AgTalk Episode 27 - The Modern Merino and Sustainability; a farmers view with Andrew Bouffler

My guest this week is someone who I probably first bumped into at the back bar of the Tatts Hotel in Armidale over 30 years ago. At that stage we where both on a road to completing a Bachelor of Ag Economics from the University of New England Andrew Bouffler hails from Lockhart in Southern NSW, 70kms West of the town Wagga Wagga in the State of NSW. Andrew is the Managing Director of Valera Pastoral Company, a mixed sheep/wheat family-controlled business that has maintained a traditional balance between cropping and livestock enterprises. However, Andrew is probably better known to many as the principal of the company’s seed stock business, Trigger Vale Poll Merino and White Suffolk stud. Andrew states that the basic principle of his seed business is to maximise genetic gain and client profitability by performance testing using MLA’s LAMBPLAN and MERINOSELECT genetic evaluation technologies. The business is a leader in the early adoption of new tools to aid genetic gain the most recent one being genomics. Andrew holds a firm belief that you can never stop learning and has always sort out opportunities to learn from his peers and challenge his own knowledge and beliefs. This has lead him to completing: An Australian Nuffield Scholarship in 2007, becoming a Graduate of the Duchy College ‘Challenges of Rural Leadership” Course’ held in the United Kingdom in 2009 A graduate of Institute of Company Directors Course and in 2019 participating in Rabobank’s Global Farmers Masterclass in Brazil After nearly 40 years in the game, Andrew believes that the basic principle of farming is “managing risk.”