Nikki Davey is well known in the rural women's community as an entrepreneur, flower farmer, speaker and absolute go-getter. She founded Grown Not Flown, an app connecting customers with local flower growers. This startup business had a great cause in directly challenging the lack of sustainability in the flower industry, where many flowers are flown to Australia from countries in South America, Africa and Asia. Which is a crazy amount of unnecessary flower miles... given the amazing flowers we have right here in Australia.

As a business and a movement, Grown Not Flown was kicking goals. Nikki won the National Agrifutures Rural Women's award in 2023. She fostered a large social media following and most importantly, created a platform that was popular with both growers and customers. But a couple of months ago, Nikki posted online about how she was winding up Grown Not Flown. This came as quite a shock to many.

But the reality of any startup is that most fail. Sometimes you can even have the market fit, a brilliant founder and a popular platform... and things don't work out.

So you're about to hear an interview with Nikki Davey that she did on another podcast called Agtech.. So What, who have kindly shared it with us. Sarah Nolet is the interviewer and dives into the business side of things, from what it's like being the founder of a startup, the challenges of finding funding and how difficult it is to make the final decision to wind up the business.

Nikki is still doing amazing things of course too, including a new role in the sustainable flower industry, her new startup AI business, Stratlas and she just released a book for business owners about collaboration... called "The Pie Gets Bigger."

This is a Rural Podcasting Co. production. Check out our other podcasts and how we can help you create your very own podcast too!

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It can feel very murky when diving into measuring things like nature, biodiversity, carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. Essentially, how do you know what you’re doing is working? And while the tools are still improving there are many reasons why it’s worth giving it a crack.

In part 3 of our collaboration series with Farmers for Climate Action, we dive into ways to help you account for all the good environmental work you do on farm. We also get insights directly from the bank, including what financial tools are out there and how to best communicate your vision with your bank manager.

Hear from:

• Carmel Onions, Executive Manager Agribusiness Sustainability at Commonwealth Bank
• Leah Garnett, dairy farmer at Mohyu, VIC and science researcher on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in dairy.

We also discuss some of the latest scientific developments in greenhouse gas reduction, including a ‘methane vaccine’.

Please note - this episode does not contain any financial advice. All financial discussions are general in nature.

Quack! Are you interested in sponsoring the next season of Ducks on the Pond? Contact us at Rural Podcasting Co.

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“Climate smart farming” has become somewhat of a buzz word (or buzz phrase, rather!). But what does that even mean? Instead of becoming caught up in definitions, we hear from two women who are each running farming operations in two very different landscapes...but are both proudly, climate smart farmers.

At its essence, climate smart farming is about lowering inputs where you can, making decisions for your soil and grass, and in some cases, tapping into opportunities such as renewable energy or carbon sequestration. It’s going to look different, depending on your property. However, it's often thinking about farm productivity from the soil up, and yes, it also means making a profit too.

Hear from:

• Ellen Litchfield - runs a cattle and sheep station in remote South Australia. She’s also a vet, and has a Masters in Sustainable Agriculture and works part-time for Farmers for Climate Action.
• Dimity Taylor - runs a sheep farm near Crookwell in NSW. She is implementing regenerative agriculture practices on the farm and also works part-time as a physiotherapist.

Both Ellen and Dimity talk about the challenges and successes they’ve had in getting others on board their climate smart farming journeys.

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