UNIVERSITY of Queensland Emeritus Professor John Longworth says he was really expecting to head back to family's wool growing property at Burren Junction once he completed his ag science degree in the 1960s.
However, instead of heading back to the dusty plains of in North West NSW, his incredible grasp of economics and agricultural systems was recognised, and he was given a full-time job lecturing in his first year out. That led to a full time job with the University of Sydney, a PhD and ultimately a stellar "mud on boots" career in ag economics, built on understanding and explaining what makes agriculture tick.
Professor Longworth, 80, was made a Member of the Order of Australia in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours for his major contribution to tertiary education and agricultural sciences.
"Really, it's a joint award with my wife," Professor Longworth said. "Jill has been with me every step of the way. As I have told her many times, I could never have done it with out her."
The Longworths met at the University of Sydney. Jill, who also studied ag science and is also armed with a swag of degrees, grew up on a wool growing property at Rylstone on NSW's Central Tablelands.
Professor Longworth is well known as being an inductive, as opposed to a deductive, scientist.
"It's about understanding how the big picture works rather than working from hypotheses," Professor Longworth said.
That big picture approach helped reopen trade with Japan, when that country closed in doors to Australian beef in Japan in the mid-1970s.
"Australia was told the closure was to protect the poor struggling Japanese beef producer," Professor Longworth said.
"It wasn't that at all. It was political push-back from the Japanese people who worked in the meat industry and felt threatened by the Australian chilled beef, which was gaining acceptance through the newly developing supermarkets opening up across Japan."
The solution to reopening the market lay in the Japanese government's decision to create shokuniku (meat) centres to process Wagyu cattle and dairy steers. These centres greatly improved the efficiency of domestic beef processing, leading to significantly increased incomes for the people involved.
In addition to an incredibly busy academic life centred on the University of Queensland, Professor Longworth also participated in trade talks in Beijing, and Xi'an as part of the on-going Free Trade Agreement negotiations between Australia and China, 2006.
He is also a celebrated as an author, and particularly noted for the groundbreaking works: Beef in Japan (1983) and Beef in China: Agribusiness Opportunities and Challenges (2001). He other other works include: China's Rural Development Miracle (1989), China's Pastoral Region (1993), Agribusiness Reforms in China: The Case of Wool (1995), Regionalisation and Integration in China (2002), Rural Development in China: Insights from the Beef Industry (2003), Modernizing China's Industries: Lessons from Wool and Wool Textiles (2005), China's Livestock Revolution: Agribusiness and Policy Developments in China's Sheep Meat Sector (2006) and Sustainable Development in Western China: Managing People, Livestock and Grasslands in Pastoral Areas (2008).
Professor Longworth has also authored or co-authored, 61 research papers, which have been published in professional journals.
His long list of other awards include the Farrer Memorial Medal for Research.