Agriculture

The ABARES Outlook 2021 Conference, the annual conference held by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Economics, being held virtually for the first time this year, is taking place between March 2nd and 4th.

NSW Farmers has developed a five-point-plan to tackle an acute seasonal labour shortage in the agricultural sector and avoid an impending shortage of fresh fruit and vegetables. The plan focuses on lowering quarantine costs, a workable visa approval process, state control of arrival caps, increased incentives for Australian workers and labour mobility across state borders.

Our title is not a children’s fable but a reference to two major forces that have caused tightness in many agri commodities and pushed prices to multi-year highs. La Niña upended weather in key producers like Brazil and Argentina and threatens to continue to cause havoc in 2021, as recent cooling of the Pacific seems to indicate it could continue for longer than expected. Meanwhile, unprecedented and long-lasting import demand is being generated from China, which is celebrating the year of Ox ...

A new ABARES report today confirms agriculture has been one of the Australian economy’s standout performers in recent decades. Snapshot of Australian Agriculture 2021 has found that the gross value of agricultural, fisheries and forestry production has risen over the past 20 years and, despite recent droughts, reached $67 billion in 2019–20.

Kookaburra wonders how investment in the Victorian property, Minjah, by Michael Hintze's private company, MH Premium Farms, for about $36m, will sit in the minds of investors in the CQS fund which lost 33 percent of its value in March 2020 and a further 17 percent in April 2020, or the reportedly 50 staff who lost their jobs.

Farmbot, a leading provider of remote monitoring solutions for Australian agriculture, has released the Wireless Trough Sensor, a device which connects farmers to their water supply right up to the point of consumption.

Preparations are in full swing for the upcoming Fodder Festival 2021 with booths booked, new machinery at the ready and registrations rolling in for the big day on Wednesday 17 March at the Elmore Events Centre.

The horticulture sector overall exceeded $15 billion in production value in 2019/20 despite the challenging growing and market conditions. Although production volume had decreased by 1.5% due to seasonal conditions such as drought and bushfires, value increased by 4.5%, from $14.4 billion to $15.1 billion.

Last year it was difficult to deal with the bombardment of bad news that came from COVID-19. So, hearing about the great year that the McNaul family’s paddock-to-plate agribusiness, ‘Outback Harvest’, has had was a refreshing change ... Teff is an ancient grain of Ethiopia – which offers a gluten-free, healthy alternative to the plain flours currently out there ...

Forestry Corporation of NSW is recommencing timber harvesting on the South Coast and Eden with additional environmental safeguards and restates our commitment to ecologically sustainable forest management which ensures good environmental outcomes.

Coal miners, farmers, and steel and iron workers hold the majority of the 653,600 jobs which could be destroyed by the adoption of a net zero emissions target in Australia, according to new research released by free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.

To ensure northern Australia’s beef industry is equipped to be profitable and meet evolving social and environmental pressures, greater focus must be placed on optimising genetic gain through the accurate selection of nonvisual profit-driving traits. That’s according to 2019 Nuffield Scholar and Western Queensland beef producer, Rebecca Burnham, who with support from The Yulgilbar Foundation, investigated how modern technologies could be better utilised to increase measurement above the 15 per cent of bulls currently presented with breeding values in northern Australia.

Australia’s wheat crop is estimated to have surged by 119.8% to a record 33.34 million tonnes in 2020/21, according to ABARES (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences). ABARES has raised its estimate of national production of winter crops by 7.4% to 55.2 million tonnes in 2020/21.

Today’s decision by the ANZ Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation to slash the rating for pure, fresh Australian fruit and vegetable juices has failed Australian growers. National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) Chief Executive Tony Mahar described the decision to apply lower Health Star Ratings to fresh juices than those given to chemical-laden diet soft-drinks as baffling.

Australia has had hundreds of inquiries into natural hazards, but how can policy makers ensure that lessons from the past are not forgotten?

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has partnered with Three Blue Ducks Restaurant Group to showcase Australian red meat producers' world class sustainable production practices and the high-quality product they produce via a new television series set to air nationally this week on Network 10.

The NFF’s climate policy is clear: farming and agriculture cannot be worse off going forward with any carbon commitments or emissions reduction schemes. The NFF has a clear climate change policy that supports an economy-wide NCZ 2050 target with two clear caveats – that there is an economically viable pathway forward and agriculture is not worse off.

Analysts say the latest cattle industry projections suggest record cattle prices could last through the rest of calendar 2021. Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) 2021 Cattle Industry Projections forecasts cattle slaughter to fall to its lowest level in 25 years as producers retain stock. The rebuild comes after cattle numbers fell to 24.6 million head in 2020 – their lowest level since the early 1990s – as a result of prolonged and severe drought.

Research has shown that introducing lambs to supplementary feed earlier aids in rumen development, which leads to faster weight gain and potentially earlier joining of the ewe lambs. However, to do this effectively, the ewes need to be excluded from the feeders. Over the past two years, MLA has funded a Producer Demonstration Site exploring the use of exclusion feeders with lambs. NSW farming systems group, FarmLink is running the trial with Anthony Shepherd from Sheepmatters, and a number of producers from around the south-western NSW region ...

The Future Food Systems Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has welcomed Australia’s longest-established plant-based health-food manufacturer, Sanitarium Health Food Companyâ„¢, into its consortium. Australia’s iconic health-food brand is set to work with UNSW food-technology specialists in CRC projects to improve the functional properties of innovative plant-based protein products, starting with its Barista dairy-free milk range.