A relatively new plant to Australia called Carinata is changing the biofuels industry, and trials are happening now west of the Great Dividing Range.  

Cotton growers have been giving it a go as a rotation crop.

The results are pretty golden so far.

Carinata oil, when refined, is considered a ‘drop-in’ replacement for existing fossil fuels: the biofuel can be used without updating or retrofitting current machines, and blends with existing fossil fuels.

Biofuels: replacement fossil fuels, usually bioethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuels, made out of sustainable biogenic resources. Everything from wood offcuts, to agricultural by-products, used cooking oil or beef tallow and even algae can be turned into biofuels.

Queensland Government’s definition of Biofuels

Cream of the Crop

Carinata looks similar to canola; bright yellow flowers on towering green stems.  

It’s grown in winter and suits drier soil types. 

It boasts lower water needs than Canola, due to a longer rootstock.  

The crop is being pitched as an emerging option for broadacre farmers over winter.  

Having a ‘cover crop’ is being adopted by many growers looking to reduce topsoil losses, in between their traditional cropping seasons.  

The oil from the Brassica family plant is classed as non-food: unlike Canola, it can’t be consumed by humans.  

Harvest and crushing

Currently, once matured and harvested, Carinata is shipped to Europe for processing. There are no operational processing facilities in Australia yet.

The grain is processed into two products: biofuel, and high protein plant feed for stock. 

Biofuel use has already been written into EU’s aviation fuel regulations, and Asia has indicated it will follow.

In Australia, Qantas has committed to using 10% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in its overall fuel mix by 2030.  

Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Produced from sustainable feedstocks and is very similar in its chemistry to traditional fossil jet fuel. 

BP’s definition of Sustainable Aviation Fuel

The aviation industry has shown serious interest in Carinata-derived biofuel.  

Plant Power

The plant’s pre-commercial trials in Australia are being overseen by Nufarm.

Rachel Palumbo is Nufarm’s Global General Manager for seeds, and is hopeful Australia could become a world-leader.

“Australia has the land, resources, and expertise to lead in renewable fuels, sustainable agriculture, and homegrown manufacturing,” she said.  

“In South America, farmers already produce low-carbon fuel at scale. With the right support Australian growers can do the same. 

Growers benefit from having a profitable break crop that improves soil health

Government support needed

Earlier this year, the Australian Government announced it would invest $250 million into low-carbon liquid fuels. 

“This funding will drive innovation and open new opportunities for farmers to supply feedstocks like Carinata,” Ms Palumbo said.  

The Queensland Government has also shown interest in the blooming industry, recently commissioning Deloitte to review global SAF markets.

The 2024 report found: 

“Australia’s SAF industry is still in its infancy and this is unlikely to change on the scale needed to support decarbonisation without government intervention and a proactive industry.” 

Ms Palumbo also pointed to government-driven SAF mandates as a crucial step to fostering a local biofuels industry. 

“We need a clear policy framework so Australian-grown biofuels can support local industries, just as Australian-grown canola already does for European biofuels.” 

“This is a proven, sustainable, and scalable option for securing our fuel future while supporting growers and cutting emissions,” Ms Palumbo said.

The post Aussie crops: the future of fuel  appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

It was a catalyst for me to look after myself. I don’t think anyone really thinks about it too much. But our hands are always in the sun and we’re using them so often.”

Angie’s quest to find sun protective gloves that were also stylish and had scope for her to work with her hands, proved difficult. From white cotton gloves, to fishing gloves, she enlisted the help of her sister, to step things up.

Shona was on board straight away, having had her own skin cancer scare previously. In 2016, she was diagnosed with a melanoma on her leg.

“I noticed a mole had changed. The doctor took a sample and then I returned home to Townsville, which is a five-hour trip for us. It was literally as I walked in the door, that I got the call to say it was melanoma and I needed to come back.”

The sisters have also lost a close friend to breast cancer that stemmed from melanoma.

We just kept seeing things pop up. For us, it was like, what can we do? What can we change.”

The change they were looking for was FarmHer Hands. The gloves are clearly sun protective, but they are also very stylish.

“Shona and I do like getting dressed up and we like leaning into cool prints and following fashion trends,” Angie shares.

