Agribusiness 2010

Agribusiness

Chain Volume 10 Number 1

2010

•BEEF•FUTURE FARMING•WATER•SUSTAINABILITY & ENVIRONMENT•RURAL PROPERTY MARKET•EDUCATION & TRAINING•BEST PRACTICE•FARM MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT•CASHFLOW MANAGEMENT•IRRIGATION•LANDSCAPES•WINE & VITICULTURE•RESEARCH•BREEDING•SOILS•SALINITY

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VOLUME 10 NUMBER 1

CONTENTS

Published by:

ABN 30 007 224 204

430 William Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Tel: 03 9274 4200 Fax: 03 9329 5295 Email: media@executivemedia.com.au Web: www.executivemedia.com.au Editor-in-Chief: Ric Navarro Email: ric.navarro@executivemedia.com.au Advertising Enquiries: Phil Haratsis Tel: 03 9274 4200 Email: phil.haratsis@executivemedia.com.au Printed by: Arena Printing Pty Ltd Front Cover: Goulburn-Yass Superfine Wool Breeder John Ive, measuring dam salinity on his property, Talaheni. Read John’s Dam Salinity Report Card on page 42.

Photo by Graham Tidy, The Canberra Times.

The editor, publisher, printer and their staff and agents are not responsible for the accuracy or correctness of the text of contributions contained in this publication or for the consequences of any use made of the products, and the information referred to in this publication. The editor, publisher, printer and their staff and agents expressly disclaim all liability of whatsoever nature for any consequences arising from any errors or omissions contained in this publication whether caused to a purchaser of this publication or otherwise.

The views expressed in the articles and other material published herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor and publisher or their staff or agents. The responsibility for the accuracy of information is that of the individual contributors and neither the publisher or editors can accept responsibility for the accuracy of information which is supplied by others. It is impossible for the publisher and editors to ensure that the advertisements and other material herein comply with the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). Readers should make their own inquiries in making any decisions, and where necessary, seek professional advice. © 2009 Executive Media. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or part, without written permission is strictly prohibited.

AGRI

business 3

Beef Industry

9

Cattle, Meat + Livestock

10

Future Farming

12

Cashflow Management

14

Agricultural Chemicals

23

Risk Management

26

Best Practice

30

Sustainability + Environment

40

Education + Training

42

Salinity

45

Farm Machinery + Equipment

52

Water

53

Crisis Support

54

Rural Property Market

60

Irrigation

63

Landscapes

64

Innovation

66

Research

67

Breeding

69

Soils

70

Crops

71

Weeds

72

Wine + Viticulture AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 1

ST HILDA’S SCHOOL INVITATION

St Hilda’s Head of School invites prospective families to tour the new $5 million Centre for Scientific Learning and Research.

The centre’s creative design, featuring six teaching laboratories, is equipped with the latest information technology and offers students an incredible facility for the study of the Sciences.

To book your tour, contact the Registrar on 07 5577 7232 or email enrolments@sthildas.qld.edu.au St Hilda’s School is an Anglican Diocesan day and boarding school located on a magnificent 14-hectare campus in central Southport.

The School has strong traditional links with Australia’s rural communities and is committed to innovative teaching programs catering for the learning needs of girls.

Boarding Bursaries are available for Years 6 to 12.

Modern spaces created by St Hilda’s School for interactive learning and research The Gold Coast’s St Hilda’s School opened its $5 million Centre for Scientific Learning and Research, a ‘green’ designed learning space for creative teaching.

“Students are no longer passive in their learning,” said Head of School, Mr Peter Crawley. “Active students, creating and nurturing their learning, inevitably means real research is undertaken at school. We needed a building that would allow us the freedom to develop this learning style.”

The facility’s six laboratories allow students to engage in long-term experiments. Every lab connects to the internet, has a set of laptop computers and interactive whiteboards that increase student and teacher flexibility. The modern document readers have photographic capabilities that can capture to microscopic levels. Air conditioning and electricity are earth powered.

At the opening, The Archbishop of Brisbane, The Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall spoke of the importance of science to the modern world.

St Hilda’s School has converted its old laboratories into classrooms for interactive learning for the Middle School.

SHGS1206

St Hilda’s School is an Anglican Diocesan day and boarding school for girls located at Southport on the Gold Coast. The 14-hectare campus is home to 1250 girls from Pre-Preparatory to Year 12. Boarding is available for Years 6 to 12.

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2 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

BEEF INDUSTRY

Carbon Neutral Beef – An Inconvenient Truth

By Andrea Koch (continues over page)

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BEEF INDUSTRY

“A vegetarian in a Hummer produces fewer carbon emissions than a meat eater in a Toyota Prius” A child, from the film Meat the Truth.

T

his statement sums up the growing rhetoric against agriculture, and in particular beef and livestock, from many in the world who are concerned about climate change.

Much of the debate emanates from a report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UN FAO) in 2006, Livestock’s Long Shadow, which attributes 18 percent of global green house gas (GHG) emissions to livestock, more than that generated globally by transport. In Australia, agriculture is attributed with contributing 16 percent of national GHG emissions, 75 percent of this from livestock, mainly in the form of methane from ruminants. Methane is about twenty times stronger than carbon dioxide in its greenhouse effect, so when methane emissions are converted to “carbon dioxide equivalent” (CO2e) as a common denominator for measuring GHG emissions, methane tends to tip the scales.

As advances are made in strategies to reduce fossil fuel based energy and transport, the next big focus for climate change mitigation is on the food system, with beef being singled out for particular attention. Anti-meat campaigns are multiplying, with a multitude of movies such as Meat the Truth, websites and books suggesting that we humans must drastically reduce or even stop eating meat altogether, in order to mitigate serious climate change.

From the Australian livestock farmer’s perspective, this must seem ludicrous, yet another assault on farmers who are already struggling with drought, decreased terms of trade, increased input costs, succession issues and in some cases, banks hovering with threats of foreclosure.

Whether you agree with the notion of human induced climate change or not, that fact is that the world is now slowly grinding its way towards economies which rely less on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to provide energy – be it fuel, electricity, or food. The agriculture and food production sectors will be required to make adjustments in this transition, just as the energy and transport sectors are.

The proposed Australian Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) is not adding much comfort to the farming sector, with the treatment of agriculture remaining uncertain. The Australian government has stated that it will wait until 2013 before deciding whether

4 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

to include the agricultural sector as an emitting industry under the scheme. So far, almost all of the debate has focused on the emissions side of the scale, that is the role of agriculture in producing GHG emissions, and the point in the market chain at which entities are required to hold permits to emit GHGs. The future of agriculture in a GHG obsessed world does not look bright. As it currently stands, carbon trading is all downside for the Australian farm sector.

There is hope however, which has been ignited and is now being flamed by the Carbon Farming movement in Australia and internationally. The hope lies in the other side of the scorecard which is the role of agriculture in reducing GHG emissions. Agricultural systems and land management practices for crops and pastures which lead to the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere into long lived soil organic matter pools are slowly being recognised as a major “sink” for carbon. What is slowly emerging is that the farming system used makes all the difference between food and fibre which is “carbon negative” versus food and fibre which is “carbon neutral”, or even “carbon positive”. These practices, which can be referred to collectively as “carbon farming” are the antithesis of the high GHG emitting, industrial agricultural systems which are the basis of the 2006 UN FAO report.

As these systems slowly gain recognition, and the potential of soil as a significant sink for the existing legacy load of CO2 in the atmosphere, interest from farmers is mounting. “Growing” soil carbon while they grow food and fibre may lead to an additional revenue stream in the form of carbon credits. Instead of just bearing the cost of GHG emissions, farms which are demonstrably sequestering soil carbon will generate tradeable credits in the carbon trading market. Whether or not these soil carbon credits are tradeable under the CPRS will depend entirely on whether, after 2013, the agricultural sector is permitted to generate and trade in such credits. Until that happens, soil carbon credits remain tradeable in Australia on the voluntary market, which is not insignificant.

So what is carbon farming? It is not a silver bullet, but a range of farm land management practices which lead to the net sequestration of carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil. These practices have in common a series of basic principles, including: • Maintenance of 100 percent ground cover

GRACEMERE SALEYARDS weigh up the difference

GRACEMERE SALEYARDS For fifty-six years the Gracemere Saleyards has been used as a marketing vehicle by cattle producers to trade livestock whether they be prime or store cattle to a bevy of buyers competing in an open market. This time honoured tradition has witnessed little change other than the introduction of liveweight selling in the late 1970s. Liveweight selling saw the imposition of curfews with carriers having to deliver stock before the 9pm deadline [twelve hours prior to the commencement of sale].

Improved facilities have seen enhanced service delivery with new selling pens, unloading/loading ramps [single & double deck], truck-wash, clearing dip, high-mast lighting, selling ring, agent offices, buyers lounge, cafeteria, toilets, conference facilities, undercover arena, stables, small stock facilities, truck parking and car parks, reticulated water and sewerage.

What does the future hold for producers? In the past two decades many producers have sought to maximize their returns by selling direct bypassing saleyards. This has seen the demise of a number of saleyards and the development of new facilities in many of the regional centres. Issues of animal welfare, environmental controls, and safety all add to the changes incorporated in a modern selling centre and it is apparent these changes will continue as the industry develops. The modern producer is taking advantage of technology whilst developing skills in better managing his or her business. Saleyards are no different, embrace change, use it or lose it.

BEEF INDUSTRY • •

Reduced soil disturbance such as zero till Increased soil biota, by reducing application of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

• Utilisation of deep rooted perennials as grazing fodder, or in conjunction with cropping • Increased biodiversity, both in flora and fauna • Increased farm and soil hydrology Carbon farming covers a fairly broad church of systems and approaches and farmers who utilise these systems have experimented with various aspects of one or more of these methods to work out what suits their farm the best. What is common to all of them however, is the increased levels of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) that are generated.

There are a number of recognised land management systems which come under the banner of carbon farming, and which utilise these principles in various ways. These include: • A range of grazing management systems and approaches which regulate the time and intensity of stock access to pasture, followed by long periods of

Group of farmers who are focusing on growing perennials to combat erosion and salinity. Wilson has had great success with growing deep rooted evergreen perennial tagasaste in the sandy soil of his farm in the West Midlands region, 400 km north of Perth. Farms in this region have suffered with significant salinity and erosion problems under “traditional” farming methods.

Using tagasaste as fodder for cattle, and also as a wind break has reduced erosion to zero and helped significantly with managing salinity issues. Wilson’s farm has maintained an income in the significantly drier years that the west has experienced in recent times (the records show that climate change has already hit the hardest in that region of Australia). By implementing carbon farming methods, Wilson and other farmers using this approach have actually reversed the grave threat of desertification of this particular region by building and maintaining soil health and preventing sandy topsoil from blowing into the sea.

In Western NSW, farmers Col Seis and Bruce Maynard have spent the past twenty years developing innovative

Images of Michael and Louisa Kiely on their farm in Gulgong, NSW

time for plant recovery Pasture cropping, a zero till, direct drill system of planting annual crops into perennial pastures • No kill cropping, a system which utilises Coulter type implements to sow into existing plant and litter cover • Water management systems which manage the overall hydrology of the farm, including natural sequence farming and Yeoman’s Keyline System • Biological Farming, a range of natural products used to stimulate the growth of soil biota • Composting • Restoration of grassy woodlands by planting trees as supplemental livestock fodder The good news is that Australia has some amazing “Carbon Cockies” who are already putting the theory into practice, with incredible results. Farmers across Australia are now utilising these systems across a wide range of farm types including beef, sheep, cropping, mixed cropping and livestock and horticulture. For some of these Carbon Cockies the key issue has been land regeneration, for others drought proofing has been the prime motivator to make the change to these systems which work more closely with the ecology of the land.

The benefits to these farmers extend beyond just increasing soil carbon.

WA farmer Bob Wilson is a member of the Evergreen •

6 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

cropping and grazing systems which utilise deep rooted perennials. Seis practices “pasture cropping”, maintaining native perennials and cropping directly into the thick litter that they produce. He has discovered that perennial and annual species grow happily together.

Sheep are also grazed in this system. His chemical inputs are dramatically reduced, which lowers the overall cost of production. Seis has been measuring soil carbon on his property for a number of years, and notes that in addition to increasing soil carbon, the ecological function of the soil has improved, which has led to increased soil water holding capacity and improved nutrient availability.

Maynard has taken a similar approach. His “no kill” farming system also utilises native perennials, but eliminates chemical and fertiliser inputs and uses tyneless Coulter type implements to sow dry in order to minimise land disturbance. Input costs, including fuel, are significantly reduced. Diesel use for example has been reduced by 80 percent. Maynard’s system also utilises time control grazing, and he is finding that increased plant biodiversity supplies secondary compounds to cattle which can assist rumen function and reduce methane production.

Tim Wright from the Northern Tablelands in NSW is a pioneer of cell grazing, and has spent seventeen years drought proofing his farm by increasing stock levels but

The Port of Brisbane is Australia’s premier beef handling port delivering product to the Asian market quicker than its Southern counterparts.

The port provides infrastructure to store and ship chilled and frozen meat worldwide to the major destinations of Japan, the USA east coast and South Korea.

Brisbane handles 56% of the country’s containerised market, of which 35% is chilled and 65% is frozen. In the past 12 months to June 2009, shipments of meat through the Port of Brisbane totalled 51,554 teus up 2% compared to the previous year.

Over 30 shipping lines are actively involved with the export of beef through the Port of Brisbane, and the port’s two container stevedores, DP World Brisbane and Patrick Terminals, offer over 2,350 reefer points. Patrick is increasing its reefer plug points from 1,124 - 1,348 to accommodate future growth in the trade.

The Brisbane Multimodal Terminal the logistical interface between rail, road and sea offers exporters an efficient and reliable supply chain network, with the capacity to store over 80 containers at any one time.

The two new emerging markets of East Asia and South East Asia continue to drive volumes, compensating for the decrease in volume to the more traditional market of South Korea. Queensland, as the nations largest beef producer with 12.2 million head of cattle in June 2008, is a major driving force in Australia’s export beef market.

The Port of Brisbane Corporation is optimistic about long-term growth, and is committed to the continued investment in port infrastructure that will help sustain Australia’s trade well into the 21st century.

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AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 7

BEEF INDUSTRY

grazing them intensely for short periods of time. His average paddock size has gone from 240 acres to 32 acres. Wright argues that traditional European based approaches to grazing do not provide enough time for soil and pastures to recover from droughts. By allowing pastures sufficient recovery time following intense grazing, the hydrology of the soil is improved, leading to increased water holding capacity which is maintained during dry periods.

Ann Williams is a member of the Conservation Farming and No Till Association (CANFA). Williams has significantly increased carbon and nematode levels in the soil on her Central West NSW farm, by implementing No Till in combination with composts. She has been so impressed by the improvements to her soil and resulting yields that she is now undertaking a master’s research program at the University of New England to investigate the biological properties and soil amendments in the No Till cropping system.

These farmers and others have showcased their approaches at the annual Carbon Farming conferences, held in Orange NSW over the past three years. These conferences, convened by Carbon Coalition leaders Michael and Louisa Kiely, are a gathering of farmers, scientists from CSIRO and universities across the country, government agriculture and climate change departments, Catchment Management Authorities and vendors who have cottoned on to the potential of carbon farming, and are now working collectively to ensure that agriculture does not get left behind in the great climate change debate. The Kielys have worked tirelessly to get soil carbon sequestration onto government and scientific agendas and have networked internationally to ensure that Australia is leading the world in the development and recognition of carbon farming practices.

Of major note at the 2009 conference was the announcement that it is now easier for carbon farmers to generate tradeable credits on the voluntary carbon trading market in Australia. Prime Carbon operates the scheme, providing baseline benchmarking of carbon 8 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

levels on registered farms, and conducting ongoing measurement and audits to determine increases in soil carbon levels. Credits are collectively marketed by Prime Carbon to companies that are seeking to offset their GHG emissions. Prime Carbon envisages that by 2013, one million hectares of Australian farming land will be converted to carbon farming practices. It aims to provide the benchmark for regionally focused carbon exchange programs in Australia.

SA farmer Errol Koch who has been farming in upper South Australia for over fifty years, attended the Carbon Farming conference in 2008. He is not too sure about all this “climate change business”, but he came away from the conference filled with hope. After ten years of dry seasons and sparse spring rains, with neighbours who are on a knife’s edge with bank finance and farmers in the region on suicide watch, it was a wonderful thing for him to listen to the “Carbon Cockies” get up and talk, farmer after farmer, about how excited they are to be farming. They shared their stories about the rejuvenation of their land, the drought proofing of their farms, and the increased profitability of their businesses.

Carbon arming is the reply to the anti-beef and agriculture rhetoric. The goods news is that carbon farming systems are not only good for the climate, they are also good for Australian farmers, and that is good news indeed.

For more information: http://www.carbonfarmersofaustralia.com.au http://www.carboncoalition.com.au/ http://www.canfa.com.au/ http://www.pasturecropnokillcrop.com http://www.evergreen.asn.au/ http://www.primecarbon.com.au/ Written by Andrea Koch, Sustainable Food Advisor, Sydney NSW. ajkoch@bigpond.net.au Andrea Koch is a writer, educator and adviser with a specialist focus on sustainable food. She works with government, business and consumer groups on finding sustainable solutions to issues of food security, urban food supplies and sustainable agriculture. Andrea can be contacted at ajkoch@bigpond.net.au, or on 0408 030 081.

CATTLE, MEAT + LIVESTOCK

How resilient are Australian livestock producers?

Producing, buying or selling livestock?

This extraordinary decade has thrown challenge after challenge, yet Australian livestock producers have responded to them all with gusto.

Stay on top of the latest

T

livestock & red meat market he 8-year drought (including two one-in-one

news, analysis & forecasts in

hundred year events), BSE and food safety

Australia & around the world.

scares, volatile currency markets and now the

Read MLA’s publications for the latest news and statistics – Meat & Livestock Weekly, Cattle & Sheep Industry Projections, Red Meat Market Reports, and many more.

global credit crisis and recession have all been extraordinary on their own, let alone in the same decade.

Yet Australian producers have expanded beef and lamb production since 2000 by making changes such as increased specialisation in breeding, growing or finishing; building feedlots; adopting drought strategies; and making feeding and breeding changes and general cost savings.

Market signals have played a major role in ushering in these changes, with generally strong prices on offer for the right article. Unlike previous severe droughts and market downturns, prices did not fall below the cost of marketing stock and producers generally ensured that

Get up-to-the-minute information on MLA’s website www.mla.com.au

red meat market news daily & weekly livestock market reports from the National Livestock Reporting Service on-line access to one of the best red meat databases in the world & ABARE farm data overseas market information & detailed export data.

Talk with MLA’s specialised market analysts

stock were turned off before it was too late.

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information is designed to assist producers (and those

investment decisions. MLA Market Information can be a useful input into vital decision making.

Just visit www.mla.com.au/marketinformation, email marketinfo@mla.com.au or phone 1800 675 717.

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AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 9

FUTURE FARMING

Future of farming a question of scale

After a decade of drought, incredible pressure from an aggressive international marketplace and years of uncertain income, the Australian farming industry may yet have reason to be optimistic. Recent rains and new drought funding provisions may herald that the worst has passed, but a decade of job losses and an ageing workforce means the sector must undergo a massive recruitment program if it is to survive.

D

espite several external elements overwhelming the Australian agricultural industry, the sector has managed to boost its production. The gross total value of Australian agricultural manufacture increased 4.4% from 2007– 08 to $45.2 billion in 2008–09. The increase was attributed to improved seasonal conditions in some areas, but varied from commodity to commodity and region to region.

Australian farms directly employed 317,730 people from November 2008, though a decade of drought has resulted in approximately 90,000 job losses. As the nation’s largest food and fibre exporting territory, Victoria generates 26 per cent of the nation’s total goods produced, valued at $9 billion per annum.

According to the City of Greater Geelong’s Bulletin report, the estimated annual total output for the Barwon region’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector is $794 million.

