Country Today

The  final report for the ACCC's supermarkets inquiry  has been released with the finding that ALDI, Coles and Woolworths are some of the most profitable supermarket businesses in the world, you’ll hear the farmers response from NFF Horticulture chair Jolyon Burnett.   To the Trump tariffs, and two beef cattle organisations in the US are supporting tariffs on Au...

Australians' eating habits are on a downward spiral with consumption of ultra processed foods and sugary drinks predicted to soar   The horticulture industry in Victoria's Mallee has seen huge growth in recent decades. But what are the implications of climate change on production and water requirements of various crops.  Graingrowers anxious as the countdown to Trumps...

Global dairy prices are predicted to remain elevated and Australian dairy farmers should start getting stronger farmgate prices  An Australian Wool Innovation project has found wool's natural odour resistance reduces washing frequency making it the most eco-friendly option. Farmers in New Zealand are the most optimistic they have been in over a decade. President of the Federated Farmers of Ne...

Australia’s national cattle herd is predicted to experience yet another record year according to Meat & Livestock Australia’s 2025 Cattle and Sheep Industry Projections. NSW Farmers is launching a statewide search for five young rural leaders as it opens applications for its 2025 Tertiary Scholarships. Concerns around the potential implications of US President Donald Trump’s...

Federal Trade Minister Don Farrell says no country was going to get an exemption from the steel and aluminium tariffs as US President Donald Trump had already made his decision… despite talk of negotiation. Perry Williams is The Australian’s Business Editor, he spoke with Federal Trade Minister Don Farrell at The Global Food Forum in Melbourne. The grains sector is no stranger to tari...

Victorian farmers are praying for an early autumn break with many areas in drought conditions Australian beef production hit a record in 2024, a decade on from the previous record. US president, Donald Trumps  ‘on again, off again’ US import tariff announcements have nervous markets keeping a close eye on the potential impact on Australian agricultural exports. Wine grape growers...

Exporting live dairy heifers to China used to be a lucrative market for Australian dairy farmers. At its peak, we exported more than 200 thousand cows a year. But now China has an oversupply of milk and is now culling cows. Former prisoners from a Gippsland correctional facility could help fill the region's continuing dairy labour shortage after doing the Cows Create Careers course The Victor...

The controversial court case of the national dairy body Australian Dairy Farmers suing the United Dairy Farmers of Victoria for unpaid membership fees has been settled. The Federal Government has spent more than $120 million in one go, buying more than 30k megalitres of water from the Duxton Farms Limited, a private agricultural investment company .And other irrigators are not happy...

We’ll take a look a the Trump Administration's new tariffs on all agricultural imports and what it might mean for Australian farmers, in particularly red meat exporters with a State by State analysis So you’ve probably heard of drumMUSTER, now there’s bagMUSTER Australia’s first recycling program for soft plastic agricultural input bags A GROUP of dairy farmers from Queensl...

The AgriFutures Rural Women’s Awards State winner Dr Mary Cole, founder of  biological farming company Agpath All the details of the Women on Farms Gathering this year is being held in Benalla in North East Victoria The Victorian Government will trial radio tracking collars on wild dogs in the National Parks in north west Victoria Fruit and vegetables growers at Melbourne’s Q...

Cattle are widely blamed for being large methane emitters. But US documentary maker Peter Byck is telling a very different story in his four part series,  ‘Roots so Deep’.   Australian agriculture has recorded its second-highest year on record, with the red meat industry expected to propel the sector to a $92 billion industry Country Today’...

The big news this morning is that Donald Trump has stuck to his word and will hit Canada and Mexico China with tariffs. But most alarming for us is Trump has pledged to increase tariffs on all overseas agricultural produce which could be disastrous for our red meat exports, and also for wool. The annual Wimmera Machinery Field Days are underway at Longerenong. And controversially, the field days c...

