Understanding the Role of Carbon in Soils: A recent report provides interested readers with an extremely good summary of the role that soil carbon plays in promoting healthy soils.
GRDC Project Report on Pulses in WA: DAFWA’s project on “Enhancing the Quality and Export of Pulses from the Western Region” ended quite a while ago, but the report was only recently released. Amongst other things, the report shows that lentils can be highly profitable and that other pulses (chickpeas, field peas) can also be a very useful crop. Grower’s manuals are available for the Northern and Southern regions.
Turning Rocky Outcrops to Soil: The Reefinator is being used in the Wheatbelt and elsewhere, ripping through rocky reefs such as ironstone cap-rock and transforming previously unusable land into arable cropping land. A number of Youtube videos have been produced showing the units in action, see here, here and here.
Farm Decision Making: GRDC brought out a very useful manual (Farm decision making: The interaction of personality, farm business and risk to make more informed choices) for those wanting to have a better understanding of how each one of us perceives and reacts to risks (and make decisions accordingly). A very useful summary of the report, by lead author Cam Nicholson, is available here.
Changing Track to Organic Crossbred Lambs:
FROM superfine Merino wool production to organic crossbred lambs, Rob and Anne Battley, Gelfro Farm, Williams, aren’t afraid to try something different.
Rob said he was a fine wool Merino man from way back, but it isn’t wool bringing in the bacon these days at Gelfro Farm – it’s all about the organic produce.
Stubble Retention Field Day: Blackwood Basin Group’s Stubble Retention Project is wrapping up with a field day at Rylington Park on Monday 19 June. Come along for the morning to hear from agronomist Deb Archdeacon, local farmers Nick Kelly, Nathan Leitch and John Hicks about how you can increase soil carbon in cropping.
81% of Diners Want Ethically- Sourced Meals: New research from reservations platform, OpenTable, shows that the majority of Australians don’t understand what sustainable dining is. A sample size of 1,014 respondents was surveyed across Australia, including both capital city and non-capital city areas. The research found that 81 percent of Australians believe it’s important that the food they eat when dining out is ethically-sourced. However less than half (44 percent) can articulate what sustainable dining means.
Grasping Change Key to Farming for Profit: One full season into a two-year trial to adapt his farming systems to improve profitably, Murmungee cattle farmer Ron Ferguson has already saved more than $50,000. Mr Ferguson moved from autumn to spring calving, calved over a six-week period rather than 12 weeks, built an autumn feed wedge by sacrificing paddocks and introduced rotational grazing.
Australian Hemp Growers Ready for Good Times as Industry Expands: Eighty years after hemp cultivation was banned in Australia, the industry is enjoying a second coming. Sir Joseph Banks sent hemp seeds on the First Fleet so the fledgling colony could establish a crop to help make rope and sails. However, drug concerns led to cultivation being banned in 1937. In the background of a ban on human consumption in Australia, which has just been overturned, the industry has been slowly rebuilding for export for the past 20 years.
The information contained in the compilation is taken as is from sources external to SWCC that are freely available on the Internet. No evaluation on the part of SWCC has been done in terms of the information that they contain and SWCC makes no warranty, either express or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability or content of such information.