26 Dec 07 | SIX FORMER AWB executives could be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for their involvement in the oil-for-food scandal and face criminal charges. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) – whose action against AWB staff invo
26 Dec 07 | VICTORIA needs a grain rail freight network, no question. That’s the finding of the long-awaited rail freight network review headed by Tim Fischer. The review committee’s final report found there were significant environmental, safety and effic
26 Dec 07 | LIGHT offerings were the order of the day last Wednesday when prime cattle markets completed final sales. The main trade vealer markets were out west at Warrnambool and Mount Gambier, South Australia, and they had mixed results. The handful of
26 Dec 07 | IF BALLARAT’S Christmas store sale was any gauge, a storm warning should be raised for northern buyers planning to invade the Victoria weaner sales which commence next week. And that warning should read: “Come, by all means, and have a look at a g
26 Dec 07 | JUST when spectators thought a supercharged wheat market could go no higher, futures on the Chicago Board of Trade posted another record high. March ’08 futures peaked at US979 cents a bushel, surpassing previous market highs set in September.
20 Dec 07 | WESTERN District woolgrower Andrew Dufty has raised the bar the highest in the hunt for Australia’s most innovative sheep producer. Mr Dufty beat five other state finalists for the national title in the Raising the Baa competition run by the Kondi
20 Dec 07 | BROKEN system irrigators are warning their whole system faces collapse after Water Minister Tim Holding on Friday rejected their plans to keep part of Lake Mokoan as a storage facility and vowed to push ahead with full decommissioning. Irrigators
20 Dec 07 | IT’S difficult to pinpoint the exact reason – climate change, labour shortages, health risks or perhaps even an ageing farmer population – but all are contributing to a subtle shift in the commercial breeder market that may alter the presentation sta
20 Dec 07 | EXPORT buyers pulled up stumps as early as Tuesday, completing final buys before the Christmas-New Year holiday break. As a consequence bullocks and cow markets quickly became over-supplied and as a result there were some nasty discounts as buyers
20 Dec 07 | ASCIANO’S decision to pull out of the grain freight business is unlikely to spell the end of rail transport for grain in Victoria. While all parties remain tight-lipped officially, it is believed that negotiations are well underway for a replacem
20 Dec 07 | THE 2007 prime lamb selling year closed this week with a record weekly supply of 133,040 at the major markets and a solid unchanged to dearer demand for all classes. This was despite three of the four major Victorian saleyards offering reduced sup
20 Dec 07 | CLOSE to 50,000 beef calves will be sold in the first fortnight of January in what is arguably the biggest agricultural event of the southern calendar. Five big sale days at Hamilton, four at Casterton, two at Wodonga, two at Colac, two at Naracoo
20 Dec 07 | THREE state farmer bodies have walked out of the Wheat Export Marketing Alliance, having given up hope it can save the single desk. The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF), Queensland’s AgForce and the South Australian Farmers Federation (SAFF) ha
13 Dec 07 | A LARGER offering of baconer pigs came forward for the penultimate sale of 2007 at the Ballarat saleyards market last Wednesday and met with unprecedented interstate competition. Values for baconer pigs overall averaged 15 to 20 cents a kilogram h
13 Dec 07 | FONTERRA will pay its Victorian and Tasmanian suppliers another step up for first-half milk deliveries, with the announcement last week of an additional 17 cents a kilogram protein and 7c/kg butterfat to be paid on January 15. This payment will be
13 Dec 07 | FOR many of the farm kids attending Hay’s school of the air, drought is all they know. But the dust hasn’t dampened their Christmas spirit. ROWENA McNAUGHTON meets the crew.
13 Dec 07 | BUILDING microbial activity and monitoring soil phosphorus levels could be growers’ best bet for minimising fertiliser bills next season. Phosphorus fertiliser prices have hit record levels, pushing some growers’ estimated fertiliser budget to up
13 Dec 07 | THE SCRAMBLE to secure water has heralded a new era in the Mallee rural property market as buyers chase water rights rather than land values. As water allocations plummet to a record low of 29 per cent and permanent water prices hit heights of up
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