South East SA Rural Report
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Latest Report
Forest industry overview
It's an interesting time for the forestry industry, with Carter Holt Harvey dropping shifts, the Dartmoor mill closing, Gunn's selling off its local plantations and retrenching Auspine administration staff, and as we heard on Friday Timbercorp pulling out of managed investment schemes
Industry analyst Robert Eastment says despite this news he still sees opportunity for growth, particularly in the softwood sector
John Kellas Executive Officer Green Triangle Reigional Plantation committee, says that like all industries the forestry sector is feeling the affects of global slow down. He too sees opportunites for growth in the softwood sector.
Wool Report
Overall there was a loss of 9c last week down 1%.
Howevwe the market started to firm up during the end of the week with 43,200 bales in the market and the national rates in average at 13.4%.
Sales continue this week in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle each selling just on 2 days with a combined offering over 50,000 bales
South Australian Features
Wooden Wudinna
How often have you walked through the bush and seen a piece of wood that looks like a wombat's bum?
Grapegrower mixes it up with DJ career
Grapegrower mixes DJ career with farming.
Worm farm near Broken Hill reducing waste and fighting aphids
You may have seen a worm compost in someone's garden before, working to break down their garden scraps into rich, healthy mulch.
Well, imagine a worm farm doing that for a whole town's green waste, and you'd see something like Australian Vermiculture in Broken Hill.
School of the Air treasure chest
Decades old School of the Air memorabilia to be valued.
No more bad backs
Manually planting thousands of trees is a strenuous task - one that your back never thanks you for later on.
Cooped up in a caravan
They were a "home away from home" for the road crews sent bush to build roads and bridges early last century. A mobile workers' van, built in 1906, was on display at the recent Kingston Show in South Australia.
Getting the good oil
So you can pick a shiraz from a cabernet - but can you pick a blended extra virgin olive oil from a single varietal?
Impressions of sheep production in Brazil
"Their sheep are abysmal, they have no wool on them, there like a skinny goat and when I saw some in the abattoir I said I wouldn't feed this to a dog back home."
Native Blooms
As I drove into the flower farm at Furner in the south-east of South Australia, I could see rows of banksia and protea bushes but very few flowers.
Looking for the cause of Mundulla Yellows
Why has funding into finding the cause of this disease that has killed thousands of gum trees stopped?
