Reading Time: 3 minutes A searing heatwave is baking central and northern Australia, piling more misery on drought-hit cattle farmers who have been slaughtering livestock as Australia sweltered through the hottest year on record in 2013. Temperatures have topped 40 C in large parts of Australia’s key agricultural regions for most of the past week, with the mercury topping […] Read more
Australia’s farmers slaughter cattle, swelter out of record-hot 2013
Frost, rains hit Australia’s wheat crop, drag on quality
Reading Time: 3 minutes Unseasonal rains in Western Australia and frost on the country’s east coast have hit wheat crops in the world’s No. 2 exporter of the grain, dragging down quality and reducing harvests. A decline in supply of high-protein wheat from Australia could force major buyers such as Indonesia and China to seek more volumes from the […] Read more
Australian beef exports seen at record in 2013-14
Reading Time: 2 minutes Australia will export a record amount of beef in 2013-14, driven by strong demand from the United States and emerging markets, including China, the government’s official forecaster said on Tuesday. Beef and veal exports in the coming season were expected to total 1.07 million tonnes, up from a record 1.015 million this year, the Australian […] Read more
ADM, GrainCorp settle in for wait on takeover approval
Reading Time: 3 minutes Australia’s GrainCorp and U.S. suitor Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) are hunkering down for a long wait for Chinese regulatory approval after agreeing to a A$3 billion (US$3.1 billion) takeover deal Friday. In a sign of China’s growing scrutiny of global M+A deals, GrainCorp and ADM have tailored the deal to include an extra payment for […] Read more
Dryness threatens Australia wheat supply as seeding kicks off
Reading Time: 3 minutes A lack of soil moisture in Australia’s eastern grain belt could hit wheat production in the world’s second largest exporter as farmers start seeding the 2013-14 crop. Concerns over Australia’s wheat output come as the U.S. crop faces winter storms after being planted in dry soil last year, piling pressure on global grain supplies and […] Read more
Australia nudges up wheat estimate
Reading Time: 2 minutes Australia, the world’s second-largest wheat exporter, raised its production estimate for the current marketing year by a fraction from its December estimate, as the crop largely escaped damage from a heat wave and floods this summer. The Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) forecast wheat production of 22.077 million tonnes for […] Read more
Australia’s GrainCorp knocks back ADM bid
Reading Time: 3 minutes Australia’s GrainCorp knocked back a US$2.8 billion takeover offer from Archer Daniel Midland (ADM) on Thursday, saying the bid undervalued the grains handler after a bumper harvest delivered a record annual net profit. The U.S. agricultural giant’s bid comes at a time of dramatic consolidation in the global grains sector amid intense competition to feed […] Read more
Australia’s early wheat harvest shows lower protein
Reading Time: 2 minutes The early wheat harvest in Australia, the world’s second largest exporter, is showing lower protein scales and poor yields, analysts and traders said, heightening concerns over global grain supplies as shipments from top exporters dwindle. Farmers are finding lower-than-expected protein scales in New South Wales and Queensland, the states responsible for producing top quality hard […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
