To celebrate NAIDOC Week and its Blak Loud and Proud theme, we will be shining a spotlight on a number of amazing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary producers.

Each enterprise, in its own way, is making important contributions to our primary industries while caring for Country, tapping into a unique and incredibly valuable set of practices, skills, knowledge and values.

Roebuck Plains Station

Roebuck Plains is a successful Indigenous-owned cattle station in Western Australia.

The Yawuru people are the traditional owners of the lands and waters in and around Rubibi (the town of Broome). The Yawuru language name for the land on which Roebuck Plains Station is located, is Gumaranganyjal.

Gumaranganyjal covers 276,000 hectares, including Roebuck Export Depot. It’s strategically located for the export market, on a rich marine floodplain, just 30 kilometres east of Broome, with the capacity to support a herd of up to 18,000 head of cattle.

The Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) purchased Roebuck Plains Station in 1999.

In 2006, Yawuru were granted native title over 530,000 hectares of land in and around Rubibi, including the station and the depot.

The station and the depot were divested back to Yawuru in 2014, recognising Yawuru’s traditional ownership of the area, with the ILSC managing the station and the depot via a lease agreement.

In February 2022, Yawuru took over the pastoral operations of the station, and will work with the ILSC to transfer operations of the export depot in the future.

The station uses a shared management model to balance Yawuru cultural values and sustainable land use. The station provides expansive training and employment opportunities to the local community. Moving forward, the station is looking to expand its operations and diversity across tourism, hunting and resource collection, minerals exploration and carbon offset market opportunities.

Learn more about Yawuru, and Roebuck Plains Station via www.yawuru.org.au

Black Duck Foods

Black Duck Foods is an Aboriginal social enterprise in Mallacoota, Victoria, committed to traditional food growing processes that care for Country and return economic benefits directly back to Community.

Over the past 12 months, Black Duck Foods have harvested and milled with their own hands the Mamadyan ngalluk (Dancing Grass), Burru ngalluk (Kangaroo Grass), Myamba (Wattle Seed) and Mitchell and Button Grass flours. Bakers are now baking bread with these native grains, chefs are cooking with it in their restaurants, and everyday Australians are using it to make food for their families.

Black Duck Foods wel­comes the sup­port of com­mu­ni­ties, researchers, vol­un­teers and vis­i­tors to assist with its busi­ness, both on and off the farm. For more details or to make a donation, visit www.blackduckfoods.com.au

Aboriginal Sea Company

The Aboriginal Sea Company (ASC) gives Indigenous people and Traditional Owners an opportunity to advance themselves, become owners and operators in their own right and be in charge of their own destinies.

Not only does the ASC provide more jobs within its community, it is also providing a sustainable economic future for First Nations People.

For example, the ASC owns 11 commercial mud crab licenses, expanding its reach in sustainable seafood. With the acquisition of Bevwoods Crabbing, they’re catching, processing and shipping the finest mud crabs throughout the NT and across Australia.

Dive into their journey by following Aboriginal Sea Company on Facebook https://bit.ly/3y3LaT4 and Instagram.

Indigenous Agricultural Product Framework project

During NAIDOC Week, the National Farmers’ Federation released the first progress report for the Indigenous Agricultural Product Framework project. This milestone marks a significant step in elevating opportunities for Indigenous agriculture. View the report here.

The post Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2024 appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

In this My Market Kitchen’s latest episode, Queensland pineapple grower Gavin Scurr talks about how he grows pineapples and how tight knit the pineapple industry is.

Inspired by Gavin’s fresh product, My Market Kitchen host and dietitian and nutritionist Jemma O’Hanlon creates the ‘Morning Mood Booster’, a delicious smoothie packed full of nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants!

Ingredients

4 ice cubes

2 cups Australian watermelon

1 cup Australian pineapple

1 Australian orange

2 Australian carrots

1 tsp fresh Australian ginger

¼ cup coconut water

1 tbsp fresh Australian mint leaves

Method

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
2. Serve in a glass with some extra fruit speared on a toothpick and a sprig of mint.

Jemma’s tip: When in season, add 2 Australian lychees to the blender and substitute 1 cup of Australian watermelon with 6 Australian cherries (seeds removed). You can also add ½ cup yoghurt to add a boost of calcium for strong bones.

Download the full recipe courtesy of My Market Kitchen: here.

Find out more about third generation Queensland pineapple grower Gavin below:

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1. You’ll be skeptical about the concept of indoor pets

Never let it be said that you don’t like animals, they’re great. But they exist in the following (descending) hierarchy: humans; working animals; edible animals; others.

An animal’s place in that hierarchy dictates its proximity to the house, but only humans should make it past the verandah.

