Country Journal, Week #76 - June 21, 2022

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CountryJournal Week commencing 21st June 2022

Goat research

Around the shire

The wrap on food waste

Walking the wire Krista Bjorn editor@thedailyjournal.ink

R

ural agribusiness women wanting to secure their financial future now have extra support through Walking the Wire, an e-kit developed through a collaborative effort between the Queensland Far mers’ Federation (QFF) and the Queensland Government, funded by the Department of Justice and Attorney-General’s Investing in Queensland Women program.

“The aim is to provide guidance to help rural women take the next step in securing their financial future, particularly where they may have had difficulty prioritising their own financial security in the past,” QFF reported. “At times it is

like walking a tightrope or – in obtain initial advice.

“It is hoped that this e-kit our case – a barb-wired fence!

Women bring their many will help empower women to strengths and add enormous have a strong voice in their value to their families and agri- agri-businesses,” QFF said, “and provide practical, useful businesses.”

The e-kit was developed by and relevant tips, resources rural women for rural women and support.”

The Walking the Wire e-kit and addresses the challenges faced when building financial is available online or via a resilience and security includ- printable edition at the QFF www.qff.org.au/ ing relationships, family transi- website, tion and succession, family resources/. and business communication, business structures, business knowledge and Servicing Warwick, Stanthorpe and Beyond understanding, financial Made from Bluescope Australian Steel and legal literacy, and being FULL SERVICE - SLAB, ERECTION & COUNCIL heard and validated by •Acreage Sheds business advisers.

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

Vietnam rediscovers Aussie fruit Krista Bjorn editor@thedailyjournal.ink

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fter a seven-year hiatus, Vietnamese fruit-lovers are now enjoying Australian nectarines and peaches thanks to new market access protocols established by Austrade and LPG Cutri Fruit Global.

“The customer introductions and support from Austrade were phenomenal,” Cutri Fruit Global International Sales Executive General Manager Frank Frappa said. “I am forever grateful for their help. Vietnamese consumers love large, sweet fruits and the Australian industry does a great job of growing it. Many of us have been exporting to China for several years. To have another strong Asian

market available to us is absolutely fantastic.”

The Vietnamese market opened up in February 2022 and LPG Cutri Fruit Global one of five growers approved to export fruit and test the protocols on behalf of indus-

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market access, and cover differences between markets in south and north Vietnam.

“Because we couldn’t travel due to the pandemic, Austrade met and spoke to customers on our behalf,” Mr Frappa said. “They know who the real players are. It was a great help and gave us a solid foundation in the market very quickly. Our peaches and nectarines were very well received by our retailer and their customers. There was lots of excitement around the launches and consumer orders were strong.”

Mr Frappa is currently working with Austrade to expand fruit sales in Japan for LPG Cutri Fruit Global. For the past three years, they've been exporting Australian grapes and citrus to Japan, and they hope to expand their presence in the near future.

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

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Around the shire.....

Elizabeth Voneiff editor@thedailyjournal.ink

T

he Southern Downs hosted a very special delegation this week when the Premier and State Cabinet came calling on the Granite Belt June 14.

The visitors were invited by Mayor Vic Pennisi who had extended the invitation on the occasion of Stanthorpe's 150th birthday. He had no idea the entire Cabinet would say yes and was pleasantly stunned by the prospect.

Council and MP James Lister interacted with the State politicians and the Mayor was able to show the Premier around the southern end of the shire.

Birthday gifts ensued including $300 million to build the Toowoomba to Warwick water pipeline. The package will ensure that Warwick and other nearby areas will have a permanent connection to Wivenhoe Dam if required. As the Mayor frequently reminds us, we're just one more day closer to drought.

Apparently, however, the Toowoomba Council is not happy about the birthday gift and the ABC this week report-

ed that they are concerned that the pipeline to the Southern Downs will cost them some water security. The Darling Downs also complains that the State government paid for water cartage to Stanthorpe but they had to underwrite water cartage to Clifton and other dry areas during the drought.

Perhaps Toowoomba forgot to invite the Premier and Cabinet to their birthday dinner?