Ensuring our agricultural future remains robust means we will need to replenish approximately one-third of farmers within the next ten years due to an ageing workforce, according to Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) president Andrew Broad. Mr Broad says the primary focus for the VFF is ensuring farms are brought back to full production, lobbying the government for assistance for drought-ravaged farmers and farming safety, rather than focusing on re-skilling those leaving the sector.

“We’re not in the space where we’re re-training; we’re in the 10 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

space of giving farmers skills and market knowledge and understanding.”

While it hasn’t been the VFF’s core role to assist with advancing technologically, the VFF has worked closely in partnership with Geelong’s Southern Farming Systems. “We’ve provided a lot of market intelligence, so we’re helping people understand the market and how to grow their business and increase their profitability,” Mr Broad said.

The VFF believes there needs to be a significant effort in regional development to diversify regional economies not just in Geelong and Ballarat, but in towns like Horsham, Kerang, Ouyen and others, to encourage investment in farming.

Victorian farmers have proved resourceful in the face of protracted drought and economic downturn by adopting innovative crop production methods. In particular, the grain sector has developed an improved no-till technology, better spray management and has trained in how to calendar sow. Dairy sector farmers have also discovered how to milk on minimal water allocations, and for the land sector, farmers have learned how to grain feed livestock.

“It’s been really quite dramatic, the ability of the farmer to adapt in a dry environment,” said Mr Broad, who reports that the procedure of altering crop-sowing dates has also proved effective.

FUTURE FARMING “We farm almost completely differently on our farms, from a grain’s perspective, than what we did ten years ago. In the past we used to wait, we used to get earlier rains and so we’d be more reliant on clover-based pastures and grass-based pastures; now we actually sow a batch of oats-type pastures.

We’re on no-till, whereas it used to be full cultivation. We’re on wider row spacings, we’re using press wheels, and we’re using GPS technology, higher break-out times, differing fertilisers, GM (genetic modification) technology and differing marketing techniques,” he said.

In fact Mr Broad reports that it’s an understatement to say there have been some superior advancements made over the last five years within the agricultural industry.

“If you compare agriculture with any other industry, we’re actually the leaders at adapting to change and new technology.

We’re by no means dragging our feet; our productivity gains are unparallel to any other industry across the country. Our biggest concern at the moment is we’ve had a run of dry years.

We’ve now got a reasonable low price and we want to maintain that youth in our industry because some of the greatest productivity gains are achieved by farmers who are thirty-five and under.”

A primary focus for the VFF is attracting new blood to agriculture, which is a constant challenge.

“In my area there are not a lot of young farmers farming, but then you step out from my area a little bit and there’s plenty. So it sort of peaks and troughs, but then we’ve got to look a little bit more at how we support our younger farmers.”

Research agronomist, Rohan Wardle with Southern Farming Systems, who is predominantly involved in the grain sector, delivers a more dire prediction: “I think the last ten years of drought has pushed a lot of youth away from the industry, which we’ll probably never get back. We need some good housing, because they often pretty much get a dog box. And starting off on a pretty crap wage is always a way of keeping [young workers] for one day and they’re gone the next.”

Farming is struggling to compete with the mining industry, which unlike the rural industries experienced booming conditions and attractively high wages over the past decade.

Attracting and retaining young farmers is not simply about numbers. With youth comes new ideas and a greater interest in new technologies, which brings productivity gains like those the industry has recorded over the past year.

“Variable rate technologies and all that kind of thing is certainly driving a lot of productivity gains and ways of bringing youthful people back into the industry for sure,” Mr Wardle said.

Though from a financial standpoint, he believes government should fund the majority of training and luring people to work on farms to guarantee the quality of our future food supplies.

“The problem is that fluctuating grain prices and fluctuating returns makes farmers hard to invest in; in training and in staff,” said Mr Wardle. “They can afford them this year, but they can’t afford them next year; they’ve invested all these dollars in training and it walks out the door.”

Fortunately, he says hi-tech advancements have been a lifeline for some.

“Technology in the cropping industry has certainly pulled a lot of guys out of wool and into cropping because of GPS and yield mapping and all these things that they can automatically get a response to. It’s like ‘righty-oh, I know what my crop’s doing; I can see what’s happening in my paddock, I know how I can improve that next year, pretty much,’ so they certainly get that automatic response which is fantastic.”

However, Mr Wardle said farmers aren’t devising new ways to live off the land.

“You’re either a dairy farmer or a sheep farmer or you’re growing crops or you’re doing both. But other than that…it’s pretty limited. I think you’ll find that a wool-classer will be a wool-classer for a while and might do a bit of shearing and then they might go home and grow a few crops, but other than

that, that’d be as far as it goes.”

Meanwhile president of the Royal Geelong Agricultural and Pastoral Society (RGAPS), David Heath, offers a local standpoint. He says Geelong agriculture operates slightly differently in that most of the farming land around the city is run by part-time farmers who work in town. Their holdings are smaller areas and pressure from people buying rural land for lifestyle reasons and suchlike has meant full-time farmers in the region are far fewer.

Yet, says Mr Heath, many of those farmers are also farming on a far broader scale than before, often share-farming or contracting or running many of those areas purchased for lifestyle purposes.

“Geelong isn’t a big farming community. For starters, there’s only farm land to the north. We haven’t got the double mass.

Even Ballarat is a far bigger agricultural town than Geelong.

And we have so many other industries going on that agriculture disappears out of the perspective a bit,” Mr Heath said.

While there’s been debate as to what extent Australia’s $4.6 billion dairy industry — Australia’s third largest agricultural sector — is in crisis, Mr Heath says the dairy industry is practically non-existent in Geelong due to drought and fiscal decline.

“It’s contracted back to the wetter country, going further south. So there’s virtually no dairying in the Geelong region; you’ve gotta go to the other side of Winchelsea, around Colac to find it — there are a few dairy operations but not many about.

“With the last 10 or 12 years that we’ve had on top of the economic conditions we’ve had this year for dairying, many people have dropped out of dairying and are running more extensive-type cattle/sheep operations or cropping operations,” he said.

Mr Heath also agrees that the ageing population is a concern and points to the difficulty of drawing young people to the stock industries. Evidence of the decline can be seen – in a state that used to boast a thriving wool industry, there is not even one full-time person person teaching wool classing in Victoria.

“Some of the trade-type services like wool classers are going to be difficult attracting people to. It’s also difficult to attract good young workers for diesel machinery apprenticeships,” said Mr Heath. “The one bit where I do get a little bit worried is about wool classers and where they’ll all come from. But it’s been talked about. All my working life I’ve heard this: ‘I don’t know where we’re going to get the shearers for the sheep,’ but I’ve yet to see sheep left with wool on them.”

Overall, as operations grow larger and more efficient, opportunities reduce as a consequence, though Mr Heath believes abundant good training is available within agriculture.

“We still have a very vital, vibrant agricultural sector despite everything and with far less people in it. And they are generally far better trained and working just as hard as they always did, achieving far more with far larger equipment,” he says. “There’s less stock numbers and far more cropping, which has been one of the declines in people working in the industry because you need more labour when you’re working with stock than you do with crops, and the increase in area under crop and decrease in area under livestock has had a fair balance on that.”

Mr Heath says that as no group adopts technology faster than farmers, they can use technology rather than labour to get the job done. He also refutes that access to technology is inadequate, as suggested by a recent parliamentary report.

“It [the technology] mostly comes from private resource and we pay dearly for it,” Mr Heath said. “We use all those technologies. I work with a cropping operation house. All our work is on satellite guidance; agronomists are doing all the work. It’s quite phenomenal the scale we work on.”

Terry Broun Jnr AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 11

CASHFLOW MANAGEMENT

Cashflow a key challenge for agribusiness Drought and climate change may get all the press, but cashflow management looms large among the major challenges facing agribusinesses.

T

he availability of cash is critical for business success through good and bad times. Being out of pocket can have a domino effect on other parts of the business.

According to Khan Horne, General Manager of Agribusiness at NAB, businesses need to tighten their belts when conditions are tough to squeeze cash out of the business while still remaining profitable.

“If a business has cash available there may be attractive investment opportunities that can be fully maximised in the short or long term,” he says. “If the money will be needed in a few months for planting or restocking, there is no point locking it up long term, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be put to good use.”

High interest Business Cash Maximiser accounts can be a good short-term solution, as can term deposits.

Farm Management Deposits are a good option if cash is available over a longer period.

However, prioritise purchases and look at how these assets are funded, as there may be alternatives such as leasing.

4. Manage risk to protect profits and create certainty.

Protecting your future cashflow from the effects of external influences can be a smart move. Risk management solutions can include fixing interest, hedging exchange rates and taking a forward position on prices. The right insurance – for people as well as buildings and equipment – is also important.

5. Use your networks.

See what the neighbours are doing, attend courses, and keep learning. It’s also a good time to be talking to your team of experts -your accountant, financial adviser and your local NAB Agribusiness Banker - about your business, where you want to take it and what the economic environment means for you.

The right levers

The biggest challenge

When looking to maximise your cashflow, not everything can be changed at once. As such, care needs to be taken in considering what levers can be pulled to improve it in the short, medium and long term.

Mr Horne offers five tips to help businesses manage their cashflow: 1. Understand the difference between cash in the bank and cashflow.

Cash in the bank is only a ‘point in time’ measurement, before paying creditors, overheads and fixed costs. Cashflow is more dynamic, and takes into account income being received and expenses being paid out over a period of time.

2. Control and reduce operating expenses.

Make sure you fully understand the true cost and profitability of everything you do, and how it aligns to your business plan. Talk to staff to get their buy-in and ask them to help you to identify and reduce costs.

3. Release cash invested in fixed assets.

Capital investment in production technology will help to boost business efficiency over the long term.

Cashflow was chosen as the biggest challenge facing agribusinesses in a survey conducted by NAB and Galaxy Research in April 2009, with 56% of 914 agribusiness respondents (owners of managers of a business employing 1-29 people) selecting it as a ‘challenge’, and 37% nominating it the ‘biggest challenge’.

Agribusiness respondents also listed drought and climate change as challenges to be faced in the future.

NAB has been helping farmers and other businesses manage cashflow for more than 150 years. NAB’s agribusiness bankers are specialists who understand the cyclical nature of the industry and the challenges being faced.

NAB Agribusiness can provide assistance and insights to help review the current situation of your agribusiness and plan for the future.

For more information, contact your local NAB agribusiness banker, call 13 10 12 or visit nab.com.au/agribusiness.

Important Notice: NAB has not taken into account your objectives, financial situation or needs and recommends that you consider whether any advice in this article is appropriate for your circumstances.

About NAB Agribusiness National Australia Bank (NAB) Agribusiness employs more than 580 agribusiness banking specialists in 110 metropolitan and regional locations Australia-wide. The Agribusiness team use their local and industry knowledge to better understand the unique environmental and economic needs of farmers and businesses beyond the farm gate - whether they provide inputs into agriculture or process, distribute or market primary produce.

NAB’s flexible range of agribusiness products and services is delivered by listening to and working with customers, to tailor the best packages and advice for their businesses. For further information please visit www.nab.com.au/agribusiness.

12 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS

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Our scheme provides motorists, homeowners and businesses with the outlet and resources to dispose of and recycle their used batteries correctly.

Through a national network of CenturyYuasa approved battery recycling centres people are encouraged to return their used automotive batteries for recycling and responsible disposal.”

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14 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

FUTURE FARMING

The Farmer wants a future Special Feature: Adapting to a Changing Climate

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 15

FUTURE FARMING

The future of farming in Australia, and our access to the freshest food at the best price, will depend on how well farmers adapt to the changing conditions they face on land.

Story: Georgie Oakeshott and Geoffrey Maslen

Plenty to think about Most farmers are already weather obsessed. They have to be.

Their livelihood depends on the right mix of temperatures and rainfall. Timing is everything. There’s talk of ‘good years’ and ‘bad years’ but not much talk of a ‘normal’ year anymore — if there ever was such a thing.

Because of this long history of dealing with changeable weather, farmers have developed a great deal of skill in managing variations in climate. But what if some of these changes become permanent? What does a hotter, drier, more variable climate mean for Australia’s $33 billion agricultural industry?

According to one of Australia’s leading scientific researchers, climate change is already having an impact on the way we farm in this country.

“Looking at average temperatures across Australia, a cold year now is a warm to hot year in the time of our grandparents.

At current trends of temperature increase, it’s probably only nine or 10 years away before the coldest year we experience will be hotter than the hottest year ever experienced by our grandparents,” says Dr Mark Howden from the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship.

“When you think of it like that, it’s pretty inconceivable that we could keep doing the same things exactly the way we used to do,” Dr Howden says.

It’s not hard to find examples of how Australian farming is already responding to changes in climate. There’s cropping in places previously considered too wet for crops, and farmers moving away from irrigated crops into livestock. There’s also the example of a peanut company which expanded its operations into the Northern Territory where it’s wetter.

“We’re already seeing responses both at an individual level and at a company level,” Dr Howden says. “Some farmers would say explicitly they’re not doing this because of climate change and that they don’t believe in climate change, but nevertheless they’re having to change their practices. In a sense it by-passes the issue of what’s causing these variations in climate. Farmers are going to have to change their management anyway.”

16 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

In 2007, Dr Howden shared a Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which identified Australian agriculture as particularly vulnerable to changes in climate.

The panel’s report warned of potential negative impacts on the amount of produce, quality of produce and reliability of production, and on the natural resource base on which agriculture depends.

These conclusions are based on projections of hotter, drier conditions across much of Australia, including temperature increases between 0.6 to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030 and between one to five degrees Celsius by 2070.

These projections, on the CSIRO website, say rainfall over southern Australia is expected to decrease by 10 per cent, while northern area may see changes between minus-10 and plus-five per cent. This rainfall is expected to be more intense over most areas in summer and in autumn, and in northern areas in winter and spring.

In its submission to the House of Representatives inquiry into agriculture and climate change, CSIRO says primary industries need to anticipate these changes, be prepared for uncertainty, and develop and implement adaptation strategies now.

Calling for an unprecedented level of forward planning, the CSIRO submission tells the Primary Industries Committee that the impact of climate change and the need to adapt are already unavoidable. In some cases, large scale transformational responses will be necessary “which may involve the translocation of entire industries”.

Chairing the inquiry is Dick Adams (Member for Lyons, Tasmania) from the island state famous for its fresh produce, wine and cheese. He’s confident the inquiry will throw some light on the direction needed to minimise the risks and maximise the opportunities.

“Farming has a long history of changing in this country but, given climate change, this committee wants to look at the way we use land, soil and water in a new way so we understand what climate change means to agriculture. We’re keen to see what people are already doing, what people think we should be doing and what direction we should be going,” Mr Adams says. (continued on page 18)

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FUTURE FARMING “Putting our resources into black holes is not where the future is and is not a good way to spend the public dollar. I think the Australian people would rather be assisting enterprises that have a business plan looking to the future; that will adapt to climate change and the issues that confront us in the next 20 to 30 years. We’ve also got to look at the opportunities at the enterprise level and look at where we’re going in a world sense. I think farmers will get left behind if they don’t adapt and look for opportunities.”

Adapting to climate change in the wheat industry, for example, includes changing the planting times to suit the new conditions, changing row spacing and planting densities, and using new technologies to concentrate water into the crop.

“We’re just starting a program to have these climate-ready crops available to be rolled out in the future, so rather than waiting for the future to hit us, we’re trying to be prepared for it,” he says.

Of more immediate concern to the National Farmers’ Federation, however, is the government’s mitigation strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In its submission to the inquiry, the peak farming organisation is warning that the immediate challenge of adapting to mitigation policies may be a far greater challenge for farmers

where famers are not just doing the same thing year after year, but are varying according to the circumstances.

“Even under the worst climate change scenarios we’ll still see agriculture practiced in this country, but it could look quite different to what it is now and be practiced in different places, and the detail of that practice will be quite different indeed,” he says.

“The demand for agriculture and food products generally is going to increase because of increased economic growth and affluence in countries like China and India, but also because our population across the globe is growing rapidly. We’re looking at having to double food production by 2050 and because we only have a limited amount of agricultural land that means we’re going to have to significantly increase our agricultural production.”

So rather than a bleak future of drought and despair, successful management of climate change should lead to a productive and lucrative future for farming in this country.

It’s a sentiment echoed by a Wall Street veteran who recently told an Australian television audience that agriculture is about to become one of the most exciting industries in the world.

According to Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, people who produce real goods will be the ones driving Lamborghinis.

than adapting to climate change itself.

It says the government’s proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme has the potential to reduce the value of Australian agricultural production by $2.4 billion per annum by 2020, and $10.9 billion per annum by 2030 compared to what would otherwise be the case under a business as usual scenario.

The farmers’ federation says over 1.6 million jobs, 20 per cent of our exports and the vast majority of the food we consume depend on the ability of our farmers to meet climatic changes. It has called for increased research, a new model for drought support, and national coordination of research, development and extension services.

It is also calling for massive funding boost to improve our forecasting capability, steering the committee towards a drought information system in the United States (www.drought.gov). That system provides information right down to local county level on soil moisture, rainfall, run-off, stream flows and early warning systems, with a priority on preparedness.

This kind of information rich farming will be critical to the future success of agriculture. According to Dr Howden, future farming will be more opportunistic, risk sensitive and targeted,

His advice to anyone interested in making money is simple: go become a farmer.

18 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

Beyond doubt Within Australia’s farming community, among men and women who are ever-watchful of the land that is their livelihood, there are doubters.

Almost one in five farmers surveyed in Tasmania is openly sceptical about climate change — a scepticism fuelled by their recent memory of a potential disaster that became a fizzler.

“They distrust scientist to the extent that they believe climate change is just another ‘Year 2000’, invented for media hype and money,” says Frank Vanclay, a professor of rural and environmental sociology at the University of Tasmania.

“Many farmers were required to outlay much effort and cost to become Y2K compliant and they now feel duped by what they perceive as a scam. This distrust creates a great deal of resistance to even considering the idea of climate change,” Professor Vanclay says. “Arguably farmers need to prepare for climate change in order to create benefits and avoid costs. Yet resistance to taking action to adapt to projected changes in climate or to mitigate emissions is widespread.”

Professor Vanclay and his PhD student Aysha Fleming were

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FUTURE FARMING among the first to make a submission to the Primary Industries Committee inquiry into climate change and agriculture. The two researchers conducted a survey of apple growers, dairy farmers and farming consultants. Professor Vanclay says that although the research was based in Tasmania, he believes the results are widely applicable elsewhere across Australia.

Despite the minority of farmers who claimed change was another Y2K scam, most of those interviewed accepted it was occurring and about half said they had noticed the effect on the Tasmanian landscape as well as on their farms. Yet, while acknowledging the reality of global warming, only on in five thought it was caused by human activity and a third were even undecided.

“They were distrustful of government actions taken to penalise farmers, especially during times of drought and financial strain when they are already struggling,” the researchers say in their submission. “They were angry that their current efforts to be environmentally sustainable were not being recognised or valued, especially as carbon stores in pasture, soil, orchards or shelter belts will not be recognised, at least under current plans.

“Some (34 per cent) are worried about the future of the planet to the point that their concerns inhibit action. They feel

Tipping Point A better understanding of human impact on land is vital in helping to determine how humankind should work that land in the future.

For the past 20 years, Peter Gell has been collecting core sample two and three metres deep into the earth from sites across south-eastern Australia. The cores contain material that has built up over hundreds and even thousands of years. Back in their laboratory at the University of Ballarat, Professor Gell and his PhD students study the different layers they collect to determine the changes that have occurred over these long periods.

They are able to build up a picture of climate variations and what the vegetation was like stretching back beyond the arrival of Europeans to the time when only Aborigines occupied the land, as they had for perhaps 50,000 years. “I’ve deliberately focused on the last couple of thousand years of change to provide more of a context for people to understand the impact the arrival of Europeans had on our landscape,” Professor Gell says.

“We want to understand what the baseline ecosystems were like and what the natural responses were in a landscape where Indigenous people lived with nothing like the technology we have.”

Professor Gell is a “palaeo-ecologist”, an expert on terrestrial and wetland ecology, fire and vegetation history — and climate change.