To disrupt this order would be a sin against nature – upending the separation between man and beast… well, that’s how you feel anyway.

2. You understand that different rules apply to ‘paddock language’

Sometimes the language of polite society can’t adequately convey the frustration of a bogged airseeder or a recalcitrant mob of sheep.

That’s where ‘paddock language’ comes in. Farm kids quickly learn that words hurled at working dogs in the sheepyards can’t always be used in front of Grandma.

3. You consider John Deere and Case IH desireable toy brands

A decent part of your childhood play area was probably a scaled down commercial farming enterprise, complete with a tractor and perhaps even a set of offsets or a chaser bin.

You had it made if your fake farming gear was branded with the name of a real machinery company. And if you stayed on the land as an adult, this was probably the start of a costly addiction to red or green paint.

4. You know to observe a moment’s silence at 12.50pm each day

Radios in farm houses, tractors and Toyotas across the country are tuned to the ABC at midday for The Country Hour.

The marketing geniuses at the ABC save the best till last, with the market report bringing up the close of the show. Farm kids know well that the market report is a time for silence – a silence that lasts between 5 minutes and 5 hours, depending on the latest price for weaners at Dubbo saleyards.

5. The greatest party you’ve ever been to was probably in a woolshed

If you call Double Bay home, you might not think sheep manure and shearing paraphernalia make for a good party. You’d be wrong.

The classic woolshed party is a right of passage for farm kids, allowing parents to rest easy knowing that nothing of real value can be broken.

The post 5 things only farm kids will understand appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

A great source of protein and an important tool for bone growth and development, yoghurt contains 10 essential nutrients including calcium, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and riboflavin.

The probiotics added to yoghurt also mean it can restore the balance between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria in the stomach.

Produced by a mixture and combination of multiple dairy products, yoghurt is made by mixing milk power in with milk which means the milk is now homogenised and pasteurised.

Bacterial starter cultures are then used to convert lactose (the sugar in milk) into lactic acid, which helps set the yoghurt. The yoghurt is then stored in controlled temperatures (42°C to 43°C) between four and six hours with fruit or flavourings occasionally added to enhance the taste.

In Australia, consumers eat around around 7.5 kilograms of yoghurt per year with most using it as a healthy snack to fuel their day.

Keep reading to find out more about the different types of yoghurt:

Natural yoghurt

Natural yoghurt has no added flavours or sweeteners, and a clean, slightly acidic, tart flavour.

Flavoured yoghurt

Fruit, vanilla and honey are among popular choices. Most have added sugar or artificial sweeteners to enhance the flavours.

Greek and Greek-style yoghurt

Traditional Greek yoghurt is made through a straining process where natural yoghurt is strained of its whey, leaving a thick product, somewhere between the texture of yoghurt and labne (yoghurt cheese).

Traditional strained Greek yoghurt is naturally higher in protein than other yoghurts. Greek-style yoghurt is not strained, but thickened through the addition of milk solids (like cream) and stabilisers, which produce a rich, creamy and silky texture.

Set yoghurts

Set yoghurts are fermented in tubs. They are fairly thick and have a flat surface with any fruit or flavourings at the base. Stirred yoghurt is fermented in bulk with the fruit or flavouring stirred in and then placed in individual containers.

Stirred yoghurts

Stirred yoghurt is made when fermentation is carried out in bulk and not in individual containers. Once the fermentation reaches the desired level, the yoghurt is pumped through a cooler to stop fermentation. Fruit or flavouring is then stirred in.

Drinking yoghurts

Drinking yoghurt is produced in a similar way to stirred yoghurt. The body is then diluted and mixed with a blend of flavours, fruit or berry juices.

Frozen yoghurt

Frozen yoghurt is made when a blend of sugars, stabilisers, emulsifiers and flavours are added to natural stirred yoghurt.

For more nutritional information about Australian dairy products, and a range of fun facts and recipes visit Dairy Australia.

The post What you need to know about yoghurt appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

• 1.2kg piece beef chuck or beef bolar blade
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1½ cups Beef stock
• 400 g can cherry tomatoes or diced tomatoes
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 small char-grilled capsicums, thinly sliced (optional)
• ½ cup small fresh basil leaves
• Pasta and grated parmesan, to serve

Method

1. Cut Beef into four or five large pieces. Season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with a little olive oil. Heat a large frypan over a medium-high heat. Brown the pieces of Beef well on all sides. Remove and place in slow cooker bowl.
2. Reduce heat, add a little oil to the frypan and onion and garlic. Cook for 1–2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the flour and stir to scrape up residue from the base of the pan and ensure the onion is coated with the flour. Gradually pour in the stock and stir until the mixture boils. Pour over the Beef in slow cooker dish. Add the tomatoes and thyme and a small pinch of sugar.
3. Cover the slow cooker with its lid, cook on low setting for 6-8 hours and then 1 hour on high setting (if you have time). Alternatively, cook on the high setting for 4-5 hours. To serve, shred the Beef with two forks. Stir in the roasted capsicum and basil leaves. Serve over pasta and sprinkle with parmesan.

