Welcome to Farmanco Facts and Australian agriculture in 2020. David Cameron (Agronomist) introduces us to 2020 and in part says:
This edition of Farmanco Facts reviews the 2019 season, where the management team give an overview of their respective areas and how they performed while the marketing team considering the quality of the crop, grade spreads and what impacted on prices.
Have a read and look forward to 2020, where we anticipate better rainfall, better production and a return to surplus for our farm businesses. (Editor note: Written before we were hit with a pandemic!).
Key points for Jan/Feb include:
Around the Traps
by David Ward, Eric Nankivell, Greg Easton & Ben Curtis
Central & northern wheatbelt – crop profits, sheep profits, financial position & 2020 programs.
Central wheatbelt – late break/frost in south and hot and dry in north. Sheep enterprises performed well, and leases keenly sought after.
Esperance Port Zone -low rainfall, frost and dry finish. Lentils and canola susceptible to drought conditions. Wheat resilient.
New South Wales / Victoria – refinancing for drought zones, applications to RIC and to lease/buy land for expansion.
Carbon Emissions in Agriculture
by Keith Symondson
Agriculture accounts for almost 13% of total carbon emissions in Australia.
Between 1990 to 2010, worldwide global agricultural emissions increased by 8 percent. They are projected to increase 15 percent above 2010 levels by 2030.
Under the Kyoto Protocol Australia agreed to reduce emission 5% below 2000 levels by 2020.This season’s terrible bushfires, are estimated to have released at least two‑thirds of Australia’s annual industrial emissions budget for 2018-19.
Under the Paris Agreement Australia needs to reduce its carbon emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2030.
It is likely that at some point the Government will impose carbon taxes on agriculture.
There is currently no easy way to measure carbon emissions at individual farm levels.
Current data for agriculture is likely to over-estimate the issue of emissions and under-estimate agriculture’s contribution to carbon sequestration.
Farmanco is currently working on an R&D project to derive a farm’s carbon footprint at an individual farm level and identify actions to move towards carbon neutrality or even carbon negative.
2019 / 2020 WA Harvest Review
by Mae Connelly
The total WA 19/20 crop size was 11.21 million tonnes, down 37% from last season.H2 was the biggest wheat grade by volume delivered in WA, followed by APW1.Scepter made up 70% of wheat tonnes.
Protein was much higher this harvest compared to recent seasons.
Spartacus and Planet are the dominant malt barley varieties.
Although only 15% of barley made Malt1, the large area planted and the reduced demand due to the China issue meant there was enough malt to satisfy buyer demand.
The GM canola price discount was bigger than average due to increased competition from Canada.
Farmanco Facts Jan/Feb includes:
Budget Prices 2020 / 2021-WA
WA and NSW / VIC Wool & Livestock Reports.
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