Agriculture

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has seized and destroyed over 276,000 kilograms of illicit tobacco across two separate properties in regional NSW. Illicit tobacco equivalent to the weight of approximately 14 bulldozers was seized, with a total estimated foregone excise value of more than $52 million.

Australia’s most trusted rural charity, Rural Aid, has helped Northern Rivers farmers turn rotting flood waste into a healthy by-product for soil improvement, through a partnership with Multikraft Probiotic Solutions. Multikraft’s MicroBalance product was last week sprayed by helicopter onto 33 farms in northern New South Wales.

Logan City Council has opened an innovative new facility that turns human waste into energy and fertiliser ... The facility, which is the first of its kind in Australia, blasts sewage with extremely high heat to turn it into a product called biochar. Biochar can be used for a variety of purposes including as a fertiliser for the agricultural industry. It also has potential applications in the building industry.

Norco dairy farmers are to receive an immediate price increase of five cents a litre to support them in farm production after the floods. Norco Co-operative’s 281 members will receive the extra five cents a litre paid as a co-operative premium above the normal milk prices, taking the average price to 84c a litre.

What a stuff up! The Solomon Islands entering a security agreement with the Chinese Government has all the ring of the fiasco of the signing of the Darwin Port agreement with a Chinese company with very close ties to the Chinese Government. The pattern for both agreements from an Australia point of view is remarkable similar, probably best called the ‘do nothing syndrome’.

GRDC Agronomy Solutions Director Sean Mason ... says the use of pre-season soil testing results from within paddock zones together with test strips can fine-tune fertiliser recommendations and ensure growers are getting the most bang for their fertiliser buck.

The NSW Government is introducing new Farm Forestry Codes of Practice that will ensure long-term sustainability for the industry and provide robust environmental protections across the NSW private forestry estate. The new Codes, which come into effect on Monday, 2 May 2022, are the result of a rigorous review of Farm Forestry in NSW as well as advice from the Natural Resource Commission.

Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonno Duniam said the Farm Forestry: Growing Together strategy recognises the opportunities presented by farm forestry for both farmers and Australia’s forest industries. "We're seeing an increasing demand for timber products, as well as the development of new carbon markets that reward farmers for planting trees,” Assistant Minister Duniam said.

“National parks should not be purchased unless there are funds to fully fence and maintain the park. They are the worst neighbours one could wish for with little to no weed control, no fences, nobody living on the property, little fire-fighting capability, and a propensity to shoot cattle" : Sally Witherspoon, Cape York cattle farmer.

Dave Donald. While anti-fishing groups have long been opposed to recreational fishing, to claim they have colluded in a major way to “slash Spanish mackerel quotas” is a fabrication. Seeking to lay the blame for the depletion of Spanish mackerel stocks solely on Labor is another furphy as exceptionally poor fisheries management under BOTH major parties essentially created the current situation.

"Australia sells energy and food to the world, so the tragedy in Ukraine means that our miners and farmers have seen the spoils of war."

Serena Kirby. The Denmark seed library has given out 1300 seed packets since it began in November 2020. Instigated and run by the Denmark Library, there is a biannual Seed Library gathering held at the start of autumn and spring where library members can meet and access free seeds.

The Narrandera High School agricultural show team has followed up on their recent success of champion school at the National Angora Trophy Show in Goulburn by taking out the champion school title in the Angora Goats section at the Sydney Royal Easter Show for the second year in a row.

A Charles Sturt University agribusiness expert suggests Australia can anticipate an increase in wheat exports to countries affected by the Ukraine-Russia conflict and should target those importing nations’ requirements.

The 93rd Bonalbo Show will be held on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 April.  Gate entry this year is free, so come along and support your local show and have a great family day out.

Katter's Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter has backed a Cairns game fishing leader’s condemnation of the state government for siding with anti-fishing groups to slash Spanish mackerel quotas ... Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association spokesman Dan McCarthy said the survey on the management measures for the east coast Spanish mackerel fishery released by DAF was skewed towards severe restrictions and used a very different stock assessment model and method to any ever used before.

Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 April 2022 the Kempsey Show is back on, and we are going all out to provide the community with an action-packed show.

The community-based Speak Up Campaign has joined the growing list of organisations expressing concern at last week’s Labor Party announcement around implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. In particular is the issue of water buybacks, which Labor’s Shadow Water Minister Terri Butler conceded, “If we have to” was “an option that will have to be pursued.”

"There are real opportunities to deliver environmental outcomes to the river system without reducing production. I would call on both sides to put aside the political point scoring around who's tougher on water, and instead build upon the opportunities in the basin plan that have been hard fought but are still yet incomplete": Richard Bootle, NSW Farmers Water Taskforce Chair.

According to a recent survey by Farmbot of farmers across Australia, their two primary concerns are poor phone reception and a need to manually check water points ... ARR.News asks a few questions of Andrew Coppin, founder and CEO of Farmbot, provider of remote water monitoring solutions.

The President of the Yass Show Society Anne Hazell said that the Yass Show, held on Saturday 19 March 2022 as a one day traditional agricultural show with the theme of showcasing the local region, was a great success.