Agriculture

Southern Downs Poultry Club recently staged their popular Annual Poultry Show and Treaty at the Allora Showgrounds. Exhibitors and interested parties came from many parts of Queensland as well as New South Wales.

Clarence Valley business HoneyBee Hives are buzzing with excitement after being announced as the runner's up in the 2022 Australian Rural Business Awards, for the Excellence in E-Commerce Award. The awards are designed to recognise the strength, resilience, and talent of small business owners in rural and regional areas who have, in the last few years alone, gone through droughts, bushfires, mouse plagues, floods, lack of tourism and a global pandemic.

Victorian irrigation innovator Rubicon Water is maximising water use on farms from the Murray Darling to India and beyond, driving jobs growth at its key Shepparton base ... In Karnataka, the Rubicon Water system manages the water supply to more than 400,000 hectares of farmland through 1,250 kilometres of canals.

This opinion piece is all about the failure of our Ag Minister to understand the importance of elevating biosecurity to the top of DPIRD’s list of things to do ... With the arrival of Foot and Mouth Disease in Indonesia, DPIRD needs to be up to the task of stopping it at our borders or wiping it out within the 3-4 months that a recent CSIRO report claims is possible for localised outbreaks.

The Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days attracts up to 700 exhibitors annually showcasing agricultural-related and general interest products and services to more than 24,000 visitors.

Theme: Take Me Back ... Gates open at 9am ... Forrest Oval, York, Western Australia.

Geoff Bammann. The 2022 Eyre Peninsula Field Days’ committee is very excited to be able to welcome both visitors and exhibitors back to Cleve ... The field days is a great opportunity to catch up with friends and also to keep abreast of, not only, the latest in farming and technology, but also lifestyle, education, grain marketing and every other aspect of living in the country.

There is more certainty for farmers and the environment after the NSW Government’s licensing and measurement reform became law in Water Sharing Plans for the Border Rivers and Gwydir Valleys. Minister for Lands and Water Kevin Anderson and Minister for Environment James Griffin have approved changes to the Border Rivers, Gwydir and Macquarie Water Sharing Plans.

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has raised concerns that the Commonwealth Government is rewriting history in an attempt to buyback and deliver water to South Australia under the Murray Darling Basin Plan. VFF Water Council Chair Andrew Leahy said the response from Water Minister Tanya Plibersek to South Australian MP Rebekha Sharkie’s question in Parliament this week ignored the history behind the 450 GL up-water target.

NSW Farmers members called out a lack of fairness in the energy transition during debate at the organisation's annual conference ... “You cannot simply build infrastructure to benefit substantially city users without addressing the impact on regions and rural landowners who have invested in their biodiversity and production capacity,”: NSW Farmers Energy Transition Working Group Chair, Reg Kidd

With foot and mouth disease on Australia’s borders livestock owners and producers in the Wanneroo and Gingin areas need to be on guard as do farm workers returning from holidays who may have been in contact with susceptible animals while travelling ... “If there has been contact, consider requesting the worker isolate from livestock for seven days and ensure appropriate border declarations have been made to ensure all footwear, clothing and equipment is free of mud, animal manure and mucus to minimise the risk of introducing a disease,’’: DPIRD chief veterinary officer Michelle Rodan.

NT Farmers Association is pleased to announce that they will be holding a North Australia Food Futures Regional Roadshow in Mareeba from the 30th to the 31st of August 2022. The roadshow provides an exciting opportunity to learn about what is happening in agriculture in Northern Australia.

The latest quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, has shown a continuing rise in Australian food price inflation, with June 2022 quarter food prices increasing 5.9 per cent compared with the June quarter last year. Rabobank senior food retail analyst Michael Harvey said this was the highest year-on-year increase seen in food prices in the CPI since the September quarter 2011, when yearly food price inflation had peaked at 6.4 per cent.

Given the high escalation in the price of pedigree pups, pay rises are certainly well overdue for dogs who are renowned for being the hardest workers. A Working Dog Auction being held at the 2022 Rabobank Expo & Ram Sale should help push up purchase prices ... Known as the largest Merino event in Western Australia with over forty studs on display, the addition of a working sheepdog auction will boost visitor numbers to the annual show.

WAFarmers Livestock Council advises members of an update in policy on the implementation of EID tags for sheep and goats. The council has a standing policy to support EID tags for traceability in sheep and goats based on government funding to assist in the implementation of a national database to manage a national standardised process.

The Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) has released its regulatory priorities for FY 2022-23 and has set its sights on the irrigated agriculture industry in the Murray, Murrumbidgee and the Far North Coast ... “Our regulatory priorities identify and target problem activities, areas and industries that may have high levels of non-compliance with water laws or the potential to cause harm to the environment or surrounding community”: NRAR’s Director of Regulatory Initiatives Ian Bernard.

The Australian Government has ramped up its efforts to prevent foot and mouth disease (FMD) spreading to Australia ... Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said it is great to see the message about the seriousness of this disease overseas getting through to travellers ... Mr Littleproud has also called for the immediate offer of 3D X-ray technology at Indonesian airports ... Shaughn Morgan, co-CEO eastAUSmilk, advocates for all other shoes being carried by passengers to be inspected and disinfected as necessary. He also believes travel restrictions would be a sensible approach.

Australian livestock producers are hoping that tighter restrictions can limit the risk posed by Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) ... Local dairy and beef farmer, Matthew Searle, is keeping a keen eye on the developments. “If it was to get here, it would cripple us, ” he said. With control measures like ‘Stamp Out’ (the destruction of infected stock) the Searles, like many producers, dread an FMD outbreak wiping out decades of investing in the genetics and health of their stock.