Demand for lamb rockets

I don't know about you, but I have almost given up buying lamb. A leg is just so expensive now.

Interesting story in the Country Leader (sadly not on-line) about the changing nature of the sheep industry. The combination of drought and low wool prices has led to a dramatic fall in sheep numbers from 130 million in 1994/95 to around 67.7 million today. This is a one hundred year low.

Now both wool and sheep meat prices are up, producers face a real dilemma in terms of keeping sheep for breeding and wool or to sell their lambs for the meat trade.

Global demand for lamb continues to increase. In the circumstances, I fear that lamb is going to continue to be a luxury so far as most of us are concerned.   

Wine Industry Outlook - January 2008

Photo: Grape Vines, Margaret River, WA

Regional Australia has benefited enormously from the growth of the Australian wine industry. Driven over time by people such as Len Evans, the expanding wine industry has created direct and indirect jobs while enriching local life.

As an industry, wine making has proved especially attractive to city professionals attracted by the combination of tax benefits with the romance attached to the sector. This, together with commercial plantings, has driven enormous expansion.

The Australian wine industry has always been marked by a history of glut and then boom. Back in the late 1960s, for example, the Australian Government was paying grape growers to pull vines out.

Most recently, we have had boom followed by a huge wine glut in 2006 into 2007 as major plantings came to full fruit. Great for people like me who love wine, but hard on producers. How quickly things change.

In 2007, the drought in Southern Australia reduced yield because of its effects on bud formation. Then came the irrigation cut-backs in the Murray-Darling Basin. By September last year, the Federal Government's Wine and Brandy Corporation was forecasting a grape harvest as low as 800,000 tonnes as compared to the average of 1.9 million tonnes. This was disaster territory.

Things have improved with subsequent rains, with the harvest now projected at 1.2 million tonnes. Better, but the Australian industry will still need to import bulk wine from overseas to fill orders.

This is not the only problem faced by the industry.

The rising value of the Australian dollar is squeezing export margins, making imports cheaper. The previous spread of New Zealand wines through Australian bottle shops is now being followed by wines from a variety of countries.

Wine grape growers who might have expected to benefit from significant increases in grape prices are not getting the benefits they expected from reduced supply because of growing concentration in the wine industry.

The Australian wine industry is really a story of two industries.

At the big end of town, there has been increasing concentration. The number of listed wine makers has shrunk from 13 at the end of 1998 to 6 today. These bigger entities have the capacity to squeeze grape producers on one side, to contend to some degree with the buying power of supermarkets on the other.

Then there are the thousands of smaller boutique wine producers. Generally unable to access supermarket shelves, these have to rely on other sales and distribution methods including cellar door, other local sales and mail order. A number of moved into related tourism activities.

Wine remains an emotionally attractive option for many city professionals. However, they need a very clear business idea together with the capacity to ride through fluctuations if they are to succeed.

Northern Myths - or a new reality?

The vast expanses of Northern Australia have long been seen as an un-tapped territory with huge potential. Yet the reality has been far from this - the North is littered with failed dreams.

Slowly, the old myths may be becoming a reality. Mining, tourism and defence have provided key economic drivers, leading to considerable if still patchy development. Now, partially influenced by debate about climate change, the expansion of agricultural activities has again emerged as a topic of debate.

Again, this is not new. What is new, to my mind, is the way in which supporting infrastructure has slowly evolved. This should not be over-stated. The North is still remote to those in the deep south. However, development tends to build on itself, creating further building blocks. I can see this happening.

As it does, new opportunities open up. Without being too prescriptive about it, my feeling is that the next two decades will come to be seen as the Northern development decades, the period in which Australia's focus shifted in part from south to north.

Rain Shadow ends - and what is Yonees disease?

I really have been enjoying the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Rain Shadow. Sadly, the last episode is on Sunday.

The story line is simple enough. An enthusiastic young city vet Jill Blake (Victoria Thaine) arrives in the small drought stricken South Australian town of Paringa to work with notoriously "difficult" Kate McDonald (Rachel Ward).

Set to work, Jill immediately encounters many of the problems of dry-land farming in stark relief: a farmer who can cope with neither the drought nor his mounting debts; another forced off his land by the bank; and a third confronting the vexed issues of succession and future planning. Then there's the spectre of a notifiable sheep disease, the mere mention of which turns Kate's prickly attitude to open hostility.

While initially criticised by some critics as too slow moving, the program has evolved into a gripping six part mini-series that has become compulsive watching for my wife and I. However, one thing puzzled me. What was this mysterious "yonees disease"?

Now I grew up in a fine wool merino region and I had never heard of it. Finally, I got so annoyed that I went searching. As best I can work out, it is in fact Ovine Johne’s disease (OJD), a chronic wasting disease of sheep caused by the sheep strain of the bacterium, Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, which grows mainly in the small intestine.

The intestine wall slowly thickens and the animal has increasing trouble absorbing nutrition from its food. A sheep with clinical OJD usually continues to eat and remains bright, but slowly loses condition. There is no cure - the animal usually dies within 3 to 6 months. According to the NSW Department of Primary Production:

Since it was first found in Australia in 1980, Ovine Johne’s Disease (OJD) has proven to be a costly disease in Australia. It spreads slowly, is difficult to detect early on, causes lower weight gain and wool production and can kill about 10% of adult sheep each year if left unmanaged. Recent NZ research has been reported as showing losses of 17% of weaner weight and 10% of wool cut in sub-clinical cases in crossbreds. Once it gets into an area all flocks are at risk. The earlier you act, the less the impact of OJD on your business. Assuring sheep buyers about the OJD status of your sheep is becoming the norm.

Now I feel a little better about not recognising it since it did not exist in Australia when I was growing up.

The Land Newspaper and Australian rural life

The Land began publication in 1911 as the journal of the NSW Farmers and Settlers Association. The FSA represented farmers in particular with a strong focus on the often struggling small farmer. This could put put it at odds with the more conservative Grazier's Association, the industry body representing the bigger pastoralists.

In time, the paper became an unlisted public company owned by farmers. From this point it turned into a company called Rural Press, in time becoming an Australian regional media conglomerate.

Despite all the changes, The Land itself has remained one of the best sources of information about rural life, especially in NSW. I do not read it all the time, but whenever I do I find something new.

Olives in Regional Australia - Information Sources

Just completing my immediate posts on Australian olives.

In my first post on olives in Regional Australia I mentioned that when I was growing up I thought of olive oil as a medicinal product. Now I use olive oil all the time in cooking, while olives are a constant element in my diet.

I still use overseas olive products and will continue to do so, but now I have embarked on the joy of discovering the Australian alternative.

The Australian Olive Association site is perhaps the best entry point for those interested in finding out more about Australian olives whether as a consumer or potential grower. The site includes details of local producers for both olive oil and table olives.

For those interested in growing olives, the Olive business site provides a handy introduction. The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation site provides information on the development of the Australian olive industry.

At regional level:

• Olives South Australia promotes the industry in South Australia
• Summerland Olives promotes the industry in New England (Northern NSW) with a special focus on the North Coast
• the Mudgee Olives Association promotes olives in the Mudgee region of NSW
• the Hunter Olive Association represents olive growers in the Hunter Valley

As part of my web searches I also checked blogs. I could only find one. Olives101.com is a global olives blog that includes regular stories on Australian and New Zealand olive growing.