Australia - Highs and lows in Queensland agriculture in 2016
"The most obvious [highlights] are rain in some parts of the state and we've had some really good livestock prices, record prices in most cases and grain yields are up," AgForce president Grant Maudsley said.
"So in terms of the production side of things, it's certainly turned the corner and looking quite optimistic.
"We have seen the very early signs of optimism in terms of getting sheep back into the central west even, people are a lot more excited than they have been in previous years."
On the political front, 2016 saw proposed changes to vegetation management laws, which were ultimately rejected by State Parliament.
"That was really disappointing, but that led to a positive, because we saw a bit of regional reinvigoration of people and producers and what you can actually achieve if you try hard, led from the front and people follow on an issue," Mr Maudsley said.
"We did see a reinvigoration of people power, where people have just had enough of what's been going on and the regional seats are starting to feel the pressure and will feel more pressure going forward."
While everyone on the land hopes for good seasonal conditions, a state election looms and Mr Maudsley said a key issue for the bush in 2017 was the lack of commitment by Labor for a strategy for northern development.
"We have got a government that is saying it is open for business, but the reality is we don't have a strategy for a northern development agenda," he said.
"In an election year you have got to have some sort of northern development agenda; the challenge for organisations like AgForce is to make sure the right of Labor understands that, so we will have to apply a lot of pressure on people in those seats like we said we would do in the veg debate."
Backpacker tax dominated the horticulture industry
The prolonged backpacker tax issue dominated the horticulture industry in 2016.
A new tax rate of 15 per cent for working holidaymakers, to replace the rate of 32.5 per cent, which would otherwise have applied from January 1, was finally passed by the Senate, with the help of the Greens, on the final sitting day of Parliament.
"We can all safely say that the backpacker tax is an issue that we're very glad to have put behind us," Growcom chief advocate Rachel Mackenzie said.
Ms Mackenzie said both the Coalition and the Federal Opposition must take responsibility for causing growers so much anxiety and distress in 2016, and that it was only the support of the minor parties, and in particular the Greens, that got the new rate of 15 per cent across the line.
But she said the fallout from the issue would extend beyond the year's end.
"There's still a lot of confusion, [growers] don't know whether people need to fill in a new tax file declaration, there's just been a real lack of clarity about how this is supposed to move forward and then we've hit Christmas and then the first of January is really soon," she said.
Ms Mackenzie said the highlights for the industry in 2016 included an initiative to investigate insurance options for horticulture producers and the increased focus on agriculture by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
She said growers were also keen to pursue a scheme to better manage labour hire companies, after an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman revealed widespread unscrupulous labour hire practices in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia.
"There seems to be a legislative push by the Queensland Government and we'll be watching that closely and making sure we provide input into that issue paper," Ms Mackenzie said.
"There's also a push nationally for a self-certification scheme, so we will be very keen to ensure that something is in place fairly soon because these [dodgy labour hire companies] are a scourge in our industry."
Chickpeas a winner for grain growers
From the high yields and low prices of wheat, to the wildly varied fortunes of chickpeas, Queensland's grain growers have had mixed fortunes this year.
Grain Growers' northern region coordinator Susan McDonnell said chickpeas were certainly the highlight of 2016.
"Central Queensland had a fantastic harvest, most of their cereal yields were average to above but the chickpea was the standout crop," she said.
"Central Queensland really did pull off the trifecta, they had high prices, good quality and excellent yields."
But the picture was not quite so bright for growers closer to the Queensland–New South Wales border.
"The biggest issue was the prolonged rain through the growing period," Ms McDonnell said.
"There were a lot of crops lost but it did come around in the end and although we did lose a percentage to ascochyta, mould and waterlogging, [for] the crop that did come through, the yields were excellent."
Ms McDonnell said some of the biggest challenges for 2016 were header fires and problems with packing chickpeas, with packers unable to keep up with volumes being harvested.
