RAGT AUSTRALIA

Cultivating productivity and profitability for grower/producers and processors all across Australia

RAGT Australia is an Australian seed wholesaler, screening and supplying premium cultivars across Australia. The business is 100% focused on assisting grower/producers and processors increase productivity and profitability – and ensuring their outcomes proudly play a part in cultivating the good times in life.

Prior to today, RAGT Australia was known as Seed Force. In 2023 Seed Force changed its name to RAGT Australia, to reflect the businesses ownership and as part of a global branding change. (Read more below).

Seed Force was established in 2006 by a dedicated and passionate group of real-world farm experienced agri-experts and insider seed industry connections. From inception they quickly got to work planting local trials across Australia and attracting like-minded people with serious on-farm experience to join them. To make sure this new Australian seed company could be at the forefront of plant breeding and technology, Seed Force joined forces with one of Europe’s most respected seed businesses – RAGT.

With the backing of an international seed powerhouse, they could focus on drawing on the latest R&D and global class leading genetics to help agriculturalists get the best results from their broadacre crops, forage crops and pastures. Focusing on yield, quality, disease resistance and persistence, Seed Force changed the game and led the way – taking many on this great journey with them.

From humble beginnings to offering premium cultivars across a wide range of species, Seed Force were constantly growing, testing, finetuning and expanding their range – every year adding new cultivars to a proven system that gave farmers the power to grow.
Today, RAGT Australia sits as a new force in seed supply, ready to improve on the ground-breaking work Seed Force pioneered. Based in Shepparton, Victoria and with RAGT Seedsmiths located in all corners of the country, new world global genetics and local knowhow are set to proudly ‘Cultivate Life’ for all Australians no matter where RAGTs seed solutions and expert advice is sown.

Think Solutions. Think RAGT

Delivering the production demanded by Australia’s world-leading farm systems requires a significant investment in research, development and real-world trialling. With the resources of 18 research centres throughout Europe, 300,000 experimental plots worldwide, 45 research programmes across 32 species, and 1,450+ employees, all working to increase yields, robustness and quality.

Through RAGT, Australian growers and primary, secondary and tertiary producers are able to gain access to the technology advancements and plant genetics from these efforts. It takes years of development to create a new cultivar, but by investing the time, effort and resources required helps ensure confidence in a variety once it’s commercialised.

For cultivars to perform in the Australia market they have to be able to stand up to the pressures of this unique environment, while also delivering the production demanded by our world leading farm systems. Some key breeding parameters were required from the outset. The focus was on robust genetics. RAGT plant breeding is based on the fundamentals of great genetics teamed with high production and quality. It’s these foundations which help ensure the material they produce performs as expected in the field. Throughout the process, selections were made with key focuses on not just yield but a range of factors which help ensure robustness and strength in the real world, and especially downunder.

Being smart in leveraging RAGTs global strengths in plant breeding, use of new technologies and access to other global markets was a key objective. By utilising R2n breeder experts, unique global breeding collaboration was created.
What then followed was careful planning and trialling of mostly European varieties in various regions across Australia. Pinpointing similar climatic conditions, seasonal growing windows and soil structures enabled extensive trialling programs to prove a varieties adaptability and worth. Should the variety be a leader in performance outcomes on it would go to be wholesaled.

Today the RAGT Australia seed portfolio has strong and deep roots in global genetics and is seemingly taking production outcomes to levels rarely seen in Australia before. It’s a welcome shift that has been well overdue for our hardworking farming communities – and we’re passionate on cultivating this trend further with more R&D work.”

As a globally recognised pioneer of the agricultural industry, and a world leading supplier of pasture and cropping seed. RAGT Australia has been helping growers and producers maximise productivity and profitability for over a century. We are a company that is focussed on providing growers with great genetics to cultivate their future whilst focussing on the future of employees within the group.

Playing an active role in cultivating the life people get to enjoy is highly rewarding. Here at RAGT Australia we value the ‘work – life – balance’ motto and provide the capacity to cultivate the same good time moments in life and at work for staff. This means a flexible team working environment where we’re actively involved in achieving both personal and professional milestones. You too can become part of the adventure of cultivating good times.

Think solutions – Think RAGT.

Interested in a career with us? Contact our team at HR2@ragt.au