Agricultural Economics Commons^™

Wheat And Wool Prices : Lessons From The Past, Ross Kingwell

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Historical information about wool and wheat prices can help farmers to plan and manage their wheat and wool production. Ross Kingwell describes some management lessons derived from analysing wheat and wool price movements.

Wool 2000, Tunbridge Steve

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

The Wool 2000 Market Awareness Workshops have been a highly successful venture by Agriculture Western Australia and the International Wool Secretariat. In the past two years over 35 workshops have been held in about as many locations in the southern half of Western Australia, from Gascoyne Junction to Esperance.

Achievements In Wool 1997, Agriculture Western Australia

Animal production and livestock published reports

The Wool Strategy Group, which I initiated in 1993, and Agriculture Western Australia's Wool Program are strategic partners working together with industry to develop and market this State's wool industry.

Wool is Western Australia's second most important agricultural industry, with a current export value of $643 million. It has the potential to return to a billion dollar industry in the next five years and the industry needs to be strongly focused on producing what the market requires to take advantage of this.

The Wool Strategy Group, led by Chairman Mr Philip Gardiner, and the Wool Program, have established an international …

Breeding For Improved Feed Conversion Efficiency, Alan Lymbery

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Alan Lymbery reports on a trial that has started at Vasse Research Atation to investigate the impact of genetic improvement on feed conversion efficiency on costs of production.

International Market Opportunities For Faba Beans, Andrew Quinn, Malcolm Sedgwick

Farm Systems and Economics published reports

Western Australian faba bean production is growing and export volumes are increasing. In contrast, production is declining in many of the world's traditional faba bean regions. World trade, however, is growing.

China dominates the world export market and is growing rapidly as an exporter. The UK and Australia are the second and third largest exporters respectively.

As Western Australian production increases, the State will increasingly play an important role in Australia's ability to supply faba beans into markets looking tor quality and stable supply.

Saudi Arabia has emerged as the State's largest export market. The State is well located to …

Resource Management Decision Support Tools - Brief Model Descriptions, Campbell White & Associates Pty Ltd

Farm Systems and Economics published reports

During the past 10 years, a number of financial models have been developed within Agriculture Western Australia to assist decision making in resource management. Various approaches have been taken including whole farm, development and partial budgets.

Natural resource managers within Agriculture Western Australia, have identified a need to preserve these decision support systems in a central library. The models should be readily accessible to new staff, and the library should provide an 'engine' through which the models can be promoted, and information relating their application distributed. Recent technology such as the development and mainstream adoption of the World Wide Web …

Positive Price Outlook For Wheat : Implications For Wa Agriculture, Alan Haagensen, Ian Wilkinson

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

After a 40 year period over which wheat prices have dropped by an average of 2.7 per cent annually in real terms, fundamental changes in wheat supply and demand look set to reverse this trend. It is possible that real prices could increase by as much as 4 per cent anually in the medium term.

Alan Haagensen and Ian Wilkinson look at the forecasts for wheat prices and outline the forces that will influence world supply and demands for wheat.

Pilbara Steer Growth Evaluation : 1994 - 1996, Wayne Fletcher, Brian Mcintyre, Shane Cridland Dr, J L. James

Agriculture reports

Growth potential of steers in the Pilbara - a summary. The trial was conducted over a range of conditions on three locations. The pasture type at Wyloo, the Ashburton River frontage, which is regarded as one of the most productive pasture types in the area, combined with conservative stocking, a fresh paddock and excellent seasonal conditions during 1995, gives us an indication of the District's potential. In extrapolating any of these data to other cases, consideration must be given to adjustment base

Effects Of Tactical Responses And Risk Aversion On Farm Wheat Supply, Ross S. Kingwell

Natural Resources Research Articles

A discrete stochastic programming model of the farming system of the eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia is used to examine the effect of tactical responses and risk aversion on wheat supply. Including within-season tactical changes to wheat areas decreases the own-price elasticity of supply. By contrast, introducing risk aversion has no consistent effect on the own-price elasticity of supply. The implications for supply models are discussed.

