Agriculture

Chinese billionaire Xingfa Ma’s Tianma Bearing Group (TBG) has listed the modern feedlot and grazing property Emu Downs for lease, while it continues to shop around Balfour Downs and Wandanya stations in the Pilbara region.

Four Limestone Coast farmers have shared their experiences of precision agriculture as part of an online roadshow produced by the Society of Precision Agriculture Australia. “We know farmers love nothing better than to visit other farms,” she said. “They enjoy seeing what’s working and what isn’t, and hearing other farmers talk about the lessons they’ve learned.

Jesse Scott, Chief Innovation and Growth Officer for GrainCorp, speaks with Fiona Fox from Australian Rural & Regional News about his background, his role at GrainCorp, GrainCorp's core businesses and some of its newer projects, including with FutureFeed and the Asparagopsis (red seaweed) industry, alternative protein and smart agriculture.

“At a dog park in Sydney in 2018, my wife and I got to talking about food security; how the global population is forecast to grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050, yet we don’t have enough protein to feed everyone. I was looking at the ‘fur babies’, wondering how we could feed them more sustainably: could we feed them insect protein instead?” asked Shaun Eislers, founder of BuggyBix.

The 2021 show is a grassroots, community focused event. It is the result of the year-long efforts of the local 10 committee members and their families, the Support Officer, an army of over 50 volunteers, tenders and casual workers.

In July 2021, timber mills in NSW have or are running out of timber in the middle of an Australian and international timber shortage, where timber supply comes from the NSW State Government. People have or are about to lose their jobs. These are real people. The little people or the battlers. Not the high paid executives of multinational companies. On 2 July 2021, one of these battlers in desperation called the ABC in Tamworth. The company for whom he worked had run out of wood and could not get any from the State supplier, because it was all going to one big company, the mate of the Government. Boral.

On World Zoonoses Day, Australia’s Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Mark Schipp has highlighted how the risk of zoonoses, diseases which can be transmitted to humans from animals, can be reduced through practising good animal biosecurity and hygiene control procedures. The bacterial disease leptospirosis is an example of a zoonotic disease of worldwide importance. The disease has been reported in over 150 mammalian species around the world, including wildlife, rodents, cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, and people.

With Forestry Corporation gearing up to replant nearly 3,000 hectares of Bathurst State forests this year, Silviculture Supervisor Bill Klower is looking forward to seeing the start of another forestry cycle. Since 1988 Bill has worked as a planting supervisor, overseeing around three million seedlings hand-planted each year since in the Oberon and Bathurst areas.

A record four million seedling dispatch has kicked off from Forestry Corporation of NSW’s Grafton nursery, which following the site’s $1 million expansion in 2020 ... The work has meant the nursery will have the largest dispatch on record this year, said Forestry Corporation’s Nursery Manager, Kath French.

South East Queensland’s Shamrock Vale Station and its world-class Wagyu operation has been sold to a Brisbane-based buyer for $27 million. Spanning 1,857 hectares in the Kerry Valley area of south east Queensland’s Scenic Rim on the Albert River, the property has fertile alluvial cultivated river flats running to undulating ridges and gullies, with plateaus of sheltered grazing.

New York-based investment firm The Rohatyn Group is hoping for more than $55 million from the sale of the 28,000-hectare Kaiuroo Aggregation in Central Queensland’s Mackenzie River district.

Kirstin Nicholson. A Cohuna vet has taken out the Agricultural Student of the Year award. Amy Munro received the award at a ceremony held at Parliament House in Canberra on June 17. Amy, who grew up on her family farm at Cumnock in New South Wales, is an associate veterinary surgeon at Clavin Rogers and Associates. She moved here in August last year after graduating from university.

A hereford bull smashed a Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange sales record last week. The bull fetched $16,000 at the annual Ramsey & Bulmer Bull and Female auction. The price was $7000 more than last year’s top-priced seller.

The commodity price boom – which has seen some agricultural commodities rise to seven-year highs in recent months – has “rubbed off” on the wool market with prices recovering from last year’s lows, albeit not to the same heady highs, according to agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank.

The BEST Nursery in Inverell has received around one million radiata pine seedlings from Forestry Corporation of NSW in preparation for a bumper 2021 State forest planting program. The nursery will manage the seedlings on behalf of Forestry Corporation to acclimatise to northern NSW conditions, before they continue their journey to the Walcha region for planting.

The first of over 9.1 million pine seedlings have started their journey to State forests across NSW from Forestry Corporation of NSW’s Blowering Nursery, the largest crop in the nursery’s history. Phil Green, Plantation Improvement Manager, said the 9.1 million seedlings will join with a further five million from the Grafton Nursery and contracted supply and will be planted to rebuild fire-affected and previously harvested plantations around Tumut, Bombala, Bathurst, Mossvale, Walcha and Grafton.

Forestry Corporation of NSW has started its record 2021 replanting program, with three million seedlings set to be replanted into 2,800 hectares of Bathurst pine plantations previously harvested or affected by the black summer bushfires. Forestry Corporation’s Silviculture Manager Mike Freeman said this winter’s planting program is an important milestone in the organisation’s bushfire recovery program.