Australia’s Agriculture
“Aussie optimism”.........there’s nothing quite like it.
By Robert Thomas www.RWThomasTours.com
Spring is approaching Downunder. And with new growth comes new plans. Why not? The total value of Australia’s agrifood exports increased for the seventh consecutive year to almost $AU50 billion led by the cropping sector. This past year saw a whopping increase in wheat exports to India of 920% over the previous year with Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines all buying significantly more. Strong European demand for canola resulted in an 85% increase in sales. Conversely beef and cattle exports declined in reaction to USA and Brazilian competition. And dairy exports fell by 1.3%.
Needless to say, where there is adequate rainfall, land prices have also risen. Approximately 50 million hectares (14%) are now owned by foreigners. China now owns 2.7% of Australia’s agricultural land and has clinched second place in foreign ownership behind the UK.
Sheep have long been a mainstay in Aussie agriculture and ram sales are hitting new highs. September slaughter in 2017 was 23% above the previous year. It’s mostly existing producers increasing their herds and not new sheep farmers entering who are pushing ram prices to new highs. The Rabobank National Merino Ram sale top seller went for a record $AU 52,500. Even wool has seen a 39% increase in price.
But it is not all “big business". Deregulation of the dairy industry in Australia about a decade ago led to dramatic changes for a lot of farmers. Such was the case of Gallo Dairyland founded by Giovanni Gallo who emigrated from Italy in 1927 and had to borrow two and six pence to get to Atherton from Cairns. After leasing and hand clearing 32 ha for peanuts and vegetables, he eventually bought an existing 64 ha dairy farm on the Barron River about 75 km from Cairns. Thus began the Gallo legacy. Son Frank Gallo was one of 9 children and recognized their strategic location to take advantage of the growing tourism industry in this area. They reduced cow numbers by 50% to 350 lactating cows and branched into 16 varieties of specialty cheeses, yogurts, chocolates and even a licensed restaurant on the farm. Gallo Dairyland opened in 2007 and all cheeses and chocolates are made onsite. They still wholesale milk to the bottling dairies as well, but about 1 tonne of cheese is produced per month for on farm sales as well as wholesaling to 27 retailers. Cows are milked in a carousel parlor and an attraction to watch during the twice daily milking.
But Gallo Dairyland is not the only attraction on the Atherton Tablelands. Tobacco was once the predominant crop on the Tablelands and contributed $AU60 million annually to the local economy. When that industry died, many diversified enterprises sprang up and the area now boasts an economic value of $AU800 million annually. Greg & Wendy O’Neil of Wondaree Macadamias are part of this success story. The rapid growth of demand for macadamia nuts worldwide has provided a ready market for their crop which they market from the farm as well as through wholesalers. The crop weathered cyclones in 2006 and 2011, but the strong Aussie spirit of Greg O’Neill was not dampened. Their 3000 trees are grafted onto two main rootstocks, planted on 9 x 5 metre spacing and come into bearing about 5 years after planting. Flowering occurs in clusters over a 3 week period in September when trees require irrigation of 800 litres per week, reducing to half this amount for the remainder of the growing season. Fertilizer is added to irrigation water as well as ground applications of molasses & kelp, worm “tea” and fish emulsion. An Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program controls most insects. Trees grow to about 9 ½ metres in height and nuts are harvested on the ground every two weeks during 6 passes. The 30% moisture of the nut at harvest is air dried to 10% for storage. The next stage is cracking the shells and grading by size, colour, etc for packaging in vacuum sealed bags containing nitrogen to reduce oxidation. Shells are sold for processing into particle board or used in cosmetics. There are more than 850 macadamia growers across three Australian states, and 6,000,000 trees producing around 40,000 tonnes per year of which 60% is exported.
When was the last time you had a good feed of Wattleseeds or Quondong along with some Damper? Well Lynne and John Rowe from Broughton in South Australia tantalized our taste buds with some of their Aussie Bush foods when we visited their display at the Yorke Peninsula Field Days in South Australia. It’s part of a growing interest in indigenous Aboriginal Australians who survived on these native foods. Damper is wheat based soda bread traditionally cooked over an open fire by swagmen, drovers and stockmen. And wattleseed fruit comes from an Acacia tree and can be eaten green or dried into flour. And what can we say about Quondong that you don’t already know? Well, its scarlet fruit grows on large bushes in the Australia drylands and this 2 cm diameter berry contains twice the vitamin C of an orange. Then there are Gumbi Gumbi, Muntries, Paperberries, Rosella, Riberies and the list goes on. So mate, you better get on down and check it all out. No worries !