Reading Time: < 1 minute Sydney | Reuters –– Pacific Ocean temperatures continue to warm, supporting El Nino weather conditions for the rest of 2015, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said Tuesday. An El Nino can have devastating consequences for agriculture globally, causing heavy rains and floods in South America and scorching weather in Asia and as far away as east […] Read more
Warming Pacific waters seen fuelling lengthy El Nino
Editor’s Desk: Getting rail back on the political agenda
Reading Time: 2 minutes John Diefenbaker was no longer Prime Minister when I got to shake his hand. Still, there was an election in the air, and my father, who distrusted Liberals every bit as much Dief (especially when they were led by Pierre Trudeau) had hauled his four boys to the high school auditorium to hear the great […] Read more
Australia beef exports to fall on lower slaughter rate
Reading Time: 2 minutes Sydney | Reuters — Exports of Australian beef are likely to fall faster than previously expected as slaughter rates drop off as a two-year drought eases, threatening to add fuel to a rally in U.S. beef prices. A record slaughter rate has dropped nearly a fifth in the last two weeks, as farmers start to […] Read more
Australia’s largest private land owner to sell cattle business
Reading Time: 2 minutes Sydney | Reuters — Australia’s largest private land owner will sell its cattle operations, including the world’s largest ranch and an area equivalent in size to South Korea, to raise cash for other businesses and investments. S. Kidman and Co. said it will sell its privately owned 11 cattle stations and a feedlot, complete with […] Read more
Fighting weed resistance head on
Fighting weed resistance will be a long, tough battle, but the latest information says farmers are definitely paying attention
Reading Time: 5 minutes Doing chores on a mixed farm in South Australia, Josh Lade dreamed of working on a really big grain farm. It was a dream that intensified as he was growing up, like when he used to put in shifts on the large inland grain operation owned by members of his mother’s side of the family. […] Read more
Australia backs farmers on foreign ownership gripes
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canberra | Reuters –– The Australian government has sided with farmers who say official data vastly underestimates foreign ownership of the nation’s farmland, as it moves to clamp down on overseas purchases of agricultural land. Foreign ownership is a key concern for many farmers, a crucial part of the conservative government’s support base, who worry […] Read more
Australia plans country-of-origin labelling after hep A outbreak
Reading Time: 2 minutes Sydney | Reuters — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott backed plans on Thursday to introduce country-of-origin labelling in the wake of a hepatitis A outbreak, potentially risking contravention of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. With 18 confirmed cases of hepatitis A linked to consumption of berries sold by Patties Foods Ltd., Abbott said he had […] Read more
Australia tightens rules over foreign buying of farmland
Reading Time: < 1 minute Sydney | Reuters –– Australia tightened rules on Wednesday over foreign ownership of its agricultural land amid concerns that it is losing control of its own food security, slashing the amount beyond which land purchases would require regulatory approval. From March 1, foreign purchases of agricultural land over A$15 million (C$14.51 million) will be subject […] Read more
Canada on the fringe of the grain export market
In a world where a country’s market power starts with its grain storage capacity, we’re losing ground fast
Reading Time: 6 minutes Canada’s performance, its objectives and its market power as a grain producer and exporter have changed significantly since the mid-1900s. Unfortunately those changes have not always been positive. In 1966 Alex McCalla, who was then at the University of Minnesota but who would go on to become one of the world’s top economists studying agricultural […] Read more
Australia’s temperatures found fastest-rising worldwide
Reading Time: 2 minutes Sydney | Reuters –– Australia faces a rise in temperature of potentially more than 5 C by the end of the century, outpacing global warming worldwide, the country’s national science agency said Tuesday. In its most comprehensive analysis yet of the impacts of climate change, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) painted a […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