The gloves have been positively received with the sisters placing their third order from their manufacturer within seven months of launching.

Even within the first month, they’d had an order from every state in Australia except Tasmania. Then just before the month closed, that order from Tassie arrived.

“We were so excited,” says Shona.

We just wanted it to be bold, fabulous and feminine.”

Shona and Angie want to raise awareness around sun protection, so that one day putting on a pair of gloves is as normal as putting on your boots, jeans, shirt and hat for the day. One of the major challenges running the business in such a remote area, is postage. The ladies live around 80 km from town, so the mail is collected twice a week.

“It’s a long distance for those gloves to travel from our home, or our headquarters as we call it, to Townsville for tracking. That has been a bit of a challenge for us,” shares Shona.

So, expect a slightly longer wait than your average package. Angie and Shona promise the wait is worth it, and hope the public agrees. They are expanding into a men’s line and a children’s line next with a goal to sell 8000 pairs of gloves by 2026.

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes (or wherever you listen to podcasts) and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

The post From Sun Scars to Stylish Shields: The Story Behind FarmHer Hands appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

If you’re eager to meet some of the country’s best agricultural minds and have a laugh along the way – this one is for you. A Little Bit Agricultural is a video series that aims to entertain and educate anyone who is a little curious about how their food and fibre is produced.

Hosted by celebrity fisherman Andrew Hart and agricultural scientist Oscar Giudici, the pair have covered some interesting territory so far, from cotton farms in Moree to a hops farm in Tasmania.

Most of us may already know Andrew from his show Hook, Line and Sinker. He admits, he’s a bit of a fish out of water, learning about agriculture.

“I thought there was an opportunity to tell the stories of Australian ag,” Andrew shares.

Oscar doesn’t have much TV experience, but he brings the knowledge, having studied agronomy.

“I’ve seen this big gap. Science degrees full, with not many jobs at the end of them. But ag science degrees are empty and there are heaps of jobs,” he explains.

There’s a real opportunity to do something fun and entertaining. That’s the key to this.”

One of their key motivators for the series is to show how much the industry has opened up with jobs ranging from engineering, robotics, precision ag and data management.

“There are a lot of women. There are lot of really young, enthusiastic people just starting a career,” Andrew says.

If you tune into A Little Bit Agricultural, expect a focus on three pillars. Encouraging people to work in the industry, showcasing innovation and highlighting the technology.

“I think for the first time in the cities, people don’t know where their food comes from. And farmers might be copping a bad rap,” explains Andrew.

It’s not just munching on straw! It’s really exciting. It’s really diverse. It’s really specialised.

The highlight for the hosts is meeting so many impressive people. They have been welcoming, down to earth with amazing stories to tell.

“We show up with a camera, and instead of closing up, the doors were wide open,” Andrew recalls.

But don’t expect the guys to gloss over the challenges.

“Not everything is fantastic,” says Oscar.

“We’ve got no qualms about talking about them because farmers are working on them. They’re happy to talk about what they’re struggling with.”

It’s really important that the show is honest.

You can find the series on YouTube and they are very active on social media. That’s just the starting point though, the pair is hoping to have the show eventually streamed on television.

Oscar has a passion for adventure motorcycle riding, so expect to see the bike make many appearances in the series. While Andrew is still working out a way to sneak some fishing in – but certainly hasn’t ruled it out!

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes (or wherever you listen to podcasts) and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

The post How a celeb fisher and an agronomist are getting ‘A little bit agricultural’ appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

Picture a farm overlooking the ocean. It sounds idyllic for the landowners and the animals seem pretty happy about it too. This 40-acre pocket of paradise is located in southern Tasmania’s Birchs Bay. But in the owners’ words – their “soil sucks”.

So, how then do they manage to produce the award-winning produce that is Grandvewe Cheeses? That’s ‘ewe’, as in the sheep! Here, it is all about the sheep.

CEO Diane Rae came to Tasmania for a holiday about 20 years ago and fell in love with the place. The challenge was how to make an income while there. They purchased a piece of land which certainly wasn’t fine wool country and had decided against meat production, so what was left, was dairy sheep.

