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30 Nov 2005 | Feral animals as pesky as ever
A parliamentary inquiry found feral pigs, wild dogs, cats and rabbits were the most destructive pests in Australia. ...... FULL STORY
30 Nov 2005 | Wet winter and mild spring equals bumper harvest
Late winter rains and mild spring weather have helped push up estimates for the winter crop. ...... FULL STORY
30 Nov 2005 | Fuel price eats into farm profit margins
Poor prices for wheat and feed barley mean the bumper winter crop may not rescue farm finances after several years of dry conditions. ...... FULL STORY
30 Nov 2005 | Pacific National threatens to end grain freight
Pacific National threatened to shut down five grain freight lines almost immediately, and may shut three other freight lines in Victoria if the state government refuses to pay $50 million the company is demanding to fund track maintenance. ...... FULL STORY
29 Nov 2005 | Apples and pears left to rot
Orchardists may dump up to 12,000 tonnes of juicing apples next season because of cheap imports. ...... FULL STORY
29 Nov 2005 | ABB grain receivals well down
ABB Grain said its takeover of AusBulk and United Grower Holdings last year helped diversify and grow profit despite the poor 2004/05 harvest. ...... FULL STORY
28 Nov 2005 | McGuigan suspends wine grape contracts
McGuigan Simeon Wines said it would suspend some grape grower contracts. ...... FULL STORY
28 Nov 2005 | SA adopts livestock ID system
South Australia said it would implement the National Livestock Identification System for sheep and goats from January. ...... FULL STORY
28 Nov 2005 | Backpackers take advantage of extended visas
Five hundred backpackers are taking advantage of changes to visa rules for short term visitors. ...... FULL STORY
25 Nov 2005 | Grape Growers didn’t see the Wine Lake Coming
The surplus of wine grapes will take two to three years to subside as growers called on wineries to communicate better and take a longer term view to assist industry planning. ...... FULL STORY
25 Nov 2005 | Farm groups divided on Telstra’s 3G plans
Telstra said it would not close the CDMA network that serves country customers until the 3G network is up and running. ...... FULL STORY
24 Nov 2005 | Fishing towns face up to smaller catch
The federal government will buy out half of all commonwealth licensed commercial fishers in a $220 million restructure of the industry. ...... FULL STORY
24 Nov 2005 | Timber group turns to cattle
Great Southern Plantations said that over the past two years it expanded beyond its founding bluegum woodlots into vineyards, organic olives and cattle, with its first cattle product expected in February ...... FULL STORY
24 Nov 2005 | GrainCorp targets seasonal finance
Barley and wheat marketer GrainCorp said it plans to launch loan book product next year, adding to its AGFinance deposits business. ...... FULL STORY
23 Nov 2005 | Power companies want to provide Broadband
Eleven electricity utilities joined forces to maximise value from their infrastructure and use their fibre cable to deliver broadband to rural Australia. ...... FULL STORY
23 Nov 2005 | Extra Water means more fish in Murray
The Barmah-Millewa Forest near Echuca on the Murray River is benefiting from increased environmental water allocations with fish stocks set to boom this breeding season. ...... FULL STORY
23 Nov 2005 | Hoppers ready to grow wings
Farmers are being told to look out for and begin spraying hoppers as the Victorian government identified and begun spraying of large bands of the young locusts near Mitiamo and Shepparton. ...... FULL STORY
23 Nov 2005 | No more Q Fever Vaccine
Drug company CSL has enraged the livestock industry with the announcement that it pans to stop producing Q Fever vaccine. ...... FULL STORY
22 Nov 2005 | Hundred year old plant gets upgraded
Murray Goulburn will spend $135 million upgrading its processing plant in South Gippsland. ...... FULL STORY
22 Nov 2005 | Road and rail problems cutting export volumes
The federal parliamentary committee looking into the integration of ports with the rail and road networks heard that better infrastructure could add two per cent to export volumes. ...... FULL STORY
