Showing posts with label growers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label growers. Show all posts

New Rice Crop to Save the World

Rice famers
The world needs another green revolution. New high-yielding crops in the 1950s and 1960s changed everything. They took Mankind out of the diminishing-food crisis The new cereals and rice impacting greatly on developing countries. Output increased. The food crisis was averted.

Australian Wine Industry is into the Red

Members moves on from the Australian Wine Society.
It seems just about everybody is investing in vineyards. The wine industry has drawn in big investors and hobbyists. Unfortunately, people do not think before they jump in. They are seeking to fulfill a dream: there is a certain amount of glamour involved in saying I am a wine maker, a vintner.

There is a world glut of wine, particularly the cheap ones. Nations have pushed to establish new vineyards. It has had the aura of a local car industry or airline. Newcomers enter the industry all the time without doing any research and little training.
Australian Wine Society
Too much drinking not enough thinking
It is not surprise to hear that the oldest wine club in Australia founded in 1946 is literally in the red, by a shocking amount. It owes a staggering $4.2 million to its wine producers. It operates as a distributor, buy and selling, though ostensibly not-for-profit. Supermarket chains sell nearly all wine in Australia and in a situation of oversupply they don't pay much for it. These major players "do" their homework, unlike the suppliers.

The Wine Society is in deep trouble. Things are so bad that membership of the prestigious club has fallen by a quarter over the last three years. Demand for premium wines which used to have a high, profitable markeup has dramatically declined. Consumers buy more of the cheap stuff.

To clear the debt a complicated "splitting" of the business is taking place. However, selling the wholesale section to the Fogarty Wine Group for a measly $75,000 will not help its finances at all. Though it will allow the society to borrow $3 million. Taking on more debt is folly.
 Society by Ty Buchanan 
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NO PROFIT IN WINE
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Australian Wine Society Million of Dollars in Debt

HEALTH
It seems just about everybody is investing in vineyards. The wine industry has drawn in big investors and hobbyists. Unfortunately, people do not think before they jump in. They are seeking to fulfill a dream: there is a certain amount of glamour involved in saying I am a wine maker, a vintner.
Wine society drinking
Too much drinking not enough thinking
There is a world glut of wine, particularly the cheap ones. Nations have pushed to establish new vineyards. It has the aura of a local car industry or airline. Newcomers enter the industry all the time without doing any research and little training.

It is no surprise to hear that the oldest wine club in Australia founded in 1946 is in the red, by a shocking amount. It owes a staggering $4.2 million to its wine producers. It operates as a distributor, buy and selling, though ostensibly not-for-profit. Supermarket chains sell nearly all wine in Australia and in a situation of oversupply they don't pay much for it. These major players "do" their homework, unlike the suppliers.

The Wine Society is in deep trouble. Things are so bad that membership of the prestigious club has fallen by a quarter over the last three years. Demand for premium wines which used to have a high, profitable markeup has dramatically decline. Consumers buy more of the cheap stuff.

To clear the debt a complicated "splitting" of the business is taking place. However, selling the wholesale section to the Fogarty Wine Group for a measly $75,000 will not help its finances are all. This will allow the society to borrow $3 million. Taking on more debt is folly.
 Society by Ty Buchanan 
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Lincoln Red Cattle Have Good Genes


Lincoln red cattle are genetically strong, ideal for farmers.
Lincoln Red cattle are large. They provide a lot of meat. However, many consumers have never heard of the breed, mainly because investment in marketing has been minimal. A marketing program is planned. In many ways the meat is superior to the much vaunted Angus.
Lincoln Red cattle
Admittedly, only a thousand head are produced each year in Western Australia. If consumers knew of the quality meat more could be ready for market very quickly. The breed comes from the cold and windy east coast county of Lincolnshire in England. There true origin is the Bos urus cattle of Scandinavia.

While not currently popular with consumers in Australia, they have "taken-off" in Europe. It has pluses for farmers. It efficiently converts feed to meat and grows rapidly. Crossbreeds in particular grow very fast. Unusually for meat animals they make good milkers as well.
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Australian Bees Use Their Heads

Bees don't just take pollen: they physically make flowers release the pollen. The, Australian blue-banded bee, Amegilla murrayensis, and the North American eastern bumble bee, Bombus, impatiens, were compared.

Australian blue-banded bee Amegilla murrayensis
Slow motion filming enabled observation of bee behavior. North American bees grabbed the flower anther with their mandibles (hands) then tensed their wing muscles and began to "vibrate' the pollen free. This proces was carried out once per flower

Blue-banded bees did not use their mandibles at all. They used their heads, literally. They headbutted the flowers with their heads repeatedly at a very high frequency. The frequency was higher than the North American bee so the blue bee visited more flowers. However, the Australian bee came back several times to the same flower to give it another go.

Overall, the blue-banded bee is a more efficient pollinator. If used by growers it could potentially produce more fruit and vegetable.
 Biology by Ty Buchanan 
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Alpacas Australian Made

Alpacas rule. Okay, they don't really but they are going strong in Australia. Farmers here say they are the best in world. This may be a tall "call". However, alpacas are cuddly, cute and low maintenance. They also provide a nice income.

The first were brought to Australia 25 years ago, so growing them is a relatively new industry. Farmers are doing well because animals originally imported were genetically superior. This has resulted in high overseas demand for access to the gene pool.

Most breeders in Australia are small, having only a few dozen alpacas on average. Farmers have no trouble selling the fleece. The market is growing. The future looks good for alpaca meat.
Alpacas grown farmed bred in Australia
The animals do not damage the land. Indeed, they all poo in one spot. As there is no centralized fleece processing body at present, individual farmers process fleece themselves. All unprocessed fleece has been pre-booked until Christmas for processing by "renters", as they are called.
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AUSTRALIAN ALPACAS
#alpacas #farming #fleece #process #growers #animals #farmers #meat

New Technology Adopted by Citrus Grower

About the only way for a business to succeed in this day and age is to improve productivity by developing new technology not by breaking employees' backs. Increasing productivity by making people work harder has never worked. It is only successful in the short term.

The Costa Group which exports high quality citrus fruit to Japan has installed an infrared Brix sensor system to improve the selection of the best for export. There will be no rejection by customers because the Brix scale shows how sweet an orange is for example. There is also higher sales of blemished fruit that are very sweet according to the scale.

It seems odd that the Brix system is not shown to domestic customers. There is a down side: minerals and trace elements are not measured. However, there is no doubt that Australian consumers would like the Brix scale placed on the sales price ticket of fruit.

Like keeping out New Zealand apples, Australian growers will go to extremes to sell low quality produce. The strangle hold on the industry must be broken. Australians should have the right to buy the best, no matter where in the world it comes from. Market manipulation is supposed to be illegal.
Agriculture by Ty Buchanan
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