As Director of the Centre for Environmental Management at Ballarat, he is also convener of a national network examining the impact of people on Australian ecosystems, as well as heading an international network on the effect of humans on the world’s lakes.

“I try to compare what Australia has experienced in the recent past with current forecasts to get some idea of how scary the rapidity or magnitude of change is for the future.”

As part of his research, Professor Gell has uncovered evidence that the incidence of fires increased dramatically with the arrival of Europeans after the 1830s. Contrary to conventional beliefs, the first squatters burnt the land far more regularly than Aborigines ever did, he says.

“Victoria’s early settlers turned most of the original forests into woodland and most of the woodland into grassland so, although the total ‘fuel load’ has decreased, conditions for bushfires within the remaining forests are different now than they were 300 years ago.”

overwhelmed, that the planet is already on a path to destruction, or they feel it is beyond the scope of their lifetime to create a solution and that it will be a problem for future generations.”

The challenge facing the House of Representatives Primary Industries Committee is to identify appropriate government action to tackle the manifold problems climate change raises.

“The impacts of climate change are not just biophysical, they also have economic and social dimensions,” says the submission to the inquiry from the Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries network.

The network is a collaborative partnership between rural research and development corporations, state and Commonwealth primary industry departments, and university experts. It says there is a role for government to “assist individuals and communities moving from declining industries to emerging ones, while minimising social dislocation and dysfunction.”

There will need to be greater investment in rural research and development, commercialisation, extension and training, the network says, to develop and equip the next generation of researchers, decision makers and leaders in the fields of agriculture, natural resource management and climate change 20 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

Some biologists believe the Earth has reached a tipping point where human impact on the world’s ecosystems has been so severe, it is too late to prevent a global disaster. Despite all he knows about what has happened to Australia in general and the Murray River basin in particular since Europeans arrived, Professor Gell is not as pessimistic as some.

He takes heart from the work of Brian Walker, a research fellow with the CSIRO’s sustainable ecosystems. Dr Walker is renowned for his work on resilience: the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and to undergo change while still retaining essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks. He co-authored a 2006 book with David Salt, Resilience thinking: Sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world (Walter Reid: Books).

“We might have reached a tipping point but that doesn’t mean we are on an inexorable slide into the abyss,” Professor Gell says.

“We may have just kicked over to a different system but as that system is likely to be less productive and sustaining, we have to work out how the new system operates and what it takes for humankind to continue to exist.”

FUTURE FARMING sciences.

“Farmers cannot rationally respond to climate change and adapt to its likely impacts without basic information about what changes may occur in their climates and the implications of this for their agricultural practices,” the network’s submission states.

The network also sees a need for social analysis to consider the impacts of climate change on rural communities and to better target government’s social spending in those communities.

The capacity of rural communities to respond to changing circumstances is also addressed in other early submissions sent to the Primary Industries Committee. A network in Victoria called the South West Climate Change Forum has devised a system to assist its rural community, including farmers. The group says its success comes from the forum working with local, regional and state government departments and authorities to develop what it calls “climate change adaptation strategies throughout Victoria’s south-west”.

The forum evolved from discussions among western Victorian dairy farmers about the lack of planning to prepare for climate change. The first meeting of interested parties occurred in June 2007, culminating in the group’s formation. It now has representatives from water and catchment management authorities, the main regional primary industries of dairy, seafood, timber, cropping and livestock, plus groups with an interest in sustainability.

Members of the forum have spoken to more than 500 primary producers at industry field days and to more than 2,000 rural people involved in primary production at workshops and other meetings. Through articles in newspapers and media coverage on television and radio, the group estimates that information on climate change specific to the region and primary producers has reached most farmers in the southwest.

In pointing to the applicability of the forum model, the submission notes that most government agencies and industry groups associated with primary production were looking for leadership on climate change and welcomed a grassroots-driven organisation taking responsibility for delivery of information to their member and stakeholders. It highlights the importance of a “single entity collating and coordinating climate change information for primary producers that is relevant to the region and its primary industries and provides a conduit for information and funding from government agencies.”

“It helps minimise duplication, encourages cooperation and partnerships and created a high profile hub for the members involved. [The forum] is viewed by stakeholders as agile, motivated and proactive which has contributed to the support the forum has won. Industries and agencies have welcomed an independent and ‘neutral’ body which was initiated and is driven by the grass-root members.”

Submissions have also arrived from individual farmers. One came from Dr Kath Cooper and Mike Elleway, farmers and seed-growers in the South Australian Mallee country. The two urge governments across Australia to provide more support for the farming community, declaring that the country “needs full-time, professional, career farmers who are able to live, able to buy food, get health care, have their children educated, have a holiday from time to time, and have access to affordable water, power, communications and transport”.

“Career farmers need income security. If farmers are in a reasonable financial position, it is amazing how well they can adapt to the impacts of climate change and produce well without further help. The government needs to enable farming to become a sufficiently financially rewarding activity. Farmers can still produce a lot in a variable climate, but their production needs to be rewarded, particularly in consideration of their ever-increasing input costs. Some food production may need

to be subsidised and/or a minimum price guaranteed.”

The Cooper-Elleway submission argues that farmers are in a good position to do environmental work for the benefit of the general population and payment for this would contribute to a farmer’s viability despite variable seasons. For example, they could help control pests such as foxes, rabbits, cats, goats and other feral animals. They could also clear weeds such as box-thorns on and off their properties, fence off scrub and watercourses, and sow sand hills with trees to reduce erosion and increase biodiversity.

“All this costs money and time, and as farmers get poorer, less of these activities are possible. So help keep farming viable by paying for environmental work. Other on-farm activities, such as hosting wind and solar electricity farms, should be supported [and] governments need to enact policies to encourage more locally-based farming support industries.”

The submission makes a plaintive plea to reverse the effects of globalisation by keeping the manufacture of farm machinery in Australia. Local manufacturers can act more quickly and appropriately in responding to the needs climate change imposes, rather than having to rely on sourcing all agricultural machinery needs from overseas, the writers argue.

“Local business can maintain and quickly adapt their machinery for fighting bushfires, ameliorating flooding from cyclones and, as when needed, when preparing for a war.

Farmers and local manufacturers need to be helped to remain viable. Incentives need to be given to stay rather than allow companies to move offshore to find cheap labour.”

The shortest submission so far is from Sandor con Kontz who also says the solution rests with Australian farmers themselves. In less than 50 words, Mr von Kontz tells the committee what the government should do: “Since I am a simple farmer please do not expect an elaborate submission.

My idea is simple. I am absolutely positive that the answer to the problem of climate change lays in our way of managing land. My idea is: pay farmers a basic wage for land management which counteracts climate change.”

Pick of the Crop Dairy farmer Tom Pearce doesn’t know whether it’s climate change or seasonal variations, but years of unreliable rainfall have sparked an efficiency drive on his family farm, which is delivering excellent results.

“We’re trying to be more efficient with less,” he says, “and we’re still getting the same amount of milk.”

With 500 animals including 200 milking cows needing constant care and attention on their dairy farm near Bega (NSW), the Pearces work “flat out” in the good times to maximise the value of every drop of water and every blade of grass.

“The cheapest feed for us is grass, and without rain we have to buy in grain and hay and that’s where it gets expensive,” Mr Pearce says. “So we have to adapt, and that’s why we’re still here.”

His attitude and leadership has won him a spot as one of this year’s Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Young Achievers, a group of seven young Australians selected from across the state for their contributions to their communities.

They all agree the weather is the biggest topic of conversation amongst farmers at the moment. They also believe younger farmers in particular are taking advantage of new techniques and technologies to improve farm efficiency and sustainability.

While they come from a range of backgrounds with different experiences of life on the land, they all share a fierce determination to see farming overcome its many challenges to thrive and prosper.

Speaking at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, these “achievers today, leaders tomorrow” had a clear message for the parliamentary inquiry into agriculture and climate change: AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 21

FUTURE FARMING farmers are brilliant adapters, just keep them involved in the decision making process.

Adapting to drier conditions for the Pearce family has meant being more careful with their water, getting maximum value from their pastures and downsizing their herd slightly.

“I think farmers are good adapters as long as they’re involved in the process and not forced to do things,” says Kellie Cooke, a milk supply officer on the NSW north coast.

“A lot of farmers are sceptics and you’re never going to get them to come across [to climate change] but as along as you don’t force them into things, and you work with them, they will adapt and it will be OK,” she says.

Two recent floods demonstrated to her the enormous impact weather has on farmers’ lives, regardless of how such events are labelled. Blackouts disrupted milking routines, while flooded roads made milk collections impossible.

“I know in most other areas in Australia it’s been getting a lot drier, but for us it’s been either colder or wetter,” she says.

“If floods were going to become significantly more regular, then farms on the flood plains would have to move. Even though on the coast the high rainfall is ideal for dairy farming, if it’s going to continually flood, meaning constant animal health issues and soil issues, then they’re going to have to shift.”

Liz Pearson, raised in Guyra and now working for an animal health company in Cootamundra, believes farmers are very resilient.

“I’m very optimistic about the future of farming, with the company I work for highly involved in developing technologies which are making farmers more efficient and sustainable,” she says.

Through her involvement in the feedlot sector, she’s seen improvements especially with water use, which will be good for the industry’s future.

Junee agronomist Tim Stivens shares this optimism about the future but thinks farmers have reached a point where they are almost as efficient as they can be, and need policy support from the government to guarantee their income.

“We can’t grow some products for the price we can import them, and farmers don’t really have control over those sorts of things,” he says.

“Farmers are just about at the peak of their efficiency and they need secure margins or prices to stay viable. Farmers have done just about as much as they can do. There needs to be a policy framework to secure their future.”

He says farmers are already adapting to the changing climate, with a massive shift away from conventional farming practices such as ploughing and sowing, to practices using direct drill machinery, water conservation, retaining stubbles, and running less livestock to retain ground cover and water.

Mr Stivens says some of the older farmers aren’t convinced about climate change, but younger farmers are embracing new technologies and practices.

“If you talk to the older generations, those which are beginning to step away from controlling the farms and working the land, they reckon climate change is a furphy. They think it’s just a made up bureaucrat word to give someone a job in parliament.

“But talk to the younger farmers, those stepping in now who have had experiences outside farming, they’re a bit more wary of climate change and the direction it’s going to push agriculture. They’re trying to understand what it means, and if farming is going to be viable in our area.”

To a large extent that viability will depend on rainfall, always a big topic of conversation in Riverina town of Leeton, where Shannon McCormack has spent the past 12 months working with farmers “doing it tough”.

“Being a strong irrigation area they’ve been struggling a lot with water allocations and trading, and they’re really struggling.

They want some rain and keep hoping and praying it will happen.”

He says the younger farmers are “opening their minds” to new and better practices and looking for more efficient ways to farm, but it’s a constant contest between the climate and money. (continued on page 24)

Farmers and the impacts of climate change The House of Representatives Primary Industries and Resources Committee is investigating the role of government in assisting Australian farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The committee is considering how farmers are or could be adapting to climate change, and the potential impacts on downstream processing.

It is looking into the role of government in assisting farmers to shift towards farming practices that promote resilience in the farm sector, and government’s role in promoting research, extension and training that assists farmers to better adapt to climate change. The role of rural research and development is also being examined.

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AACL’s Managing Director, Andrew McBain at the 2009 Dowerin Field Day

and a guaranteed worst case position before the crop has even been grown— something Australian farmers have never had before. A Grain Co-Production contract can benefit farmers in all growing regions, including those in traditionally low risk, high rainfall areas. The contract structure is tailored to suit the risk profile of

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AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 23

FUTURE FARMING

“The climate’s got to be right for you to make the dollars,” he says. “In farming, the highs are really high but when it’s low, it’s really low.”

Tired of waiting for a break in the weather, some farmers have moved out of cropping into lambs, he says. Others have made the tough decision to sell, which often comes with additional heartache when properties fail to return the prices the owners thought they were worth.

It’s even worse when they can’t sell, even though they want to, which Orange agronomist Melissa Lauff has seen happening.

“I’ve been hearing farmers say ‘if we don’t get a good year, we’re out’, but then if it doesn’t rain land values are down and they can’t sell,” she says.

“There are farmers who have lived their whole lives on the land and they’re saying this is the worst it’s ever been. They’re constantly looking for new ways of doing things because they’re accepting this is the way it’s going to be, that it’s never going to get back to how it used to be.”

She would like to see more financial assistance for farmers when times are tough to help them plant their next crop, or buy their next lot of cattle, just until they’re “back on their feet”.

“In my area around Orange, the government has just cancelled drought assistance and a lot of people are upset 24 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

about it because we’ve had some rain but not enough,” she says.

According to Patricia Cooke, from near Cowra, the seasons have definitely changed. “You can’t plan as much as you used to, and you just have to work day by day,” she says.

She would like the parliamentary inquiry to consider ways to promote information sharing, suggesting a series of rural forums where farmers could get together with their mates to discuss the challenges they’re all facing.

“Farmers are more likely to take it seriously if they don’t have someone dictating what they have to do. They need to be able to get together to discuss things. It’s better that way. And if we don’t do it now, who knows how our industries will keep going.”

Whatever the weather, young farmers like Tom Pearce will keep doing the best they can to adapt, modernise, be more efficient and sustainable, while also hoping for a return to more favourable conditions.

“I guess it’s in the back of people’s minds, the climate change thing, but we’re taking each day as it comes…and the rainfall is always a day closer,” he says.

For more information, visit www.aph.gov.au/pir or email pir.reps@aph.gov.au or phone (02) 6277 4500. (source: About the House)

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BEST PRACTICE

Camilo Olives The history of Camilo Olives is something of an agricultural fairytale. The family-owned business, managed by mother and daughter team Joan McGovern and Anne Rathjen, has all of the elements of a classic story – humble beginnings, some obstacles along the way, and a happy ending.

26 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

B

ut the journey has only just begun for this boutique olive oil producer. Established in 2002, Camilo Olives have waited until now for their first ‘on’ year – a year of full production that has reaped great rewards. Camilo was showered with awards during the latter part of 2009 for its quality olive oils, taking out a clean sweep of gold medals at the Melbourne Show, and two silvers in Sydney – all before the official launch of the Camilo brand.

This is a remarkable achievement for such a young company.

The olive groves for Camilo’s impressive oils were planted less than a decade ago, in 2002, on a property just outside of Geelong.

Joan and Peter McGovern moved from Melbourne to Geelong for career reasons – Joan has a background in PR and communications – and set about a rigorous search for the right property. “We wanted at least 100 acres, a reliable supply of water and a view because we had moved from Tasmania in 1996 and really wanted a place we could enjoy as a lifestyle as

BEST PRACTICE well as an income generator,” says Joan.

Establishing a nationwide name in olive oil was not their first priority when the McGoverns arrived in Geelong, but, having been inspired by a friend’s grove of a few hundred trees, they purchased 136 acres of land nestled between the Inverleigh flora and fauna reserve and the Leigh River, with the intention of creating a sizeable grove of their own.

When the decision had been made to establish the grove, the McGoverns were surprised (and delighted) to be told by their daughter Anne that she would pursue a Degree in Agricultural Business. While Anne undertook her studies, the first 20 acres of the grove was planted, and Camilo Olives was born.

For the first few years, the team at Camilo Olives were, as Joan says, “‘green’ to farming and to olives and took all the advice received.” As with any new endeavour, the McGoverns discovered along the way that not all advice is good advice, having mounded their olive rows (creating a ‘hill’ effect along

Pictured: Joan McGovern (right) with daughter Anne.

the rows), only to have to mow them on a slant from that point on. Says Joan, “we have learned to live with leaning on the mowers but if we could, we would happily flatten the ground.”

One of the biggest lessons learned through the planting and cultivating process was the amount of water that was needed to grow olives – a difficult lesson to learn during an extended drought. “Our trees were planted early on in the drought years.

Our irrigation system didn’t work for years, and it was only a couple of years ago that we could ensure that our trees received the water they had been begging for,” says Joan.

“People tell us that olives don’t need much water, but they do during their establishment years. Our seven-year old trees are probably really only five years in maturity but they virtually sang their way through the last season and happily surrendered a fantastic crop.”

Joan notes that ‘it takes five years to produce an olive harvest of reasonable quantity, seven years to start breaking even and 10 years to be in full production.” During the growing years at Camilo Olives, the family set up a small processing plant on their property for future use, and used it to process olives for other growers, honing their skills at the same time.

When it came time to harvest and process their own produce, Anne did most of the processing, which resulted in a fine quality Ligurian oil that won a silver medal at the 2009 Sydney Royal Fine Food Awards.

In order to ensure that Camilo’s brand would be established as soon as production commenced, the family worked on creating labelling and a recognisable brand name image, assisted by a Melbourne design company. The result is beautiful packaging, depicting an olive tree behind the company’s distinctive Camilo logo. Joan acknowledges the importance of good branding. “We get a continuous stream of compliments for our branding, and I know that it helps to sell the product.”

Beyond the branding, however, the product contained within must be superior quality as well, a feat that Camilo has certainly achieved. “There’s nothing more important than putting quality inside – and that has been our main aim since the inception of the grove,” says Joan.

Joan and daughter Anne set about training their palates to recognise a good oil. Both women trained to become Victorian Sensory Panel members, which has stood them in good stead to identify a quality product – undoubtedly one of the reasons that Camilo has managed to achieve such high-grade production so quickly.

The main olive variety at Camilo is Ligurian, and the others include Kalamata, Pendolino, Corregiola and Koroneiki. In 2009, Camilo produced three distinct extra virgin olive oils – a Koroneiki/Frantoio blend, the silver-medal winning Ligurian, and a Koroneiki/Barnea blend. The Koroneiki/Frantoio blend swept a lot of prize categories, including best in show at the 2009 Royal Melbourne Show. The oil was awarded gold in the commercial bulk robust category, won the commercial category championship trophy, and won the Victorian Trophy, which is awarded to the highest scoring of the Victorian-grown gold medal winning oils.

Camilo also produces infused oils with hints of chilli, garlic, and even mandarin, as well as baked and pickled olives, and a moisturiser.

The family behind Camilo Olives is rightfully delighted that they’ve achieved such success from the effort that they’ve put into their property. “Suffice to say we are very proud, happy and now running very hard to make sure that we meet our customers’ needs, market demands, and make the most of what has been a brilliant year,” says Joan.

If 2009 is anything to go by, the future holds only good things for Camilo. With full production now underway, and the company growing out of its youth, Camilo is sure to prosper, and head towards that fairy-tale ending.

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 27

BEST PRACTICE

Tablelands-based farmers take out 2009 Conservation Farmer of the Year Award At the 2009 Conservation Agriculture and No-till Farming Association (CANFA) conference dinner in Dubbo, the winner of the 2009 Conservation Farmer of the Year Award was announced as being Murrumbidgee tablelands farmers, John and Robyn Ive from Hall.

ABOVE: John and Robyn Ive with CANFA executive officer, Neville Gould and CANFA chair, Anne Williams, receiving the 2009 Conservation Farmer of the Year Award in Dubbo

O

ne of the award judges, Ian Packer from the Lachlan Catchment Management Authority said that this year’s group of eight regional finalists was very diverse, from stock only through to cropping across every landscape and soil type possible, from three regions within the catchments being the slopes, plains and tablelands.

The Central West, Lachlan, Murray and Murrumbidgee catchment-based farmers were judged following nomination, with on-farm inspections by representatives of CANFA, the Catchment Management Authorities and the 2008 Conservation Farmer of the Year winner, Matt McKenzie.

The Ives were selected from a group of three regional winners who included: • Slopes: Andrew and Delwyn Clifton, “Fairfield”, Corowa • Plains: Tony and Tanya Wright, “Bundy Downs”, Peak Hill • Tablelands: John and Roby Ive, “Talaheni”, Hall Mr Packer said they saw evidence of a vast array of innovative ways to reduce inputs, monitor systems, address climate change and develop unique markets, and for all, soil health was a high priority.

28 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

Stubble maintenance and no till was high on the agenda to address soil structure, organic carbon and compaction,” he said.

