Monocultures vs mixed farming (cropping plus livestock)

March 6th, 2013

A well written quote appeared in yesterday’s Townsville Bulletin Newspaper ‘Youth in Print’ section: “Monoculture is virtually the opposite of biodiversity.  Monocultures occur where a single species is grown – usually for commercial purposes – such as sugar cane or pine forests.  Soil decline with subsequent commercial yield reduction is associated with monocultural systems and […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Australia’s fine wool (Merino) industry

February 6th, 2012

Imagine if a capital city newspaper ran a story on Toyota wheel drives and illustrated it with an image of a Mini Cooper S.  Can you imagine the resulting  laughter, too? Apparently it’s fine to use any old stock library image when it comes to illustrating a story on agriculture, however.  The Feb 4-5 2012 edition of Brisbane’s […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Farm blogs – personal stories from the bush

February 3rd, 2012

There are now quite a few Australian farming blogs – and there are several different kinds.  There are those that are entertaining and informative accounts of daily domestic issues, written by women, which highlight the lifestyle and financial management differences between living in towns and living in the bush.  These blogs are interesting and very useful in regard to […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Best Rangeland Practice and Innovation (Bestprac)

January 24th, 2012

There’s a great source of useful rural management stories and interesting information on the ‘Bestprac’ website.  Bestprac is supported by AWI (Australian Wool Innovation) and specialises in the promotion of best practice management of arid rangelands, helping cattle producers as well as sheepmeat/wool producers located in more sparsely settled areas (i.e. lower rainfall farming regions) hear first hand stories from […]

Read the rest of this entry »

The Australian Wool Industry

July 17th, 2010

I’m often asked why I don’t take photographs of sheep.  It’s a good question.  I grew up on a wheat-sheep place and have over the years taken a lot of photographs of sheep and particularly love the wool industry.  But there’s two main reasons why to date, I’ve spent a lot of time concentrating on […]

Read the rest of this entry »

Australian Wool & Lamb Production

November 6th, 2009

Riverina Merino sheep

Read the rest of this entry »