In this week’s episode, we catch up with Sonja Vreugdenhil - A Farm Systems Technician at Leaft Foods. 

Sonja grew up about an hour south of Dunedin and originally headed to university to study PE. After a couple of years, she decided this wasn't the exact direction she wanted to go in and changed her direction to study agriculture at Lincoln University. 

After university, Sonja joined the Foundation of Arable Research in their graduate programme where she was involved in numerous small seed and cereal trials. Last year she joined the Leaft Foods team and she hasn’t looked back. 

Leaft Foods have recognised that hidden in the leaves of lucerne is an abundant source of high quality natural protein. Extracting protein from lucerne leaves using their paddock to product process will be low impact and efficient, making it a great option for protecting our environment. 

It’s a real watch this space story, and I hope you are as captivated by it as I am. Sonja is an incredibly passionate individual in both her career and life outside of work. She is one of those people who gives everything their absolute all! 

I hope you enjoying to such an enthusiastic young women in our agricultural industry!

If you would like to chat to Sonja about anything we talk about on todays episode, you can find her on Instagram @sonja_renee_v or flick her an email at sonja.vreugdenhil@leaftfoods.com.

Enjoy!
Mel x

In this weeks episode, we catch up with Richard Konzag - The Owner of Konzag Grains alongside wife Trish.  

Konzag Grains is a 2500ha cropping operation based about an hour north of Adelaide, in the small country town of Mallala.

With an annual average rainfall of only 395mm, the Konzags' have had to look at ways to implement farming systems to help conserve soil moisture. By implementing a new row spacing of 7.5inches by using a John Deere single disk seeder, Richard was not only able to have total stubble retention which gives complete soil cover, but it also dramatically increased competition between crops and the weeds - thereby reducing the pressure placed on herbicides. But like everything, it hasn't always been smooth sailing.  

Richard is incredibly modest and humble about his achievements and like most farmers you meet, just wants to produce the best possible product with the smallest environmental footprint for the modern day consumer.  

Richards' story is one that will help motivate you to add value to your own products, no matter what walk of life you are from. 

If you would like to chat to Richard about anything we talk about on todays episode, you can find him on Facebook @konzaggrains or their information will be on our instagram @breadandbutterpodcast_ . 

Enjoy!
Mel x

In this weeks episode, we catch up with Angus Woods - The Owner of Left Field Foods.  Left Field products are grown and manufactured in the town of Goondiwindi, which is located 350 km south-west of Brisbane.  

Angus' family started farming at Billa Billa in the 1950s.  What started off as a grain and live stock farming operation has now evolved into a diversified vertically integrated agribusiness from ‘Farm to Bag’. The Woods family business is now into its 3rd generation with the 4th generation not far away.  The business is now comprised of  five properties spanning approximately 14,000 hectares.

Join us as we talk about the up's and down's of value added products and how Angus has built the brand to be the way it is today.

Angus' story is one that will help motivate you to add value to your own products, no matter what walk of life you are from. 

If you would like to chat to Angus about anything we talk about on todays episode, you can find him at hello@woodsfoods.com.au, on instagram @leftfieldaus or his information will be on our instagram @breadandbutterpodcast_ . 

Thank you for listening in today, your support doesn't go unnoticed.

Until next time, 
Mel x