In accepting the award last night Mr Ive said that while being focused on superfine wool production on their Yass Valley property, in order to achieve those ends they need to look after the land to the greatest extent possible.

“We believe that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

Receiving the award on his birthday, Mr Ive also won a $5,000 GPS guidance system at conference, donated by GPSAg. He made the comment at the dinner that he was not sure how the sheep would react to it.

For more information about the Conservation Farmer of the Year Award contact: Neville Gould Mob: 0427 452 488 Tel: 02 6845 1044 (CANFA office) Web: www.canfa.com.au

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SUSTAINABILITY + ENVIRONMENT

An answer to climate change could be right under our feet.

Nature’s Way Story: Georgie Oakeshott

When the McKellar family started farming at ‘Inveraray Downs’ in northern New South Wales back in the 1960s, the cultivators turning the soil in preparation for planting were continually being clogged by giant earthworms.

30 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

SUSTAINABILITY + ENVIRONMENT

F

orty years on, those “three-foot worms” are long gone but a second generation McKellar is doing everything he can to get them back. Working overtime to restore soil fertility and wishing he could start all over again, Cam McKellar regrets the impact that traditional chemical farming has had on their land.

“Basically we stuffed it,” he says of the soil which went from a healthy carbon level of three percent to under one percent in 30 years.

The turning point came in the 1990s when costs were spiralling out of control and, plagued by headaches from chemical herbicide, Cam McKellar began questioning the way things were done and realised there was another, more environmentally friendly way.

He turned to biological farming, which meant winding back the use of chemical fertilisers to restore the soil’s health. Not only has the soil improved but his plants are healthier, bushel weights are higher and the end product is more nutritious.

“Biological farming is taking better care of your soil biology and plant nutrition,” he says. While it’s taken 10 years, soil carbon levels are improving, insecticides are hardly ever needed, fungicides are non-existent and the worms are coming back.

“We basically had to start from scratch but now we’re seeing the results. The soil is totally different to what is was 10 years ago. It looks good, it smells good, and I’m enjoying farming again.”

McKellar’s Spring Ridge property was recently visited by members of the House of Representatives Primary Industries Committee who came to the Liverpool Plains to meet farmers at the leading edge of adaptations that could play a vital role for agriculture as it deals with the impacts of climate change.

Cam McKellar believes increasing soil carbon levels has the potential to solve one of the nation’s biggest environmental challenges.

“If we did this across western New South Wales we’d fix the Murray Darling system in a matter of five or 10 years. You would have your water cycle back to where it’s meant to be and everything would be pretty sweet. I know that’s a big call but it would be lovely to see.”

Not far from Spring Ridge, Quirindi farmer David Wallis is also seeing the benefits of biological farming.

Faced with a 95 percent reduction in his water allocation and knowing that carbon increases the soil’s ability to hold water, David Wallis used biological farming techniques to increase his soil carbon levels from two to three percent, which is close to the optimum level in these heavy black soils.

“The biological principles change your thinking a bit,” he says. “It’s sometimes referred to as ‘soft’ farming. We don’t use acid based fertilisers anymore. We actually spray nutrients on that will feed the life in the soil to build up the bug life in the soil which helps create nutrients for your plants.”

He told MPs that biological farming has improved both the health of the soil and the health of his plants. His lucerne is now 80 percent ‘solid stem’ which is better and stronger than the ‘hollow stem’ lucerne which used to dominate his crop.

Breeza farmer Andrew Pursehouse is another Liverpool Plains innovator who has had to make changes to cope with a 68 percent reduction in his water allocation.

Instead of cultivating the soil, he has adopted a no-tillage technique on some parts of his property to conserve soil moisture, and it’s worked. Along with a few other adjustments, the no-tillage approach has helped achieve the equivalent of an additional six inches of rainfall per year.

“The whole thing is a really wonderful story,” he says, “and if you combine legumes in there as well to provide organic nitrogen, it’s a wonderful system we now have in place.

“These black soil plains have a tremendous water holding capacity and in days gone by to eliminate weeds we farmed the land and cultivated the weeds. That was actually creating a

sealed off zone which limited moisture penetrability of the soil, and the big heavy tractors were basically acting as compactors.

“Now under no-tillage farming the tractors are lightweight and they use defined, controlled traffic lanes. We’re finding the soil is more porous, stubble retains moisture and a lot of our earthworms have come back. They didn’t like the tillage.”

The achievements of these farmers on the Liverpool Plains are something Primary Industries Committee member Tony Windsor (Member for New England, NSW) describes as cutting edge.

“The farming community isn’t sitting around waiting for the climate to get drier,” Mr. Windsor says.

“In fact the farming community already knows some of the answers to a lot of the problems and the political process has to go back to the grassroots and, rather than impose policy on them, actually ask some of these people how to get the answers, because the answers are there.

“Lifting carbon levels from two to three percent may not sound a lot but that’s a 50 percent increase in the amount of carbon being stored in the soil.

“If you could improve the capture of carbon in our soils by 50 percent across the good soils in Australia or even the good soils in the world, there would not be any need for an emissions trading scheme. We would have that problem solved,” Mr. Windsor says.

Primary Industries Committee Chair, Dick Adams (Member for Lyons, Tas) says there clearly needs to be more research and support for their findings.

“I think we went out to save the world and environmental science became the sexy thing, but now some of that effort needs to be put back into agriculture. We need to encourage people to look in these areas, to study these areas and get degrees in these areas which are important for growing food and fibre in Australia.”

At a public hearing in Canberra, committee members heard from one of Australia’s leading soil scientists, Christine Jones, who believes soil carbon is the prime determinant of agricultural productivity, landscape function and water quality.

“In our never-ending quest for technological quick fixes we frequently overlook the obvious, the simplest and most effective solutions,” she told the hearing.

“Without doubt, increasing the level of carbon in agricultural soils is the most obvious, simple and effective solution to climate change. But we cannot increase soil carbon unless we change farming methods,” she said.

The statistics speak for themselves. In little over 200 years of European settlement more than 70 percent of Australian agricultural land has become seriously degraded.

On average seven tonnes of topsoil is lost for every tonne of grain produced. At the same time there has been a reduction of between 50 percent and 80 percent in the organic carbon content of surface soils.

“Losses of carbon of this magnitude have immeasurable economic and environmental implications,” Dr Jones said.

“Further, the carbon and water cycles are inextricably linked.

Humus holds approximately four times its own weight in water.

The most beneficial adaptation strategy for climate change would therefore be one that focuses on increasing the levels of both carbon and water in the soils.”

Warning that a fundamental redesign of food, fuel and fertiliser production is vital to the survival and profitability of the Australian agricultural sector, Dr Jones said landholders are realising they need to change.

“I cannot tell you how many people at recent workshops have almost been in tears saying ‘we know we need to change, we desperately need information’. They’re ripe for change,” she said.

According to Dr Jones, the answer is based on a simple, natural process involving green plants which draw down AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 31

SUSTAINABILITY + ENVIRONMENT carbon from the atmosphere. This is then converted to stable soil carbon through microscopic organisms around the plants’ roots.

“All living things are made of carbon and the carbon cycle is the basis of all life on Earth. We need to learn how to properly complete that cycle, how to draw down excess CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it in a stable, life-supporting form in the soil.

“The sequestration of CO2 requires a green plant. The conversion of the liquid carbon in the plant to a stable soil carbon requires a microbial bridge. Life in the soil cannot flourish in the absence of green plants, nor can it tolerate a constant barrage of toxic chemicals.”

The reason many current land management systems are failing, she said, is because green plants are only present for part of the year, with bare ground the remainder of the time. It’s vitally important that soil be covered with living plants in all seasons, particularly summer.

She believes perennial groundcover has multiple agricultural, ecosystem and landscape benefits, including erosion control and combating weeds that colonise land when it’s empty.

Using a technique known as perennial cover cropping, annual grain or fodder crops can be direct drilled into dormant perennial group cover with excellent results.

In fact, she said, in 2007 the only grain harvested in the Geraldton region in Western Australia was from crops sown into pasture by the WA Department of Agriculture and Food.

“These crops yielded over a tonne per hectare when everyone else’s crops simply died. It was because the perennial pasture had improved the soil and helped the ‘pasture crop’ survive under extreme conditions.”

Another positive outcome of this ‘year-long green’ agriculture has been an increase in biodiversity such as snakes, lizards, birds, even marsupials like bettongs which feed on fungi and earthworms.

“We thought their absence was due to predators but it was actually due to lack of food supply and lack of habitat. Now we have the year-round grass cover there, although there are still

32 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

plenty of foxes and feral cats around, I am seeing more and more bettongs all the time. I’m blown away every time I see one,” she said.

Dr Jones told the committee the federal government could fast track the adoption of innovative, productive farming technologies through a proposed Green Agriculture Stewardship Scheme (GASS).

The scheme proposes to provide incentive payments of $200 per hectare for the establishment of green agricultural sites to provide on-ground proof of resilient high quality profitable agricultural production, active soil-building, carbon sequestration, biodiversity enhancement, improvements to landscape function and the aesthetic benefits of year-long green farming techniques.

Dr Jones said these sites would serve as design and innovation templates for expansion to other properties in their designated region as well as nationally and internationally.

“As a result of the measured and publicised benefits of the stewardship scheme, it is anticipated that regenerative farming techniques would be widely adopted throughout the agricultural community, hence not requiring further government funding other than an initial five year allocation.”

Dr Jones told the committee that if there was government support to encourage landholders to make some of these changes, there would be no valid reason for the Australian agricultural sector to be a net emitter of CO2.

“It would require only a 0.5 percent increase in soil carbon on two percent of agricultural land to sequester all Australia’s emissions of carbon dioxide. That is, the annual emissions from all industrial, urban and transport sources could be sequestered in farmland soils if incentive was provided to landholders for this to happen.”

This may sound too good to be true, but if it is true, it’s one simple solution to save agriculture, the environment and the planet all at once. And all along it was right under our feet.

For more information on the inquiry into farmers and the impact of climate change visit www.aph.gov.au/pir or email pir.reps@aph.gov.au or phone (02) 6277 4500.

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SUSTAINABILITY + ENVIRONMENT

There’s no place like home Formed through a partnership between energy giants Hydro Tasmania and China Light and Power (CLP) Group, Roaring 40s vision is to be a leading renewable energy developer in Australia.

W

ith a focus firmly on growth opportunities in the wind energy market in Australia, Roaring 40s existing wind farms in Tasmania and South Australia will be complimented by further projects currently under various stages of construction. Roaring 40s values reflect our mission to successfully provide renewable energy solutions through processes that are transparent, environmentally responsible and beneficial to the community. Backed by over ninety years experience in the energy field, the Roaring 40s team has the specialist knowledge and skills to manage the entire spectrum of the project life cycle, from concept through to commissioning and ongoing operation and maintenance. At Roaring 40s, we’re not just creating energy solutions, we’re creating the future.

Since 2005, Roaring 40s had built a reputation as one of the leading foreign wind energy developers in Asia. Now we’re concentrating all of our efforts in Australia, bringing with us the experience and expertise that we’ve built up overseas. Through the sale of our Asia based assets, we’re now focused on

34 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

helping local economies back home via major wind energy projects, like the Musselroe project in north-east Tasmania and Waterloo in the Clare Valley region of South Australia. These projects will provide valuable and much needed employment opportunities, as well as providing long term renewable energy solutions to help Australia lower its carbon emissions and create a better future for our children.

Now that’s what we call “thinking energy”.

The increasing demand for renewable energy and the relatively small footprint of wind farming on most agricultural business activities means that wind, the farm’s untapped natural resource, has the potential to make a substantial contribution to the total farm income.

At Roaring 40s we are continually searching for properties that have wind potential.

If you would like to learn more about wind farming, and what we do at Roaring 40s, visit our website www.roaring40s.com or contact us via email at infoaustralia@roaring40s.com

With your help, we can farm for the future too.

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SUSTAINABILITY + ENVIRONMENT

Better Weather Ahead More accurate weather forecasts will help people who rely on them.

Story: James Nicholson

You would think the Bureau of Meteorology would be every farmer’s best friend. For more than a hundred years, Australia’s agricultural sector has relied, to a greater or lesser extent, on essential information from the national weather forecaster.

T

he weather, and more to the point weather forecasting, plays a critical role in the strategic decision-making processes that drive Australia’s $47.5 billion agriculture industry.

Indeed, the bureau attracts a staggering nine billion hits a year to its website, and accounts for more than 45 per cent of all Australian government web traffic.

But the current reality is that the friendship is being stretched in places. Frustrated by what too often turn out to be erroneous forecasts, farmers are asking serious questions of the bureau and its capacity to deliver skilful, accurate seasonal predictions that can feed into key land-management decisions.

A 2007 report based on data compiled by the bureau and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry found that 76 per cent of farmers considered forecasting not to be reliable, and 73 per cent considered it not to be accurate.

As the South Australian Farmers Federation told the House of Representatives Industry, Science and Innovation Committee earlier this year, “The lack of accuracy of the current modelling 36 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

methods and long-term predictions makes them a less than useful tool for agricultural farming systems within South Australia.

“Agriculture has long called for the accurate long-range climate forecasting to improve decision making and risk management on-farm, but we now question if we are pursuing the ‘holy grail’.”

The complex and highly technical science behind weather forecasting, and the innovation that drives continual improvement in forecasting accuracy, are central to decision-making across the economy, from the farming sector to water resource management, the mining, construction, tourism and aviation industries, as well as emergency response management.

Alert to the far-reaching and potentially disastrous implications across multiple industry sectors of inadequate weather prediction systems, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, requested the committee to inquire into long-term meteorological

SUSTAINABILITY + ENVIRONMENT forecasting in Australia.

The committee, chaired by Maria Vamvakinou (Member for Calwell, Victoria), was asked to report on the efficacy of current climate modelling methods and techniques, and long-term meteorological prediction systems, as well as innovation in long-term forecasting methods and technology. It was also invited to examine the impact of accurate measurement of inter-season climate variability on decision-making, potential applications for emergency response to natural disasters, and systems and research in use overseas that could have application in Australia.

“Weather plays a huge part in the lives of all Australians,” Ms Vamvakinou said. “Even simple daily activities are determined by the weather, and having access to accurate weather forecasting is essential.”

“In particular, accurate long-term forecasting is essential for many of our industry sectors, for example our agricultural industry. Without accurate long-term forecasting, the planting of crops reliant on seasonal rains is a risky business. ” The committee has heard evidence from farmers groups, state government departments, several individual scientists and some federal government agencies including the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Land and Water Australia and CSIRO. It also heard from the Bureau of Meteorology, which bears legislated responsibility for the collection of meteorological data and the forecasting of weather and the state of the atmosphere. That responsibility includes the issuing of warnings for severe weather associated with events likely to endanger life and property.

The bureau supports ongoing research in weather forecasting principally though its partnership with CSIRO in the operation of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research (CAWCR). This unincorporated joint venture brings together relevant research and development expertise from both partners.

In its submission to the inquiry, the Bureau of Meteorology noted the importance of meteorological forecasting and climate modelling to Australia’s economic, environmental and social wellbeing and prosperity.

“Australia’s location and size exposes it to a range of weather extremes such as heatwaves, bushfires, cyclones, floods and storms. Predictions of weather and climate at timescales from hours to days and across seasons can influence decisions that range from emergency management procedures and systems through to when or whether to plant particular crops,” the bureau said.

At the heart of the investigation into the adequacy and accuracy of current long-term forecasting methods is the reality that seasonal weather forecasters find themselves caught in a hiatus between a traditional method of forecasting, which has become outdated and ineffective, and a new method which is yet to be properly developed.

Forecasters have traditionally based their predictions on statistics gathered over time. Essentially, they collect observations about past or present conditions that influence weather, and use those observations to predict meteorological conditions into the future. The flaw with this ‘statistical method’ is that it assumes previous weather and climate patterns will be reliable indicators as to what might be expected in the future.

Climate change, however, has rendered this method almost

useless, as the bureau’s acting chief climatologist Michael Coughlan told the committee.

“By characterising the climate of the past and understanding again where you are now, you can go back to that record and extract similar occurrences of conditions like we have now,” Dr Coughlan said. “If one can find those similar conditions in the past they can use that history of how the climate evolved from those conditions to forecast conditions.

“The problem we are experiencing now is we are seeing a very unstable climate regime or, to use the statistical term, non-stationary climate….In other words we are experiencing climatic conditions that are not well represented in the past.

That then compromises our statistically based forecast.”

CSIRO told the inquiry the existing seasonal forecasts for Australia have “reached the summit of their ability”, while the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry described the inaccuracy of current long-term meteorological forecasting as one of the great barriers to its wider adoption for decision-making among farmers.

“Current long-term meteorological forecasts are primarily based on averages taken from historical climate data,” the department’s submission said. “In light of the international scientific consensus that human activity is increasing atmospheric carbon emissions and enhancing global warming, scientists widely acknowledge that historical climate records are no longer adequate predictors of future climate.”

The alternative, emerging forecasting method into which research and development investment is increasingly being directed is what scientists term ‘dynamical modelling’. Here, forecasters model current conditions using the equations of motion and laws of physics to predict future conditions.

The transition from statistical forecasting to dynamical modelling has not yet eventuated, either internationally or at home. But, according to the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research’s deputy director Thomas Keenan, the latter technique has the capacity to provide a much more comprehensive data set and brings the hope of being able to deliver far more accurate predictions.

“In a statistical relationship you may focus just on temperature or rainfall, but in these physically based models you can actually look at the soil moisture, the temperature, the winds, the rain and have a much more comprehensive description,” Dr Keenan said. “That enables a much larger product set or information source to be available, apart from improving the overall predictive skill that is obtained through these types of techniques.”

The committee has heard that research is underway to replace the all-but obsolete statistical forecasting methodology with the more current dynamic system upon which farmers and other users could better rely. CAWCR has been developing successive versions of a dynamic modelling system for seasonal forecasting called POAMA (Predictive Ocean Atmosphere Model for Australia). The model has been used to undertake experimental forecasts of sea surface conditions in the Indian Ocean, which is believed to be an important driver of climate variability for Australia. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, indications are that POAMA is better equipped than current statistical approaches to provide long-term forecasts.

The other major project to promise improved seasonal forecasting is ACCESS (Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator) which is expected to deliver improvements in the simulation of El Niño, the Indian Ocean variability, local weather phenomena and tropical processes.

Not withstanding this early promise, Land and Water Australia’s ‘managing climate variability’ program coordinator, Colin Creighton, told the committee how the research agenda could be progressed more quickly.

“Obviously, more investment is needed,” Mr Creighton said.

“We really do not have enough money for what we need to do.

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 37

SUSTAINABILITY + ENVIRONMENT Whether it is for emergency services or agriculture or whether it is urban water authorities, it does not matter. Everyone is looking for better forecasts with more certainty and longer lead times.

“Obviously, we need international collaboration. We cannot do it alone. While I talk about an Australian system, we are really talking about a global system. There is some good work going on in Europe and India and so on. We must recognise that this is long-term research. You do not get the results in three years. It might take five years.

“Last but not least, as you will probably hear from others, we need a new supercomputer every five or 10 years. That is the reality of where we are going in much of this science.”

The broad benefit of improved seasonal forecasting and its influence on decision-making was articulated in several of the submissions, and by witnesses who appeared in person.

CSIRO listed a number of examples of how different sectors used forecasting to inform specific decisions. They include irrigation and cropping decisions affecting the use of irrigation water; dry-land cropping decisions affecting sowing dates, the area, variety and fertiliser application; emergency services decisions affecting planning for likely extreme events; and tourism decisions affecting the planning capacity and services according to seasonal weather.

“Reliable seasonal forecasting has considerable potential to deliver tangible benefits for forward planning and business operations in agriculture and water resources, and other industry and government sectors and the broader community,” CSIRO noted. “Some benefit already exists but would be enhanced through improved seasonal forecasting, clarification and education about how to interpret and apply forecast appropriately, and therefore increase user-confidence about what seasonal forecasts do and don’t offer.

