Meet the experts

As an expert in livestock production, Dr Gonzalez-Rivas is a veterinarian from Chile with a Masters in animal studies from the University of Queensland and a PhD in Agricultural Sciences. She brings five years of experience in small and large animal practice in Chile, and six years of experience in research applied to nutrition and heat stress in ruminants. During her research career, Dr Gonzalez-Rivas conducted cutting edge research into the relationship between nutrition, the environment and livestock production. During her Masters, she studied Northern Beef phosphorous deficiencies, while in her PhD she focused on heat stress amelioration in ruminants using nutritional approaches. She then completed a post-doctorate fellowship that explored the effects of heat stress on meat quality in feedlot cattle. With this experience, Dr Gonzalez-Rivas brings world class knowledge relating to the impact of animal nutrition on health and production, particularly during periods of high demand such as joining, calving and weaning, and during challenging environmental conditions.

Dr Graham Lean has 36 years experience consulting to farmers and agribusiness in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia, and has presented at conferences internationally as well as across Australia.  He also spent 5 years in a lecturer position at the University of Melbourne in the Veterinary faculty’s Mackinnon Project and has authored a number of scientific papers.  He has veterinary and finance qualifications and is an authorised representative to provide futures advice in agricultural commodities. Farm consultancy services take a whole farm approach, which includes pastures, animal health, farm management, farm benchmarking, human resources, finance, genetics, commodity risk management and marketing.  Services range from farm management and farm finance advice to sheep and cattle worm control programs, futures advice in wool, beef and grains, farm benchmarking and farm business plans.  He also undertakes research and provides advice in various animal health and production matters to agribusiness, government and rural research corporations. Graham is in demand as a speaker to farmer and agribusiness meetings.

Dr Enoch Bergman has been practicing veterinary medicine in Esperance for 15 years at Swans Veterinary Services. Esperance is renowned as one of the last agricultural areas within Australia to be opened up for farming as most of the region was significantly depleted in a wide range of minerals. Since moving to the area, Enoch has sampled thousands of local animals for hundreds of clients attempting to benchmark their animal's micro mineral status, to allow targeted supplementation. As would be expected, deficiencies of copper, cobalt, and/or selenium are exceptionally common within his practice area. Enoch is passionate about improving the profitability of his clients. Appropriate and timely micro mineral supplementation is a key production driver for his producers. He sees first-hand some of the benefits that Multimin is delivering and is keen to work as a mentor to further document the value Multimin can deliver to Australian beef, sheep, and dairy producers.

Vet and Managing Director at Pro Ag Consulting Colin obtained his Masters degree at the Mackinnon Project, University of Melbourne and moved into livestock consultancy for the next 14 years based at Naracoorte and Adelaide. In 2000, Colin co-founded the APAL agricultural laboratory in Adelaide to provide an SA based soil, plant tissue and water testing service. Colin's work has encompassed on-farm research, farmer group facilitation and delivery, market assurance programs, biosecurity and whole farm nutrition focused on the soil/plant/animal interaction in livestock production, health and management. Colin joined the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Roseworthy in January 2012 as a contract lecturer in small ruminant medicine and commenced full time PhD candidature in November 2014. The topic of his thesis is "the epidemiology and aetiology of rib fractures in lambs in south eastern Australia".

Dr Matthew Ball is a Veterinarian, Senior Technical Services Manager at Virbac Animal Health and owner of Beacon Veterinary. Matthew Ball has 19 years experience helping cattle farmers in a range of clinical, advisory and research roles. His employment includes jobs in clinical practice, government and industry. He has undertaken post graduate qualifications in disease surveillance , education and pharmacology. Matt is passionate about helping cattle farmers develop practical and profitable preventative health programs. He is based on the northern rivers of NSW.  

Dr Jerry Liu is a comparative nutritionist and Category Marketing Manager for nutritionals at Virbac. Over his career, Jerry has worked with ruminants, poultry, cats, dogs, and people. Prior to obtaining his PhD in vitamin analysis and physiology at the University of Sydney, he graduated with first class honours in his Bachelor's of Animal & Veterinary Bioscience degree. Since 2012, Jerry hung up his lab coat and overalls, for more commercially focused pursuits, first working in exercise and sports nutrition for three years, before moving across to Virbac in 2015. Today, Jerry spends his time exclusively working with trace minerals in ruminants.

Dr George Cox, Technical Services Manager - Sheep, is an experienced livestock veterinarian having spent time in mixed rural practice, in clinical product development and evaluation, training, marketing management and technical services. George is a member of the SCGV and ACV interest groups of the AVA and has a keen interest in livestock health and production.

Renee runs two dairy farms in Framlingham, Victoria with her husband Alister, comprising a 145 hectare home farm, “Springlea”, which has 220 Frisian x Red Dairy milking cows, and a second 183-hectare farm, “Merton Park”, with 250 Frisian x Red Dairy cows. Renee was the 2018/2019 Multimin Performance Ready Winner. Through the Challenge, Renee ran a Multimin trial hoping to improve the immunity, health and productivity of her calves. The trial confirmed the critical roles that trace elements play in immunity and animal health and showed how immunity can be enhanced through the use of Multimin, and the optimisation of trace minerals at high demand time points can provide improved animal health and productivity. As part of the trial Renee treated 105 animals and 105 untreated animals. All calves were weighed at birth and the even number tags were given a shot of Multimin injection and the odd number tags were left untreated and used as a control mob. Renee observed the most noticeable difference was the treated calves had a very shiny coat and then transitioned onto hard feed. She also found many untreated animals developed scouring and went off their feed for 2-3 days.

Don manages his family property, Mt Brisbane Droughtmasters. He runs purebred Droughtmaster cattle and a Droughtmaster stud operation on a 4,500-hectare breeding and fattening operation in the Brisbane Valley. Don was a finalist in the 2019 Multimin Performance Ready Challenge where he ran a trial on his heifers and steers to see what effect Multimin may have on providing additional productivity improvements. Multimin helped his heifers grow and mature through what is a very hard stage of their lives. With the results that he saw in his heifers, Multimin gave him the lift in production that he was looking for.

Ryan runs 900 Angus breeders, on two properties East of Esperance in WA. He was a finalist in the 2019 Multimin Performance Ready Challenge to improve the performance of his cattle. Ryan often has issues with copper and selenium in the Esperance region as the sand plain that makes up most of the area does not hold nutrients well. This can affect fertility, weight gain and the overall health of livestock. Treatment of Multimin four weeks from joining lifted the average conception rate in Ryan’s cows from 85% to 92% with a 9-week joining period. He also saw weight gains in his steers by using a combination of Multimin and Cydectin Long Acting Injection as previous results have shown 1 kg/day average from weaning to spring sale.