“I’ve always been entrepreneurial in what I’ve done. I like thinking outside the square. I like doing things less obvious. So, when I started researching sheep, I realised it was an open market in Australia,” she explains.

But it’s not unusual – there are more sheep milked in the world than cows, just less volume.

A dairy sheep will lactate for seven to eight as opposed to a regular sheep, that generally lactates for fewer than three months and produces much less milk.

“In Australia, there was really only one dairy sheep called the East Friesian. Unfortunately, it’s a prima donna! It needs the rye grass, the clover. It’s a true dairy animal if you relate it to a dairy cow. We don’t have those conditions. They love to die. That’s their byline,” she says.

Arabian desert sheep in Tasmania

Diane solved the problem by securing an abandoned mob of Awassi sheep. The breed originates from the Arabian desert and has very tightly held genetics in Australia.

I was able to seed our flock with them and create the hardiest and best dairy sheep in the world.

“That was a game-changer because suddenly, our property which was full of weeds, was ideal food for the Awassi component in the sheep. They are more goat like.

“They are used to living on the smell of an oily rag. They’re amazing foragers. They eat thistles, they eat spiky grass.

“I was really fortunate to be able to a create a dairy breed to exist in our climate and on our land. If I hadn’t gone down that path, we’d certainly be out the back door.”

Creating champion cheese… and gin!

The result is a variety of about 10 classic sheep milk cheeses including pecorino and their award-winning blue cheese. It’s currently Australian champion cheese, voted in London at the World Cheese Awards.

Another offering is the Gin Herbalist which uses a 360 degree recycling process whereby the whey from the cheesemaking is converted into vodka and gin by Diane’s son, who owns Hartshorn Distillery. When the gin is completed, the botanicals used in the gin making go back into the cheese.

The gin won gold at the World Gin Awards in 2018. “After my son won the award, we had to keep changing door sizes to get his head through! So, I entered the Gin Herbalist in the World Dairy Innovation Awards and we won best cheese for it. So, it was pretty much the middle finger to say, your mum can still do it!” she laughs.

The effort to reduce waste goes even further by wrapping the cheese for transport in excess sheep’s wool, which insulates a compostable ice brick.

“It is a very effective system. Is it cheaper? No. But when you’re an artisan maker of anything, you are not selling on price, you are selling on quality and the backstory.”

Happy sheep

The backstory is a good one at Grandvewe Cheeses because behind every piece of cheese is a very happy ewe. Diane practices shared farming whereby the lambs are raised by their mums and the excess milk goes into the cheese until the lambs are weaned and milking continues as normal. There’s even a retirement village for the ladies once they are too old to produce milk.

Diane is a wealth of farming knowledge for someone who used to have a financial planning business. Turning her back on city living has given her immense meaning in her life.

“I realised that everything I was doing was based on greed or fear and I didn’t want to move forward with those energies. What we do now, makes my life real.

“As my daughter says, it’s what gets us out of bed in the morning. It’s not just to make cheese, or booze, or our sheep-milk skincare. It’s working with the land and the environment. The rolling hills, the bucolic setting. It feeds our soul.”

Diane hopes to share that way of life by growing agri-tourism on the farm. It’s safe to say any customers who attend will have food for the soul and for their bellies!

Hear more stories just like Simone’s by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes (or wherever you listen to podcasts) and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

The post How an Aussie sheep dairy is doing extraordinary things appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

But there has been a breakthrough that could transform shearing, aimed to provide sheep farmers with another option amidst a growing shearer shortage.

Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) is working with university researchers to develop a new form of biological wool harvesting.

AWI Chairman Jock Laurie said it was important to provide wool producers with options during times of pressure, which is being felt right now.

“We are seeing some very positive things coming out of the University of Adelaide’s work and they are confident that they can progress it and confident that in about in 18 months’ time we should have a clearer picture of what the story is.”

How does bio harvesting work?

Sheep are given a protein, which puts a break in the wool. After having the protein, the sheep are given a couple weeks to allow new wool to grow, then the fleece is removed.

“It is amazing the number of woolgrowers who have got ideas on how to remove the wool so I think it will be a fairly simple process,” Mr Lawrie said, adding robotics or machinery might be one of the answers.