“Better information about Australia’s potential future climate is central to decision-making for individual enterprises and for policy planning,” the department noted in its submission.

“Understanding climate variability at seasonal timescales, and having relevant long-term meteorological forecasting tools, will greatly assist risk management strategies at an enterprise level.”

The key for farmers is to know how much faith to pin on weather forecasts and to understand how best to use the information, according to Peter McIntosh, a principal research scientist at CSIRO. “The information has to be part of an overall risk management system,” Dr McIntosh said. “They cannot take just that information and just decide to either plant or not plant on the basis of that forecast. They might plant less area or they might delay planting or, if it was a dry year, they might plant a different variety that matures earlier—those sorts of decisions.

“They might decide to put less fertiliser on at the start, if the forecast was bad, and delay it to top dressing and wait to see if they got rainfall. There is a number of ways you can use the forecast information that is not black and white. The pay-off is in the long run. In any one year a forecast could be wrong and a farmer could come unstuck. That is why I think they should not follow the forecast only. They have to take a whole bunch of other things into consideration and just make slight changes based on the forecast.”

And while some have described the attainment of accurate seasonal forecasting capability as the ‘holy grail’, others have a real hope that the research being undertaken through CAWCR will soon deliver dynamical seasonal forecasts that are substantially more accurate than what is currently available.

For the struggling farmers and others who rely on accurate long-term forecasting, those improvements can’t come fast enough.l For more information on the inquiry into long-term meteorology forecasting, visit www.aph.gov.au/isi or email isi.reps@aph.gov.au or (02) 6277 4594 38 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

The science of prediction The Bureau of Meteorology refers to long-term meteorological forecasting as “seasonal forecasting”, and defines it as forecasting weather “from one to several months in advance”.

Seasonal forecasting is distinct from short-term weather forecasting (hours to several days ahead), and from climate-scale projections, which examine changes in climate on time-scales from years to centuries.

Both weather forecasting and seasonal forecasting involve the collection of empirical observations about past and present weather conditions, which then form the basis for making a forecast of the future weather.

Seasonal forecasting provides an assessment of the likely weather conditions average throughout a coming season, such as whether it is going to be drier or wetter than normal, hotter or colder.

Like most types of predictions, seasonal weather forecasting is uncertain because it involves making a prediction about future events within a complex system. Scientists are trying to work out how to improve the accuracy of forecasts by researching ways of using sophisticated computer models and laws of physics to make their predictions.

According to CSIRO scientist Peter McIntosh, it is the ocean that is the key to the longer time scale of the whole climate system, upon which seasonal forecasts are based.

“The important thing is the sub-surface ocean temperature,” Dr McIntosh said. “That is the whole basis of seasonal forecasting: knowing that the ocean controls the long time-scale and knowing something about the subsurface temperatures of the ocean.”

Understanding of the ocean is enhanced by an international network of 3,300 ‘argo floats’, small robotic probes which are seeded planet-wide about 500 km apart and which float well below the surface, recording important information about the ocean.

Nevertheless, the task of interpreting these complex data and translating them into seasonal weather forecasts remains a thankless one—a reality which the Bureau of Meteorology points to with four short unattributed lines on its website: “Many critics, no defenders, Weather folk have two regrets.

When they hit no one remembers, When they miss no one forgets!”

SUSTAINABILITY + ENVIRONMENT

Carbon footprinting: time to pick up the pace

By Tim Harford

Euan Murray grew up on a sheep farm in southern Scotland; now he is in charge of “carbon footprinting” for corporate clients of the Carbon Trust. “If I ask my old man, ‘What’s the carbon footprint of a sheep?’ he looks at me as though I’m mad,” he explains. “But he can tell me the stocking density, what he feeds the sheep, and he can answer those questions as part of running his business.”

Q

uite so. Carbon footprinting, the study of how much carbon dioxide is released in the process of producing, consuming and disposing of a product, is all about the specifics. This is a refreshing change from the politics of climate change, which is all about the generics. We hear promises from our leaders of big change in the future, without any credible plans right now.

I first approached Murray to ask him about the climate change impact of a cappuccino.

A year and

half ago, I wrote about the question, pointing out that meeting any of these grand targets in a sensible way would require billions upon billions of small decisions.

The cappuccino’s climate change impact depends on whether the café is double-glazed, the decisions the staff and I take to get there, the diet of the methane-producing cow that produced the milk and the source of power for the espresso machine.

Last week I pointed out that there are around 10 billion products in a modern economy; that means that the problem of reducing carbon dioxide emissions is “simply” the problem of reducing carbon dioxide emissions

from a cappuccino, 10 billion times over.

In the case of the cappuccino—or at least, a typical, generic cappuccino—the climate change impact probably comes from the milk. I say “probably” because we don’t know for sure.

Murray’s best guess was based on his work on milk chocolate.

Milk makes up one-third of a chocolate bar by mass, but is responsible for two-thirds of the climate-change impact of the entire production and consumption process.

Switching to espresso might be in order; so, too, might a different diet for the cows. It is hard to make generic recommendations, though: even the particular soil on which the grass grows on which the cows feed alters the climate change calculus.

The carbon-footprinting process often produces surprises.

An environmentally conscious consumer in the crisps aisle of the supermarket will probably be thinking about packaging or “food miles”. The Carbon Trust reckons that about one per cent of the climate impact of a packet of crisps is from moving potatoes around.

The largest single culprit is the production of the nitrogen fertiliser, and half of the climate impact in general takes place at the agricultural stage. The point is not that agriculture is always the problem, but that it is very hard for a wellmeaning consumer to work out what the green purchasing decision actually is.

For this reason, the Carbon Trust has a carbon labelling scheme. The trouble is that many consumers simply do not care enough to pay more or choose a less enjoyable product simply because of the low carbon label.

A government role is necessary, then, but it is even harder for governments to regulate such fine details. All this is why economists continue to advocate some kind of carbon price, which would give an incentive to everyone involved in these complex supply chains to trim carbon dioxide emissions.

A modest and credible price for carbon is slowly becoming the conventional policy wisdom. It is a shame we still don’t have it.

Also published at ft.com.

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 39

EDUCATION + TRAINING

Learning for a Future in the Bush Building capacity for economic, environmental and social outcomes across Australia’s vast rangelands – 75 percent of the land mass – is the aim of an exciting educational initiative specifically designed to address widely perceived deficiencies in tertiary education.

John Taylor receiving the 2009 Australian Rural Education Award from Emmy Terry, President of SPERA, on behalf of the Rangelands Australia team, the Rangeland Champions network and The University of Queensland.

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he Rangelands Management coursework program is exciting because it offers improved access to higher education, highly relevant courses focusing on current and emerging issues, and strong growth in participation by 3050 year olds in this educationally disadvantaged region.

The growth in enrolments of 650 percent during the past three years is no accident. The development of the program by Rangelands Australia has been one of the most highly strategic knowledge and skill development initiatives in Australia. It has been underpinned by surveys of knowledge needs and gaps, research on learning preferences, engagement of hundreds of stakeholders in guiding curriculum and course development, and innovative support for mature-aged students in remote areas.

The many benefits of this educational approach are now being realised at 40 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

personal, enterprise and community levels: • Personal benefits include greater capacity to represent rangeland interests and advocate for enterprise and regional outcomes; increased options for self-employment and diversification; increased options for career advancement and career changes; and greater awareness of the critical issues facing rangeland enterprises and regions.

• Enterprise-level benefits include lower costs and improved profitability; enhanced land condition; better management of trade-offs between production and conservation objectives; better decision-making and risk management; greater capacity for innovation and managing change; and better management and retention of the next generation.

• Community benefits include greater awareness of national and global

issues facing regions, stronger leadership, and changing perceptions of the value of higher education.

This ground-breaking initiative is a product of Rangelands Australia, a centre within The University of Queensland’s Gatton Campus. The centre recently won the 2009 Australian Rural Education Award, presented by the Society for Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA), in recognition of excellence in rural education, expansion of educational opportunities, and efficiency and effectiveness of education.

It is the first time this award has been conferred on a university-based education initiative. In accepting the award, Rangelands Australia director John Taylor acknowledged that the program’s success was a great testament to the benefits of strategic, participatory, student-centered and demand-driven approaches to the provision of higher education.

LEARNING FOR A FUTURE IN THE BUSH Are you seeking …

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Relevant and contemporary courses to expand your knowledge and skills?

Solutions to current and emerging issues in the bush?

Practical and up-to-date management information, and applying it to your enterprise or region?

A higher qualification to further your career or influence?

An interesting and different course or two to finish your higher degree?

Have you considered the Rangeland Management coursework program?

Yes, it’s different to other postgraduate coursework programs in many ways …

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Flexible entry – with or without a degree Some Commonwealth-supported places Study in external mode; from home, guided by experienced facilitators and stimulated by interactions with people across Australia Study in intensive mode; meet with the facilitator and fellow students at a week-long workshop in a local centre Study in a small group at a local centre over a week in intensive mode Out-of-hours support through a national network of Rangeland Champions Nationally and internationally recognised qualifications.

For more information on courses and enrolment Phone 07 5460 1660 Email rangelands@uqg.uq.edu.au Website www.rangelands-australia.com.au

Applications for enrolment close: Semester 1, 2010 – 31 January 2010 Semester 2, 2010 – 30 June 2010 Visit our website for all the necessary forms

Proudly supported by

Program structure has been shaped by 450 stakeholders engaged in 24 focus groups across Australia Course content and resources have been influenced by over 250 experienced land managers, advisors, scientists, etc in scoping, writing and review of the courses Courses are practical and highly relevant to workplace, business and people’s future Involves industry and professionals in the delivery of courses Courses are aligned with industry, community and government priorities through a focus on ‘triple-bottom-line’ sustainability.

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Sustainable production systems and regions Building effective stakeholder engagements Global and national trends, local scenarios Diversification and new industries Managing self, developing and retaining others Advanced rangeland ecology Property, catchment and regional planning Grazing land management Rangeland monitoring and adaptive management Rangeland pest animals, weeds and biosecurity Animal nutrition and behaviour Animal wellbeing and health

SALINITY

Dam Salinity A report card on our risk and progress

By John Ive, Talaheni

Salinity is widely recognised as one of the more serious land degradation processes that are affecting our agricultural lands—whether irrigated or dryland.

Likewise it is generally recognised that the cause of salinity is a discrepancy in the water-balance equation, usually as a result of replacing deep-rooting perennial vegetation with shallow-rooting annual crops and pastures that have been the backbone of Australia’s agricultural scene for many decades.

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he events that trigger increasing incidence of salinity can be separated in both time and space from the areas that are affected. It may take many decades before saline water tables rise sufficiently in response to widespread clearing of perennial vegetation to cause the visual blot on the landscape that signals reduced productivity and risk of secondary erosion. More telling is the separation in space where consequences of activities undertaken in one area may turn up many kilometres away due to the quirky nature of complex geomorphology below the soil’s surface. As a result, actions taken by individual landholders to combat salinity impacts on their properties may be unsuccessful within a time frame acceptable to landholders and more tellingly, benefits may be realised in a diffused and probably undetectable manner on distant properties.

This has been the argument for agencies to adopt a whole-ofcatchment approach where studies are undertaken not only to identify the hotspot sub-catchments but, with greater understanding of the prevailing hydro-geological processes, areas contributing most to the catchment’s salinity hotspots can be 42 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

identified. For properties where there is a close proximity between the casual areas and the affected areas, then landholders can take a similar approach with benefits to themselves and their near neighbors. Such is the case at Talaheni, a 245ha property in the Yass Valley on the Southern Tablelands (NSW). The Yass Valley has long been recognised as a salinity hotspot gaining unflattering front-page headlines in the 1980s with: Yass the dryland salinity capital of New South Wales.

By way of background, the area hosts tightly folded, but severely fractured multiple and diverse beds (slates, sandstones etc.) of Ordovician meta-sediments. The diverse characteristics of the sediment beds have, over geological time, resulted in formation of strikingly different soil types in very short distances.

As a result rocky ridges bound variable slopes which in turn abut deeper alluvial flats as shown in a stylised cross-section (Figure 1).

A traverse of such a cross-section covers a range of soil types, each with distinctive physical characteristics that interact differently with rainfall with subsequent consequences for salinity in the valley.

SALINITY

Figure 1: A typical cross-section of the Yass Valley reflecting the different soil types associated with landscape position. Each soil type has its own unique characteristics including infiltration rate and soil-water holding capacity. In general infiltration rate is highest and soil-water holding capacity lowest in the landscape.

From the perspective of dryland salinity the important point of the soils associated with such a transect is that infiltration rates decrease and soil-water holding capacities increase as one moves from ridge to flat. The stony ridges provide high infiltration rates and an elevated hydraulic head yielding groundwater at pressure to the lower flats. Consequently the ridges have low salinity risk per se; and unfortunately little agricultural potential. Ironically the risk generated by the ridges is ‘transported’ to the nearby much more productive flats little by little depressing their productive potential.

The crux to any management action is to monitor the response to those actions. The old adage is: if you do not measure it you cannot manage it. Normally salinity conditions are monitored via a network of piezometers which allow water table levels to be regularly measured and salinity of the water table assessed. Over time, trends can be established in response to management actions. However, the cost of installing a piezometer network is significant and cannot be undertaken with normal farm equipment and requires specific technical skills. An alternative may lay with the farm dams which dot the agricultural landscape. Such is the case on Talaheni where 38 dams are available to keep an eye on salinity trends which give much wider coverage than the twelve piezometers installed at significant cost.

The argument goes that dams can reflect the salinity status of their respective catchments with salt content the combined result of two main sources. Firstly, if a saline water table is closer to the surface than the bottom of the dam then, depending upon dam level and seepage rates, saline water will seep into the dam; the closer the water table is to the soil surface the more seepage will contribute to the dam’s stored contents. Secondly, evaporation from saline seeps in the dam’s catchment leaves salt on the surface which, when rain results in runoff, moves salty water to the dam. Therefore the salinity of a dam’s water is a cocktail of the salt-laden runoff and saline seepage from any elevated water table. Periodic measurement of the salinity levels of farm dams can give an insight into the trends in salinity across a property, indeed a group of properties and also differentiate dam catchments on their salinity status. Because of the seasonal nature of rainfall, monitoring dam salinity levels is best undertaken at a similar time of the year.

Given annual average evaporation from a farm dam in the Yass region is about 1700mm per year – that is, about the third of the depth (and half the volume) of an average farm dam, the salt concentration in the dam increases over time with ongoing evaporation. In the absence of any runoff the salt concentration of a little-used dam would double in a year. As the dam fills, the salt concentration is diluted although more salt would be received with the incoming runoff. Once full, further runoff will lead to some flushing with increasingly less saline runoff. However, in drought periods runoff declines and dam overflow becomes a rare event.

Therefore during dry periods one would expect salinity levels to increase during periods of below average rainfall due to ongoing elevated evaporation rate combined with relatively salt laden although limited inflows and reduced opportunity for flushing.

Simultaneously however, drought conditions reduce recharge, and the water table declines with subsequent reduction in salt accumulation at the surface as seeps recede. Additionally a lower water table reduces the opportunity for saline seepage into dams.

Figure 2: Salinity levels of 38 farm dams (blue dots) which have been attributed to each dam’s catchment area as measured in March 2008. The highest salinity levels (red) occur in the north, north-east sector. The salinity levels can be looked at in terms of current vegetation types (Fig. 6).

Figure 3: Change in salinity of the dam which, at the time of the first measurement, had the highest salinity level. The decline in salinity level has averaged over 200 EC units (μS/cm) per year over the past ten years at a relatively constant rate.

Dam salinity measurements have been taken on Talaheni since 25th December 2000 which spans an extended period of below average rainfall conditions which started its downturn in December 2000. Choosing the dam which initially had the highest salinity level and tracing its fate over the period shows an impressive and consistent decline in salinity levels at an average rate of over 200 EC units per year (R2= -0.938, Figure 3) and now compares favorably with Canberra’s domestic water supply which is currently 85 EC units. Given the strength of the relationship (Figure 3) the salinity level of the dam prior to commencing remedial action in 1980 could arguably have been over 6000 EC units; this would be consistent with the extent of dryland salinity symptoms apparent at the time (e.g. saline seeps occupied 23 per cent of Talaheni, now less than one per cent) and the water table decline since 1990 when direct weekly measurements commenced. For comparison, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) preferred upper limit for human consumption is 800 EC units and sea water is 54 500 EC units.

The decline in the dam’s salinity level is seen as a particularly significant response to the ameliorative actions taken to address dryland salinity, as the decline has been achieved during a prolonged dry period during which salinity levels of farm dams would be normally expected to increase due to higher evaporation AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 43

SALINITY and reduced inflows. Indeed the catchment of this dam includes the area where work was initially started in 1988 to address salinity with the planting of four hectares of the high recharge ridge to native trees and reinvigorating declining exotic perennial pastures on the flats by landscape fencing to allow better grazing management and strategic use of fertiliser to foster greater pasture vigour and production. Furthermore, the trend shown by this dam is consistent with the average trend across all dams (Figure 4), although the average trend is, by definition, not nearly so dramatic viz., 36 compared to 212 EC units per year, reflecting the greater annual decline in salinity levels for dams with the highest initial salinity level. Consequently salinity levels of all dams are now significantly below the WHO upper limit.

Figure 4: The mean salinity response of the 38 dams on Talaheni over the past ten years which has seen an average decline of 36 EC units per year R2= -0.849).

Each dot (Figure 4) represents the average of the thirty-eight individual dam measurements and gives an overview of the decline in salinity. The fact that salinity levels of dams have declined relatively consistently during the extended dry period is seen as evidence collaborating with the decline in depth to and salinity of the water table as recorded by weekly measurement since 1990 from a network of piezometers.

Returning to spatial variation in salinity levels across Talaheni (Figure 2) and attributing the salinity level of each dam to its catchment, it is obvious that the northern portion of Talaheni is expressing higher salinity levels in the farm dams than the southern area with a secondary pattern of dams higher in the landscape having lower salinity levels than their lower counterparts – reflecting in part the reduced opportunity for sub-surface seepage into such dams. The salinity map can be compared with the SPOT5 image (Figure 5) and the farm plan land use map (Figure 6) which show the distribution of various forms of vegetation which have been chosen in accordance with soil and landscape characteristics.

Interestingly for the majority of the piezometers, the water level is lower than the bottom of the piezometer so it is no longer possible to monitor the water table and therefore keep an eye on the salinity situation; on the other hand all dams continue to hold water and to receive sporadic inflows when rainfall permits thereby offering an ongoing opportunity to continue to track the response to dryland salinity management.

Dryland salinity management has included the establishment of trees on the high recharge areas where soil characteristics (particularly soil-water holding capacity) were an anathema to the establishment and persistence of vigorous perennial pasture. Tree establishment has involved grazing management during dry and subsequent favourable rainfall periods where seed trees remained and planting tubestock in areas lacking seed trees. Exotic perennial pastures have been established on flats and lower slopes, areas often reclaimed from severe salinity conditions. The selection of appropriate vegetation and its management has been assisted by the refencing of Talaheni on major soil and landscape characteristics (Figure 2) with fences often closely coinciding with dam sub catchment boundaries which assists in identifying and targeting management appropriate to the sub catchment.

44 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

Figure 5: SPOT5 image of Talaheni reflecting tree coverage, primarily on central ridge which has high recharge potential; and the mosaic of different vegetation types which can be interpreted from Figure 6.

Figure 6: Current farm plan reflecting fencing pattern based on soil and landscape characteristics and the different vegetation types which have been tailored to these characteristics.

From the evidence gathered over the past ten years, farms dams have provided a means of keeping a track on the response to managing dryland salinity providing an ongoing report card of encouraging success. Over the same period nearly all of the piezometers installed for monitoring progress have progressively gone dry in response to below average rainfall and provide no insight to the improved salinity situation over the past ten years.

Contact the author: talaheni@webone.com.au

FARM MACHINERY + EQUIPMENT

Back, Better Than Ever

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he expanded Defender model range is now available in Australia, with a number of new derivatives that cater for both lifestyle and commercial buyers. The 09MY Defender model line up now includes five 110 wheelbase and three 130 wheelbase variants, offering features that apply to off road users or heavy duty payload seekers.