Meanwhile, Council is hammering out its final budget for the upcoming financial year as well as overhauling the planning scheme for the region.

NOTE The Country Journal has Pictures of the Premier and moved from Dragon Street to her cabinet visiting the King Street in Warwick - drop in Southern Downs last week. and see us anytime.

Both are enormous undertakings and extremely important to the shire. More on this and other stories Tuesdays and Fridays in the Daily Journal and Stanthorpe Record, wherever newspapers are sold.

The creche is available from 8 am - 12 pm

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

Goat research: volunteers needed Krista Bjorn editor@thedailyjournal.ink

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oat producers in Queensland are being sought to participate in a new $3.7 million research project designed to improve the reproductive performance of commercial goatmeat herds in Australia.

"The largest goat industry research project ever undertaken in Australia will begin this year, with goatmeat producers invited to submit an expression of interest to participate in the project," Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) said. "It is designed to improve reproduc-

tive performance of commercial goat herds, and ultimately increase productivity and profitability on-farm."

The $3.7 million project is being funded through the MLA Donor Company (MDC) in partnership with the University of Queensland (UQ).

“Over five years, data will be captured from a minimum of 15 commercial properties and 15,000 goats,” MLA said.

“Through the research, the industry will benefit from developing reproductive benchmarks for different production systems, investigating the impact that different management strategies have on

reproduction performance and gaining insights into what causes kid losses among goats.”

The leader of the project is Professor Louw Hoffman, Professor of Meat Science Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at UQ. He said the project needs goat producers across three productions systems: extensive, semi-extensive, and intensive.

“We are looking for producers in Queensland and New South Wales to participate and become involved in the research – they should have at least 100 to 150 goats per pro-

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ducer for the intensive management systems, to more than 1,000 goats for the extensive systems,” Professor Hoffman said.

“Producers must be interested in working with researchers, appreciate the importance of accurate data collection, and be open to implementing adaptive management practices.”

“We will do a range of measurements including pregnancy scanning, weights, body condition scores, weaning rates, and taking faecal samples for worm counts to monitor parasites,” Professor Hoffman said. “It’s all about getting more information around the production systems with the aim of seeing what producers are doing to influence the number of kids that survive and the production performance of those animals up to point of slaughter.

We want to find out what management practices work and what might be adaptable and applicable to other goat producers.”

The research team will attempt to visit each producer at least twice a year and record what is happening and will bring a mobile handling facility with a hydraulic lift for the goats, with a scanner and scales, which they will use on their visits to help collect data on-farm.

“Genetics will also be another area we’ll be looking at,” Professor Hoffman said. “We want to know what criteria they use when they select bucks and

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

The Small Newspaper Company Published, Printed, Designed, Owned, Administered....here Not London. Not New York.

Main phone number: 07-4641 7953 Head office: 41 King Street, Warwick A.C.N. 167 171 217

• Editor: Elizabeth Voneiff editor@thedailyjournal.ink

we want to document the improvements that these F1’s and other crosses hold.”

He is looking forward to seeing what the research project reveals.

“The goat industry is in a transformative stage, changing from extensive free-range, low input systems into more intensively managed systems,” Professor Hoffman said. “As

an animal scientist, I am excited to see and document how goat producers apply and adapt standard livestock management practices to suit the needs of their goat enterprises.”

Producers interested in participating in the project can submit an expression of interest, by contacting Professor Hoffman at louwrens.hoffman@uq.edu.au

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* Sales: Gordon Bratby 0437 417 736 * Sales: Peter Schmidt 0447 105 846 sales@thedailyjournal.ink A little bit of legals While every care is taken to compile this newspaper accurately, we cannot be held responsible for any errors that may occur with advertisements or articles. All submitted content does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Small Newspaper Company or The Country Journal All art and editorial content remains the property of the relevant copyright holder and may not be reproduced without permission. If we have got something wrong, get in touch, and we will print a correction in our next edition...and apologies in advance!

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

The wrap on food waste Simon Lockrey RMIT University

I

n 1970, Coca-Cola investigated the environmental impact of making reusable glass bottles and found single-use plastic bottles could be better in many contexts. It switched to plastic in the early 1990s.

