The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences Outlook 2015 Conference focused on the the increase in global food demand, international markets, productivity and technology.

John Ramsay, a farmer from Bothwell, was invited to speak at the conference after he competed in the Meat and Livestock Australia Challenge last year.

Through mentoring and research, Mr Ramsay and his family were able to use the challenge to make important changes to the farm and their farming practices.

"We won the MLA challenge last year and so they asked us to come and speak about the challenge, in particular our change from merino sheep to composite sheep," he said.

"It was amazing to have done the challenge, it was very worthwhile to our business but also for ourselves to go through a lot of positive changes.

"The major on-farm changes were that we increased our ewe numbers and we changed our ewes to composites to be more suited to our country."

Mr Ramsay said he was able to speak confidently about his farming and agriculture business at the conference as the changes had made him more certain of his future in the industry.

"It really gave us some confidence and the challenge gave us a lot of tools and resources to help us make these changes.

"There are a lot of negative agricultural stories but we feel our story is a positive one. The conference also told a positive story for the red meat industry.

"A national conference is good because you meet a lot of people from around Australia and this was a good one to meet a lot of the government members and to see the bureaucratic side of the industry."

Industry leaders led the conference through 16 sessions over two days with each one focused on a particular industry, including livestock and fisheries.