With the new expanded Defender range Land Rover now presents users with a strong and highly differentiated alternative for the heavy duty 4WD pickup sector: permanent 4WD, two wheelbase offerings, efficient 2.4 litre common rail engine, six speed manual transmission and use of alloy body panels.

Defender dates back to 1948 when the Land Rover Series 1 was launched. In the sixty one years since its launch, Defender has developed an iconic profile and has become the authentic vehicle of choice for extreme conditions. Almost 1.9 million units have been sold to retail customers, utility service providers, armed forces and NGOs in over 100 countries.

Defender customers worldwide value its legendary strength, robustness and performance alongside its class-leading blend of towing and load-carrying versatility. It’s the unique combination of these attributes that accounts for Defender’s exceptionally high levels of customer loyalty.

The Defender model range consists of the following: • 110 Station Wagon • 110 Single Cab Chassis • 110 Single Cab Chassis HCPU (High Capacity Pick Up) • 110 Hard Top • 110 Crew Cab Pick Up • 130 Single Cab Chassis • 130 Crew Cab Chassis

•

130 Crew Cab HCPU (High Capacity Pick Up) For users who require serious payload carrying capabilities, all Defender 130 models are fitted with heavy duty suspension and chassis reinforcements to provide a class leading GVM of 3,500kg. The Defender 110 models can specified with Electronic Traction Control to provide even greater levels of offroad performance.

Land Rover is immensely proud of Defender’s reputation for off-road supremacy and dependability, it will get you there and back, regardless of climate or terrain. Now with this extended range, Defender offers even more specialised variants to better suit the off road and load carrying requirements of its customers.

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 45

FARM MACHINERY + EQUIPMENT

The PullzAll is the extra hand you need If you’re out the back paddock and your fence is falling down.

If your trailer needs a tow in Tamworth.

If you are welding in Wagga Wagga.

If you just need another set of hands to pull you through the day – The PullzAll is for you.

C

onvenient, portable and easy to use, it is an ideal weapon in keep in your arsenal. The PullzAll can lift or pull up to 454 kilos, making light work of heavy jobs. This tool will replace manual winches and chain blocks. It is in essence the modern day electrical block and tackle. The PullzAll is perfectly suited to the work of farmers, mechanics and labourers everywhere.

Fencing. Welding. Lifting. Pulling. You can do it all yourself.

The PullzAll is available in two models, a 24V cordless with rechargeable battery pack and a standard 230V AC corded model. Supplied with 4.5M of 5.5MM wire rope, the PullzAll features one touch forward/ reverse modes, rear swivelling anchor hook, variable speed control for procession placement and electronic load limiter with LED indicator for operator feedback. The cordless PullzAll weighs 8.2Kg and comes packaged with charger and spare 24V rechargeable battery, while the corded PullzAll weighs just 7Kg and runs on standard 230V AC power. Both models are capable of lifting or moving up to 454Kg. The PullzAll can make a tremendous difference in the amount

of work just one man can do. Its uses range from construction, iron work, auto shops, equipment and plant maintenance, machine shops, garages and pipe fitting to erecting and maintain fencing, moving or disassembling heavy machinery or simply loading and unloading heavy equipment.

The PullzAl is especially easy to set up and use. Simply attach the anchor hook to your chosen mount point, unspool the wire rope using the hook strap for safety and attach to your load. Select either variable speed mode for short distance pulling for fine positioning or full speed mode for long distance pulls.

The PullzAll is generating a lot of buzz in retail circles, undertaking a national television advertising campaign and now stocked at Mitre 10 stores. The PullzAll takes the labour out of every lifting job you can think of. Manufactured by Warn Winches, who are regarded worldwide as the best winch brand on the market, the PullzAll is supported by Ateco through its Australia wide distribution network for sales and parts support.

For more information visit www.pullzall.com.au or call 1 300 669 951 if you are interesting in stocking the PullzAll.

46 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

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FARM MACHINERY + EQUIPMENT

Life on the Land just got easier thanks to Century Batteries Century’s Ultra Hi Performance Severe Service battery represents the latest in performance and reliability for trucks, farm and heavy equipment.

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nlike many imported batteries which are designed for European markets and colder climates, Century’s Ultra Hi Performance Severe Service battery is made here in Australia for our conditions.

It features many substantial design improvements to deliver what heavy equipment and plant operators really want, longer life and ultra reliability with less down time.

Designed for more than just starting power, the Ultra Hi Performance Severe Service battery can sustain constant current loads to power on-board accessories.

Thicker, more durable components provide improved corrosion resistance, reduced water loss and longer battery life whilst Century’s exclusive Platelock™ design and specialist Glass Mat separators, bind the battery plates securely together to resist the effects of vibration damage and help prevent early battery failure.

Backed by a fully comprehensive 18 month nationwide warranty, the Ultra Hi Performance Severe Service battery features a built in easy to read water indicator to quickly determine fluid levels whilst the maintainable design enables easy access to top up electrolyte levels for maximum control over battery life.

In today’s competitive world of batteries one name is synonymous with quality, durability and reliability—Century Batteries.

Century batteries have been manufacturing and designing batteries here in Australia since 1928 and in this time have developed the engineering and manufacturing expertise to produce a range of superior quality batteries better suited to Australia’s harsh climate and extreme working environment.

Not all batteries are created equal— Choose a Century Ultra Hi Performance Severe Service battery and see why it’s earned the trust of Australians on the land.

For more information on the Century Severe Service Battery and the complete Ultra Hi Performance range call 1300 362 287 or visit www.centurybatteries.com.au

48 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

FARM MACHINERY + EQUIPMENT

Rollerdown for better barley, canola harvesting

P

hillbourne offered the market a new style of pickup during 2005.

Rollerdown is a name coined to describe the mechanised hold down. It has now become a byword for better harvesting canola and barley. In December, it had about 300 Rollerdown units working in Australia. Phillbourne no longer sells the older style units. It is sold as a triple package of pickup, falsefront and Rollerdown that combined as one unit usually matched to a particular harvester.

Two other ways to buy Rollerdown are as kit to add to older-style machines, or as a conversion of an older-style pickup.

The Conversion is getting popular and Phillbourne can convert an older machine for about one third of the cost of a new Trio. Phillbourne has a policy of continuous improvement. Its latest success has been the introduction of rubber coated drive rollers. They reduce belt slippage which increases the harvesting window in awkward conditions.

Phillbourne now offers heavy duty fuel trailers with steel tanks, regulation lights and brakes etc. Sizes are 2000L and 4000L and these are available with or without pumping equipment.

For further information contact: Phillbourne Manufacturing Tel: (08) 9041 2066 Fax: (08) 9041 2073

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 49

know the road ahead

Visit our website and access latest releases and reports, ABARE surveys, download data, register for conferences or contact ABARE for more information on +61 2 6272 2010 or abareproducts@abare.gov.au

Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics

FARM MACHINERY + EQUIPMENT

The only thing more impressive than John Deere equipment?

The people standing behind it.

When you buy a piece of John Deere equipment there are many features, options and extras to help increase your productivity and SURáWDELOLW\ EXW WKH PRVW LPSRUWDQW DVSHFW FRPHV DV VWDQGDUG Professional support from the John Deere dealer network. Our Parts Distribution Centre houses over 85,000 lines; available to be shipped 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, our network of 207 dealerships have an extensive range of maintenance parts in stock, at your disposal. All our equipment is fully supported by one of the broadest dealer networks in the agricultural business, so advice, parts and service are all readily available when needed.

1800 800 981 | www.JohnDeere.com.au

John Deere announces new equipment name and numbering system

W

hat’s in a name? Quite a bit actually – especially when it comes to tractors. John Deere announces it’s currently transitioning to a new name and number system for its full line of tractors with the introduction of the new 5D, 5E, 5M, and 6D Series Tractors. “The updated name and numbering system is unique to John Deere and allows for a more consistent approach to naming our equipment around the world,� says Kevin Platz, John Deere Strategic Marketing. “This new system allows customers to more quickly and easily identify the engine horsepower of a tractor, its capability, and its size by looking at the hood decal,�

Platz adds.

Each new tractor model number has six available positions.

The first position is a number and represents its size. The second, third, and fourth positions are numbers and denote its relative metric engine horsepower according to 97/68/EC This new system does away with the word thousand in the Standards. The fifth position is a letter and indicates its series title. The name and numbering switch will not be capability and/or price level within its family. immediate for all John Deere tractors. Instead it will be phased in over time when new product families are introduced.

6

1

1

5

D

-

Capability, price level

Specific configuration

For more information, visit our website at Size

Engine Horsepower

www.JohnDeere.com.au or FREECALL 1800 800 981 in Australia to contact your local John Deere dealer.

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 51

WATER

Water is tomorrow’s Gold The cool waters are setting people’s hearts on fire. Water is slowly and steadily climbing up the trading charts and the government is slowly buying up water trading licences whilst placing an embargo on issuing new licences.

T

here is a reason for that: water is a scarce and vital commodity. The people left with the licenses are now sitting on gold and you know how gold prices are at the moment.

In September 2009, hundreds of water trades in Victoria were allowed after a 10 per cent cap on entitlements was officially granted.

Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding says removing the cap on non-water users will give irrigators greater choice.”It also frees up water to be purchased from sellers as part of the Australian Government’s buyback program to return water to the Murray River for the benefit of the environment,’’ he said in a release.

The cap on the volume of water entitlements that can be owned by non-landowners had been in place since 2007. The 10 per cent restriction had existed to ease concerns that big corporate clients would gobble up vast amounts of water and control the market price.

How River Murray Water came about From the mid-1990s, a number of factors have been influencing Australian water authorities to create more business-like arrangements for water delivery services. The two most important factors are: Separating service delivery from regulatory and resource management policy matters so as to achieve clear and effective outcomes; and Putting pricing for services on a clear basis which removes cross-subsidies, promotes efficiencies, and ensures sustainability of the assets of the business through full cost recovery.

52 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

The Council of Australian Governments, when endorsing in 1994 a strategic framework for the efficient and sustainable reforms of the water industry, specifically required the MurrayDarling Basin Ministerial Council to put in place: ‘arrangements so that out of charges for water, funds for the future maintenance, refurbishment and/or updgrading of the headworks and other structures under the Commission’s control be provided.’

In response to these various drivers, the Ministerial Council decided that a ‘water business’ should be established with the mission: “In accordance with the Council of Australian Governments water resource policy and Murray-Darling Basin Commission policies, to contract with each owner of the water to provide a delivery service which generates adequate revenue to allow effective maintenance and long term replacement/creation of assets and the move towards a positive real rate of return in accordance with a timetable agreed with the owners of the business.”

Following developmental work by an advisory committee, River Murray Water was established on 1 January 1998 as an internal business unit of the Commission. A Board operating as a committee of commission guides the activities of River Murray Water.

Further information: • www.environment.gov.au/water/ • www.g-mwater.com.au/water-resources/ catchments/uppermurraybasin • www.abs.gov.au/ausstats

CRISIS SUPPORT

It’s okay to ask for help…

M

ensLine Australia has supplied telephone support to rural men since the drought began, through the recent fires, floods, and the global financial crisis. The

pressures have been, and continue to be considerable. We recognise the cost to family, community and livelihood of men being out of sorts and respond to them day or night throughout the year. We have a call-back service to support people over time, ideal for those too far from other services or waiting for an appointment.

Every month roughly 4000 men call MensLine Australia, mainly to discuss relationship and family matters. The service was designed for and about men and their issues, the popular www.menslineaus.org.au website provides up to date information and tips on subjects like managing separation, dealing with anger, unwanted pregnancy, first time dads etc.

It’s okay to ask for help…

Call Mensline Australia for help and information about: • Difficult situations at work • Changes in relationships • Being a good father • Dealing with separation • Coaching and counselling.

Talk it over with specialist professional counsellors, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the cost of a local call.

1300 78 99 78 www.menslineaus.org.au

and the web forums help men speak to others in similar situations.

MensLine Australia provides a no-blame, no-shame ear, as well as additional information and referral options. Stop problems becoming a crisis and pick up the phone.

The cost of a local call provides a professional, totally confidential and anonymous safe place to ‘talk it over’. It’s okay to ask for help ... don’t let isolation get the better of you; break the silence and call MensLine Australia.

A service managed by Crisis Support Services Inc.

MensLine Australia is a joint venture of Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and Crisis Support Services Inc (CSS). CSS also manages a number of other services including beyondblue Info Line, SuicideLine (Victoria), and Suicide Call Back Service.

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 53

RURAL PROPERTY MARKET

Bruce McGregor, National Rural Manager, First National Real Estate

Stock and Station in the blood

R

aised in the small town of Woodenbong, right on the Queensland border, Bruce McGregor has experienced the ongoing change of rural and regional agency over many years.

Bruce’s earliest memories are of the mid-fifties cattle sales at Woodenbong saleyards and his excitement for and interest in the saleyards and stock sales has remained a life-long passion. He commenced work as junior in 1968 with Reg Lehman and Sons in Kyogle before joining Elders’ Goldsborough Mort for service in Grafton Forbes Bourke Dubbo and Mudgee branches.

That experience provided a foundation for a career based in rural property marketing across central NSW, specialisation in auction marketing and support services for regionally based agents.

Bruce now works for First National Real Estate, a real estate cooperative that was founded in country Victoria in the early 1980s and now boasts some 500 members across Australia and New Zealand. His role as National Rural Manager involves the development of the network’s rural chapter, working with far-flung members to ensure their needs are heard, and the recruitment of new rural estate agencies.

The network has spent recent years rebuilding itself, in preparation for the opportunities that lie ahead as

54 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

independent and franchise agents face the necessity to embrace technology as one of the fundamental, new competitive arenas of the business. Superior systems combined with Best Practice Quality Assurance and Search Engine Optimisation is seen as a winning combination that will assure that First National’s agents continue to deliver the best property services available in Australia.

‘The network is positioning itself for growth through a completely re-built suite of technology, products and services. This, combined with a totally refreshed brand will increase the network’s exposure across rural and metropolitan Australia. Its industry leading technology and national referral network, combined with the independent skills and local knowledge of agents at the farm doorstep, gives the network a leading edge’ says McGregor.

‘First National is committed to building its already substantial presence in rural Australia, so, I’m actively seeking to recruit quality rural agencies. Our technology advancements will help insure we provide not only up to the minute market advice to vendors, but also a comprehensive service to provide property details and regular contact with potential buyers and investors seeking rural property’.

Thousands of rural properties Thousands of properties One great address One great address

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RURAL PROPERTY MARKET

Carbon Credits, Sustainability, Climate Change – Green Issues Abound The rural property market, like most real estate markets, traditionally moves in cycles of seven to ten years, with positive growth historically occurring over the longer cycle. However, its values are additionally influenced by a wide range of factors encompassing commodity prices, economic conditions and seasonal climates. These variances make it difficult to forecast national trends.

A

ustralians are being bombarded with a multitude of opinions, reports and ‘expert’ predictions concerning environmental issues as the information age makes global research and information instantly available to everyone.

In a recent survey, 90 per cent of the Australia’s CEO’s admitted they did not fully understand the potential impact of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) on their business, so it’s perhaps not surprising that estate agents and their customers may struggle to appreciate the potential effect of environmental issues on the property market.

First National Real Estate has little doubt that the changes in rural enterprise, as a result of altered environmental circumstances, will influence property management, values, livestock husbandry, farming and irrigation practises which will, in turn, drive and direct the level of market activity for all types of rural enterprises.

Farmers will need to endeavour to improve the value of their assets while developing management protocols to meet with community expectations and government directives.

Maximising capital growth will require long-term planning of farm management practices and comprehensive record keeping.

Environmental matters such as toxicity, chemical usage and land management cannot be ignored and improved infrastructure for animal husbandry as well as occupational

56 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

health and safety protocols will be necessary. Water supply and its usage will only become more contentious.

Around the world there is significant and growing support for action to address climate change. First National believes a majority of Australians want to see action from government, but remain uncertain about how and where they can contribute to change in their own domain.

First National has determined it can play a role by educating the thousands of people it comes in contact with through its property services every day of the week. Forging an alliance with Greening Australia and Archicentre, it has developed a series of educational materials that help improve energy efficiency in homes and is encouraging consumers to plan native gardens in an effort to help the unique Australian environment and to reduce water consumption.

The one certainty in this overall landscape is that Australian ingenuity will come to the fore and environmental challenges will be addressed.

The value of rural enterprise land will continue to grow as the world endeavours to feed a rapidly burgeoning population from farmland, which will remain under pressure from expanding urban areas and mining interests. Australia will be competitive in providing rural commodities and traditional farming families will continue to be underwritten by investment interests both locally and internationally.

WATER INTERNATIONAL CASE STUDY:

Using technology to save water

By Dennis O’Brien, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.

With climate change expected to raise temperatures worldwide and make rainfall patterns harder to predict, pressure is mounting on farmers—who use up to 60 percent of the world’s fresh water—to cut back on water use.

Nowhere is the US water supply a more severe problem than in the Southwest, where droughts are common, reservoirs are closely monitored, and population growth is increasing demand.

Visiting University of Arizona research specialist Patrick Royer (foreground) records the water advance time in a cotton furrow while ARS physical science technician Dick Simer measures the furrow water depth. The data is used to estimate the actual amount of irrigation water that infiltrates at sections along the cotton furrow.

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 57

WATER

A

RS scientists in the Southwest are developing tools aimed at saving every possible drop with the help of satellite data, computer models, remote sensing, and other technologies. At the Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center in Maricopa, Arizona, Doug Hunsaker is developing a sensor system that can determine the water needs of small clusters of crops. And at the Jornada Experimental Range in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Al Rango is beefing up computer models and the network of sensors scattered throughout the Rocky Mountains that help forecast runoff into the Rio Grande, a crucial water source for farmers in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.

Impact of Altered Snowmelt The Rio Grande gets more than half of its water from snow melting off the Rockies in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, a region where population growth is straining water supplies. Climate change is expected to diminish those snowpacks and alter when water flows from them into rivers, says Rango, a hydrologist.

Snow starts melting in the New Mexico mountains in late March and continues until late August. But climate change could disrupt that cycle. Temperatures in New Mexico have increased about 2˚C in summer and about 1˚C in winter over the past 10 or 20 years. That rise is expected to continue, producing earlier snowmelt and altering when water becomes available for crops grown in the Rio Grande basin, such as cotton, onions, chillies, and pecans, Rango says.

With climate change expected to alter snowmelt patterns, researchers need better information. Rango is a principal investigator for part of a 5-year National Science Foundation project that will help states collect better data on water supplies and help scientists better understand the effects of climate change on water supplies in the Southwest. Research is also being conducted by New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech in Socorro, and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque as part of the project.

Rango and his colleagues have spent 30 years predicting snowmelt runoff levels with a computer model he developed in the late 1970s and has been upgrading ever since. His Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) uses climate-change algorithms, imagery of snowpacks from National Aeronautics

and Space Administration satellites, and data from groundbased SNOTEL sensors in 11 western states to measure water levels. Information is transmitted to relay stations and posted

by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) online at www.id.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/siteinfo/typical_snotel.html.

Rango and his team will install 5 new gauges in the NRCS SNOTEL sensor network and upgrade 12 others, all in New Mexico, to improve runoff forecasts from snowpack. Rango’s research should help farmers decide which crops to plant and when to plant them. It will also help public officials decide how reservoirs should be operated, whether reservoir water should be stored or released, how much water should be used to generate electrical power, how flood-control measures can be implemented, and how much water should be reserved to save endangered species.

“Change in timing and quantity of runoff is something watermanagement agencies need to know. They don’t know what the effects on the water resources will be, and they need to know because water-management policies may have to change,” Rango says.

Tracking Water on Small Parcels Traditionally, farmers irrigate by the calendar, but that can be wasteful—at times giving crops more water than they need.

But Doug Hunsaker is using an assortment of remote-sensing technologies—sensors mounted on tractors or planted in the soil, along with an unmanned aerial vehicle and an occasional helicopter flight—to find ways of conserving water by estimating crop needs at specific sections within fields, rather than assuming those needs are the same in all sections of the field.

