Grain market fluctuating

BY ABBY WALTER

National grain market prices are slowly dropping, and quite different to the state of play in March 2022, while Wimmera prices have fluctuated compared with February.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry reported Australian export prices, as of March 22, were noticeably down on the same time last year.

Grain prices have dropped between 10 and 20 percent compared with the same time last year.

Milling wheat exported at $477 a tonne, feed wheat sold for $452 a tonne and feed barley exported at $409 a tonne. Canola has dropped below $1000 and was exported at $946 a tonne.

Wheat and barley prices have dropped marginally compared with February, while canola has seen a more considerable decrease.

In the Wimmera, AWB recorded bid prices for APW1 wheat last week were about $350; barley at $280; and canola at about $590 a tonne.

GrainCorp recorded bid prices from $335 to $34 for APW1 wheat, about $320 for barley and about $600 a tonne for canola yesterday, compared with more than $700 at the end of last month.

In the livestock industry, lamb numbers at Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange are increasing lifting ahead of April.

On March 15, 4950 lambs and 1700 sheep were penned, while 7750 lambs and 2000 sheep were yarded on March 22.

Graham Pymer’s market report on Wednesday last week showed some ‘excellent’ runs of trade weight and heavy lambs yarded

The extra heavy-weight lambs and short skin trade weights sold a few dollars more on the previous week.

Medium and heavy-trade-weight lambs sold from $153 to $187 with heavy-weight lambs selling from $215 to $248 a head.

Lightweight lambs sold from $60 to $114 a head and light-trade-weight lambs sold from $112 to $151 a head.

Light sheep sold from $34 to $70 a head and medium-weight sheep sold from $63 to $106 a head.

Heavy merino ewes sold from $84 to $115 a head, crossbred sheep sold from $84 to $125 a head and merino wethers sold from $105 to $151 a head.

Rams sold for up to $39 a head.

Therole of real-time data in timely on-farm decisions was a key theme at Tatyoon and Willaura digital farm tech field days.

Ararat Rural City Council hosted the field days to promote opportunities available within the Ararat Digital Twin Spotlight Project.

The project involves working with the region’s farmers and planners to solve agricultural industry and planning challenges using a range of innovative sensor technologies and leveraging the powerful data visualisation and sharing capabilities of the Digital Twin Victoria platform.

The field days enabled the region’s agricultural community to connect and hear first-hand how locally-generated, real-time sensor data could assist on-farm efficiencies and boost productivity.

The council’s chief executive Dr Tim Harrison said the project would unlock exciting local value for the Ararat region.

“Agriculture and agribusiness are strong drivers of our local economy and building digital capacity to provide smart farming technology opportunities, including weather and soil condition monitoring capability, is an area we believe where the Ararat Digital Twin Spotlight project can deliver,” he said.

Growers and advisers in attendance heard from leading sensor technology providers Attentis Australia, FarmBot and Smart Paddock. They also watched presentations from proj- ect partners Federation University and Telstra, which discussed the Narrowband network and its role in connecting real-time data with easyto-use product apps and interfaces.

The establishment of a local on-farm weather monitoring network, with a target to connect several local, strategically-placed weather stations, is one of the council’s core objectives.

The network is intended to support live data feeds, at the discretion of data owners, into the Ararat Rural Information Network – enabling residents to connect with the environment in real time.

Dr Harrison said he was pleased with grower interest in establishing the on-farm weather monitoring network, and in accessing available council grants.

“We look forward to collaboratively implementing the on-farm network in the coming months,” he said.

“The council’s involvement within the Ararat Digital Twin Spotlight demonstrates our commitment to becoming Australia’s rural innovation capital, leading the way with collaborative partnerships with Federation University Australia to drive advanced research and development in local agriculture and bioenergy.”

The Ararat Digital Twin Spotlight Project is a collaborative partnership with the Digital Twin Victoria program and Federation University Australia.