Children from rural communities are 3-4 times more likely to die from preventable illnesses and injuries. That’s a number The Sisterhood Project is trying to change. This summer has seen an increase in snake numbers with  Ambulance Victoria having already treated 129 snake bites in the past three months. How many more disputes can we have with China before it impacts our exports? W...

Bulla Dairy Foods has raised its farmgate prices by 20 cents a kilogram for the 2024-25 season. You’ll hear from Bulla CEO Allan Hood. Insects, such as black soldier flies are one example of an emerging industry. They consume organic matter and turn it into a high quality crop fertiliser, The Federal Government has announced an increase in the Wine Equalisation Tax producer rebate. But the i...

The Federal Government says it will legislate for a Universal Outdoor Mobile Obligation.  to provide  access to basic mobile voice and SMS services but the devil is in the detail. Meat and Livestock Australia is launching a new social media academy to create tiktok read meat promoters. You might remember the media images of the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese and Victorian Pre...

The National Irrigators Council is sceptical about the timing of the Federal Governments purchasing of another 100 GL of water suggests a pre-election rush to show progress in the MDBP  The organisation VicNoTill is holding a series of field days looking at the use of soil pits to better understanding soil structure  Large scale cattle producers are wondering what impact the Federal Gove...

With conditions incredibly dry across the Victoria's South west, Wimmera and Mallee, farm machinery sales are down.  You’ll hear from a  sheep finalist in the Weekly Times Farmer of the Year Awards, Victorian farmers could be hit with a fire services levy increase of 400 per cent under the State Government’s proposed changes We’ll be joined by Presid...

There’s been a huge case of spray drift killing crops in the Riverina, will losses estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Riverina Agronomic agronomist Pat McGuiness spoke to Libby Price. Australia’s horticulture industry is in a boom period with production valued at  $17 billion.  A dairy farming family from Murray Bridge in South Australia have won the pre...

armers could be using what's called mathematical optimisation to increase their profits.   All the details of this year's Citrus Congress is being Griffith in the Riverina.  It’s likely to become a whole lot harder to export to the EU, with the release this week of European Commission’s roadmap for a thriving EU farming and agri-food sector.   CSIRO has launche...

Australian dairy farmers are one of lowest cost, milk producers in the world, second only to New Zealand. A soil and pasture biodiversity event Grounds for Growth is being held at Warrnambool next month. We’ll take you to the agrifood innovation conference, evokeAG in Brisbane. More than 30 million Americans are using the highly effective weight loss drug Ozempic. And that is starting to imp...

There's been a huge shift in where in the world our food is produced over the last sixty years. NSW has its first legislated Independent Agriculture Commissioner, Alison Stone, who has the unenviable task to dealing with land use issues including conflicts with renewable energy projects on farm land.    We’ll head to the ag innovation conference,...

The Victorian Farmers Federation  is calling on a pause if the phaseout of caged chickens due to the shortage of eggs from avian influenza outbreaks. Red meat exports look set to continue record breaking momentum this year.  Grain growers in Victoria’s Wimmera are already making decisions on which winter crops they’ll plant, based on the very low soil moisture levels.  A...

The alarm bells continue to ring in Australia’s horticulture industry with yet another survey showing a third of vegetable growers are considering leaving the industry in the next year.  We’ll take a look at the prospects for barley, and Australian production is expected to increase this season, despite a drop in demand from our major export market, China. To the Australian dairy...

We head to the Australian Dairy Conference on the Gold Coast. Nathan Scott of consultancy Achieve Ag Solutions is a keynote speaker who specialises in motivating farmers. Professor of Carbon Farming at Melbourne University, Richard Eckard about the national standard for carbon accounting The Australian dairy industry and there is a glimpse of optimism that farmgate prices will move higher A previe...

It seems there's an election in the air. The Federal Government announced it would dump the controversial proposed biosecurity tax that farmers had lobbied against. You’ll hear from President of the NFF David Jochinke.  Dairy farmers in south west Victoria are encouraged to attend the latest Review and Renew workshops being run by WestVic Dairy Global wheat prices have been on the...