Agriculture

Once common across the region, Eel Tailed Catfish had essentially disappeared from our waterways, with only small populations found in isolated bodies of water such as dams and lakes. As luck would have it, Australia’s most genetically diverse population of catfish was right on our door step, in the Barham Lakes.

Arolla Pastoral Company’s James and Carla Pidgeon hope to fast-track the production of genetically superior sheep. Works are underway on a sheep reproductive facility at Allora designed to fast-track Queensland’s supply of genetically superior lambs while creating four direct jobs and 11 indirect jobs for Queenslanders as a result of the project.

Humble vegetables  ignited hot debate this week when icecream featuring pumpkin and cauliflower was served to more than 3000 people at the nation’s annual Hort Connections event in Adelaide. The two bespoke gelato flavours - cauliflower-vanilla bean and pumpkin-ginger bread - are harmonious savoury-meets-sweet flavour combinations.

The sustainable management of wildlife in Tasmania is a serious matter for Tasmanian landholders and farmers. Central to managing the issue are property protection permits, which are issued by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE).

“Having grown up on stations which I loved very much, stations and farms have and always will be close to my heart. Rural Aid is an organisation that ‘stands with our mates in the bush’ during their hard times, and it does get tough in the bush, with floods, fires and severe drought, in addition to the usual dangers of snakes, spiders and in some northern areas, crocodiles too,” Mrs Rinehart said.

Agriculture Victoria’s Monitoring Wind Erosion in the Victorian Mallee survey data summary for 2022 is now available online in the lead up to a webinar on June 13, which will present current wind erosion survey results and the seasonal outlook.

Assoc. Professor Matthew Harrison presents the results of a comprehensive study on the costs of transitioning farming systems across Australia to net zero emissions using a range of practical models. The study found that there are multiple pathways to net zero.

Blanket bans of native forest harvesting will not improve our carbon balance or recover biodiversity according to the professional association for forest scientists, growers and managers, Forestry Australia. President Dr Michelle Freeman said the consensus position of independent scientific experts, forest managers and researchers  is that active management of forests is required to maintain forest health, mitigate fire risk, conserve biodiversity and maximise carbon outcomes.

Australian Winter crop production is forecast to fall from record highs due to below average rainfall for winter and spring. ABARES Executive Director Dr Jared Greenville said the Australian Crop Report forecasts total Australian winter crop production to fall by 34% to 44.9 million tonnes in 2023–24 following three consecutive record production years.

The overall value of the agriculture sector is set to contract by 14% in 2023-24 due to drier than normal conditions after three La Nina years ... “Looking further ahead, it’s likely we will see either El Nino or a positive Indian Ocean Dipole in the coming months, which will reduce crop yields": Executive Director of ABARES Dr Jared Greenville.

The independent, global Gender Representation in the Meat Industry 2023 report draws on international data from more than 50 major meat organisations ... Australia's OBE Organic - whose MD Dalene Wray is herself a notable woman in the meat business - featured as a case study in the report ... ARR.News asked some questions about women in the meat business of Dalene and Laura Ryan, Founder and Global Chair of Meat Business Women.

The NFF Horticulture Council has rung the alarm bells loud and clear that the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme is now heading toward calamity ... Horticulture Council spokesperson Rachel Chambers said it was increasingly clear relevant ministers aren’t working together to ensure the scheme meets the long-terms interests of the Pacific and Australian industries it’s meant to serve. 

Rockhampton Agricultural Show Program set to WOW crowds with stellar family entertainment line-up. The Rockhampton Agricultural Show is bringing some big names to the program for their 150th  Anniversary event on 14-16 June. Rockhampton Region Mayor Tony Williams said this is the biggest entertainment program the Show has delivered in recent years and rightly so for our 150th  celebration.

Farmers are calling on the Federal Government to implement competition reforms that will tackle cost of living pressures. NSW Farmers CEO Pete Arkle said the ACCC had made a number of recommendations in its 2020 Perishable Agricultural Goods Inquiry that would bring food prices down for consumers, but so far they had been largely ignored.

The devil’s in the detail of the federal budget’s announcement of a new 10 per cent Biosecurity Protection Levy ... Federal Agriculture Minister, Murray Watt, has proposed raising $47.5 million per year across all producers from the added 10 per cent levy, as part of a ‘sustainable’ funding model for biosecurity protections ... we don’t know what the value proposition is for grains and if it will actually deliver better protections.

Questioning by the WA Opposition’s Mia Davies has revealed that the Forest Products Commission is not planning on issuing any timber contracts from 1 January 2024 until an indeterminant time in the future ... “It is a clear tactic to force businesses out of the sector”, said David Utting, convenor of the Sustainable Forest Industries Roundtable.

Singapore-based Nutrition Technologies has launched their new bioactive organic fertiliser, Diptiaâ„¢, specifically designed and formulated to combat fungal plant diseases, and protect soil from infection. Diptiaâ„¢ is a patent pending Nutrition Technologies product derived from Black Soldier Fly frass ... ARR.News asked Rezuwan Zakaria, Nutrition Technologies R&D Manager, some further questions about the product, Diptiaâ„¢ and the company itself.

A fresh study on the environmental impacts of lab-grown meat has led an internationally recognised expert on the future of cell-based protein, Professor Paul Wood, AO, to confirm the economics of producing lab-grown meat at scale “just won’t work” and will be less sustainable than traditional red meat production systems. The new study from the University of California, Davis, argues the global warming potential of cell-based meat production could be up to 25 times greater than the average for retail beef.

A recent analysis by EP3 of the wool market got me thinking about wool, which seems to be staggering around and yet again threatening to repeat its long term boom and bust cycle, despite what we are repeatedly told about the huge demand for clean green natural fibres.

Australia is now grappling with a labour shortage across multiple sectors including health, aged care and agriculture. And our policymakers seem to continue to overlook retirees as part of the solution to the crisis.