A potential gamechanger

Mr Laurie said the project had the potential to revolutionise wool harvesting, giving those farmers having a tough time finding shearers a safe and innovative option.

“In terms of mechanisation, shearing hasn’t changed much in a hundred years.”

It’s certainly not the end of manual shearing, a skilful and athletic profession that is also a sport with calls to have it included in the Olympics.

“You have to be a real athlete to be a shearer and in a competitive market place it can be hard to draw them into the industry so we need to have other options.”

The innovation has the backing of the peak body representing wool growers, WoolProducers Australia.

Chief Executive Officer Jo Hall, who grew up on a wool and beef property in NSW, said WoolProducers had been a “huge supporter” of this research.

“As the current labour shortage in the wool harvesting industry is one of our top policy priorities at the moment, WoolProducers are keen to see all avenues pursued to address this situation, including short- medium- and long-term solutions. We’re excited to see how this research may assist in addressing this issue.”

The post How science could transform shearing appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

Their motto is: “When you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves,” and so, Little Big Dairy near Dubbo in Central West NSW began. It is an incredible business, one of only a handful in the nation offering single source milk, meaning the milk comes solely from one farm, is processed on-site and sold directly to consumers.

For the family behind the business – quality, traceability and integrity are everything. The Chesworths come from a long line of dairy farmers but that hasn’t held them back from taking a risk by doing something different.

Owner, partner and matriarch of The Little Big Dairy Co, Erika Chesworth says a positive change was borne out of a lot negativity.

A difficult time for dairy

“It came at a time when our milk company was trying to stem supply and they put a cap on milk production and paid significantly below production costs for a third of our milk.

“It was also a time when our daughter Emma was turning 21 and our son, Duncan was coming to the end of his apprenticeship as a boilermaker and wanting to work at home.

“It was that convergence that realising nobody cared about the product more than we did,” she explains.

It was a time when consumers were buying milk for $1 a litre.

“Our processor in Sydney was no longer Australian owned. It was a gunky time!” Erika and the family put that energy into doing things their own way.

They now control the whole process from start to finish with their own brand and an on-site processing factory. Interestingly, nothing has changed in terms of what they do with their cows.

“It’s that ethos of doing all those little things properly, you end up with something that’s really good.”

Risk pays off

It has flowed through to positive relationships with big retailers and also individual customers. There’s no denying they risked a lot financially to set up this new model but the best outcome possible for Erika is that her three children have returned to work in the business, and are proud to do so. “It’s great but it’s been a ride,” she laughs.

Little Big Dairy now delivers 500,000 litres of milk to homes across NSW and the ACT.

Their local Dubbo community has been especially supportive, proving that consumers will pay more if they feel connected to the story of a business.

The good story of dairy

“We try to sell the good message of dairy. It’s an extremely wholesome, healthy food. It has sustained humanity for a long time. It’s a good story. Dairy is a good story.”

Erika also believes the taste is a big selling point, and puts that down to happy cows.

Attention to the animals’ care, soils and diet is extremely important. “That’s one of the reasons our milk tastes good. We do that well. For a large number of cows, we have consistency in diet. That leads to consistency in taste.”

When new staff come to work on the farm, they are taught that the milk in the bottle is the final product, there’s a lot that happens to get there!

Giving back

Some local schools are very lucky to enjoy the benefits of that taste with donations to school breakfast programs and Indigenous after school care. “Being involved and sharing product with those that we know can’t afford it, is really nice. We were children who lived on cups of milk. It’s just simple, it’s giving back, it’s understated, it’s not flashy but it’s important,” Erika says proudly.

Dairy farming is synonymous with hard work but Erika believes working seven days a week brings with it a flexibility and freedom in each day. Despite putting in long hours, she is still surprised by how successful Little Big Dairy has been.”

We sort of had no idea what we were doing and lots of people would tell us you can’t really make success out of just selling milk but we have managed to do that.

There’s more work to be done, off the farm too. Erika feels there is still an erosion of trust between consumers and farmers. “There is a lot of idealism among voters but they are the same shoppers who will pick up products made off shore because they are cheaper. There’s a lot of contradiction.”

