Research

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.

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.

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 decade long study has found there is no evidence that lethal control to reduce livestock losses and for conservation of native wildlife in the southern rangelands of Western Australia is putting dingo purity at risk. The research found that lethal control did not accelerate hybridisation between dingoes and domestic dogs or have any impact on the genetic structure of the population in the study area over 11 years.

Businesses in regional and rural Australia have prospered in the past year and are well placed to consolidate their gains in the year ahead, NAB’s second annual Horizons Report shows. NAB Executive for Regional and Agribusiness, Khan Horne, said the report reflects a recovery from a bust-boom cycle of drought years followed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jenn Lavers. In April, the Adrift Lab team returned to Lord Howe Island ... While Lord Howe Island is the world’s single largest population of Flesh-footed Shearwaters, this same iconic species also breeds throughout the Recherche Archipelago off the coast of Esperance.

On 14th of February 2023, 20 students aged 8 to 11 years old from Lord Howe Island became marine scientists for the day. In doing so, they joined UNESCO’s global environmental DNA research initiative that is being rolled out across 25 marine World Heritage sites to better understand ocean biodiversity and the impacts of climate change.

The nation is on track to plant an impressive 23.48 million hectare winter crop this year – up slightly on last year’s crop area – Rabobank says in its newly-released 2023/24 Australian Winter Crop Outlook ... overall harvest totals are forecast to be lower than last season, with expectations of drier growing conditions due to the likely transition to an El Nino climate cycle, the specialist agribusiness bank says.

The DPIRD researchers are working with commercial rock lobster and crab fishers to deploy and retrieve high tech cameras that film the marine environment and fish on their way down to the seabed as well as record the water temperature on the ocean floor ... DPIRD said by the middle of this year, more than 30 of the so-called POTBots will be deployed off Western Australia...

Farm fertiliser "affordability" is starting to improve across the globe, with a likely recovery in application in some regions in 2023, Rabobank says in a recently-released report ... The report, titled Improved Affordability Ahead, says global fertiliser prices had begun to trend higher in 2021 due to supply chain constraints resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Charles Sturt University researcher has developed a mobile phone app that provides information about NSW river levels in a 50-kilometre radius from the user. The ‘RiversNearMe’ app was developed by Dr Darren Yates, a postdoctoral research scientist in the Charles Sturt School of Computing, Mathematics and Engineering and in the Charles Sturt Gulbali Institute of Agriculture, Water and Environment.

‘Branching Out”, the latest report on the NSW native forestry by the Blueprint Institute, was released on 26 April and put into the media with the subeditorial line “Report outlines economic benefit of ending native forest logging’ ... The Report should be marked ‘draft’ given its deficiencies - and that is being generous.

So far in May, the S&P GSCI Agriculture Index has declined a modest 0.6% amid the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) and ample grain and oilseed supplies ... Losses across most G&O markets (-2.6% on average) were largely offset by gains across softs (+2.2%).

A landmark report by the National Farmers’ Federation and KPMG released on 25 May 2023 has underscored the need for better engagement to unlock the economic potential of Indigenous agriculture. The Realising the Opportunity report, released at an NFF forum in Darwin on 25 May 2023, aims to strengthen the economic and cultural empowerment of Indigenous Australians through accessible and collaborative pathways in agriculture.

Regional job advertisements grew three times faster than in metropolitan Australia at the end of 2022, with demand for doctors and nurses skyrocketing, according to new research by the Regional Australia Institute (RAI) ... “Medical Practitioner and Nurse vacancies in regions represented almost half the total national vacancies for this occupation grouping, despite regional Australia representing only one third of the population”: Liz Ritchie, RAI CEO.

This project assessed the impact on honey bee biosecurity of reduced access to public land floral resources as a result of the 2019-20 Australian bushfire crisis. It investigated current biosecurity programs and practices, gaps in biosecurity coverage, beekeeper use of public lands and biosecurity risk as a result of changes in the beekeeper’s enterprise, and delivered recommendations relating to policy change, technology investment and research and development.

Australia’s beef sector is set for a return to "more normal" market conditions in the season ahead, after a recent extraordinary period marked by record prices levels and volatility, according to Rabobank’s Australian Beef Seasonal Outlook 2023. But while prices are projected to track in a narrower range – at close to current levels – through the year, this is still "historically high’ and expectations are that beef producer margins will remains strong, the agribusiness banking specialist says.

Charles Sturt University academics are collaborating on an international project to investigate how racehorses express positive emotions in their interaction with humans. Researchers from Charles Sturt, EITITe PÅ«kenga in New Zealand and Hartpury University in the United Kingdom have secured funding from the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) Equine Welfare Foundation for the three-year study.

Researchers have made a scientific breakthrough which could significantly advance understanding herbicide resistance in Ryegrass, with the new information set to help combat the weed for Australian grain growers.

The global avocado trade will continue to grow in the next few years, but the market will be more competitive, forcing operators to be not only more efficient, but also increasingly sustainable, according to a new report by agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank. In the report Global Avocado Growth Far From Over, Rabobank says world avocado production expanded by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately seven per cent over the past decade.