Opinion

A Grain of Truth

Chink of light on logistics front

Posted: 13 Jan 12 | MENTIONING grain freight logistics to farmers over the past 20 years has been enough to send them into a deep funk. |

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Pragmatism needed on carbon

Posted: 28 Oct 11 | IT’S FAIR to say most Australian farmers aren’t elated at the prospect of a carbon tax. |

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Strength of farming lobby a boost

Posted: 15 Sep 11 | DURING OUR travels through the US as part of the GRDC ‘Way We Were’ tour, we thought the Farm Bill would be a hot topic. |

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We want work on wheat

Posted: 08 Sep 11 | IT WAS heartening to travel the world and see the level of private investment going into grain breeding, writes Gregor Heard. |

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Concerted effort on mice

Posted: 14 Jun 11 | The oncoming plague of mice needs co-operation between the public and private sectors, and government, like the locust response, writes Gregor Heard. |

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Some compromise, please, people

Posted: 23 May 11 | THE GLOVES are off in the GM debate once again, and this time its property rights at stake. |

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Let's learn from floods

Posted: 18 Jan 11 | As a resident of flood ravaged Horsham, I'm moving away from the usual grains flavour of my blogs and having a bit of a look at flood management, particularly in Victoria. |

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End of an era with AWB purchase

Posted: 18 Jan 11 | MUCH was made of the end of the single desk when the wheat market was opened up, but the sale of AWB’s commodity business to Cargill brings virtually to an end another epoch in grain marketing, one possibly much less mourned in its departure by growers, the end of listed grain marketing businesses in Australia. |

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Shaded picture on grain receivals

Posted: 10 Jan 11 | AS PREDICTED, its been a fraught season for the bulk handlers down the east coast. |

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Cost of floods more than just financial

Posted: 20 Dec 10 | “The farmers will be happy with all this rain about, wouldn’t they?” a Melbourne friend asked me recently. |

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AWB era ends with a whimper, not a bang

Posted: 18 Nov 10 | AWB shareholders this week voted overwhelmingly to take the money of Canadian agribusiness Agrium and run. |

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End GM bickering so data can speak

Posted: 12 Nov 10 | THE ISSUE of genetically modified (GM) wheat is a contentious one, but there’s one unequivocal point in the argument. Australia needs to conduct GM wheat trials. |

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Foreign ownership not intrinsically evil for grains industry

Posted: 09 Sep 10 | AUSTRALIAN grain farmers have been fed a steady stream of nationalistic propaganda in regards to ownership of their key retailers and marketers over the years – but is foreign ownership of grains businesses the evil its often made out to be? |

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Sort out the ports

Posted: 29 Apr 10 | VIRTUALLY since the ink was dry on the new wheat marketing act ushering in deregulation, there have been concerns surrounding port access. |

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The bottom line to emerge on GM

Posted: 27 Jan 10 | AFTER years of largely empty rhetorical battles between pro and anti GM campaigners, the shadow boxing is one step closer to being over, with the news that WA farmers will be able to plant GM canola next season. |

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Hi-jinks mask a deeper malaise at AWB

Posted: 30 Dec 09 | Last week’s AWB annual general meeting was vaudeville masquerading as corporate business. |

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Tricky times ahead in marketing GM crop

Posted: 16 Oct 09 | AS with all aspects of the GM debate, nothing is ever what it seems. |

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Spray to be grain industry's 'mulesing'

Posted: 22 Jul 09 | SPRAYING is the grain industry's mulesing. Ask anyone within the farm chemical industry and they will unequivocally tell you they expect both regulation and public scrutiny to increase in the medium term and certain products to come under scrutiny. |

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Wheat will never be the same again

Posted: 10 Jul 08 | July 1 changed everything for wheat growers. No more will AWB have a monopoly on bulk wheat exports, no more will growers have a receiver of last resort for their grain and no more will there likely be any guaranteed access dates for pools. But is that a good thing? |

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