15 Dec 99 |
TREASURER Peter Costello has been forced to back away from his radical suggestion last weekend to boost country employment by cutting minimum wages.
After strong criticism from within his own coalition ranks and the National Farmers Federation, Mr
15 Dec 99 | CASH-strapped farmers leaving the land now have until the end of the financial year to apply for re-establishment grants under the Farm Family Restart Scheme (FFRS).
The scheme, which was originally to sunset on November 30, was extended to June 30 u
15 Dec 99 |
SALT is an integral part of Australia1s soils because of geological history, but clearing of vegetation, shallow-rooted crops and irrigation have disturbed the balance of salt occurrences in the landscape.
Saline soils affect six per cent of Austra
15 Dec 99 |
Country people are set to lose pace with their city counterparts in the income stakes by up to $4000 over the next five years, a new report into regional Australia has found.
The State of the Regions report, commissioned by the Australian Local Gov
15 Dec 99 |
ALTHOUGH masked in modesty, there seems to be a confidence and conviction when you speak to Holbrook, NSW, beef producer Harold Mathie that points to a job being well done.
Running the Wybalena partnership with his wife Maureen, son Andrew and daug
15 Dec 99 |
RALPH Jurgens, Tulare County, California, the United States, manufactures manure from 45,000 dairy cows into compost for an increasingly international market, including Australia.
This year for the first time, his New Era Farm Services exported 400
15 Dec 99 |
THE Victorian Labor government has joined forces of nature as another vagary mountain cattle producers have to deal with in trying to run a lease.
Seven cattlemen from the Alpine National Park in the Benison Plains area have been banned from grazin
15 Dec 99 | FINES of up to $40,000 could be the price to pay if stock agents do not comply with hormone growth promotant (HGP) regulations.
Last week a north Queensland Wesfarmers Dalgety store was fined $12,000 after pleading guilty to eight charges alleging 40
15 Dec 99 |
SUCCESSFUL dairy farming and lush green pastures go hand in hand in most people1s minds, but this is not always the case.
Despite farming under what many people would call difficult conditions, Philip and Diane Down, Meningie, South Australia, have
15 Dec 99 |
VICTORIAN cattle and dairyfarmers have had their compensation for stock affected by bovine Johne1s disease (BJD) halved.
Effective from last week, the cut was recommended to Agriculture Minister Keith Hamilton by the Cattle Compensation Advisory Co
15 Dec 99 |
Leaders of state dairyfarmer organisations publicly re-affirmed their support for industry deregulation last week, angering those farmers opposed to it.
The leaders of the Victorian Queensland, Tasmanian, NSW, Western Australian, South Australian a
15 Dec 99 |
LIVESTOCK selling in the new millennium arrived early at the Shepparton saleyards on Tuesday when they became the first in Australia to introduce electronic ear-tag reading equipment for the National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS).
The inst
15 Dec 99 |
IN a widely anticipated move, Vicgrain Ltd and its NSW counterpart GrainCorp Ltd this week announced plans to form a $500 million-plus grain handling giant.
Both companies say the merger will drive further rationalisation in Australia1s increasingl
15 Dec 99 | ALMOST 900,000 tonnes of grain were delivered to silos in the week to Monday as harvesting continued in full swing in Victoria and southern NSW after a slight disruption caused by rain and cool weather late last week.
Tonnages received at bulk handli
13 Dec 99 |
Wesfarmers has poured cold water on rumours that is about to merge its rural division, Wesfarmers Dalgety, with merchandise giant IAMA, by announcing it is about to commence a share buy-back which was proposed in August.
The directors of the compan
08 Dec 99 |
BUYERS involved in the electronic selling trials of carding wools have rejected the Australian Wool Exchange1s attempts to replicate the auction system on a computer.
The carding wool buyers last week informed the Wool Exchange1s Information Techno
08 Dec 99 |
VICTORIA1S stud Merino breeders will decide tomorrow whether to adopt standardised testing of their sale rams, to give clients guaranteed access to a minimum number of accurate, wool measurements on each ram.
A sub-committee of the Victorian Stud M
08 Dec 99 |
MAJOR woolgrower groups have endorsed a program mapped out by the Federal Government1s Wool Working Party to conduct a national grower ballot early next year.
A meeting between the National Woolgrower Forum, which consists of all large wool produce
08 Dec 99 |
THE creation of 3super sheep² has taken a step forward with the detection and isolation of genes required for high fleece weight.
The identification of the genetic markers for high and low fleece weights at Charles Sturt University near Wagga, NSW,
08 Dec 99 | LAST year Jock MacRae1s Eilan Donan stud at Elphinstone achieved an average of $822 for 40 rams.
This year, with fine wool prices clearly outpacing the rest of the market, the stud lifted that average by more than $200 with 44 rams averaging $1049 in
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