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Teaching Asia about Australian Wine

A comprehensive wine master class set up by Angove Family Winemakers will soon turn thousands of hospitality workers in Asia to be knowledgeable wine experts.

Asia is one of the world's fastest growing wine economies which is rapidly developing a taste for South Australian wines.

Angove's Chief wine maker Tony Ingle says the program is a great way for people in hospitality to understand what wine they are serving.

How men can lose weight online without leaving the beer behind

Fancy losing weight online?

A new program aimed at helping men in the Hunter region of New South Wales get rid of extra kilos is so successful men are lining up to join.

It's called Shed It. Sounds simple enough but it's having a big affect on men and their families.

Dr Philip Morgan from the University of Newcastle got the program going and says, "The philosophy of Shed It was we wanted to design a program that appealed to men that was going to be very cost effective and time efficient. Most men would prefer not to sit around in groups and discuss the reasons why they've led to poor eating etc etc which has been [the way of] traditional programs."

The program gives men information on weight loss and participants could up load information to a website when they liked anonymously and without embarrassment.

He says some men enrolled in the program because it was for men only. The messages and language used also appealed to men.

Up to 50 men were sought for the pilot programs and Dr Morgan says they thought they'd have trouble finding that many but after 10 days they were swamped with interest.

When the men came back in six months to talk about the process the dads in the group talked about how it impacted on their family relationships - once dad changed his eating habits, it improved the way the whole family ate.

This has led to spin-off program designed for dads with primary school aged children.

5 megs of water won last night

The Renmark Irrigation Trust General Meeting was last night with around 100 growers attending.

This great attendance may have been due to a prize draw of 5 megalitres of water being up for offer.

Rob Howie from Renmark North won the water and has recently pulled out a lot of citrus plants.

He says this 5 megalitres of water will help him to now make a windebreak for his property.

Help for horticulture irrigators

Are you an irrigator in horticulture and looking for advice on what to do next?

Well there's only weeks remain for irrigators to access free, confidential, one-on-one information sessions delivering agronomic and financial assistance.

The sessions, targeting all horticultural irrigators in the Murray Darling Basin, allow growers to work with experienced industry representatives to manage their businesses during reduced water availability.

Citrus Growers of South Australia Development Officer Kym Thiel says extension providers have carried out more than 500 visits across the Basin since the project began in late May.