Plastic these days is framed as a problem to be solved. There is global momentum to ban plastic, particularly single-use packaging.

The EU has issued directives, the UN Environment Assembly has committed to end plastic pollution and charitable organisations have formed global plastic pacts.

The environmental impacts of proliferating plastic packaging are mounting, and there's evidence microplastic particles are ending up in human food, the effects on human health starting to garner attention.

So it seems paradoxical that Coca-Cola could have chosen plastic on the basis of environmental values.

The 1970 study used a method that these days is known as life cycle assessment. It measures materials, energy, waste and emissions at every step of the packaging's manufacture, use and disposal and attributes potential environmental impacts to them. For commercial reasons the full results of the Coke study were not published, but summaries released in 1976 said that

shipping heavier reusable glass bottles and the resources required to maintain such systems meant single-use plastic bottles were usually preferable.

Life cycle assessment is a powerful tool because of Its ability to compare impacts of different systems with interdependencies between inputs and outputs. The related industrial systems may have evolved since 1970, but the Coke example illustrates the method often challenges preconceptions of what the best environmental choice may be.

A life cycle assessment is a good tool for investigating complex environmental trade-offs, particularly since one of the key industries that runs in parallel with single-use plastic, the food industry, connects to another global problem: food loss and waste.

According to UN data, 20 to 30 percent of food produced is wasted. If global food waste and loss were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases on Earth. The energy that has gone into growing the food, the supply-chain fuels and energy, and the greenhouse gases emitted when food rots are key contributors to this stunning statistic. Somewhat counter-intuitively, life cycle assessments of single-use plastics and food waste c a n show climatechange impacts of wasting food

can dwarf those of packaging.

Packaging is designed for a range of purposes. Good packaging helps extend shelf life by protecting food from bumps, heat and cold, various spoiling gases and light. Often this is done across land, sea and air, as our supply chains become global and more complicated.

Packaging also plays a role in

helping conserve food once it's in homes. Moisture-reduction sachets, resealable zips, information on the pack to advise on correct storage, 'best before' or 'use by' dates, and sophisticated technologies such as barrier properties or gas scavengers all serve to keep food at its best.

Consumers often don't recognise the purpose, or benefits, of packaging in terms of preventing food waste.

If reducing packaging leads to more food waste, a nuanced and sophisticated approach is required to consider these twin issues. Ultimately, the best option for the environment is to reduce both excess packaging and food waste.

In Australia, 2025 targets to make packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable are gaining momentum. They are loosely in alignment with related European movements. Such an approach does not just involve packaging design and manufacture; end-oflife systems also need to be ready for these changes, or else all those design efforts will be for naught.

Education can encourage consumers to recycle, reuse and compost effectively. In the past,

consumers have shown they can learn new programmes for managing their waste and scholars have spent considerable time analysing which education strategies are the most effective.

Packaging could be retired for food where it is not required.

UK charity WRAP recently released a study explaining where there may be opportunities to reduce packaging on a range of fresh-produce categories. Where packaging is still needed to reduce food waste due to elongated supply chains or highly perishable goods, then making it recyclable, reusable or compostable may help reduce end-of-life plastic problems. Educating consumers about the role packaging plays in reducing food waste and how to make sure packaging is recouped in a circular system would likely need to go hand in hand with this approach so consumers become active agents for change.

If the world moved towards a zero-packaging scenario across the board, the whole supply chain and the way humans as a society relate to food would need a transformational rethink.

Without moving to a distributed system of production and supply, the goal of zero packaging would be difficult to achieve.

The sheer distance involved and time required to ship food - particularly highly perishable fresh produce - from centralised farms in a condition fit to eat make this nearly impossible.