21 Nov 2005 | Labour shortage holds back the bush
Farmers and businesses in the bush say they cannot find enough labour. ...... FULL STORY
21 Nov 2005 | Aussies not keen to pick fruit
Growers say they are being forced to abandon crops because they can no longer find people for the physically demanding and very seasonal work of fruit and vegetable harvesting. ...... FULL STORY
21 Nov 2005 | Queensland wants control over water
Eighteen councils from the Gold to Sunshine coasts and west to Ipswich may lose their control over water supply to a single state government entity in a Beattie government plan to cope with drought and water restrictions. ...... FULL STORY
21 Nov 2005 | Iraq says it may still buy Australian wheat
Peter McGauran, the federal minister for agriculture, said he received an assurance from the Iraqi government that wheat sales to Iraq would continue unimpeded. ...... FULL STORY
21 Nov 2005 | Doubts over rolling stock to move east coast grain harvest
Pacific National may have insufficient trains to move this season’s wheat harvest on the east coast. ...... FULL STORY
18 Nov 2005 | Government wants wireless in the bush
Wireless telecommunications projects in the bush will be favoured under the federal government’s $1.1 billion Connect Australia fund, the money set aside for regional areas to encourage the passage of the Telstra sale legislation. ...... FULL STORY
18 Nov 2005 | GM pea trial abandoned
CSIRO will destroy its experimental genetically modified pea crop after mice that ate the peas suffered adverse reactions and their lung tissue became inflamed. ...... FULL STORY
18 Nov 2005 | Tasmanian cherries nicked not picked
President of Fruit Growers Tasmania, Tim Reid has been accused of taking illegal cuttings from cherry trees in Japan and bringing them back to Australia. ...... FULL STORY
18 Nov 2005 | Cattle and Sheep Meat Prices to ease in New Year
The return of the US to global markets, growth in exports from Brazil and the slowing of demand will see cattle prices ease off over the next five to ten years Meat & Livestock Australia told producers yesterday. ...... FULL STORY
18 Nov 2005 | Winemakers suffer from too many vines
Grape growers and winemakers are being told to pull up vines as they are producing more wine than can be sold or stored. ...... FULL STORY
18 Nov 2005 | Incitec pushes fertiliser prices higher
Elders and Landmark are winning market share from Incitec in fertiliser sales. ...... FULL STORY
17 Nov 2005 | US lifts ban on AWB after 6 Days
The US Department of Agriculture has lifted the credit ban it imposed on AWB. ...... FULL STORY
17 Nov 2005 | Guest Workers are biggest donors to developing economies
The World bank has urged Australia and other developed nations to accept more seasonal workers and low skilled migrants, especially from the Pacific Islands. ...... FULL STORY
17 Nov 2005 | Forest exports and imports rise
The forestry trade deficit remained above $2 billion despite a four per cent rise in the value of exports driven by strong growth in woodchip and recovered paper (wastepaper) exports, which almost doubled. ...... FULL STORY
17 Nov 2005 | Agribusiness the new battleground for lenders
The major banks as well as a host of other financial institutions are all aggressively pursuing farmers business as competition intensifies across the sector. ...... FULL STORY
17 Nov 2005 | AWB buys out Rabobank Loan book to create Rural Trust
AWB’s financial services arm Landmark will buy out Rabobank Australia’s $1.6 billion loan portfolio, which it already manages for the Dutch based bank, for $25 million and re-brand it under the Rural Trust name. ...... FULL STORY
16 Nov 2005 | Farmers advised to partially incorporate
Small farmers could establish companies to employ their workers whilst maintaining the family farm status to fully realise tax breaks as well as benefits flowing from the federal government’s WorkChoices legislation. ...... FULL STORY
16 Nov 2005 | US wheat growers target AWB monopoly
US wheat growers said AWB’s monopoly on Australian wheat exports should “go away” but denied their group was lobbying in Washington for further action against the Australian Wheat Board. ...... FULL STORY
16 Nov 2005 | Potato famine in Tasmania
