The good seasons and red hot global prices that have come together to make these times among the most prosperous for much of Australian agriculture won’t last long. It will be the push for productivity growth in the face of a changing climate, the ability to meet sustainability expectations on a competitive footing and ongoing.
NSW and Queensland farmers can now apply for grants of up to $50,000 to salvage damaged crops and stock, rebuild fences and replace machinery. The grants are jointly-funded by state and federal governments to help agriculture rebuild after November’s flood events. The grants are immediately available to farmers in local government areas which were disaster-declared.
Farmers are cashing in on the domestic tourism boom and diversifying their income by offering up their property to camping. The website Hipcamp has seen the number of landowners offering their property up to private campers double in the past 18 months to more than 2000, with the vast majority of them either farms, hobby.
Grassed up northern buyers chomping at the bit as La Nina continues to flex are keeping their cards close to their chest heading into the big January southern weaner sales. Their influence could be enormous. Equally, red hot demand from southern restockers looking to replenish paddocks is creating a forecast price range for young cattle.
Connor FitzGerald works in an office in the middle of Sydney, but with his rural childhood, career in agriculture and passion for the land, this is a guy who straddles the country/city divide with ease. “I always knew I’d work in agriculture, but it took me a while to figure out how that would look,”.
Widespread rainfall across much of Australia during November has set up a promising summer season for sheep and wool production. Shorn wool production for 2021-22 is forecast to lift 8 per cent on the year prior with 318 million kilograms greasy predicted. The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee’s estimates, released on Friday, also forecast shorn.
Beef prices might steady a little, grain growers should do well despite wheat quality downgrades, dairy prices will stay high, lamb will be in demand and fine wool will be just that, fine. Those, in a nutshell, are the Rural Bank Australian Agriculture Outlook’s predictions for 2022. While the bank’s forecasts show some sectors are.
Two graduates have picked up roles in the Australian Wool Innovation Graduate Training Program for 2022. Chris Watt and Tom Hersee, both from NSW, will both undertake the intensive 18-month program. AWI acting CEO John Roberts says the program provides a thorough understanding of the wool supply chain from fibre to fashion. “The program began.
The Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association has taken many a hurdle in its stride in the past 50 years and now it’s proving that a global pandemic is another barrier it can overcome. The federal council of the geographically isolated education lobby group will be welcoming over 200 delegates to Longreach from Tuesday, 140 of them.
As a little girl growing up in her father’s open-air theatre in outback Queensland, Geraldine Coughlan learned early on it takes resilience to make sure the show can go on. “My father took over in 1965 after my grandfather passed away and I was a 66 baby, so I’ve grown up literally my whole life with the theatre at our back.
