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Agriculture

This Month

Enough’s enough. Chris Corrigan slams the water buyback scheme.

Chris Corrigan leads investors in $500m farm sale to Canadian fund

A venture backed by PSP Investments has bought out co-investors including the prominent businessman in the Kooba aggregation once part of ASX-listed Webster.

The bulk of the money raised in Wingara's capital raising would go towards increasing its storage capacity and inventory of hay.

Mormons broaden horizons with $38m NSW farm deal

The acquisition is the latest expansion into Australian corporate agriculture by the investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

US President Donald Trump and his officials have partly blamed Australia’s biosecurity laws for the White House’s 10 per cent tariffs.

The real reason Trump is taking a whack at Aussie beef

Local cattlemen say American ranchers don’t sell their beef in Australia because it is not economical to do so.

March

Tough times for orchards, vines send values plummeting

Capital values for orchards and vineyards plunged over 2024. In contrast, farmland used for grazing and annual crops has prospered, and the outlook is rosy.

NZ fresh produce giant tempts Aussie agribusiness investors

The travails at T&G Global spell opportunity for Australia’s big players, which have been battling for larger slices of the sector.

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Donald Trump supporters Gina Rinehart and Elon Musk at a meeting in Florida earlier this year.

What (wagyu exporter) Gina Rinehart thinks of Trump’s tariff war

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart says Donald Trump’s tariff agenda should prompt Australian governments to cut taxes for Australian farmers and small businesses.

Swiss outfit to exit $100m of Queensland cattle stations

The two sprawling stations are part of a substantial cattle and sheep empire put together over years by Swiss aviation dynamo Oskar J Schwenk.

Australian beef exports to China reached new highs in October, topping 30,000 tonnes for the month.

Billions in beef exports at stake from Trump’s tariff war

US cattle ranchers and sheep graziers have recently restated their long-standing complaints against the Australian industry.

China hits back at Canada with fresh agriculture levies

The latest move by Beijing opens a new front in a trade war largely driven by US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

Occasionally flooded: Rawlinna Station, Australia’s largest sheep station, covers more than 1-million hectares in WA’s in the Goldfields-Esperance region.

Jumbuck sells Rawlinna, Australia’s largest sheep station

The $20 million-plus price tag of the property covering more than 1 million hectares reflects the risks of its volatility.

February

Australia’s tuna queen, Lukina Lukin.

The Bangkok teacher who saved the Lukin tuna empire

When pioneering fisherman Dinko Lukin died in 2011, nobody thought his wife – 31 years his junior – could save the business he had left drowning in debt.

The agriculture sector has jumped nearly 8 per cent this year.

Commodities on verge of ‘breakout’ after two-year slump

The sector is trading back at levels last seen during the 2022 boom, led by a surge in precious metal and agriculture prices.

January

AFR JAD Speckle Park cattle.
Photo: Amy Dickens, JAD Speckle Park

How Australia became a test bed for the future of farming

Experimental fungi and “robotic bees” are among the agtech innovations being trialled in a country on the front line of climate change.

Australian beef sales to the US surged last year.

Why 2025 could be a bumper year for these Australian farmers

The agriculture sector may be in for a stellar 2025 but much still depends on the weather, Trump’s tariffs, and the war in Ukraine.

December 2024

Elders chief executive Mark Allison was rehired in the top job in June 2023 after starting as CEO in 2014. The Elders board received a heavy protest vote for a second year running at the agm on December 19 for its botched handling of succession at the company.

Succession drama at Elders triggers huge protest vote again

A botched succession planning process where CEO Mark Allison was re-hired after the company signalled that he would be stepping down has enraged shareholders.

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Farmland with permanent crops like macadamia trees has fallen sharply in value this year.

Orchard and vineyard values down 15pc as livestock farms rally

Farmland planted with permanent crops such as wine grapes and nuts has fallen 15pc on average over the past 12 months, according to a key index.

About 75 per cent of Australia’s table grapes come from the Sunraysia region near Mildura and Robinvale in north-west Victoria.

Why grapes (for eating) are so expensive

Australians are increasing consumption of table grapes in a near $1 billion industry whose exports to China were unscathed when the wine industry was hit hard by tariffs.

The pace of testing will depend on whether virus is detected in initial sampling, said Rosemary Sifford, USDA’s chief veterinarian.

US issues order mandating bird flu testing of milk supply

The virus has infected more than 500 dairy herds in top milk state California, and more than 700 nationwide since March.

Jeremy Clarkson at the farmers’ protest against inheritance tax in central London.

‘Authentic’ Jeremy Clarkson tops polls in disaffected, desperate UK

His shift from Top Gear cars to Diddly Squat cows has so enhanced Clarkson’s everyman appeal that people are asking if a political future beckons.

How salmon could cost Labor majority government

A fierce backlash over a review into fish farming in Macquarie Harbour in the state’s west that is costing the party votes in battleground electorates.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/agriculture-1n7n