Investor Information:
The Northern Pastoral Scholarship was launched in 2018 by the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo), Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC), Elders and S. Kidman & Co.
Recognising the need to foster the Northern Australian pastoral sector, these four iconic agricultural companies joined forces to create the scholarship with the aim of enabling recipients to become leaders in their field.
AACo: www.aaco.com.au
CPC: www.pastoral.com
Elders: www.elders.com.au
S. Kidman & Co: www.kidman.com.au
James Carter
2025 Nuffield Scholar
Leveraging technology to improve carcass yields
Having grown up on a cattle property ‘Lake Edward’ near Crookwell in New South Wales and worked in many parts of the supply chain, James Carter can see how technology can enable breeding decisions, leading to better carcase yields to benefit the whole supply chain.
Receiving a Northern Pastoral Scholarship, he will study how technology has the potential to drive profit for producers and processors in a collaborative approach.
“This technology can help them drive sustainability improvements, harvesting more red meat from each carcase; packing more meat into each box with less waste; driving down the cost of production and resulting in more consistent carcases,” James said.
“This in turn will hopefully be a catalyst for driving more automation and AI in processing facilities.”
James is the assistant production manager at AACo, based in Brisbane, where he helps manage a team overseeing two service kills at JBS Beef City and Australian Country Choice, with a focus on coordinating livestock movements, maximising yield recovery, achieving customer specification, revenue maximisation and quality assurance, while utilising as much of each carcass as possible.
“I’ve been fortunate to see the work that goes into getting a beast from paddock to plate,” James said.
“There is huge potential for the industry to drive higher profits through better breeding decisions, and these can be enabled by technology.
“I’m looking forward to studying how the data and information that underpins these types of decisions can be communicated back to producers through a platform, allowing an increase in profitability from paddock to plate to benefit each part of the supply chain.”
James said this will likely also help the industry become more sustainable.
“We will be harvesting more usable red meat from each carcass through better muscle conformation, while maintaining eating quality” he said.
“Through technologies like yield cameras we can build an understanding of what ‘good’ looks like, and we can share that information with a producer or feedlot and begin to make decisions to reach those better outcomes.
“We could even see genetic decisions made based on the predicted potential amount of saleable red meat from a carcass.”
James is passionate about the topic, as the seventh generation of his family to work Lake Edward.
He said he is passionate about delivering high-quality beef to consumers while telling stories and advocating for beef supply chains.
“As an industry we need to continue to find ways to evolve and invest in new technologies not only to stay competitive in the market, but also to share and promote what we are doing as an industry in a positive and honest narrative,” James said.
“We can than continue to better educate consumers and the wider community on the beef industry, to assist in changing the sometimes negative narrative on livestock production.”
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