The Business Checklist, Department Of Agriculture, Western Australia

Farm Systems and Economics published reports

A business can be likened to a broken water barrel. The performance of the business is represented by the volume of water the barrel can hold and the management skills of the manager are represented by the broken staves. The higher the manager's level of skill, the longer the stave.

If the business is to be successful, the manager's skills must cover all management areas of the business. Very good skills in one management area (for example, landcare planning) will not compensate for poor skills in another (for example, financial management). The performance of the business is limited by the …

Regional Relativities Of Sustainable Pastoral Sheep Production In Western Australia, A. Mcr Holm, R. O'Connor, I. Foster, M. Stevens, G. Beeston

Animal production and livestock published reports

The Pastoral Wool Industry has for many years been in a parlous position. Jennings (1979) in a review of the industry nearly 15 years ago concluded that a significant number of pastoralists were in serious financial trouble, mainly resulting from the inability of station businesses to cope with the worsening terms of trade affecting rural industries. The recent collapse of the wool price has again focused attention on the future viability of the pastoral wool industry. Wilcox and Cunningham (1993) in a review of the industry in October 1993, concluded that the clean price indicator needs to increase by 50 …

Grain Legume And Canola Autumn Updates 1995, David Williams

Grain and other field crops published reports

Grain legumes

- Chickpea

- Field pea

- Lentil

- Faba beans

Canola essentials:

Site selection -Paddock selection is critical for a successful canola crop. Avoid paddocks with waterlogging, wind erosion and broadleaf weeds - particularly wild radish, turnip, mustard and doublegees.

Soil type - Canela grows well on most soil types, however it prefers well drained gravel soils, red loams, sandy _loams and deeper duplex soils. Soil pH levels (in CaCl_²) of 4.5 to 8.0 are suitable. Soil test paddock for pH, phosphorus, and potassium levels.

Rotation - Grow canola after manipulated pasture, lupins or other grain …

Msda A Machinery Selection Decision Aid For Stubble Management Practices, Linda Leonard, Andrew Green

Grain and other field crops published reports

MSDA is a user friendly program developed to help farmers predict stubble outcomes before acting on their management practice. This manual is an accompaniment to a computer program designed on Micorsoft Excel-macros. Its aim is to help farmers assess their current machinery and stubble handling ability and view options that may be adopted as best practice for their properties.

The program is designed with the complete season in mind. Information is gathered on the full complement of machinery used from harvest through to seeding, to allow farmers to see all choices available and enable them to choose the best system …

Should Australia Export Its Native Birds?, Ross Kingwell

Biosecurity Research Articles

Commercial export from Australia of native birds, wild or captive bred, is prohibited. This paper firstly describes the current legislation and regulations that restrict the export of native birds and discusses why governments have adopted such a regulatory approach to bird species preservation. Secondly, the paper reviews the debate concerning the export ban, pointing out strengths and weaknesses in arguments and indicating the important role of CITES. Lastly, the paper outlines a new case for a conditional lifting of the ban, whereby DNA fingerprinting is used to establish transferable property rights to overcome a main source of market failure in …

Delaying The Development Of Herbicide Resistant Ryegrass By Using Alternative Weed Control Strategies, A. J. Diggle, G. S. Gill, J. E. Holmes

Biosecurity published reports

Alternative strategies to control ryegrass in wheat lupin rotations are worth approximately 15 dollars per hectare for each 50% reduction achieved in plant or seed numbers. This figure has been calculated for circumstances similar to those found at Wongan Hills, and it holds in all cases where ryegrass is still under control using standard herbicides.

Farmers should adopt any ryegrass strategy in addition to that normally practised, so long as the cost to control ratio is less than $15/ha/50% kill. This applies even where good control is being achieved using grass selective herbicides, regardless of the number of previous applications …

Growing Lettuce, Margaret Graham

Horticulture published reports

The commonly cultivated lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is an annual belonging to the sunflower family. It has been cultivated for over 2500 years, and is a popular salad vegetable.

There are three main subspecies commonly grown.

