WA

Argentina has long interested me. Just how a country blessed with their natural assets and European colonial history has managed to turn itself from being one of the 10 wealthiest countries in the world prior to the first world war to 65th in the world is a case study of the failings of popularist socialist government policies ... Imagine paying out $50 per tonne tax for the privilege of growing a tonne of wheat and then having to pay tax on any profits you manage to make.   It may sound mad but it's not that far from Albanese's new biosecurity tax on farm gate production.

Tickets are officially on sale for The Power Shift: Transitioning Farm Communities to Renewables ... Supported by Western Power and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, AgZero 2030 is bringing together a range of quality speakers to cover all topics of the energy transition and how it impacts farms, agriculture and our communities.

Seeding is underway for most Australian grain producers with many in parts  of western and southern Australia reducing their canola plantings as they continue to wait for a proper season break  in the absence of any rain. The longer growing season required by canola had  many growers pinning their hopes on an April break according to Grain Producers Australia Chair Barry Large.  

This year’s Countryman Gidgegannup Small Farm Field Day is shaping up to be another great event.  Jam packed full of information, exhibitors and entertainment.     Once again we are joined by the Honey Festival and the Slow Food Movement with the Olive Festival.

The Nationals WA have labelled the Government’s last-minute amendment to allow select firearms to be authorised for more than one licence purpose as a win for firearms owners ... "this move is a sensible concession from WA Labor and the first sign they are acknowledging some of the concerning aspects of this legislation": Shane Love.

Yesterday in Canberra, the WAFarmers and the National Farmers' Federation (NFF) joined a walk out of the federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt during the budget breakfast, with industry leaders wearing a ‘Keep the Sheep’ tee shirt. The Minister was not impressed ... The farmers might be irrelevant to the ALP, but the voting public are suspicious of governments that are seen to sell out the farmers that grow the grain used to breed the geese that feed the workers that mine the gold that the government uses to buy votes.

Twenty-three horses and riders tackled the WA Endurance Riders Association Denmark ride on Saturday, May 4. The ride base was on private property on Mt Lindesay Road and riders tackled distances ranging from 12-80km on local roads and forest tracks.

Serena Kirby. Denmark's newest painting group is encouraging artists to step outside and embrace the great outdoors. Taking its name from the French word for ‘out-of-doors’ the ‘plein air’ painters group is the brainchild of Kat Lamb who started the group two months ago.

Denmark's singing soul comprises folk, barbershop, gospel, world music, sea shanties, early music, new music and Baroque. There are many local choirs to perform at the Denmark Festival of Voice ... The Festival of Voice from May 31 to June 3 provides an introduction to community singing at its best.

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The export of live sheep by sea from Australia will end on 1 May 2028, with legislation enacting the phase out to be introduced in this term of Parliament ... While the live sheep export industry has been in decline for many years, down from $415m in 2002-03 to $77m in 2022-23, the demand for processed sheepmeat both here and overseas has been rapidly expanding. This presents an opportunity for more processing to occur onshore in WA ...

The Shire of Gingin is advertising for a new chief executive officer following the resignation of Aaron Cook in March and during a period of uncertainty about whether the shire is being investigated ... Shire of Gingin President Wayne Fewster said the shire had recently established a CEO recruitment panel and a recruitment consultant had also been appointed to take the panel through the CEO recruitment process.

What activists want Watt delivers. Watt farmers fear. What's next on Watt's hit list. What to do with Watt. All questions Western Australian farmers are now asking after last week's decision to move ahead with the live export ban. On the hookup when the Minister announced his plan, Murray Watt is quick to call me out when I questioned his motives claiming I was being personal.

I was working for the WA Minister for Agriculture Ken Baston back in 2010, during the last big drought and, like Jackie Jarvis with the current dry, he had to deal with calls from industry for the Government to do something. At the time, as Chief of Staff, I asked the Department what the State's legislated responsibilities were when it came to dry seasons and the advice that came back was pretty simple - ‘soils and animal welfare', that’s it. Farmers were on their own when it came to subsidies for fodder or transport.

The 2024 Rural Bank Australian Farmland Values Report finds that Australian farmland values have now recorded a full decade of unbroken growth. While 2023 saw a rise in the national median price, capping off an extraordinary period for farmland values, it also marked a shift in the market as the pace of growth slowed considerably.

Geoff Pearson. Two weeks ago 300 farmers from across the South West convened an urgent drought meeting to address what is one of the driest seasons experienced in living memory across what is traditionally the wettest part of Western Australia. It’s at times like these that the State and Federal governments need to step up and support farmers to rectify where they have made things worse through past policy mistakes.

Robbs coming back to rob you, that’s Robbs jetty for those who weren’t born long enough ago to recall the smell of rotting hides at Cockburn. Those born even longer ago will recall the endless strife of the WA state-run meatworks that were a bastion of union bastardry. Why are they coming back? Well, the Federal government has committed Australia to borrowing billions of dollars off countries that are not handicapping themselves with mad Green left anti-fossil fuel regulations (think China and the Middle East) to invest in the Future Made in Australia program.

Patricia Gill. ANZAC Day was marked in Denmark last week with a recollection of service and sacrifice in all wars at the War Memorial ... Denmark Historical Society president Bev McGuinness in her address to the crowd gathered said this year marked 110 years since the beginning of WWI. At that time Denmark’s population was only 200, though 83 men and two women enlisted and of those 37 men died. Both the women, Nellie Saw and Florence McKenzie, who were nurses, died soon after the war.

Serena Kirby. This year marks 100 years since the Country Women’s Association of WA was established and the Denmark branch held a special gathering to celebrate the occasion ... "more younger women are joining as they’re making it work for them by meeting in the evenings and weekends instead of during weekdays": CWA State treasurer, Carolyn Cover.

Patricia Gill. An arsonist is believed to have started a bushfire last Wednesday night igniting up to 13,700ha of the Walpole/Nornalup National Park. The arsonist is believed to have ignited seven fires along Middle Road all of which but one joined up to raze 70 per cent of the park and a small amount of agricultural land ... most of the peat swamps in the northern part of the national park had been burnt.

Frank Batini. I have observed patterns of foliage scorch, some tree deaths and then recovery in the northern jarrah forest for 22 years. These can be readily explained in terms of soil depth, water-holding capacity, winter rainfall and summer drought ... My hypothesis is that this forest has repeatedly shown resilience to drought ... This is the “good news”, as opposed to the alarmism of other commentators.

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