Weekly Times
Ute beauty
Hands down, it’s the best season Curyo cropper Ed Rickard has experienced. Timely rain plus warmer temperatures have his winter crops well established and Ed reckons the Mallee ‘couldn’t look better’.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
SHEAR GENIUS
Longwood’s Max Pohl Skillecorn, with his Kelpie Tiny, has come up with a unique way to fund his sheep breeding enterprise. The 16-year-old entrepreneur buys and sells racehorses while chasing his ‘sheep dream’.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
TIGHT SQUEEZE
The opening shots have been fired in this season’s milk price battle, with processors unveiling their opening offers for 2026-27. Farmer Stuart Timms said he had hoped prices would hold at last season’s levels amid rising costs.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
STEAK OF ORIGIN
Fifth-generation Queensland farmer Josh Rich is helping build one of Australia’s fastestgrowing premium beef brands. King River has surged from a single export shipment in 2021 to producing 3.2 million kilograms of Wagyu a year.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Boort and paid for
Harry Mcintyre and Zoe Burgess are racing through sowing at Boort in northern Victoria, with timely autumn rain helping keep crops on track and the program now about 70 per cent complete.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
On the mark
Two of country Victoria’s biggest footy leagues are backing a push for a statewide mental health round, with Bendigo and Ovens & Murray players to wear official Beyond Blue armbands during their upcoming interleague clash. Pictured are Bendigo league...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
NEXT-GEN TAX THREAT
The future of Australia’s family farms could be “wiped out within a generation” if the federal government ploughs ahead with reforms to capital gains tax exemptions on agricultural land transfers during succession, industry leaders have warned. They...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
EGGS-CELLENT ADVENTURE
Sarah Kemp (right) with daughter Heidi, 2, and Rochelle Crow, whose Jen’s Hens business in Gippsland has grown from 2000 chicks in 2020 to 7000 free-range birds producing up to 5000 organic eggs a day.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Cultural cost blowouts
Victoria’s multimillion-dollar Indigenous cultural heritage laws are causing major cost blowouts and delays in building roads, tracks, pipelines, housing, environmental works and even a CFA station. Under state legislation not a sod can be turned on...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Farmer frustration as bureau says using more up-to-date data too ‘expensive’
REPORT, PAGE 37
Read Full Story (Page 1)
STEP BY STEP
Laura Healey with sons Leroy, 2, and Reid, 1, on their Bayles property in Victoria’s West Gippsland region, where the young family is building a grass-fed, paddock-to-plate beef business from the ground up.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Wild dog control anger
Farmers have accused the state government of winding back wild dog control by stealth as it cuts ground baiting by up to 66 per cent across eastern Victoria’s 14 wild dog management zones. The 1080 baits have traditionally been laid every 100m...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
IT’S ON with THE SHOW
Jack Gall with precious fertiliser supplies on his farm at Goorambat in Victoria’s North East as he pushes ahead with a 4500ha cropping program. Surging fertiliser and fuel costs — and supply fears — are tightening margins despite a promising start to...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
All in the Genes
Deanne Sykes, with her grandsons, Kayce Brunt, 2, and Carter Sykes, 6, at her family’s Mawarra Genetics stud sale near Longford in Gippsland on Monday.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE
Confidence across much of southeastern Australia is riding high as the gains from an early autumn break for many regions begin to sink in. The mood-lifting rain has injected new fervour into this year’s farming prospects, albeit tempered by concerns...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
MOUNTAIN MUSTER
It was a group outing for the Fitzgerald family from Benambra - Carmen and Jaime with Flare, Evelyn, Imogen and Brendan - at the mountain calf sales at Hinnomunjie this week, where they were joined by Will Parry and Rosie and Chris Stewart from...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Seasoned greetings
Beef and garlic are the flavours of the month for farmer Joel White. As president of the upcoming South Gippsland Garlic Festival, he’s championing a distinctly local pairing from paddock to plate.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
BUY NOW, HAY LATER
Mooroopna farmer Michael Gaffy says buyers are locking in fodder supplies early rather than waiting for panic to set in. He’s currently baling teff and lucerne, and selling much straight from the paddock.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
CORN DIP
Wyuna East farmer Jake Thompson, with dog Penny, has cut his irrigated corn plantings by about 25 per cent this season as hot conditions, high water use and tighter supply push water prices up across the Goulburn system, where total corn area is...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Disparity sparks fury
Renewable energy giants will contribute just $600,000 to fund Victoria’s emergency services this financial year, while the state’s drought-affected farmers will cough up about $71m. In July last year, the government rebadged the fire services property...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
DAIRY QUEENS
Zara Swadesir, 9, and Elle Swadesir, 7, from Finley in southern NSW get up close with the exhibits at International Dairy Week in Tatura last week.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
TRUE BLUE
The Tonissen family — Lachlan, Sam, Matthew and Jake — are raising the sheep production bar near Hamilton in Victoria’s Western District, doubling the size of their Chrome shedder ram offering within three years.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
SCORCHED EARTH
Beef producer Rob Clements was winding down at his local pub when the Longwood fire ignited last week, forcing him to evacuate his Whanregarwen property within 36 hours as a towering smoke column rose nearby. When he returned days later, about 80 per...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
FAMILY MATTERS
Southeast Australia’s famed new year calf sales have kicked off on a stronger footing. Yackandandah’s Gary Paull, with sons Oliver, 15, Emerson, 12, and Wesley, 8, was among those to benefit from good demand, selling steers to a top price of $1790 at...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A shear turning point
Australia is on track to shear its smallest sheep flock in more than 120 years, with national numbers forecast to fall below 60 million as wool production slumps and the industry undergoes a profound structural shift. The Australian Wool Production...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A MOUNTAIN of memories
Sixth-generation mountain cattlemen Lance and Lyric Anderson, with children Hugh and Rhyme, are continuing a 147-year Treasure family tradition, mustering 150 cattle 50km to the Dargo High Plains. The annual summer drive follows a grazing lease first...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Bushfire threat ‘nuclear’
bomb waiting to go off” on their doorstep. Howitt Society president Peter Flinn said members had gathered photos from Mallacoota to the high country and across the state’s west that reveal “incredibly high fuel loads that pose a huge risk, coming into...
Read Full Story (Page 1)