Tasmanian supermarkets are putting up signs on empty shelves advising shoppers that no potatoes are available because spring rain has made paddocks too waterlogged to harvest and potatoes cannot be brought from interstate... ...... FULL STORY
15 Nov 2005 | US locks AWB out of soft loans
The US Department of Agriculture advised AWB that it was being suspended from the USDA Supplier Credit Guarantee Program. ...... FULL STORY
15 Nov 2005 | Bus services expanded in the bush
The Victorian government said it would extend bus services within and to 16 country towns including Shepparton, Mildura, Echuca, and Morwell. ...... FULL STORY
15 Nov 2005 | CBH sells transport arm
The board of grain handler CBH dumped its chairman, Robert Sewell, after 18 months and divested its interest, at an undisclosed profit, in its logistics subsidiary due to its 'lack of fit'. ...... FULL STORY
14 Nov 2005 | Downer rejects compensation for Iraq
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi suspended Australian wheat imports in lieu of compensation for $290 million in AWB kickbacks channelled to Saddam Hussein... ...... FULL STORY
14 Nov 2005 | Farmers want more areas declared disaster zones
The Carbonne, Wellington and Parkes shires have been declared disaster areas after widespread flooding and storms caused an estimated $16million damage to crops fences and houses. ...... FULL STORY
14 Nov 2005 | E.Coli common in imported vegetables
The federal government said that 14 of 97 imported vegetable types tested by AQIS were found to be contaminated with E.coli, with two other samples also testing positive for pesticide residue. ...... FULL STORY
11 Nov 2005 | CowBank a tale of milk and money
CowBank, a Melbourne-based agribusiness finance company, specialises in leasing dairy cows. ...... FULL STORY
11 Nov 2005 | Wool walks a fine line
The production of fine wool – with 19.5 microns and finer – has increased from 10 per cent of all wool production in the 1990s to 30 per cent today. ...... FULL STORY
11 Nov 2005 | Russia wants to grow own Roo meat
Russian demand for Kangaroo meat is now so great that Russian producers are considering farming the animals in Russia itself. ...... FULL STORY
10 Nov 2005 | Live Seep Exporters to be charged with Cruelty
Directors of the export company responsible for the 100,000 sheep aboard the MV Al Kuwait in November 2003 are to be charged with cruelty following the deaths of 1,000 of the animals en route to Kuwait. ...... FULL STORY
10 Nov 2005 | Roberts buys water rights from Meander Dam
Tasmanian agricultural company Roberts said it would buy water rights from the Meander Dam project. ...... FULL STORY
10 Nov 2005 | Tree plantations halt rural population decline
The New South Wales minister for forestry and conservation, Ian Macdonald, said yesterday that contrary to popular belief tree plantations were halting population decline in rural areas. ...... FULL STORY
8 Nov 2005 | GM tolerance thresholds set
GrainCorp said NSW grain growers would not be liable for any unintended presence of genetically modified canola in their crops this harvest. ...... FULL STORY
8 Nov 2005 | Harvey Beef creditors lose half their funds
Unsecured creditors of Harvey Beef owner EG Green and Sons could be facing a return of just 32 cents in the dollar. ...... FULL STORY
8 Nov 2005 | Tree change fosters fast growth in coastal hinterland
A Local Government Association study has found central Victoria and central NSW, Tasmania and the region south of Perth are growing rapidly, ending years of stagnation. ...... FULL STORY
8 Nov 2005 | Cotton crop shrinks
Final cotton plantings nationwide are expected to reach between 250,000 and 300,000 hectares, compared with last season’s crop of 314,000 hectares. ...... FULL STORY
7 Nov 2005 | CSIRO shifts research focus
CSIRO said farm groups and parliamentarians were wrong in saying the science research organisation was cutting research resources for agriculture. ...... FULL STORY
7 Nov 2005 | Growth in regional centres confounds the cynics
Contrary to the simplistic view pervading urban Australia that the regions are struggling, many are thriving. ...... FULL STORY
7 Nov 2005 | Landmark Rockhampton cattle stations sold
