LongReach People

Dr Bertus Jacobs, Wheat Breeder

Dr Bertus Jacobs holds a PhD in Plant Breeding from the University of the Free State, South Africa. Prior to joining LongReach in 2002, Bertus spent 6 years as Wheat Breeder for the South African based international seed company, Pannar.

Prior to this, Bertus lectured in Plant Protection and Pathology and conducted extensive research on wheat, sunflower and maize diseases. He has been published widely in his native South Africa, particularly in relation to plant disease and infection.

Bertus’ extensive experience as a commercial field breeder with Pannar across Southern Africa has been directly transferable to the Australian environment and the LongReach business structure.

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Marie Appelbee, Wheat Trait Breeder

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Tony O’Connor, Breeding Operations Co-ordinator

Tony O’Connor has over three decades experience in managing and conducting agricultural research operations. Prior to joining LongReach, Tony managed the day-to-day operations of the wheat-breeding program conducted by the Victorian Institute for Dryland Agriculture at Horsham in western Victoria. He has a deep understanding of the design, organisation and management of large-scale trial programs required to support varietal improvement and testing.

Tony also has broad agricultural industry experience and prior to joining VIDA in 1984, he spent his time closely involved with various livestock protection and inspection programs for Agriculture Victoria.

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Colin Edmondson, National Technical Manager

Colin has been a part of the LongReach team since its inception 2002. As National Technical Manager he is responsible for co-ordinating the contracting and delivery of technical services required for the LongReach breeding programs as well as supporting the development of the national breeding and evaluation program.

Prior to joining LongReach, Colin was involved in private agricultural research, managing the R&D division of the South Australian agribusiness consultancy, Rural Directions. Before joining Rural Directions, Colin managed the Minnipa Research Station for SARDI, leading several outstanding grain industry research programs and teams.

In the early 1990’s, Colin worked as a research agronomist for Pivot Fertilisers. He also spent time with the Victorian Department of Agriculture as an extension officer after commencing his career as a wheat breeding research officer at the University of Adelaide.

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Matu Peipi, Technical Officer WA

Matu Peipi is an experienced Nursery and Production Manager with a strong scientific background. Matu is responsible for Longreach site operations in Western Australia. Prior to moving to Western Australia, Matu spent over a decade with Crop and Food Research in New Zealand where he performed a number of roles in cereal breeding and project management. Matu was responsible over a three-year period for NZ C&FR’s Winter Nursery Services and prior to that, worked as a barley breeder developing disease resistant barley cultivars.

Before this, Matu worked for thirteen years as a science technician for C&FR and its predecessor organisations.

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Adrian McNair, Technical Officer - NSW

Adrian McNair joined LongReach in late 2007 and is responsible for LongReach site operations from Queensland through to the Southwest Slopes of New South Wales. He is based at Young in NSW.

Prior to joining LongReach Adrian completed his Bachelor of Applied Science (Agriculture) in 2001 from Charles Sturt University in Wagga. He then joined a well respected local Agribusiness in the South West Slopes of NSW as a Junior Agronomist. He soon became an integral part of the team and was promoted to the position of Senior Agronomist overseeing the day to day delivery of on farm technical advice for two of the business’s four branches.

Coming from this background Adrian is keenly attuned to the needs of farmers and what they demand of new wheat varieties.

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Matthew Whiting, Product Development

Matt Whiting joined the LongReach team in early 2006, to manage Product Development and Variety Registration, including supervising Pure Seed production and Quality Assurance for the LongReach variety pipeline. Matt works from the LongReach office in Tullamarine, Victoria.

On completing his agriculture degree at the University of Queensland, Gatton, Matt worked in the seed production group of Pacific Seeds in Toowoomba. In 1998, he took up a position with Advanta Canada, coordinating the Advanta’s Canadian canola seed production program. In 2004, Matt returned to Australia with his young family and spent a year as an Opti-Crop agronomy advisor in SE Queensland. Matt brings local and international experience in seed production, quality assurance and product development to the LongReach team.

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Lindsay O’Brien, Senior Breeding Program Adviser

Lindsay O’Brien is one of Australia’s most senior and respected wheat breeders and as a principal of Solheimar Pty Ltd, is LongReach’s Senior Breeding Advisor. He has been closely involved with LongReach since the joint venturers commenced planning the business in 2001.

Lindsay has a PhD from the University of Manitoba, Canada, coincidentally, the city in which the Canadian Wheat Board is based. In a career spanning almost forty years, Lindsay served in the Victorian Department of Agriculture in its various guises for twenty years until 1998 as a Geneticist, Senior Geneticist and then Team Leader of the Wheat Breeding and Cereal Chemistry program.

In 1988, Lindsay moved to Narrabri as Director of Wheat Improvement at the University of Sydney’s Plant Breeding Institute, a role he occupied for thirteen years until 2001, when he established Solheimar, an animal and plant breeding consultancy. He continues to run Solheimar while also being closely involved with LongReach.

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Katherine O’Connor, Office Manager

Katherine joined LongReach in November 2004 and is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the LongReach Head Office. Katherine has a Bachelor’s Degree in Asian Studies, having majored in Chinese Studies and has spent six months working and travelling throughout China. She also has a Graduate Diploma in Business Systems, which has been put to good use in establishing many of LongReach’s operating systems. Katherine has also travelled extensively throughout the world, giving her a global perspective closely attuned to LongReach.

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