Find more great recipes like this and cooking techniques at Australian Beef.

The post Slow cooked beef ragu appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) have compiled a range of tools to help with storing beef and lamb when purchased in larger quantities.

How to freeze fresh beef & lamb

• Trim beef to ensure safe and even defrosting.
• Separate cuts into meal-size portions.
• Flatten butcher’s mince before packing, so it defrosts evenly.
• Place beef in good-quality plastic bags and wrap in foil for extra protection and to avoid freezer burn
• Remove excess air and seal securely.
• Label the bags with the cut name, weight, amount and date of packaging.
• Freeze up to the recommended storage time for your particular cut.

Recommended freezer storage times

Ideal temperature -18°C to -15°C

Click here for more information about storage times.

How to safely defrost beef and lamb

How to defrost raw beef in the fridge:

The best way to defrost beef is to leave it in the fridge until completely thawed. You’ll need to plan ahead, but the tender, juicy results are worth the wait!

1. Remove beef from freezer and separate portions.
2. Keep beef in freezer wrapping and place it on a dish.
3. Store on bottom shelf of fridge until thawed and consume within the recommended fridge storage time.

Frozen fresh beef average thawing times 

How to defrost raw beef in the microwave:

Pressed for time? Defrosting beef in the microwave is a saviour when you need to speed things up.

1. Remove freezer bag or wrap. This prevents your beef from sitting in ‘drip’ and stewing while defrosting.
2. If freezer wrap doesn’t come off easily, wait a few minutes and try again.
3. Discard any Styrofoam trays – they’re not microwave safe.
4. Use the pre-programmed ‘defrost’ setting on your microwave.
5. When defrosting mince, remove outer portions from the dish as they thaw, and set aside.
6. If the edges of cuts feel warm, stop microwaving and allow beef to stand for a few minutes until the edges are cold again.
7. Cook beef immediately after defrosting. Make sure it doesn’t stand for any length of time at room temperature or in the fridge.

Click here for more information about defrosting beef.

Click here for more information about defrosting lamb.

The post Tips for storing beef and lamb appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

Ingredients

1.2kg Beef Short Ribs
1 tbsp cracked black pepper
1 tbsp sea salt
Apple cider vinegar, diluted by 50% with water in a spray bottle
Barbecue sauce

Hasselback pumpkin

1 x 500g butternut pumpkin halves, peeled, seeded
3 tbsp chopped herbs (chives, rosemary & parsley)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Oil to coat

Cobb Salad

1x cos lettuce, leaves torn
100g baby spinach leaves
2 hard-boiled eggs, halved
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, sliced
100g feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing

1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsley leaves
¼ cup chopped chives
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to season

Method

1. Pre-heat a covered barbeque (hood down) to 140◦C. Place ribs in a shallow roasting pan, season and cover tray with foil. Roast in barbeque using indirect heat, or in oven for 6 hours. Spraying with the vinegar solution every hour. Remove and rest for 30 minutes.
2. Coat pumpkin with oil and season with salt. Using a sharp knife cut slits into pumpkin crossways about 5mm apart, cutting as deep as you can without slicing all the way through. Place pumpkin on a lined tray. Cook in a closed barbeque on medium-high heat for 40 minutes.
3. Add all the ingredients for the dressing to a small bowl. Whisk vigorously until combined. Add some of the cos and spinach to a serving plate. Top with eggs, tomatoes, avocado, feta, chives and parsley. Drizzle with the desired amount of dressing.
4. When serving, drizzle ribs with your favourite barbecue sauce.

Tips

1. Using indirect heat: place the dish on the opposite side that the burners are on. Therefore, if the fire is on the left side of the barbecue, place the tray on the right side. This will prevent the meat from burning. 
2. Cooking meat for long periods will dry the meat out, the below tips should ensure your ribs stay succulent and tender: 
3. Add a saucepan of water in the barbeque. The steam from the pot provides humidity to keep the ribs moist through the cooking process. 
4. Spraying beef ribs with the vinegar solution keeps meat nice and moist during the cooking process and accelerates the bark at the end.  The bark is the crust that you get on the top of the short rib that you slice through. 

*This recipe first appeared on Australian Beef.

The post Barbecue short ribs with hasselback pumpkin and salad appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

The Australian Made campaign makes it easy for shoppers to support local this Christmas by buying gifts carrying the famous Australian Made, Australian Grown logo. 