Erika’s ultimate dream for the future is to continue building that trust. “It would be lovely if that spilled into the broader agricultural space.”

The Chesworths are certainly up for the challenge, having already proved that from little changes, big things can happen.

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes (or wherever you listen to podcasts) and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

The post Behind the gate of Little Big Dairy appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

A good wedding anniversary present can be hard to find but when Julie Kos bought her husband Paul a smoker as a gift, they had no idea just how life-changing it would be.

They started smoking everything and as egg farmers, well, they gave that a go too. It was a light-bulb moment. Now, the Victorian couple are the proud owners of The Smoked Egg Co – producing an Australian first, raw, cold, smoked egg that’s free from bacteria.

“I decided to make a quiche with the smoked eggs. My husband told me he hates quiches but it was a case of bad luck because if we smoked eggs I could get the GST back on the smoking unit!” she laughs.

Oh my god. You’ve taken this quiche to the next level.

“But when we actually tried it, he said to me ‘Oh my god. You’ve taken this quiche to the next level’.” Julie describes it as eating bacon and eggs, without having the bacon. “So, it’s very healthy. Eggs are nature’s vitamin capsules as far as I’m concerned. Now, they’ve got a difference to them.”

Julie was a chef before becoming an egg farmer, so she’s combined her two skills perfectly. The husband and wife duo started smoking eggs for flavour profile alone and it took more than nine months to perfect the method. However, in the end, another aspect of the process became truly ground-breaking.

“Once we got the flavour in there, we wanted to know if the flavour developed over time, which it does.

I then realised the egg wasn’t breaking down, which meant we’d stopped the ageing process of an egg.

“That’s the biggest problem for cafe owners and for farmers.” Julie took the eggs for testing to verify her observations and found the smoked egg still didn’t contain any bacteria even after more than 200 days. “We decided it’s not worth going any further. Even though it may last for three or four years, I don’t particularly want to eat an egg that old!” she says.

Julie sees huge applications for this technology if there are other bird flu outbreaks or another pandemic grinds trade to a halt, now eggs can be stockpiled if needed. The challenge, Julie says, is educating people about the process because most consumers assume a smoked egg is cooked and ready to eat. It is, however, a raw product.

“What we do is we get an egg, we then naturally smoke wood, encapsulate that smoke, we chill that smoke down.

So, we are the first chilled smoking method that we know of in the world.

“Cold smoking is usually between 18 and 35 degrees. We go from minus 4 to positive 7.”

Julie says there’s no reason the same equation can’t be used for any type of food that needs refrigeration. “We don’t change the quality of the protein or the structure of the food. That’s really exciting because we can do meat. We can do flour. We can do rice. And prolong the life any of those products.”

Zooming in on eggs, the process works by opening the pores of the egg, infusing flavour, but at that temperature, it’s still entirely raw. “The pores won’t open up unless it’s in a chilled environment. So, as an egg producer, we grade our eggs and wash them in warm water. The reason we do that is, if we did it in cold water, all the impurities in that water would go straight back into the egg and it would carry bacteria,” she explains.

The couple have taken a patent out on their find. “My bank account is not very happy about it. It’s quite an expensive process. But we’ve just sold a licence to Saudi Arabia.

“We’re talking with people in the UK. We’re talking with the egg board in America and have sold a licence over there and also the Netherlands. We’re starting to gain ground but nobody really understands what it’s about because they see the word smoked and they think it’s cooked, which it’s not.”

If you’re interested in sampling these delights, The Smoked Egg Co is in major supermarkets now. “We’ve got select Woolworths stores in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. And we’ve got Coles in Victoria and NSW.”

Julie isn’t stopping there. “My ultimate dream for the future is seeing smoked eggs in every shop and supermarket around the world. It’s going to take us a while to get there. Being a female founder of this product, I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved. It has been a very hard journey but I think we’re nearly there.”

For shoppers who find a box of these smoked eggs in the supermarket, Julie does have some recipe ideas – smoked lemon curd, smoked vanilla ice cream, smoked quiche, smoked mayonnaise and even the simple smoked poached egg. Sounds smokin’ to us!

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes (or wherever you listen to podcasts) and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

The post These eggs are smokin’ – an Australian first transforming the humble egg appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

They say, ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’, and the Montague family has proven that to be true.