• IL. sativa ssp capitata - Head type - Crisphead is a lettuce with a firm head and brittle leaves. It is the major lettuce type grown in Australia and is also known as iceberg lettuce. - Butterhead (buttercrunch, mignonette) lettuce has soft, pale leaves and a delicate buttery flavour. It is of major importance in Europe, where it is grown as a greenhouse crop.
• L. …

An Inventory And Condition Survey Of The Murchison River Catchment, Western Australia, Peter James Curry, A L. Payne, K A. Leighton, P Hennig, D A. Blood

Technical Bulletins

The inventory and condition survey of the Murchison River catchment and surrounds, undertaken by the Department of Agriculture between 1985 and 1988, describes and maps the natural resources of the region’s pastoral leasehold land. This survey report provides a baseline record of the existence and condition of the natural area’s resources, to assist with the planning and implementation of land management practices. The report identified and described the condition of soils, landforms, vegetation, habitat, ecosystems, and declared plants and animals. It also assessed the impact of pastoralism and made land management recommendations. The area surveyed by field work during 1985-88 …

An Inventory And Condition Survey Of Rangelands In The North-Eastern Goldfields, Western Australia, H J. Pringle, S A. Gilligan, A M E Van Vreeswyk

Technical Bulletins

The inventory and condition survey of the north-eastern Goldfields, undertaken by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) between 1988 and 1990, describes and maps the natural resources of the region’s pastoral leasehold land. This survey report provides a baseline record of the existence and condition of the natural area’s resources, to assist with the planning and implementation of land management practices. The report identified and described the condition of soils, landforms, vegetation, habitat, ecosystems, and declared plants and animals. It also assessed the impact of pastoralism and made land management recommendations. The area surveyed covers about 100 …

Bulletin 4270 - Meat Quality In Beef Cattle, Brian Mcintyre

Bulletins 4000 -

Meat quality is the sole concern of the consumer once the product reaches the supermarket shelf. Breeding, feeding or any other factors that may have been important to the beef producer have no influence over the buyer's choice. Meat quality can be divided into two components — appearance and eating quality.

Bulletin 4272 - Growing Bananas In Carnarvon, Terry Hill

Bulletins 4000 -

The banana industry in Carnarvon began with small plantings. plantings in the 1940s. Since that time the industry has grown and become the mainstay of the region's horticulture industry.

In 1991, there were 360 ha planted to bananas and the industry was valued at $18.2 million. The major market for the crop is the Perth metropolitan area and Carnarvon remains the major supplier to this market. In recent years the development of a banana industry in Kununurra has resulted in increased competition, particularly in the winter months.

The industry is sited on land bordering the Gascoyne River, close to the …

Miscellaneous Publication 42/93 - Development And Dissemination Of Design Methods For Rangeland Paddocks Which Maximise Animal Production And Minimise Land Degradation, Shane Cridland, Mark Stafford Smith

Animal production and livestock published reports

Surveys of rangeland resources in Western Australia to date have shown that 23% of the area surveyed is in poor range condition. Poor condition is characterised by the loss of perennial vegetation allowing wind and water erosion. Approximately another 37% is in only fair range condition (Curry and Hacker 1990).

The loss of range condition is partly due to uneven use of paddocks by sheep and cattle. The areas close to water and the preferred pasture types are often over-utilised, while areas well away from water and less preferred pasture types are under-utilised. The result is that rangeland in good, …

Production Of High-Value Wheats : One Sustainable Answer To The Cost:Price Squeeze, Wal Anderson, Alan Peggs, Doug Sawkins

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Farmers and scientists alike over the past decade have sought to address the declining terms of farm trade (the cost.price squeeze) by increasing wheat yields in ways that will ensure both their economic and ecological survival. Nevertheless, costs have continued to increase as a proportion of the value of the product.

Many farmers have increased their wheat yields substantially and the industry as a whole is more conscious of the quality of its product.

Over the past 10 years or more there has been intense interest in, and considerable adoption of. conservation farming techniques such as minimum tillage, residue retention, …

Progress Toward Eradication Of Virulent Footrot, Bob Mitchell

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Western Australia is well placed to eradicate virulent footrot from the State's sheep and goat populations.

Between 1950 and 1993 the proportion of sheep flocks with footrot fell from about 15 per cent to less than 2 percent, and the 1990-92 outbreak has been turned around. One hundred and eighty properties (]. 7 per cent) of flocks, mostly in the high rainfall South-West, are in quarantine for footrot today.