Hunsaker is testing a tractor-mounted visible and nearinfrared sensor on small fields of cotton and wheat. The sensors, initially designed to detect nitrogen levels in soils, use red and near-infrared signals to estimate evapotranspiration— the amount of water transpired from a plant plus that evaporated from the soil. The sensors take readings as the tractor goes up and down the field during cultivation. They look and work like small cameras and are equipped with a global positioning system so they can give a precise reading of the location where the data was collected.

Agricultural engineer Doug Hunsaker performs precise irrigation scheduling of cotton at the Maricopa Agricultural Center in Arizona.

58 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

WATER In Hunsaker’s system, data on soil moisture levels and water use by plants—collected from the tractor-mounted and ground-based sensors—would ultimately be tied into data beamed from satellites.

Hunsaker is also using remote-sensing data collected from an unmanned aircraft—on loan from the University of Arizona— that provides additional information on crop water use as it flies over a field. Helicopter flights, made once every two weeks as part of Hunsaker’s fieldwork, also provide complete remotesensing images of the entire field. Data collected by the helicopter flights is a proxy for information that will one day be collected by satellites.

“As technology improves, satellites will be able to do what we now do with helicopters so that farmers will be using satellite imagery to determine water needs,” Hunsaker says. He has used the technology to study the water needs of camelina and lesquerella, two oilseed crops, but has focused mostly on small fields of cotton and wheat. He is currently testing the technology’s effectiveness at determining actual soil moisture levels and growth rates in a 12-acre cotton field, divided into 16 plots, and he plans tests in a wheat field of comparable size in 2010.

Farmers are already using remote-sensing technology to monitor crops and field conditions, but the goal is a new system capable of collecting data that farmers can use to determine daily water needs of smaller field sections. Ideally, farmers could identify areas with low or high water needs and, using either a drip or a sprinkler system, adjust irrigation levels based on the data.

Hunsaker compares the system to keeping a checkbook of each plant’s water needs. “There’s a reservoir of water in the soil. Each day it’s depleted by the plant, and we’re keeping track of that. Once the water amount reaches a certain

threshold, we know it’s time to water, and we know how much it needs. We’re able to monitor with a kind of a ‘chequebook’ approach,” he says.

The research is part of Pasture, Forage, and Range Land Systems (#215) and Water Availability and Watershed Management (#211), two ARS programs described on the World Wide Web at www.nps.ars.usda.gov.

To reach scientists featured in this article, contact Dennis O’Brien, dennis.obrien@ars.usda.gov,or USDA-ARS Information Staff, www.ars.usda.gov/News/News.htm

Before takeoff, physical scientist Andrew French prepares camera equipment for airborne multispectral imaging. The data collected is used to estimate crop water use.

Hydrologist Al Rango (foreground) and former postdoctoral research associate Enrique Gomez-Landesa evaluate output from predictive models of water runoff into the Upper Rio Grande basin.

View of cotton field from helicopter showing reflectance tarps used in calibrating multispectral imagery equipment.

Physical scientist Tom Clarke aligns ARS-designed radiometers for monitoring cotton growth. The radiometer clusters are installed in a digital network that is a low-cost way to deliver real-time crop information over the Internet.

AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 59

IRRIGATION

Management of irrigation water storages: carryover rights and capacity sharing

By Neal Hughes and Tim Goesch ABARE research report

This article is a summary of the full report and represents the first part of a two part project investigating the management of irrigation water storages. The report focuses on the economics of storage management and the potential advantages of a capacity sharing approach. The second part of this project examines in detail two capacity sharing schemes implemented in Queensland – St George and MacIntyre Brook. The results of the second part of the project are presented in a subsequent ABARE research report: Capacity sharing in the St George and MacIntyre Brook irrigation schemes in southern Queensland. For further information about the full version of both of these reports, visit: www.abare.gov.au

Water storage management Water storages (reservoirs) play a vital role in the supply of water for irrigation farms. Storages smooth variation in the supply of water and in the value of water over time. Appropriate management of water storages is particularly important in Australia, given the extreme variability of inflows and predictions of lower and more variable inflows within the Murray-Darling Basin because of climate change.

The management of irrigation water storages involves comparison of the benefits of consuming water today against the expected benefits of storing water for future use. In Australia, state governments have traditionally centrally managed the major water storages, making decisions on water allocations (water released for consumption in the current period) given prevailing storage levels. However, determining 60 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

what proportion of available water to store for the future (and how much to consume now) is a complex problem given the presence of substantial uncertainty over future inflows and water demands.

Centralised storage management For a centralised storage management policy to achieve an efficient allocation of water across time and across irrigators, a number of conditions must be met. First, the dam manager requires complete information on the water needs of irrigators.

Second, trade in water allocations must be efficient and costless. Under these conditions, the optimal aggregate amount of water would be released each period and this would be efficiently allocated across individual irrigators via trade in water allocations.

IRRIGATION In practice, these conditions may not be met and a centralised approach may lead to an inefficient allocation of water. In particular there may be asymmetric information between the storage manager and irrigators, and transaction costs in water trade.

on the Murrumbidgee region in New South Wales. Although the case study is intended to be illustrative in nature, the results presented in this report are intended to be broadly applicable to other regions. Model parameter values were set with reference to historical data and estimates from econometric literature.

Asymmetric information Asymmetric information means that irrigators are likely to have information on their water demands that is not available to dam managers. Obtaining information on water preferences from individual irrigators may be difficult for a number of reasons.

First, water preferences are likely to vary significantly across different irrigators because of differences in crop types.

Second, irrigators’ water preferences are likely to be subject to significant change over time. With asymmetric information, a central manager may implement a sub-optimal release (allocation) policy, that will ultimately reduce average returns to irrigators in the long run.

Transaction costs in water trade Transaction costs refer to costs incurred when making an economic exchange. There is evidence to suggest that irrigators face significant transaction costs when trading water allocations in the Murray-Darling Basin. Water trade can be subject to both direct financial transaction costs such as government and brokers’ fees, and non-financial indirect transaction costs such as time costs incurred by irrigators.

Under a simple announced allocation system, substantial temporary trade in water allocations may be required to achieve an efficient allocation of water across different irrigators in each time period.

High and low reliability entitlements High and low reliability entitlement systems (referred to as general and high security entitlements in New South Wales) are relatively common in the Murray-Darling Basin. High and low reliability entitlement systems have the potential to reduce temporary water trade requirements, and reduce irrigators’ exposure to transaction costs, by providing water rights which more closely match the reliability preferences of individual irrigators (Freebairn and Quiggin 2006). However, systems of high and low reliability entitlements do have a number of practical limitations.

Results Using the model, an arbitrary ‘aggressive’ release (allocation) rule was compared with a theoretically optimal release rule. The estimated optimal release policy involves holding more water in storage reserves, relative to the aggressive policy.

The estimated optimal release rule involves a small reduction in mean water use, in turn for a substantial increase in mean storage reserves. The optimal release rule acts to minimise variation in the supply and value of water over time. The model demonstrates that optimal storage policy can lead to an increase in mean irrigator incomes and a substantial reduction in variability of incomes. The model results show an estimated increase in the mean economic value of water of 11.8 per cent and a reduction in variability of more than 63 per cent.

A sensitivity analysis conducted using the model also demonstrated that the gains from optimal storage management (both in terms of mean and variability of incomes) increase substantially as water availability reduces. The results confirm that with greater water scarcity, there is more to be gained by improving the management of irrigation water storages. That is, when inflows are lower and less reliable, there is more to be gained by holding water in storage to insure against drought conditions. This is an important result given predictions of reduced water availability across much of the Murray-Darling Basin in the future because of the effects of climate change.

Carryover rights and capacity sharing An alternative to centralised storage management is a decentralised approach, in which individual irrigators are given greater control over storage decisions. Decentralised approaches have the potential to address the problems of centralised storage management. In this report, two decentralised approaches to storage management are considered: carryover rights and capacity sharing.

Carryover rights Implications for investment While not considered in detail in this report, in practice it is likely that storage management policies will have important implications for irrigator investment decisions. For example, storage management policies, by influencing the yield-reliability of water entitlements, will tend to influence the relative attractiveness of different irrigated activities. In the long run, a fixed centralised storage policy may act as a constraint on irrigator investment, for example preventing an optimal distribution of low and high flexibility irrigation activities.

A water storage model As a part of this study, an economic model of the water storage problem facing a representative irrigation system was developed. The model incorporates representations of the demand for water by irrigators and the irrigation water supply system (e.g. inflows, storage and associated losses). The model is stochastic, in that inflows into storages and rainfall onto irrigation farms are subject to random variation, based on a defined probability distribution estimated using historical data.

The optimisation model developed was applied to a case study region to demonstrate the potential benefits of improvements in storage policy. The case study region is based

A carryover right allows water users to hold over a proportion of their seasonal water allocation for use in future seasons.

Carryover rights have been in place in many New South Wales and Queensland irrigation systems for some time and have recently been introduced into a number of Victorian and South Australian systems.

While carryover rights may help irrigators overcome some of the problems associated with central storage management, carryover rights are an incomplete solution. Carryover rights are incomplete because they do not explicitly define rights to storage capacity or to associated storage losses. As such, individual carryover decisions have external effects which influence other users of the same storage. In an attempt to minimise these external effects, significant restrictions are often placed on carryover rights, which further weaken their effectiveness.

Access to carryover water may also be subject to sovereign risk, as has been demonstrated in a number of recent instances where irrigators have been denied access to carryover water during drought periods.

Capacity sharing Capacity sharing is a system of allocating property rights to AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1 • 61

IRRIGATION water from shared storages proposed by Dudley (Dudley and Musgrave 1988; Dudley and Alaouze 1989; Dudley 1990a; Dudley 1992). Under capacity sharing, each entitlement holder in an irrigation system is assigned a share of the total system storage capacity and a share of total inflows. Users are free to manage these capacity shares independently; determining how much water to use (or sell) and how much to leave in their share of storage.

Capacity sharing results in water entitlements which more closely reflect the physical realities of the water supply system.

Unlike carryover rights, capacity sharing ensures that storage space is efficiently rationed and losses are internalised.

Capacity sharing has a number of other potential benefits relative to systems of carryover rights. Capacity sharing replaces the traditional announced allocation system and, in doing so, removes a layer of regulatory uncertainty. Capacity sharing also involves redefining water rights at the source, which offers a number of potential efficiency improvements, including the potential to internalise water delivery losses.

One complication with capacity sharing is the occurrence of internal spills – where individual water accounts reach capacity and forfeit their inflows to other water users. However, the economic costs of internal spills are negligible and internal spills are likely to occur infrequently in practice. Another important consideration in the transition to capacity sharing will be to minimise any actual or perceived distributional effects, by ensuring the newly defined capacity share water entitlements adequately preserve all existing irrigator water entitlements.

Capacity sharing is typically considered in the context of relatively simple water supply systems, where all water is sourced from a single storage. While there may be some concerns about the suitability of capacity sharing in more complex systems, it is not obvious that the concept could not be sufficiently generalised. The ability of the capacity sharing framework to be applied to a range of more complex water supply systems remains a subject for potential future research.

Concluding Remarks Water storages play a vital role in the supply of water for irrigation farms. Storages serve to smooth variation in the supply of water and equalise the marginal value of water over time.

The management of these storages is an important but difficult task. Determining what proportion of available water to store for the future, and how much to consume now, is a complex problem given the presence of substantial uncertainty over future inflows and water demands.

In Australia, major irrigation water storages are centrally managed via the announced allocation system, where each season a water manager determines the amount of water available for use now (water allocations) given prevailing storage levels. Under certain conditions a centralised approach could achieve an efficient allocation of water resources; specifically, if the water manager had perfect information on the water demand preferences of irrigators and there existed an efficient (costless) market in water allocations.

In practice, the water manager is unlikely to have perfect information on the water preferences of irrigators. There is likely to be asymmetric information; irrigators are likely to know more about their water demands than the water manager. Also, there are likely to be significant transaction costs in water trade. A centralised announced allocation approach relies heavily on trade in water allocations to allocate water between irrigators with varying reliability preferences. Given these practical difficulties, a decentralised approach, where irrigators are enabled to make there own storage decisions, may be preferable.

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To demonstrate the potential costs of inefficient storage management, an economic model of the water storage problem facing a representative irrigation system was developed. This model was applied to a case study region, the Murrumbidgee. Model parameter values were set with reference to historical data and estimates from econometric literature. Using the model, a suboptimal aggressive release rule was compared with a theoretically optimal release rule.

The estimated optimal release rule generated a small reduction in mean water use in turn for a substantial increase in mean storage reserves. The model demonstrated the ability of the optimal policy to lead to an increase in mean irrigator incomes and a substantial reduction in variability of incomes.

The model estimated an increase in the mean economic value of water of 11.8 per cent and a reduction in variability of more than 63 per cent. The model also demonstrated that the gains from optimal storage management, both in terms of the mean and variability of incomes, increase substantially as water availability reduces.

In this report two decentralised approaches to storage management were considered in detail: carryover rights and capacity sharing. Carryover rights have the potential to overcome some of the problems of centralised storage management. However, carryover rights are an incomplete solution, since they do not define explicit property rights to storage capacity or to losses associated with storage. As a result, carryover rights generate external effects, where individual irrigator carryover decisions affect other irrigators in the system. In an attempt to minimise these external effects, significant restrictions are often placed on carryover rights which further weaken their effectiveness.

Capacity sharing is a property rights system proposed by Dudley (Dudley and Musgrave 1988), which involves redefining water entitlements into separate storage capacity rights and water/ inflow rights. Unlike carryover rights, capacity sharing ensures that storage space is efficiently rationed and that losses are internalised. Capacity sharing has a number of other potential benefits relative to systems of carryover rights.

Capacity sharing replaces the traditional announced allocation system and in doing so removes a layer of regulatory uncertainty from existing water entitlements. Capacity sharing involves redefining water rights at the source which creates a number of potential efficiency improvements, including the potential to internalise water delivery losses.

One complication with capacity sharing is the occurrence of internal spills – where individual water accounts reach capacity and forfeit their inflows to other water users. However, the allocation efficiency implications of internal spills are negligible and in practice internal spills are likely to occur infrequently.

Another important consideration in the transition to capacity sharing will be to minimise any actual or perceived distributional effects, by ensuring the newly defined capacity share water entitlements adequately preserve all existing irrigator water entitlements.

Capacity sharing is typically considered in the context of relatively simple water supply systems, where all water is sourced from a single storage. While there may exist some concern about the suitability of capacity sharing in more complex systems, it is not obvious that the concept could not be sufficiently generalised. The ability for the capacity sharing framework to be applied to a range of more complex water supply systems remains a subject for potential future research.

LANDSCAPES

The naked truth about our landscape Australia has been stripped bare of vegetation to expose the surface that lies beneath.

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cientists from CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship have removed approximately 90 per cent of Australia’s vegetation cover from satellite images of the continent to produce the most detailed available Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of its topography.

“The DEM will revolutionise geological applications, land-use studies, soil science, and much more,” CSIRO’s Dr John Gallant said in an address to the Spatial Sciences Conference in Adelaide.

“The DEM will revolutionise geological applications, land-use studies, soil science, and much more,” CSIRO’s Dr John Gallant, in his address to the Spatial Sciences Conference in Adelaide.

“Produced at a one-second resolution—about 30 metres—the DEM exposes intimate details about Australia’s landscape features. As a result, we can now clearly make out the shape of our landscape and understand how water might move across its surface, how it came to be its present shape and how variable our soil terrains are.”

Since releasing the Digital Surface Model (DSM) last year, the new vegetation removal process has also resulted in a ‘spin-off’ vegetation height map that may be useful for calculating biomass and contributing to carbon accounting.

The DEM will provide a body of information related to water resources and is a key activity within the water information research and development alliance between the Flagship and the Bureau of Meteorology’s ‘Improving Water Information Program’.

The final phase of building the one-second resolution DEM will occur over the next year with the inclusion of Australia’s river network to produce a drainage-enforced DEM that will assist the Bureau to generate water accounts for the continent.

The DEM is based on the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) satellite data collected by NASA during its Space Shuttle mission in 2000.

The one-second DEM dataset is licensed and managed by project collaborator Geoscience Australia, and will be available from midNovember to all tiers of Australian government. A three-second version (approximately 90 metres) of the DEM will eventually be available for public use.

For Further Information: Dr John Gallant Land and Water Phone: 61 2 6246 5734 Email: John.Gallant@csiro.au

Satellite images near Culcairn in NSW showing the topography with vegetation (left) and without vegetation (right) by: CSIRO

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INNOVATION

Super foods Value adding to our natural produce It can be difficult to make the time or effort to ensure that the foods we’re eating are giving us enough nutritional value. Australian scientists are on a mission to remedy this problem, by creating a new team of vegetable super-heroes that are nutritionally enhanced to take the difficulty out of making healthy choices.

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cientists from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and The New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research have been working on developing these enhanced foods for over five years, due to increasing public awareness of the role of vegetables in fighting serious diseases, as well as mounting concern over vegetables imported from overseas.

Leading the charge in the super food revolution is ‘booster broccoli’, a new, naturally grown product from Vital Vegetables that claims to contain over 40 percent more active antioxidants than the broccoli usually found in shops. One of these antioxidants is Sulforaphane, which helps eliminate free radicals in the body, and is thought to have a preventative influence on heart disease and some cancers.

The broccoli is bred from a strain of the brassica vegetable that contains more naturally occurring antioxidants than others, and is not genetically modified or artificial in any way, which has traditionally been a major cause of concern for Australian 64 • AGRIBUSINESS CHAIN V10#1

consumers. The broccoli is now available in shops around Australia, plastic-wrapped to ensure that the nutritional value of the vegetable is retained until it is consumed.

‘The intent behind Vital Vegetables was not only to create a range of vegetables with known health benefits, but to ensure that they were also commercially available to customers,’ says Dr Rod Jones, Team Leader of Plant Physiology at the DPI. And broccoli is only the beginning. Vital Vegetables plan to introduce high-vitamin capsicum, and several lines of lycopenepacked tomatoes into their range in the near future, and intend on eventually releasing frozen options for their super vegetables.

Another superfood, developed by scientists at CSIRO, is BARLEYmax, a high-fibre wholegrain that claims to amplify the nutritional benefits of wholegrains. CSIRO’s intentions with the production of BARLEYmax were similar to those of Vital Vegetables. ‘Our initial aim with BARLEYmax was to enhance the nutritional qualities of standard barley. Once this was achieved, it was important to make the improved grain available

INNOVATION to the consumer via the food industry so all Australians could benefit from CSIRO’s breakthrough,’ says Dr Bruce Lee, BARLEYmax was discovered as part of CSIRO’s development of a collection of new non-genetically-modified barley grains. A variety of BARLEYmax grains was bred using traditional grain-growing methods, and CSIRO joined forces with food manufacturers to make the grains available to consumers.

CSIRO claim that BARLEYmax is a richer source of antioxidants than apples and strawberries, has twice the antioxidants of oats, three times the level of regular broccoli, and four times that of tea.

BARLEYmax can now be found in two cereals, and by 2012 the intention is for BARLEYmax to be incorporated into a range

BARLEYmax was discovered as a part of genetic modification research, but is not a genetically modified food – similarly to ‘booster broccoli’, it is bred using conventional plant breeding techniques, without the addition of any extra genes – the hallmark of genetic modification.

Still others have claimed that the superfoods are trying to attract consumers away from regular products by promising more than what they offer in reality. The developers of Vital Vegetables are quick to emphasise that their products are not intended to detract from the health benefits of existing vegetable products, or to replace the vegetables that are already available.

‘There’s been a lot of emphasis on the issue of prevention [in relation to chronic diseases], and we hope that these products that are now in the marketplace and others that are in the

of foods, including traditionally wholegrain fare such as bread, pasta and biscuits.