It all started with the patriarch Bill in 1948. Fast forward to now, and his grandson Scott has been busy learning about the orchard, packing, distribution, sales and marketing. As much as we all love a Granny Smith or Red Delicious, the family is continuing to crunch into new ground, introducing consumers to new varieties such as Jazz, Envy and Eve.

Montague managing director, Scott Montague, is as passionate about apples as his father and grandfather before him. In fact, the primary land they farm on, 40 minutes from Melbourne, has become a sentimental place.

“We’ve built a memorial on one of our mature dams. It’s got a lot of wildlife, surrounded by apples trees and the memorial is for members of our family who are no longer with us. It’s a really peaceful spot,” Scott shares.

Bringing the Red Delicious to Australia

The farm has been in the family for 75 years. “Same land. We have expanded out but it’s where we started. It’s where it all began.”

Bill, the patriarch, actually started growing vegetables and supplied local hospitals with fresh produce. Apples came later, and he became one of the first people to introduce Red Delicious to Australia.

Of course, apples have come a long way since the Red Delicious and these days, the Montagues travel the world to find new and exciting ways to produce fruit.

Those travels have allowed the family to introduce some new varieties to shoppers, which is what drives Montague. “We get to eat fruit all the time that is so innovative and offers different flavour profiles,” Scott explains.

It’s so much more diverse than going in and getting a red or green apple.

He feels the apple industry hasn’t been as sophisticated as other industries in celebrating diverse flavour profiles. He’s made it his mission to provide that and is educating people about the options on offer.

Exotic apples and on-farm taste testing

Encouraging people to try those new varieties is the challenge, which is why, the family offers on-farm taste testing at the Narre Warren property. “There are two apples that are great for me. One is Ambrosia – it’s very new to Australia. The sweetness and the light density of the flesh is amazing.

“We launched that during the pandemic, so it’s been a very challenging time to get it out to consumers. It’s also pretty hard to go past Jazz and what it delivers – it’s a sweet apple with a tangy background.”

A fairly ground-breaking new variety, which isn’t available yet, is the Kissabel Apple, that features a red flesh.

It’s part of a breeding program out of France. Again, it’s all natural.

“It’s from crosses with normal apples and crab apples. The original crab apples have a red flesh and that’s where it comes from,” Scott explains.

These red fleshed apples also feature a variety of skin colours including red and green. The feedback has been exceptional, especially from chefs who are excited at the prospect of how it would present on a plate.

Montague has developed a profile on consumer tastes and all innovations are based around three keys factors – sweetness, balance and flesh density. They map those factors out and add different flavour profiles around that. “It’s got to be a really special piece of fruit as to why a consumer would pick it up over what they’re already getting.”

Cutting through the cucumber competition

Apple farmers are now competing with a lucrative wholefood snacking market with baby carrots, mini tomatoes, and bite – sized cucumbers all proving immensely popular. Maintaining relevance is crucial. Success is also about meeting consumer expectations beyond taste.

Scott says sustainability is demanded by the market. At the Narre Warren farm, 100% of the water is reused for agriculture, they have solar, and energy used for refrigeration also goes back into heating. But it’s some of the food waste initiatives that really standout.

Thankfully, in the world of apples, there’s big demand for juice, so waste is not a huge issue. However, Montague also grows stone fruit and that has required a bit more imagination. If the fruit doesn’t make a first – grade box, it goes straight to landfill.

With some creativity, Montague has developed a plum puree which Peters Ice Cream is utilising for a sorbet. They are also in discussions with other companies about using waste as a biofuel.

From fires, to floods, to the pandemic – it has been a roller coaster of a few years for Scott and his family. What’s amazing to see is the true belief he has in his work, despite the hardship.

To give them this piece of fruit, blow them away in terms of the flavour, it’s what drives us.

“When you see people eating good fruit and getting excited about it again, it’s really great. It’s just a long way to get it there! But we get to go to work and sell fruit. It’s such a healthy product. It’s good for us. It’s good for the community.”

Scott’s goal is to bring back a surprise on someone’s face when they crunch into a new type of apple. So, if that’s you, please get in touch and let us know!