This high level of footrot control is the result of strong support from the sheep industry and years of good cooperation between farmers and the Department of Agriculture.

Western Australia leads …

Should We Export Our Native Birds?, Ross Kingwell

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

The export of Australia's native birds is prohibited by the Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1982. A review of the Act in 1991 has not led to any relaxation of the export ban.

However, the review recommended that government examine "the practical aspects of establishing a fully funded administrative control mechanism to allow strictly regulated commercial exports of a limited number of species of captivebred native birds which are not endangered or threatened". In making this recommendation, the report acknowledged there may be a case for highly regulated export of some native bird species.

This article explores …

Bulletin No 4247 - Introduction To Commercial Mushroom Growing, Margaret Graham

Bulletins 4000 -

No abstract provided.

Landman Development And Evaluation In The Wallatin Creek Catchment - Final Report, Alan Hawkins

Natural resources published reports

The aim of the project was to evaluate and further develop the Landman farm planning procedure. The Wallatin creek catchment in the Kellerberrin shire of Western Australia was selected. This catchment is typical of a large area of the wheatbelt of Western Australia.

The landman farm planning procedure has a goal of sustainable farming. The outcome of the procedure is farm layout and farm management plans. The procedure however has components of personal development, technology transfer and development of problem solving skills at both individual and group levels. The process steps are; definition of objectives, collection of information, problem or …

Influence Of Water Supply On Farm Productivity In The North-Eastern Wheatbelt, E J. Hauck

Resource management technical reports

In the area with reliable reticulated water supplies, average what yield, average wool production and average number of sheep per pastured hectare showed a positive correlation with annual rainfall in all but one year. By contrast, in the area served by on-farm water supplies only, average wheat yield and annual rainfall were strongly correlated, whereas average wool production and average number of sheep per pastured hectare showed a weaker correlation with annual rainfall. These correlations suggest tt on farms with a reliable water supply, livestock numbers have been adjusted annually to ensure optimum utilisation of available feed in all seasons.

A Review Of Plant Introductions To The Kimberley 1955 To 1987, R Mccartney

Grain and other field crops published reports

This report summarizes the work done by the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, in the west and north Kimberley in introducing plant species during 1955-1987.

For the purposes of this repor1the following areas are defined thus:

• West Kimberley- lies between latitude 17°5 and 19°5 and longitude 121°E and 127°E, with an extension to the north of 1° between 121°E and I 24°20'E. The area is 118,000 km".

• North Kimberley - lies north of latitude 17°5 and between longitude 124°20'E and 127°30'E. The area is 85,000 km'.

• East Kimberley-lies north of latitude 19°5 and between longitude 127°30'E and …

Miscellaneous Publication 28/91 - Midas (Model Of An Integrated Dryland Agricultural System), David J. Pannell, Andrew Bathgate

Farm Systems and Economics published reports

MIDAS is a bioeconomic model of mixed crop/livestock farms in Western Australia. It selects farm management strategies which maximise profit subject to resource, technical and environmental constraints using the linear programming technique. This document provides a thorough documentation of the version of MIDAS developed for the "eastern wheatbelt" region. If you are learning to use MIDAS with the MARG menu driven system, you need to read the MARG manual as well as this documentation.

From early in the life of MIDAS, we gave a high priority to making the data and assumptions readily accessible in documentation and in microcomputer spreadsheet …

Miscellaneous Publication 17/91 - Mudas - Model Of An Uncertain Dryland Agricultural System: A Description, R. S. Kingwell, A. D. Bathgate

Farm Systems and Economics research reports

In the early 1980s, the Department of Agriculture developed a mixed integer whole-farm mathematical programming model of the dryland farming system in the eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia (Morrison et al. 1986). The model named MIDAS (Model of an Integrated Dryland Agricultural System) was constructed, tested and scrutinised by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, advisers, farm management consultants and farmers (Kingwell 1987a). The model described in some detail the biology and finances of the dryland farming system in an average season and calculated profit-maximising farm plans.

MIDAS remains an often used tool in research and extension, being applied to many …