Associate Professor Simon Lockrey is based within the School of Design RMIT and is the Reduce Program Leader in the Fight Food Waste CRC (FFW CRC). The FFW CRC is a national research structure worth $121 million over 10 years tasked to fund projects with industry, government, not for profits and the academy aimed at halving Australian food loss and waste by 2030. The domains in which Dr Lockrey has managed research include life cycle assessment (LCA), co-design, design innovation, marketing, resource efficiency, flammable cladding, automotive history, and food waste. Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

COUNTRYJOURNAL

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COUNTRYJOURNAL GENERAL KNOWLEDGE CROSSWORD

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Ashes Bee Boy Code

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acacia found in drier parts of Australia (5) 6 What are cows that have not produced calves and are under three years of age (7) 7 Who in Roman legend was the twin brother of Romulus (5) 13 When one feels contrition for past conduct, one does what (7)

DOWN 1 Who founded Singapore

in 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford ... (7) 2 What is the meat of the coconut (5) 3 Which nickname applies to the Collingwood AFL club (7) 4 What is spun by a spider to catch its prey (6)

E-QUATIONS 7

Cubic Hop Ice Mercy

15 What is a place of abode (7) 16 Which term describes 17 18 19 20

freedom from captivity or the like (7) What is a way in which a thing may be viewed (6) Name a young eel (5) To get around by trickery is to do what (5) What is a Hindu religious ascetic called (5)

Letters A to Z have a number value. Some are shown in the right-hand cells. Create remaining values using clues in centre cells.

CLUES: Authoritative text (5) Build flood barrier (7) Caresses (7) Penalties (5) Small pants pocket (3) Stomach (5) The end (5) Use eyes (3) Utter (3) Wonderful (coll) (3)

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DOWN 1 Purrs 2 Region 3 Hideous 4 Leases 3

BIYWORD

ACROSS 1 Cart 5 Advocate 6 Defrost 7 Articulates

B I S B A G L Y E

Solve the crossword.

Each answer has four letters.

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F DOWN: 1 Hums, F I © 2 Area, 3 Ugly, 4 Lets.

S A N B E S

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Pot Rich Ski Ten

Build it yourself using the clues and each of the twenty-four letters once only to form ten words: five across and five down. A key word (bold clue) builds on the letter set in the grid.

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E-QUATIONS

© Auspac Media - meq0035 SUDOKU

C O C I K S

Honeybees have a fantastic sense of smell. They use it to find and pollinate their favourite flowers. They learn to identify sick bees by smell and quickly remove them from the hive. Scientists are now training honeybees to sniff out explosives and forage for landmines!

Some values are in the right hand cells.

Create remaining values using 035 clues in centre cells.

P+M XxP J-Z J÷X A+X T-A J-M

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Letters have a number value

A J M P T X Z

H E N E A H

Find the following words in the grid. They may read in any direction, even diagonally.

Some letters are used more than once.

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C O D E R S

CROSSWORD

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household insect deterrent (7) What is an alligator pear also known as (7) Brussels is the capital of which European kingdom (7) What do we call either of the front feet of a particular animal (7) What are rubbers called (7) To emphasise is to do what (6) Which steel tool is used for cutting or shaping wood, stone, etc (6) To put into words is to do what (7) What is a soldier of the lowest military rank (7) Name the wine from a particular harvest or crop (7) What was a twowheeled vehicle used by the ancients (7) What is the condition of being esteemed or honoured (7)

E L I B T E R O T Y

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C A M P H O U E B E L G I W G F E R A S E B R C H I S A A S B F P R I V A E T K C H A R I T T R

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

Texas-size crimes Staff reports editor@thedailyjournal.ink

T

he folks in Texas have been putting up with a mild crime wave.

Between May 15 and 16, a vehicle window was smashed at an address on Boorandalla Street, Texas.

Inquiries are continuing.

QP2200830231 refers.

On May 26, police intercepted a vehicle on the Inglewood Texas Road, Texas.

It is alleged the driver, a 29-yearold man from Texas, was driving with an illegal substance in his system He was issued a notice to appear at Inglewood Magistrates Court on July 7 and his licence was suspended

O

ne hopes for the sake of grain farmers that we have a few dry weeks and the sorghum crop can be harvested.

On a trip to Toowoomba the other day, we saw a lot of excellent crops but only one header in the field.

When you are not driving, it is easy to look at the crops and I saw water lying in one paddock with sorghum.

We wouldn’t call ourselves feedlotters but we want all the sorghum off for two reasons, the main one to give grain farmers some income and the other for more grain to be available to feed cattle in feedlots.

