic and export customers.”
On a personal note, Peter is married to Sarah and they have three children, Georgie and Sophie at university and Hamish, who is in Year 11.
Peter’s story will fit perfectly with FarmLink’s continuing theme of country hospitality which proved such a success last year as guests gathered for a celebration of regional agriculture.