"That's been a massive problem and I am very concerned that it will affect our reputation overseas, so there is a lot of work to be done in that area," she said.
Header fires were also a major issue for growers that the industry planned to tackle in 2017.
"If insurance companies aren't prepared to insure headers that are going to strip peas, then growers are going to be paying a huge premium to have it done or they're going to have to buy their own headers," Ms McDonnell said.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700"] PHOTO: Cane farmers have struggled to harvest their crops due to wet weather throughout the crush. (ABC Open: Brad Marsellos)[/caption]
Hardest cane harvest in decades punctuated by high prices
As the clock ticked over to 2017, some Queensland cane farmers were still working to harvest one of the biggest crops in a decade.
Canegrowers chairman Paul Schembri said the rain-interrupted crush has been categorised by one word: frustrating.
"We have potentially on offer a crop of around 35 million tonnes of cane, which if we could harvest would be the ninth successive year of increased production," he said.
But he said record prices through the season had boosted confidence heading into the new year.
"Merely 18 months ago sugar prices were languishing around 12 US cents a pound, we've seen sugar prices reach in the last three months highs of around 24 US cents a pound," Mr Schembri said.
Those prices though are only of benefit to farmers who have on-supply agreements, and Mr Schembri said the challenge now was to end the marketing dispute that had dominated much of the past year.
"Six out of seven milling companies now have contracts in place between growers and millers," he said.
"My call is again for Wilmar to get on with it, stop playing for time, those growers in the Wilmar areas are desperate — they need a contract and they need a contract that gives them choice."
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700"] PHOTO: Queensland dairy farmers hoped to isolate themselves from the price crisis in southern states. (ABC Rural: Kim Honan)[/caption]
Queensland dairy farmers nervously await price decision
As the southern dairy industry struggled to overcome a price crisis this year, farmers in Queensland have watched on hoping they would not be caught in the crossfire.
President of the Queensland Dairy Farmers Organisation Brian Tessmann said much of the year was focussed on quarantining the northern industry from the troubles in the south that started with a falling world market.
"That was combined in the south with some issues in the processors themselves and certainly caused a huge problem in the south," he said.
"Our issue in Queensland has been to try and keep Queensland functioning, we somewhat bottomed out from our issues and we didn't want to take another fall as a result of that."
He said increased production during the year coupled with the ACCC review of the industry and new legislation that could address imbalance between farmers and processors were highlights.
But he said New Year's Day would likely see the negotiations for a milk price with Parmalat enter arbitration, which had significant implications for the industry.
"There's a lot of negotiation between Parmalat and Premium [the farmer's collective bargaining representative]," he said.
"Where that milk price ends up for Parmalat farmers, which are over half the farmers in Queensland will be the first really vital issue."
Data drought highlights bush inequality
Families and businesses have been disappointed with the roll-out of the national broadband network in the bush in 2016.
Co-founder of the Group Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia (BIRRR) Kristy Sparrow said for many hoping for a better internet service from the Skymuster satellite the 'data drought' continues.
"For the BIRRR team, Skymuster has been very disappointing, it's an unreliable service, it's had lots of outages and lots of issues," she said.
"We can't really continue to call them teething problems because they are ongoing, it's also limited in data and high in cost."
Kristy Sparrow said while there have been some positives, especially for remote education, the government needs to look seriously at investment in regional communication and innovation in communications because satellite is very limiting.
"There are a lot of towns going on to satellite, that currently get ADSL and that is a backward step for them, while it is a faster service, hey are going from unlimited plans for a small amount of money, to very limited plans for a lot more," she said.
"We need to be looking at the infrastructure that is in place."
BIRRR wants a universal service obligation that covers broadband access.
"We need to come up with out-of-the-box thinking on how we are going to meet the needs of regional Australia, in terms of their data use, because it is just growing exponentially and we are currently not meeting their needs," Ms Sparrow said.
Source - http://www.abc.net.au