Grain farmers have missed out on a lot of crops in the past decade and it will be a real pity if they can’t cash in on the current wet season.

The price of grain has gone up so that means the steers on our feedlot are costing more to feed.

The last lot of feedlot pellets were around $600 a tonne before GST so we aren’t going to make a lot out of this mob of cattle.

The other concern is the cattle market seems to have levelled out a bit which was not unexpected.

Our agent looked at our cattle on Thursday and we decided to sell in three weeks.

After the steers are gone, we will only have heifers, most of which have been joined with our Angus bull, the one that covered 10km as he headed home towards Willowvale after we bought him.

Socceroos in cup Great to see the Socceroos make the FIFA World Cup final for a fifth

for 24 hours.

The folks in Texas have been putting up with a small crime wave.

On May 27 at approximately 10.30pm, police intercepted a vehicle on Riverton Road, Texas, for a roadside breath test.

It is alleged the 24-year-old man from Goondiwindi had a breath alcohol concentration of 0.053 per cent.

He was issued a notice to appear at Inglewood Magistrates Court on July 7 and his licence was suspended for 24 hours.

On May 31, police and emergency services were called to a truck rollover on the Texas Yelarbon Road at Beebo.

It is alleged the 49-year-old man from Moree in New South Wales failed to have proper control of his

vehicle. He was issued an infringement notice for $321.

On May 31, police received a report of 60 head of cattle missing from a property on Riverton Road at Watsons Crossing.

The cattle are described as Brangus cross with brand PK4.

Inquiries are continuing. Anyone with information is asked to quote QP2200917568.

On May 31, police were called to a licensed premises in Texas where it is alleged a 32-year-old man and 56-year-old man both from Texas were acting in a disorderly manner and fighting.

They were each issued $827 infringement notices and banned from the licensed premises.

On June 3, police intercepted a vehicle on the Inglewood Texas

Road, Texas, at approximately 10pm.

It is alleged the 24-year-old man from Texas had a breath alcohol concentration of 0.151 per cent.

He was issued a notice to appear at Inglewood Magistrates Court on July 7 and his licence was immediately suspended until the court date.

On June 5 at approximately 2.50pm, police intercepted a vehicle on Greenup Street, Texas, and located less than three grams of cannabis in the vehicle.

A 19-year-old man from Toowoomba who was a passenger in the vehicle made admissions to being the owner of the cannabis and was dealt with in accordance with the Drug Diversion program and the property seized for destruction.

a Stanthorpe men’s grand final.

There is plenty of local action in football with

Stanthorpe recently playing the Australia versus Italy series and the Warwick Wolves back in action after a long break for wet weather and wet grounds.

The Long Paddock with Gerard Walsh successive time.

This was a team without the superstars of yesteryear, a Harry Kewell or a Tim Cahill, but they had the better of the play in the 0-0 draw and then won on penalties against Peru.

I am not a great fan of getting coaches from overseas for our national teams so it was good to see a team coached by former Australian player Graham Arnold make it to the cup in Qatar starting in November.

While I might be a sports fanatic, I don’t watch many full footy games on television but did watch the Socceroos on Tuesday morning and do watch some Wallabies games, State of Origin, parts of NRL games and the AFL grand final, I really enjoy the international games.

As has been well documented, Andrew Redmayne’s save won us the game against Peru.

He didn’t have to be part of an overseas team to be part of Australian sporting folklore.

Reminds me of a decade or so ago when the Warwick women won premier division in Toowoomba on the back of some great saves by B.J. Warrener.

Then Ballandean beat the Warwick Wolves on penalties in

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GP39 SERIES

• The GP39 series with its 22” shank were as an economical & versatile plow, ideal for general use with small or low horsepower tractors • The two beams - 39” over all, spreads the shanks and eliminates “slabbing” which can occur between adjacent shanks when 22” is movable for subsoiling in some varying the different undeveloped soil spacings. The 16” Assembly types. The frames are Coulter based on a standard was specially made 13” spacing. Like all for the GP39 Model.

Yeomans Shanks the • The 22” Shank has a

1/2” Shear Pin which ensures a tip break force between 3 - 3.5 Tonnes. This guarantees the GP39 will rip through the toughest of soils.