The family companies of central Queensland cattleman Graham McCamley, in partnership with other local businessmen, contracted to buy three cattle stations near Rockhampton. ...... FULL STORY
7 Nov 2005 | Banrock Station surrenders Murray water licences
Hardy Wine Company said it would remove two irrigation pumps from Banrock Station, 250 kilometres east of Adelaide on the Murray River. ...... FULL STORY
7 Nov 2005 | Drought persists in NSW
The New South Wales government said it would commit a further $15 million in drought funding. ...... FULL STORY
4 Nov 2005 | Southern cattle farmers switch to feedlots
The quarterly survey of Australian feedlots by the Australian Lot Feeders Association found that national feeding capacity expanded another seven per cent to 1.1 million head in just three months. ...... FULL STORY
4 Nov 2005 | Chicken farms located too close to wetlands
Chicken farms located near wetlands inhabited by migratory birds are a "perfect" environment for the spread of avian influenza. ...... FULL STORY
4 Nov 2005 | Lightening strikes blow in northern NSW
Lightening storms killed hundreds of livestock in a series of strikes in northern New South Wales. ...... FULL STORY
4 Nov 2005 | WA grain harvest underway
WA grain farmers have begun the spring harvest. ...... FULL STORY
3 Nov 2005 | Fertiliser co-op can’t afford a rebate this year
United Farmers Co-op said it would not pay a rebate to its 3600 farmer members this year. ...... FULL STORY
3 Nov 2005 | Western dairy farmers lobby for price rise
Milk processors Harvey Fresh and Peters and Brownes will negotiate with lobby group WAFarmers over proposals to introduce a “gold medallion” scheme that would identify WA-produced milk. ...... FULL STORY
3 Nov 2005 | Murray Goulburn seeks UHT processor
Dairy exporter Murray Goulburn Co-operative is seeking to buy Tasmanian-based Classic Foods, producer of ultra heat treated or UHT food and beverage products. ...... FULL STORY
3 Nov 2005 | Bush petrol price premium widens
The Australian Automobile Association said the gap between city and regional petrol prices hit a record high during October. ...... FULL STORY
3 Nov 2005 | Chains loosed on Queensland sugar sales
The Queensland Government, Queensland Canegrowers Organisation and Australian Sugar Milling Council signed a memorandum of understanding on a new voluntary marketing system for the Queensland sugar industry. ...... FULL STORY
2 Nov 2005 | Landmark steps up a gear
Competition in rural banking is set to intensify further as AWB Landmark implements a new three-year plan for its financial services operations. ...... FULL STORY
2 Nov 2005 | Pears composted by imported concentrate
WA fruit growers expect to dump 1500 tonnes of juicing pears this season. ...... FULL STORY
2 Nov 2005 | Two GM canola varieties found in WA
Two commercial canola varieties grown in WA are contaminated with genetically modified material. ...... FULL STORY
2 Nov 2005 | Fine reduced for illegal tree clearing
A Queensland cattleman had his appeal against a tree clearing fine upheld in the Brisbane District Court. ...... FULL STORY
2 Nov 2005 | Backpackers eligible to work for a second season
Backpackers will be able to extend their visas for a second year, provided they worked for at least three months on the seasonal harvest in regional Australia. ...... FULL STORY
2 Nov 2005 | Beef exporters expect to maintain sales in Japan
Meat and Livestock Australia said they did believe that US beef imports to Japan, once they resume, will claim a much lower market share than before. ...... FULL STORY
1 Nov 2005 | Kiwi dairy giant sets up research centre in Melbourne
New Zealand dairy company Fonterra will establish a research and development centre in Melbourne. ...... FULL STORY
1 Nov 2005 | Farm machinery deal falls foul of WorkSafe
The WA second-hand farm machinery market is on the verge of collapse, according to dealers, after Worksafe placed 'improvement notices' on machinery on 15 dealerships across the state. ...... FULL STORY
1 Nov 2005 | US beef back on Japanese menus
Scientific experts in Tokyo yesterday declared that beef from the US was fit to import. ...... FULL STORY
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