Agri-Phoenix Feature: Callan Daley

Name: Callan Daley
Age: 21
Place: Longreach

It has only been 21 years to build a career currently focussed on carcass fat content. Those years have taken me from a beef station 100km NW of Longreach via a local 5-pupil primary school, further schooling in Longreach and Brisbane, to a role as Hardware and Operations manager for an AgriTech startup in South Australia.  

How did I get to be part of an exciting start-up using the latest scanning technology to assess fat content and distribution in lamb and beef carcasses?

My passion was created first and foremost by my parents through my upbringing. Mine is a hard-working family that loves the industry they're in. Their every day is about giving the land/livestock the care it deserves. Secondly, my passion has been fired by working with a few of the most exceptionally motivated and inspired people in agriculture and more recently by meeting mentors in the industry. 

My goal is to contribute tangibly to the industry I love. That’s what drives my focus on food quality. We must work every day to stay at the apex - maintaining our position as producers of the best of the best. Since COVID-19 Australia understands how critical it is that we can have stringent food safety and quality standards. No compromise. 

At MEQ Probe we use lasers to scan red meat like beef and lamb, in abattoirs. Machine learning predicts the intramuscular fat (IMF) of each carcass and this has a very close correlation to overall eating quality and consumer enjoyment. 

The switch from days on a rural property to working inside with technology and spending most of my time in processing facilities, hasn't undermined my connection with the land. Working in AgriTech exposes me to the 2nd stage of the food chain that is equally as important in the process of providing the world with food.

As to the environment, and looking after our future, no one is more invested than the next generation farmers themselves. My experience tells me that with direction and encouragement, enough access to technology and the right information, each farmer can grasp the chance to be an effective steward of the land. The future is in their hands.

Access to information and technology requires strategic investment and development of the right tech tools. AgriTech is at the heart of that. In the same way Australia trusts us on food safety and quality, we need to build the trust and certainty that our next generation of farmers is  determined to inherit and pass on a sustainable and viable landscape.