Eventually, it’s thought that BARLEYmax will enhance the nutritional value of many foodstuffs, and a point of debate is its inclusion in fast-food products. The CSIRO see their superior wholegrain as a way of helping consumers to increase the nutritional value of their food without having to compromise on taste and convenience. Development of supergrain-enhanced hamburger patties, sausages and cheeses is currently underway, with the aim of providing fast food that looks, smells and tastes like fast food, but has the hidden properties of supercharged wholegrains.

Some believe that creating nutritionally advanced versions of ‘unhealthy’ foods is a move that will halt the progress of dietary awareness amongst Australians, giving people an excuse to continue eating poorer quality foods without the guilt associated with their indulgence.

In addition, the national fear of genetically modified foods is seeing some people reacting negatively to superfoods, with the view that enhancing existing crops is a form of genetic modification.

pipeline will assist in improving public health,’ says David Topping, Chief Research Scientist at the CSIRO Future Foods National Research Flagship.

The team at CSIRO also point out that the act of enhancing existing foods is a positive long-term goal that will ensure that the diets of the public will contain as much nutritional value as possible, even if they continue to eat the way they do now.

Down the road is scope for products that contain selections of different types of produce aimed at targeting specific health problems. Bags of lettuce could be designed to give maximum benefits to a person suffering from arthritis, and a packet of stirfry vegies might contain the right nutrients to aid a diabetes patient, essentially tailoring food to meet the nutritional needs of the consumer. It’s a big proposition, but one that seems to be becoming more likely as developments continue to occur.

The superfoods industry is on the brink of major breakthroughs and significant expansion, promising big changes in public health and the agriculture industry. Changes are unlikely to occur faster than a speeding bullet, but they’re coming, and when they arrive we could be leaping buildings in a single bound.

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RESEARCH

Aiming to lead the world in agricultural modelling CSIRO, Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries (QPIF) and The University of Queensland have joined forces to develop world-leading agriculture modelling technologies to help farmers improve crop risk management and profitability. he joint venture has been formed to further develop the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) – a computer simulation model which takes into account many of the factors affecting a farm’s success, including different plant, soil and management approaches, to inform on-farm management decisions.

APSIM has a broad range of applications including: farming systems design, assessment of seasonal climate forecasting, supply chain planning, development of waste management guidelines, risk assessment for government policy making, as well as guiding research and educational activities.

The APSIM Unincorporated Joint Venture (APSIM UJV) Steering Committee Chair, University of Queensland Professor Kaye Basford, said the recent signing of a new APSIM agreement builds on over 20 years of research and places the joint venture at the forefront of world agricultural modelling research.

Director of CSIRO’s Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, Dr Brian Keating, said the initiative will help Australian agriculture respond to the critical challenges of increasing productivity while reducing its environmental footprint.

“The APSIM research team is well placed to build on its past achievements and achieve new innovations in knowledge-based systems to support the productivity gains and enhanced management practices needed for the future prosperity of Australian agriculture,” Dr Keating said.

QPIF APSIM UJV Leader Dr Daniel Rodriguez said in this time of global change there is an urgent need to help farmers capitalise on opportunities.

“Recent advances in our APSFarm tool, for example, which

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provides virtual farm modelling, are helping farmers and researchers design more profitable and resilient crops, practices and farm businesses,” Dr Rodriguez said.

“Farmers have to contend with reductions in the allocation of water for irrigation and changes in prices and that is where our work can help farmers adapt.”

He said dryland farmers can also benefit from the support available through APSIM and APSFarm to help identify more profitable allocations of their production resources between cropping and livestock enterprises.

“The APSIM and APSFarm models are also helping researchers and farmers identify optimum adaptation pathways in the face of increasing climate variability and climate change,” Dr Rodriguez said.

According to project scientist, University of Queensland Professor Graeme Hammer, advances in areas such as virtual crop modelling are essential to meet the growing demand for grain for feedlots or ethanol production.

“To mitigate the impact of climate change and diminishing water supplies and meet the demand for grain, scientists need to find high-performing varieties that best suit environmental conditions and market requirements – and we are doing this through APSIM,” Professor Hammer said.

“Major breakthroughs in molecular technology mean scientists can now engineer genes for water-use efficiency and ideal root-system architecture. Virtual plant technology could provide the answers for new-age crop improvement.”

Initially the new APSIM UJV Initiative will consist of CSIRO, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries and The University of Queensland, but other groups are being encouraged to participate.

BREEDING

New Ultrasound and Artificial Insemination Techniques Improve Sheep Breeding Bred for meat as well as wool, sheep have been part of the American landscape since colonial times. Now, advances in genetic research are changing breeding procedures, leading to faster, cheaper, and more accurate techniques.

Western white-face ewes and lambs on a pasture at the University of Wyoming Livestock Farm, Laramie, with university student Kalli Koepke in the background.

Using Ultrasound for Selective Breeding New research is making it easier to predict the future—at least as far as lamb products are concerned. At the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, research leader Greg Lewis and his colleagues have shown that ultrasound can be used to accurately predict characteristics that indicate carcass yield and value in live sheep.

This could significantly improve the speed and accuracy of selective-breeding methods. Since carcass data is difficult for producers to obtain, many of them currently rely on visual appraisals to predict carcass traits before choosing which sheep to breed.

Ultrasound provides a faster, more accurate alternative.

To assess the reliability of the technology, scientists captured ultrasound images of 172 lambs before slaughter. At Ohio State

University, assistant professor Henry Zerby coordinated the collection of carcass-trait data for the lambs.

Lewis collaborated with ARS scientists and Dave Notter, a geneticist at Virginia Tech, to analyse the data.

Results showed that a trained technician can capture an ultrasound image in about 30 seconds with reasonable accuracy.

Scientists can use the images to estimate traits that influence the carcass value of market lambs— such as loin muscle area, loin muscle depth, and back-fat thickness.

Ultrasound is initially more expensive than visual appraisals, but the technique’s superior accuracy may translate into better economic returns through improved evaluation and selection of breeding stock.

“Ultrasound is a great way for breeding-stock producers to get the

Ewes and lambs on a pasture at the University of Wyoming Livestock Farm in Laramie. Recent research by ARS may make artificial insemination of sheep easy enough for producers to tackle on their own.

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BREEDING

Animal physiologist Phillip Purdy uses a water bath to thaw frozen semen for use in an insemination procedure.

data they need to make selection decisions,” Lewis says.

Reliable predictions are timesavers for breeders because they enable them to make educated decisions about an animal’s offspring without waiting for the offspring to mature.

While the technology is used routinely for cattle and swine, this study demonstrates that it can also be applied to sheep.

Improving Surgical Artificial Insemination Artificial insemination (AI) is an important tool for modern livestock breeding—particularly for cattle and swine. But for most sheep producers, AI isn’t a viable option. The ovine cervix is relatively difficult to traverse with traditional AI tools, so techniques that work easily with cattle have been less successful with sheep. Surgical AI has a higher success rate, but is prohibitively complicated and expensive.

At the University of Wyoming livestock farm in Laramie, professor Robert Stobart (left) and Phillip Purdy prepare to artificially inseminate a Suffolk ewe using an insemination gun and spiral catheter.

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But help is on the way, thanks to research conducted by ARS animal scientists at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP) in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Researchers there are collaborating with scientists at the University of Wyoming (UW) to improve semen handling and artificial insemination on sheep farms. The work is being led by NCGRP animal physiologist Phillip Purdy in collaboration with animal geneticist Harvey Blackburn and UW colleagues Robert Stobart and Brent Larson.

“Effective AI has two components: the ability to collect and transport semen—either fresh or frozen—to producers around the country and the ability to economically inseminate the ewes,” Blackburn says.

The scientists first focused on semen collection, storage, and transport. They found that sheep semen can be collected and shipped—in cooled liquid form—overnight before freezing without harming its in vitro quality. They also found that semen could be cryopreserved—or frozen for later use—after shipping without reducing its success in surgical AI. Further studies compared semen that had been cryopreserved immediately after collection to semen cryopreserved after 48 hours—about the time required to ship samples across the country. The scientists observed no difference in quality or fertilisation ability nor in the average number of lambs born to the ewes surgically inseminated with those samples.

“These results show that there are many options available to producers to help them select for desirable traits,” Purdy says.

Producers could, for example, use samples from around the world, thereby expanding and improving their breeding options, increasing the quality of their flocks, and providing a better return on their investment.

This work also has benefits for conservators of genetic resources, like the NCGRP, that gather and store genetic materials.

“An efficient insemination method is important for our conservation efforts,” says Blackburn, who heads NCGRP’s National Animal Germplasm Program. “If we can do it more efficiently, we can reduce the number of semen samples we collect for preserving sheep genetic diversity.”

Better Nonsurgical AI The scientists have developed a rapid, economical alternative to existing surgical AI methods. The technique is an adaptation of the method used in swine. The researchers used a spiral insemination catheter to traverse the ewe’s cervix and deposit thawed semen directly into the uterus. The method is easy to learn and easy to perform. Each sheep takes about 2 minutes to inseminate at a cost of $1.29, making it significantly faster and less expensive than laparoscopic surgical insemination.

And it’s easy enough for producers to do independently.

Though quick and economical, the technique is less reliable than existing AI methods. Early tests have had success rates of about 55 percent when using fresh semen and about 10 percent when using frozen semen.

“This difference was not observed in the previous experiments, because surgical inseminations deposit the AI dose at the site of fertilisation, so minimal stress is placed on the thawed sperm,” Purdy explains. “Sperm are generally weakened by the freezing and thawing processes, and this impaired function in thawed samples becomes more noticeable when using the nonsurgical method because the sperm have to travel farther to the site of fertilisation.”

The scientists are investigating how to hone the technique and improve its success rate by improving the timing of estrus and insemination.—By Laura McGinnis, formerly with ARS. This research is part of Food Animal Production (#101), an ARS national program described on the World Wide Web at www.nps.ars.usda.gov.

Phillip H. Purdy is with the USDA-ARS National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation Gregory S. Lewis is with the USDA-ARS U.S. Sheep Experiment Station “New Ultrasound and Artificial Insemination Techniques Improve Sheep Breeding” was published in the October 2009 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

SOILS

Australia needs super soil for high productivity With increasing pressure on primary producers to increase their productivity, irrigation researchers are seeking ways to improve the quality of irrigated soil, given the vital role soil plays in plant health and productivity.

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he National Program for Sustainable Irrigation (NPSI) is funding a number of research projects all focused on conserving and improving soils. In one such project, University of Adelaide researcher Dr Rob Murray is investigating the long-term sustainability of precision irrigation at sites in the Barossa Valley, SA. So far, Dr Murray’s team has found no evidence that drip irrigation causes any problems for soil, but as vineyard water use in the Barossa Valley is relatively low, further trials are being completed in vineyards in Victoria and New South Wales.

“Virtually every soil we worked with already had very poor structure, with low aeration and high resistance to penetration by roots at depths of only 30cm,” Dr Murray said.

“What we’ve seen makes a strong case for intensive soil preparation before permanent plantings of irrigated crops, and for ongoing measures to conserve and improve the soil structure that is created during preparation.

“Investments in these measures, such as increased use of cover crops and reduced machinery traffic, would be returned by efficient plants with extensive root systems that are not addicted to frequent irrigation. With severe water restrictions and increasing climate variability, these strategies will become essential.”

Soils Research Pty Ltd researcher Dr Bruce Cockroft, who is working on another NPSI-funded project, also believes changes in soil management could unlock far more dollars per hectare and per megalitre of water for Australian farmers. He studied the most productive soils all over the world, and identified 24 key properties that are common to all the best soils, the “super soils”, of the world.

“Because of the great age of our soils, there are several key properties that are missing that cannot be changed,” he said.

“Our research is attempting to find alternatives to the key properties of super soils. We have evidence from trials that alternatives exist. Now we just need to find out how to build them into our soils to make them super.” Dr Cockroft and his research team believe they have found one way to build these properties using rye grass.

“Good soil management is fundamental to good water management”, said Guy Roth, NPSI Program Coordinator.

“That is why it is vital to have productive, healthy soil.”

Citation Land & Water Australia. 2009. Australia needs super soil for high productivity. [Online] (Updated April 17th, 2009) Available at: http://lwa.gov.au/node/3206 [Accessed Thursday 17th of September 2009 12:44:16 AM ].

Article provided by National Program for Sustainable Irrigation

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CROPS

Rot resistant wheat could save farmers millions CSIRO researchers have identified wheat and barley lines resistant to Crown Rot – a disease that costs Australian wheat and barley farmers $79 million in lost yield every year.

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rown Rot, which is a chronic problem throughout the Australian wheat belt, is caused by the fungus Fusarium.

Dr Chunji Liu and his CSIRO Plant Industry team in Brisbane are using sophisticated screening methods to scan over 2400 wheat lines and 1000 barley lines from around the world to find the ones resistant the fungal disease.

“The wheat and barley lines showing resistance to Crown Rot are now being used in pre-breeding programs to incorporate the resistance into adapted varieties for delivery to the wheat breeding companies,” Dr Liu says.

Crown Rot infects many grasses and weeds found in wheat growing regions and minimum till cropping encourages Fusarium which survives in cereal stubbles.

Minimum till cropping minimises soil disturbance and retains plant stubble from previous crops in order to promote soil health and limit erosion.

Developing Crown Rot resistant wheat and barley varieties is an essential strategy in fighting the disease.

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“As well as developing Crown Rot resistant varieties, we are also studying how Fusarium invades the plant, how plants resist Fusarium infection and what genes may be involved in defending the plant against Fusarium or reducing its effect on yield,” Dr Liu says.

Another of the most serious wheat diseases in Australia, Head Blight, is also caused by Fusarium.

This work is being carried out with funding from CSIRO and the Grains Research and Development Corporation and in collaboration with numerous national and international groups.

Further Information: Dr Chunji Liu Principal Research Scientist Plant Industry Phone: 61 7 3214 2223 Fax: 61 7 3214 2950 Email: Chunji.Liu@csiro.au

WEEDS

Queensland’s weed control steps up to an international platform SOME of our Asian neighbours are using Queensland expertise to combat one of the world’s worst invasive plants – Siam weed, or chromolaena as it is known overseas.

Adult gall flies mating

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hromolaena invades rainforests, smothers crops, young plantations and native grasslands as well as being toxic to livestock. Biosecurity Queensland scientist Michael Day said the tiny gall fly (Cecidochares connexa) was proving to be very successful in controlling outbreaks of chromolaena.

“The gall fly lays its eggs in the stems of the weed and the feeding larvae cause the stems to swell, which kills the plant and reduces the formation of flowers and seeds,” he said.

“This allows other more favourable plants such as food crops to grow.”

Mr Day said the gall fly was first used by the Queensland Government as a biocontrol agent in Indonesia in 1996, and then with great success in Papua New Guinea from 1998 until 2007.

“Word of the success of the PNG program has spread to other neighbouring countries that are also battling infestations of chromolaena,” he said.

“We conducted a similar project in East Timor in 2005 and we’ve now been approached by colleagues in China and more recently Thailand.”

Mr Day said that closer to home, Biosecurity Queensland was leading the Siam weed eradication program in Queensland.

“While we don’t have the large established infestations seen in our neighbouring countries, we now have a tried and proven biocontrol agent to release if needed,” he said.

“We are also ensuring the future biosecurity of our country.

Siam infested with gall fly eggs

By reducing the presence of the weed in neighbouring countries we are reducing the possibility of any more of it coming onto our shores. It’s a win-win result for all involved.”

The PNG project was part of an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) project to provide support and training to countries that do not have the necessary resources and expertise.

“Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries have a long history of providing agricultural support to our neighbours, especially in the field of biocontrol,” Mr Day said.

“Australia is only one of five major countries to invest in weed biocontrol research. Not only does this mean we can help countries without the same opportunities that we have, we also have useful networks to call upon if we ever need assistance.”

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WINE + VITICULTURE

Eighty acres, one hundred percent carbon neutral Wakefield Wines, based at the Taylors Winery in the Clare Valley, South Australia, have accomplished a world-first achievement by producing a range of wine that is completely carbon neutral.

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he winery has long been part of the South Australian landscape, and is committed to environmental conservation. “Taylors Wines is a family owned wine company operating in both rural and urban environments. This direct link with the land, along with the long term view we hold for our business development, results in a commitment to operating in a manner that eliminates any negative impact on the environment,” says Mitchell Taylor, Managing Director and Winemaker at Taylors Wines.

In order for a wine to be 100 percent carbon neutral, the entire winemaking process must be assessed, from the preparation of the land for planting the vines, to the disposal of the bottles.

In 2008, Wakefield enlisted the help of Australian-based consultancy company Provisor, who specialise in the wine, food and beverage industries. Provisor developed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model to assess the whole range of Wakefield’s Eighty Acres wines.

Assessment of the carbon footprint of the Eighty Acres wine production process was separated into four categories, with each contributing a different percentage to the overall product’s carbon footprint. The categories were: Grape Growing and Winemaking (28%); Production and Packaging (43%); Transport and Sales (11%); and Consumption and Disposal (18%).

This process required Provisor to work with Taylors Wines, as well as all of their partners involved in supply and distribution, to collect unique data about every product in the Eighty Acres range. After the LCA had been completed, it was independently verified by RMIT University in Melbourne in May 2009, and was found to be ISO 14044 compliant.

As a result, Wakefield Wines now have a comprehensive assessment system in place, with which they are able to monitor the carbon efficiency of any of the wines in their Eighty Acres range, and implement measures to negate any carbon emissions that are detected.

A major element in the reduction of the winery’s carbon footprint is its packaging. Wakefield has transferred the wine in their Eighty Acres range from regular wine bottles into O-I’s new LEAN + GREEN lightweight glass bottles. The decision not to use PET bottles was made due to PET bottles not being impervious to oxygenation, which taints the quality of the wine.

As well as being committed to the environment, Wakefield is committed to quality, which means ensuring that the taste of the wine isn’t detrimentally affected by the carbon neutral process.

The LEAN + GREEN glass is 40 percent lighter than the glass that Wakefield originally used for its packaging, and the use of these bottles significantly reduces the water and energy consumption of production.

Of course, it’s impossible for any winemaking process to be completely emissions-free, but it’s possible to drastically reduce the emissions, and offset any that remain.

“For each and every bottle of Eighty Acres wine sold Taylors Wines is committed to offsetting 100% of the carbon emissions associated with the complete life cycle of that product,” says Taylor.

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This includes a partnership with Carbon Neutral, a not for profit company dedicated to the reduction of Australia’s carbon footprint through measuring, reducing and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. Taylors Wines purchase their carbon offsets credits through Carbon Neutral in the form of Verified Emissions Reduction Units (VERs), which each are equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide or equivalent emissions avoided.

Additionally, for each tonne of VERs that Taylors Wines purchases, Carbon Neutral will plant a tree which will provide environmental benefits such as wind breaks, improving biodiversity and sequestering carbon, among others. The trees will be legally protected for 70 years.

As well as focusing on the Eighty Acres range of wines, Taylors wines also actively promotes other environmental practices. Eco-Mapping is an integral part of the Taylors winemaking enterprise, and helps to define areas of environmental concern within the business that require attention.

Taylors has also built a state of the art water recycling plant at its Auburn Winery in the Clare Valley, which recycles all of the water from the winery and bottling hall. In addition, storm water is harvested via this facility for re-use.

Compost, mulching and river regeneration are all key elements of Taylors’ sustainability focus, and the Sydney Head Office is powered by green power. What’s more, sheep have been introduced into certain blocks of vines at the Albury vineyard to control grasses and weeds. This has reduced the need for pesticides, and provided manure as natural fertiliser for the vines.

Wakefield’s 100% Carbon Neutral Eighty Acres wines can be distinguished by the Wakefield 100% Carbon Neutral Leaf trademark on bottles and cartons.

On road to a cleaner future.

To find your nearest Century recycling specialist visit the website or call 1300 650 702.

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Used lead acid batteries contain materials which, if not disposed of correctly, can be harmful to humans, wildlife and the environment.

98% of a used battery is recyclable – don’t discard old batteries withh household waste, simply return them to your nearest Century Yuasa approved battery recycling centre and help create a cleaner future.