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes (or wherever you listen to podcasts) and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

The post The apple doesn’t fall far on this farm appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

Managing a family farm comes with big responsibility. James Venning hasn’t only excelled in the running of Barunga Grains near Bute on the Northern Yorke Peninsula of South Australia – he’s made it his own.

Technology has opened up a wealth of information many operators don’t even know exists. His work has just earned him a gong in the Farmer of the Year Awards 2022 where he won the Excellence in Technology category.  

The man behind the data produces wheat and barley as a base but has also branched into lentils and canola due to their higher profit margins. On 4700 hectares, there’s certainly the space to specialise in various crops. Much of that land is dune swale – or sand.

“Every soil behaves differently but generally a sandy soil is fantastic for water use. Things like canola are very thirsty crops, so we can hold crops due to that. The lentils are probably not 100% suited but we are taking steps at the moment to improve that,” explains James. 

Reinventing farming

If anyone can do it, it’s him. While James grew up on the farm, he returned after high school wanting to make a career out of it and is working hard to reinvent the operation.

My dad is a fair bit older than me, so I had to make up my mind pretty quickly as to whether I wanted to come home and do an apprenticeship under him or do other things.

He’s had the benefit of his father’s knowledge but it’s safe to say he’s also teaching his family a thing or two. A lot of James’ improvements have a technological focus.

“Lentils are the reason a lot of this has come about. You can have a paddock full of lentils, put the same amount of fertiliser down and get the same amount of rain but the results are so vastly different. We started to dig into what’s causing that and use technology to assess.” 

Sensational sensing

James believes the fundamental building block of any good crop in the pH of the soil, followed by soil type and soil texture. James has mapped the whole farm using a technique called soil sensing.

“There’s a machine that we put on the back of a tractor and drive it up and down. It takes about 8 logs per hectare. Then it measures each log and puts it onto a nice glossy map.

“So, different colours indicate different pH levels. You can treat those low pH levels with lime to bring them up or you can identify high pH areas and then put more fertiliser or different fertilisers on those areas.” 

If you didn’t have that data, you’d just be flying blind

Weather stations are also a big part of the property. They’re a useful tool for knowing when to use sprays responsibly and for frost detection. Similarly, satellite imagery can be used to detect the greenest part of a lentil crop, James then knows that’s the best patch to drive out to, in order to undertake targeted sampling. 

But data collection is happening in many less obvious locations. Take, a harvester for instance. For some time, they have been measuring yield but now the equipment also takes a protein measurement.

“You might ask why, but nitrogen fertilisers come at a very high cost to our business. Protein is a very good way of measuring efficiency, So, by measuring protein on different parts of the paddock we can determine whether or not our nitrogen use was correct – too low or too high based on the protein in the yield that we got off,” explains James. 

Taking risks

Implementing these changes comes at a cost and there are no guarantees they’ll even work until they’re tested but James says he loves the satisfaction of having the evidence to back up their actions.

“I get anxiety sometimes if I know I’m not quite doing something right on a certain part of the paddock,” says James. “Some farmers who aren’t doing any of this are quite ignorant to it and that’s kind of good I guess! Whereas, once you’ve had your eyes opened, it’s hard not to want to fix it.” Having said that, there was a fair bit of resistance from James’ own dad in the beginning.

I remember him saying that no one else was doing it, why should we. We got there in the end!

James believes land prices increasing exponentially have forced other landowners to rethink their own practices and focus on better efficiency. “A lot of attitudes among farmers is rather than expand by buying more land, let’s just fine tune what we’ve got and run it really well.”

Part of leading the way in that movement means James has volunteered to host trials on his farm. For every successful trial, there is one or two that don’t work out and he puts that down to good experience. “The world is dominated by data at the moment. I don’t know where it’s going to go. Just having this mountain data and piecing it together is very exciting.” 

Perhaps the image of James gathering and analysing all that data isn’t the picture many people have of a farmer.

Most people just think we go and chew on some wheat and drive tractors but farms these days are just such complex businesses from logistics to managing time, managing people, forging relationships with suppliers and advisers.

“They are multi-million dollar businesses and it’s not as simple as putting a seed in the ground and waiting for it to grow,” laughs James. 

