Australia
April 25, 2007
Cotton Seed Distributors
article
 I
am talking to Steve Ainsworth, who is the new General Manager at
Cotton Seed Distributors.
I thought Steve that we might
be able to talk a little bit about your role here at CSD but
also get a little bit of a picture of where you came from so can
you tell us a little bit of how you first got into agriculture?
Rob, that probably goes back to my uncle actually. I am from
Western Australia, from WA and I have a family relation who
still farms in WA and that was where the first interest came
from. I sort of took that interest from when I was a teenager or
even before that and went to Ag College in Western Australia and
spent some time there, worked across a range of areas over that
time and that is where it started. I joined Monsanto in Western
Australia and spent a long time there, actually joined Monsanto
on the day that the patent for Roundup expired which has been a
fascinating part of being involved in the development of that
product for conservation tillage and sort of thing. I have had
quite a broad background but I am a reasonable newcomer to
cotton. My experience really goes back, or my interest in cotton
goes back to about 2001, I had the opportunity to travel to
Emerald actually for a meeting and saw the white fluffy stuff
growing out in a couple of fields and was just fascinated by it
and about a year later I had an opportunity to move up to
Narrabri. I really enjoyed working in an area which was bounded
the Gwydir and Mungindi, I really enjoyed my time at Bourke and
Walgett and learned a lot from the people in that area about the
crops, so that has been my background in cotton.
So what were your first impressions of the cotton industry? I
guess it was something different coming from Western Australia,
its good to see that you saw the light of day and moved East but
what were your first impressions of the cotton industry when you
did come into contact with it?
There was a couple really. One was that no one understands AFL
and I am happy to help people make that adjustment if they would
like to talk to me in some detail but probably the major
difference I guess was the way that the industry engages people.
They took someone like me who was a relatively clean skin,
didn’t know the first thing about the plant and the industry and
really helped me from the education prospective. The other thing
which really stood out to me and it stands out today, it was
reflected at our Board Meeting and AGM last week was that the
industry is probably the best example of an industry in
Australian agriculture that speaks with one voice. There is a
lot of challenges in cotton and in the industry today but the
industry are working through that together to put out a
consolidated view on what is best for growers and what is best
for the industry.
Well speaking on that subject, going into a things a little
bit more, the cotton industry is in some fairly interesting and
trying times at the moment, what sort of future do you see for
the cotton industry in the short, medium and long term?
You are dead right, it is a challenging time, I am not going to
paint a rose coloured picture, growers and a lot of other people
in the industry today are having a tough time and I see the
future for the industry really being driven in what is best for
the growers. If growers succeed in this industry then people
like CSD and other people who service the industry will
obviously do well. I think if you look back in time, aspects to
do with the yield of the crop and more importantly the quality
of the crop have really driven the sustainability of product. I
think the industry really needs to look at where that comes
from. When I first went to my first grower meeting in Moree I
can recall that meeting where growers were talking of these
mythical four bale crops and how far we have come in a couple of
years where today there have been examples of people growing
well into five and a few cases of people going over six bales
and I think that is a real tribute to the growers and those
people who manage those crops with the growers and that’s a
wonderful thing. I think the other thing is really growers have
done a wonderful job at managing costs on farm. I think there
are two sides of running a business its maximizing your
productivity and managing where you can your costs and I think
that that’s been achieved reasonably well. There are challenges
on that front with a range of inputs but that’s obviously a
focus for all businesses and growers would be the same. I think
the new future I think for cotton is to look and new and
innovative answers to things which challenge growers on a daily
basis and I think biotechnology is one of those tools but as are
a range of other tools to do with crop rotation and farming
smarter.
Finally, you have obviously spent quite a bit of your working
career with Monsanto after leaving college but why did you
decide to join CSD?
Well that is a good question Rob. I sort of, I had the privilege
when I was working with Monsanto to actually work reasonably
closely with a range of people at CSD and from the first moment
that I met people in CSD I really liked what I saw and the thing
that I like mostly about the company was what the company stands
for. The tradition and the charter of serving growers needs and
delivering to growers products that they really need was
something which really lent itself to me and I have been here
four or five weeks now, its been a fantastic four or five weeks,
it has been tremendously busy trying to learn everything which
is going on but one thing I have really come to admire is the
commitment from people who work in CSD to serve growers and they
serve growers every day for the benefit of growers and the
industry. I think CSD’s tradition in supplying a great
germplasm, great biotechnology traits from a range of providers
and also doing that with a platform of choice the charter of CSD
is to provide growers and industry the best range of products
and choices for the good of growers and the good of the
industry.
Thanks very much Steve.
Thanks.
Video version:
http://www.csd.net.au/default.asp?file=/showwow.asp?wow=2374 |
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