From swimwear, skincare and sporting equipment to toys, toolboxes and tableware, the iconic green and gold kangaroo will feature on thousands of locally made and grown products this festive season.  

Australian Made Chief Executive Ben Lazzaro said the instantly recognisable (99% of Australians recognise it) and widely trusted (92%) green and gold kangaroo logo was the easiest way for shoppers to identify authentic Aussie gifts. 

“When you buy Aussie-made and grown products this Christmas, you know what you are purchasing – products grown in our clean, green environment and made to the highest of manufacturing standards,” he said. 

“At the same time, you are putting money back into the economy, which helps to keep Aussie jobs, strengthen local industries and support local communities.” 

Need some inspiration? Check out Australian Made’s Christmas Crackers Gift Guide here. 

The post How to buy Aussie made this Christmas appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

Noel and Lyndsay Henderson are the names behind Avington Merino, one of Australia’s leading growers of luxury merino wool. Their farm is located in the central Victorian Macedon Ranges and has been operating for 26 years.

Avington Merino produces two luxurious wool lines – extra ultrafine and superfine. Because of the high quality and standard of their fibre, they supply wool to designer fashion houses in Italy, where it has gone on to feature on the catwalk in many fashion shows. 

For Noel, he continues to be amazed by the international scale of Avington’s fleece. “We’ve been to Italy a number of times and we’ve seen beautiful products made with our wool. It’s mind-boggling.” 

The Hendersons pride themselves on sustainable and innovative practices in their business, while always putting animal welfare first. As first-generation farmers, there’s no family traditions to follow, giving them freedom to pave their own way. A cornerstone for them is using innovative technologies. 

One of these innovations is their traceability system. 

“Quality control is important – before there really was none in the industry.” Noel said. “So, we developed a traceability system. We wanted to capture data right through the shearing process, and into the wool classing system.”

Every bale of wool is tracked from start to end of production. The process involves tagging each sheep, using a Bluetooth wand to scan the sheep, then uploading their data to a central database system for accurate tracing.

“We can give assurance to anyone that buys our product that we can verify what exactly is in that bale of wool.”

Along with innovation, sustainability is at the core of everything the Hendersons do on their property. Some of their environmental farming practices include careful grazing management, fencing off streams and planting native vegetation. The team plant 8,000 native trees every year and preserve 15 per cent of their land solely for native flora and fauna habitats. 

Avington Merino is also committed to ethical farming and animal welfare. It is the first wool-growing property in Australia to be certified under the international sheep and wool welfare program – the Responsible Wool Standard.

Noel and Lyndsay are passionate about the future of the wool industry, and this includes educating the next generation. They have a Jackaroo program to train young people to enter the industry and have well-established links to the University of Melbourne Veterinary School. 

Avington Merino is just one of the many Australian agricultural businesses at the forefront of innovation and technology. To learn more about the backstories of Australian farming, check out The Backstory Series.

The post Innovation in Wool | Avington Merino appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

With just a month to go until National Agriculture Day on 18 November, the doors have opened for entries to the coveted photo and video competition with a prize pool of $5,000 up for grabs thanks to sponsors Syngenta.

NFF President Fiona Simson said it was the first time the national competition had expanded to include video content and she couldn’t wait to see what would come from the paddocks, yards and tractors across Australia.

“Whether you are a selfie superstar, a professional photographer or know your way around a drone, we are excited to see a cross section of entries,” she said.

There is no age or skill limit on entries, but they must be in line with the theme: Innovation in Agriculture.

Entries close at 5pm AEDT on AgDay, Friday, 18 November. For more information visit agday.org.au.

2021 Winners

Register AgDay events now
It’s not too late to register an event in your community or workplace to receive a complementary event kit – loaded with AgDay goodies. All you need to do is register your event at agday.org.au – and make sure you tag us on social media on the day by using #AgDayAU.

In addition to community-led events across the country, the National Farmers’ Federation and partners will be coordinating events in major cities to put agriculture front and centre on the day.

“It’s always wonderful to see communities coming together on AgDay to celebrate Aussie farming. It doesn’t matter where you live, that connection to farming is such an important part of our identity as Australians,” Ms Simson said.

“There is no wrong way to celebrate. It could be a paddock picnic, or an office morning tea. The important part is to take a moment to appreciate and enjoy some great Aussie-grown food and fibre,” Ms Simson said.

This year’s theme, Innovation in Agriculture will showcase the new practices and technologies making farms more sustainable and productive.

For more information on ways you can get involved in #AgDayAU 2022 or shop the I Love Farmers 2022 collection visit www.agday.org.au.

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