Ray Bunch Machinery 12 LYONS STREET, WARWICK

P. (07) 4661 2751 • (07) 4661 2765 • Ray: 0427 912 751 • James: 0488 613 577

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COUNTRYJOURNAL

10% passed in...

Bruce McLeish Elders

A

s expected the market was 20 to 30 dearer last week as weakening demand was offset by the reducing supply. With the trade in Fremantle having the week off, the East coast selling centres managed to sell a combined total of 31,000 bales with generally favourable results.

Still 10% of growers thought for some reason the prices should have been higher and so passed in their wool. The majority of the wools passed-in were crossbreds, which is perhaps understandable given their low-price levels, but merino price levels continue to compare very favourably with previous seasons. Still, holding low value crossbred wools, and paying storage does not make of lot of economic sense either.

By the close of auctions on Wednesday the overall Eastern Market indicator had risen by 24, 26 and 23 cents in AUD/ USD and Euro terms respectively, highlighting the relatively calm currency markets for a change. Having said that volatility resumed not long after the auctions closed and the Australian Dollar dipped by more than a full cent against the US Dollar on Friday morning. The Euro also experienced plenty of volatility later in the week following the various Central Bank meetings and

monetary policy changes. The European Central Bank announced it would end the stimulus bond buying program on July 1st, and would also look to raise interest rates by 25 points at that time as well.

Inflation in the Euro Zone had been predicted to be 5.1%, but the economic boffins now think it will be more like 6.8% this year, which will put a strain on household expenditure, and the amount left over for discretionary purchases. The common currency dropped sharply following this policy announcement, making it more difficult to sell wooltop and yarn to those spinners and knitters working in that part of the world. However, given the 'normal' volatility of currency markets, deals can perhaps still be concluded in coming days when the wheel turns again.

The American economy is leading the charge when it comes to inflation, and also forcing their Federal Reserve to adjust policy settings quickly and aggressively, but it is also still leading the charge in consuming of product, perhaps pointing to successful economic management despite the nay-sayers who are predicting an imminent recession for the world's largest economy. Sales of finished garments and fabric for high quality suiting are increasing nicely, and providing positive signs for the upcoming selling season for woollen

products. Although the office attire has changed in the western world, and not many people don a suit in the home office, it seems that more and more people are rewarding themselves with new flash outfits for when they do venture out. Wool's move into more casual, but still stylish apparel, rather than the traditional suit and uniform, has certainly allowed it to capture a slice of this market.

The ever-increasing sustainability and natural fibre appetite is helping to drive the cotton price to extremes, and making wool seem less expensive by comparison. From a peak of nearly 7-to-one, the comparison of merino carding prices only 5 years ago, the relative price ratio is now back closer to 2-to-1. This is in part being driven by the dry conditions in the cotton growing areas of the USA, but also by China's aggressive purchasing of remaining stocks in America.

This has been surprising the market, given that China normally holds large stocks of cotton, mainly to allow it to manage price spikes which can be damaging to growers and processors there, as we saw in 2011 when the cotton price went on a huge run up, followed by a subsequent crash. The actual level of the cotton reserve is not publicly available, however the buying activity by Chinese concerns would suggest that

either the stocks are much lower than anticipated, or that much of China's cotton is persona non-grata with the world's consumers because of where it has been grown. Either way, the high, and increasing price of cotton is a positive for wool, and who knows, a 28-micron woollen sweater, with plenty of Basolan treatment for softness, may actually feel the same as cotton, and may soon be a cheaper, more viable product.

Other markets for wool vary greatly in their degree of activity at present, as the calendar ticks along, and the inflation bogie causes unrest.

The Japanese market had been very active but is now struggling given their recent economic challenges.

This is having a ripple effect across China and South East Asia with the early and middle stage processors there being forced to turn to other markets in the short term. The Chinese domestic market remains very stagnant, and although Shanghai residents are now allowed out of their homes, visitations to and from Shanghai or Beijing are still not possible.

So, the fabric producer, or garment maker in another province, is still unable to visit his customer, or have them come to the factory to see and feel the new range of products they would like to sell this season.