PCA Farming Services Team
PCA has a highly-skilled team in its Farming Services Department ready to help you!
DR GRAEME WRIGHT
Peanut Breeder
B.Rur.Sc. (Hons), Ph.D. (Agronomy)
Graeme consults the Peanut Breeding program on a part-time basis. He has many years’ experience in introduction, breeding and evaluation of new peanut varieties with improved quality, disease resistance and yield performance throughout Australian production areas. Graeme’s knowledge also extends to applied R&D for other crops, farming systems and internal processing within the company including projects on maize, rice, functional foods, flavour assessment and carbon emission reduction technologies in collaboration with other R&D providers across the country.
Kacie Buchanan
Agronomist – North Queensland
Bachelor of Rural Science (Hons)
Kacie is highly credentialled with a Bachelor of Rural Science (Honours) from the University of New England. Kacie has agronomy experience with Ag Vista, Denman Rural, Cotton Grower Services and most recently with The Australian Mango Industry Association based out of Cairns.
Kacie is vibrant and energetic and will be a great addition to Farming Services and the wider Bega.
Dan O’Connor
Manager, Breeding and Seed
B. App Science (Hons)
After commencing with the breeding program in 2008, Dan moved into the Seed Agronomy role in 2016. This has provided Dan with extensive experience in breeding, research, agronomy and all aspects of commercial peanut production. He transferred back into the breeding program in 2020. When Dan isn’t chasing peanuts around a paddock, he can be found chasing cricket balls or coaching juniors at the Nanango & District Cricket Club.
Pablo Ubilla
Senior Agronomist – Bundaberg and Coastal Burnett
B. Agriculture
Born in Central America, Pablo has made a big move to the land of Oz in 2017 to commence employment with PCA Kingaroy. Since 2018 Pablo has been based in Bundaberg assisting the North Burnett and Wide Bay Growers with managing their peanut crops to ensure best possible outcomes. Pablo has a bachelor of Agricultural Science from Zamorano University in Central America and is currently working on obtaining his Masters in Soil Fertility with the University of Queensland. In the off Season you will find Pablo fishing, trading the dusty paddocks for a wet line and vast ocean.
Shona Wood
Research Officer
Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons)
Shona is based in Kingaroy and works as part of the Peanut Breeding Program, screening and developing new peanut varieties suitable for Australian conditions with improved quality, disease resistance and yield performance. She has spent the past four years enjoying killing peanut plants in the hope to identify disease resistant varieties as part of her Plant Breeding and Pathology PhD. She never knew how excited she would be to kill peanuts and how hard it would be to do. They are a tough little nuts (legumes)
Tobin Cherry
Manager Grower Liaison & Logistics
B.Agribusiness. & B.App.Sc
Tobin has been involved in agribusiness across multiple industries in middle and senior management levels for the past 17 years. He has been part of PCA/Bega since November 2019 in Farming Services management. His current role with PCA/Bega covers management of the Farming Services team, peanut procurement and logistics support of peanut production across all regions.
Tjaart Myburgh
Agronomist – Burnett and Inland Irrigated
Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (Hons)
Master of Science in Agriculture
Tjaart is an experienced peanut agronomist with formal qualifications of Master of Science in Agriculture, and more than six years’ commercial peanut experience working with a number of agribusinesses in South Africa. In early 2019 he moved to Australia to work with Bega Cheese Limited and is currently based at Kingaroy.
Janine Baikaloff
Growers’ Clerk
I joined the PCA team in February of 2019 as part of the finance department. In May 2020, the Growers Officers position was transferred over to the Farming Services Department.
Before joining PCA I work for Elders for 20 years in an admin position. Moving on from Elders I then commenced worked for Swickers in an admin role for 8 years, and then 10 years as the Livestock & Logistics Co-Ordinator for the site. I certainly do not miss the 4:30am starts.
If you’d like assistance from our Farming Services team, contact PCA on (07) 4162-6311 or by email.