Then, try adding data analysis to the list of jobs to do. It’s a pretty full workload.

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

The post The amazing tech revolutionising farming appeared first on AustralianFarmers.

The look, the smell and the taste of mangoes conjures images of the Australian summer. Mangoes are a family favourite in many households and a sign of warmer days and holidays ahead.

Now, there’s not just one but three new mango varieties on offer to customers. They are called ‘Yess!’ ‘Ahhh!’ and ‘Gee!’. Sounds like fun but it means we all benefit from more choice at the checkout.

So, how do they stack up against more traditional varieties? Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Senior Principal Horticulturalist Ian Bally is offering our readers some insight into this exciting new development.

Most of Ian’s work takes place in the field at research stations. Developing new fruit involves crossing the species during flowering season, evaluating the fruit produced and then analysing it back in the lab.

That hard work has recently paid off in the world of tropical fruit, with three new mangoes now approved. The varieties all share the popular Kensington Pride as one parent and Florida varieties as the other parent. The cross has encouraged a more vibrant colour, improved shelf life and better yield.

This program was started several years ago to improve the productivity of the Kensington Pride variety but without losing some of that great flavour that consumers are hooked on over the summer.

Ian brings 40 years’ experience to this project and seeing these new varieties in shops gives him a real sense of achievement. “It’s very exciting to see the fruits of your labour, especially over such a long period of time, to actually get out there and make a difference, be recognised by consumers and also make a difference for growers,” he shares.

A key benefit to improving shelf life for instance, is an improved market. “So, we have a great looking fruit, that tastes great, but it’s got shelf life that enables us to get it to market in Australia but also it opens up those export markets which is what the industry is looking for.”

Contrary to what many may think, all of this was done with hand crossing. “It’s quite an involved process. After having selected the parents, we go in the day before at full flowering and we go in and select 20 or 30 that we think will be useful the next day. We then bag the panicles and let them sit overnight. By morning, the new flowers are open and they’re ready to accept pollen. That’s when we go in with pollen from the male parent and introduce that to the stigma of the female,” Ian explains.

It’s a very slow process and not as successful as other fruit crops like citrus or apples because you can only get one fruit per flower cross.

It’s probably about a 20-year process by the time you start selecting parents, crossing, growing the seed and planting it in the field.

“It will take three to five years before it crops for the first time. We then evaluate that over multiple seasons. Once we’ve decided we have something that’s significant, we then have to take that graft and make many clones of it and put them onto growers’ properties and test them in different environments.”

Then, there’s the process of registering for plant breeders’ rights and the commercialisation of the fruit.

It certainly gives you a greater appreciation for the abundant options we get to choose from at the markets or shops. This season, some lucky shoppers may just stumble upon these new varieties. Supply is limited but they can generally be found across the nation’s eastern states.

Look out for a bright blush on a vibrant yellow background with that taste similar to the Kensington Pride. It won’t be exactly the same flavour though, given the Kensington was only one of the parents. “I would encourage people to test them and see if they like them. We’ve had pretty good reactions so far.”

No one has probably tasted more than Ian with his job involving sampling hundreds every year. “By the end of January, we are really fed up with mangoes,” he laughs.

Any new variety is a win for the consumer, but the aim is to also make farmers’ lives easier by breeding fruit that has better skin, disease resistance and is less susceptible to fruit rot. These kinds of improvements over the last 10 to 15 years have already led to a longer mango season.

Growers can now produce mangoes from the hottest tropics down to the cooler regions of northern New South Wales. That is set to extend even further thanks to this new breakthrough. One of the latest varieties crops a little earlier than others on the market, so we can enjoy mangoes for an extra two to three weeks each season.

So, what’s next in the world of tropical fruit? Ian says he’d love to pioneer a smaller mango tree that could be planted at a higher density. Currently, mango trees are large, hard to access for pickers and don’t yield a lot of fruit in relation to the size of the tree. It’s already been done in apples, pears and stone fruit, so it’s only a matter of time. The work of a horticulturalist is never done!

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

The post Thought mangoes couldn’t get better? ‘Ahhh Yess’ they can! appeared first on AustralianFarmers.