Advancing Beef Leaders - ABL Foundation

02/09/2026

🎻Our alum have many strings to their bows.

📷Here's a shot from the Atherton Show (featuring an impressive family stud win) and a skilled judge right in the middle: Our own 2024/25 Advancing Beef Leaders Program grad, Steph Laycock.

Within every cohort that experiences the ABL program, we see a living representation of just how many roles and areas of expertise there are in the beef industry. We love seeing where our alum are combining their talents with passion and purpose.

A unique line of genetics is improving meat quality on grass.

26/08/2026

The current Advancing Beef Leaders Program cohort have kicked off their mentoring partnerships 🤝 this week with their first facilitated session with our Mentoring Coordinator, Sally Murfet, since being matched.

Sally always starts with a quick energy check-in. For this session, the question was:

🤔“If your energy level right now was a farm/station vehicle, what would you be?”

There’s more to the question than a bit of fun. The aim is to encourage people to be real about how they’re showing up. Work, family and life don’t disappear when we log onto Zoom, and acknowledging that helps build connection, trust and stronger relationships.

One participant said they arrived “needing a jump-start” but left feeling re-energised by the conversation and engagement.

Sometimes, a simple check-in can do more than we realise.

🪫Wishing you a day where the battery is on a good charge.

Inspire AG

24/08/2026

⏰ Last call for noms - a great opportunity to lead and give back.

Last chance - nominations for the 2026 AgForce elections close tomorrow ⏰

If you’ve been considering nominating, now is the time to act.

All nominations must be submitted before 5pm Tuesday 25 August.

👉 Submit your nomination now: https://okt.to/9veold

Don’t miss your chance to represent your region and industry.

21/08/2026

👋 Hello from Townsville!
ABL Foundation EO, Alison Larard, and Chair, Don Heatley, are at the Next Gen Ag Forum today, hosted by ABL alum Sam Fryer, and they've already been bumping into plenty of familiar ABL faces. 🐂

From the panels to the foyer, it's great to see our alumni and current cohort members out there connecting, sharing ideas and getting stuck into the conversation about the future of agriculture.

📍 If you're at Next Gen Ag today, keep an eye out for Al or Don and say g'day! 👋



A Place To Call Home AgForce Queensland

20/08/2026

Fresh off the press! ✉️ The very first edition of the ABL Foundation monthly news round-up recently landed in subscriber inboxes.

From celebrating our latest Advancing Beef Leaders Program milestones and the recipients of our inaugural industry scholarships, to participants featuring in a bumper crop of regional news, the first half of 2026 was a big one.

👇 Want to stay in the loop with regular updates, program and community news, and upcoming opportunities?

🔗 Sign-up at https://ems.gs/3SoO0fFhxKc and ensure you're on the list for September.

18/08/2026

Well-deserved recognition for Advancing Beef Leaders Program alum, Cailan Byrnes, who is leading at the intersection of innovation and ag. His journey from the ABL experience to a Nuffield scholarship is not an uncommon one. We love to see where our leaders go and how they choose to make an impact. 👏

Cailan Byrnes Byrnes Quality Meats

Rocky Creek Abattoir boss Cailan Byrnes has travelled the world on a prestigious Nuffield Scholarship to bring cutting-edge carcase camera tech home to local producers. ➡️ https://bit.ly/4x18PNb

12/08/2026

🐂🐂Mentoring matches are being made! Our current cohort of the Advancing Beef Leaders Program had their mentoring foundations session this week.

This session with Sally Murfet (herself a long-time ABL Program mentor) prepares our participants to set a purpose, goals, and plan how they would like to work together with their mentors.

They will be sharing their challenges, wins and burning questions with their mentors as the program continues.

We’re so grateful to have a wonderful crop of generous mentors this year. We know both mentors and mentees will find this process such a mutually fulfilling one.

🤔Tell us – if you’ve been a mentor or a mentee, what was the best, or most surprising part of the experience?

09/08/2026

📨Postcard from the 2026 Ekka
Ella Watkins and Marshall Partridge from our current Advancing Beef Leaders Program cohort have kindly been our correspondents for the opening weekend of the Royal Queensland Show.

There have been some exciting results for beef exhibitors, but Ella and Marshall say the big picture is all about connection, as city and country collide.

👩‍🌾Ella Watkins:
“This is my fourth Ekka, however the first at which I’ve had the privilege to show cattle (Speckle Parks).

The variety and calibre of exhibitors always astounds me at Royal shows. The commitment and capability of our young competitors, the hard work and meticulous breeding of our stud operations, and the teamwork. We may be competing against one another but we’re all here to promote the same industry.

I love that we bring our rural routines to inner city Brisbane: The sound of blowers, the smell of manure, and the feeling of sawdust all through the multistorey carpark. The public are blown away with how much work goes into our animals, and how much love we have for our industry, and I enjoy sharing that story with them.”

🥉Ella’s team had 8 animals in total, and she took one animal in, (senior cow 24-30 months,) who placed third in her class.

👨‍🌾Marshall Partridge:
“Over the weekend I attended the opening night gala hosted by the RNA Future Directions Committee, and the Ekka itself on Sunday. I hope to be a bit more involved moving forward.

For me personally, the best thing about this event is both the networking and the city/country connection. Through events like Ekka, it exposes a greater number of people to the more genuine side of ag and opens a whole other side of industry and experience to people who otherwise might never take even the slightest interest.”

Our huge thanks to Ella and Marshall for taking us along! 🐮🫶

📷 courtesy of Ella Watkins

Ekka

08/08/2026

👏👏👏 What an achievement, Tom Nixon! Congratulations Devon Court Herefords 🎉