Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan is chairing the Senate Select Committee on Agriculture and Related Industries. The Senate committee is enquiring into the markup between farm gate and shop shelf, fertiliser prices etc; and the running of agribusiness Managed Investment Schemes, including the damage caused by the collapse of Timbercorp and Great Southern. Bill’s a Riverina […]
Fiona Lake Blog
Feral Goats in Australia
June 6th, 2009Goats arrived in Australia with the first Europeans. For many decades goats were the much-appreciated sole source of milk for early settlers in harsh tropical climates, where poor quality pasture and high humidity do not suit dairy cattle. Goats were useful transport and entertainment for bush kids who would rig up little buggies to be […]
Imported pet food has killed cats so they stop irradiating it, rather than banning importation
June 6th, 2009A link has apparently been proven between the irradiation of imported pet food and cat deaths. By law, imported pet food has had to to be irradiated, to ensure no pests and diseases are imported into Australia. As pet food is made from the very worst rubbish meat and scraps that can’t be sold for […]
Farmers and the Emmissions Trading Scheme
June 5th, 2009Steve Truman of Agmates whops it up state and federal farming organisations, for their lack of effort on preventing the Federal Governments nutter Emissions Trading Scheme. I guess I just keep thinking that eventually people will wake up and realise the ludicrousness of the scheme, and that’s it’s simply a bright idea that even the […]
AACo Board Meeting set for 12 June
June 3rd, 2009Fairfax’s Business Today reports that Brett Heading said Nick Burton-Taylor was ‘primarily responsible for the departure of former Chief Executive Don Mackay’, amongst other very thought-provoking comments. An article well worth reading by AACo shareholders and AACo employees. Oh to be a fly on the wall and know the full story from both sides. The […]
The survival of Australian books written & illustrated by Australians
June 3rd, 2009The Australian Productivity Commission has been asked to review the 1968 copyright act which restricts the parallel importation of books, with a view to ditching this restriction. This would have a severely detrimental effect on the Australian publishing industry – resulting in thousands of poor quality, irrelevant importations being dumped here and a huge drop […]
Farmers voices uniting all over the world, at last
June 2nd, 2009With increasing urbanisation, worldwide, it has become increasingly apparent that farmers often have more fundamentals in common with farmers in other countries, than they have in common with inner-city residents of their own countries. And that farmers, worldwide, have many basic problems in common. At long last, instant and virtually cost-free worldwide networks are forming, […]
International Federation of Agricultural Journalists ‘Star’ prize
June 2nd, 2009This year 20 of the 29 member countries of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists sent entries to the IFAJ’s ‘Star’ Prize for Agricultural Photography. A record 157 photographs have been entered into the three categories – Nature, People and Production. As usual, the competition will be judged by three photographers from different countries – […]
Life Source – Queensland
June 1st, 2009Life Source is a new organisation which was launched at Beef 2009 at Rockhampton, aimed at countering increasingly negative agricultural stereotypes. Peter Mahoney, of Theodore, is the primary contact. While the Queensland Country Life has indicated that fighting the tree-clearing ban is a primary objective, Life Source appears to have broader objectives than that. Life […]