Landline | We visit one of Australia’s largest outdoor cannabis farms | ABC News In-depth
[Music] on landline today from growing citrus to Medicinal cannabis we visit one of the country’s biggest outdoor cannabis crops the plants that we’re standing next to here I think went in about 21st of December they’re very aggressive growing plant they fed R Australian scientists fighting back against the destructive fall army worm well in comparison with the last two years this year has been horrendous and the indigenous Community breathing new life into an ancient trade Harvest sea cucumbers in Shark Bay basically what we’re doing there is we’re getting troll behind the boat pretty much like life bait and we’re looking on the sea Flor for [Music] cucumbers hello I’m pip Courtney welcome to the program it’s 4 years since the destructive pest the army worm arrived in Australia Its impact on sweet corn maze and sorghum crops in the last year is the worst on record scientists have mobilized to attack the grub on several fronts using insecticides beneficial bugs and Gene technology landline Selen bosski looks at the potential control [Music] Solutions the past year has seen the worst infestation of fall army worm since it invaded Australian crops in 2020 not a worm but a caterpillar with a voracious appetite for sweet corn maze and sorum so there are those those four spots that are you know so characteristic in a large lava like this um they get much bigger and darker and a bit more raised and it’s got spots all the way along the body but those really stand out as they get bigger and that that’s the indicator for Farmers that they’ve got full Army work yeah if unfortunately you um get ly this big it’s quite easy to identify them it’s affected crops across Australia well in comparison with the last 2 years this year has been horrendous we were seeing high pressure in November December that we hadn’t seen before January February and previous years and you know I guess we can only imagine that because there’s not enough work being done to understand whether they’re being blown in or whether there are non-rop hosts that they’re building up on we just don’t really know we expect that both of those things are probably part of the picture Dr Molina miles from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries is working on this test site in southeast Queensland don’t trip over that irrigation pipe here they’re growing three main crops affected by Fall army worm to understand the caterpillar and control its impact that one’s been there for a while it’s quite yeah the highly invasive fall army worm originated in the Americas it has the ability to travel long distances on the Wind making it a potentially catastrophic pest for the crops it targets it’s not known how it came to Australia but unlike places like the United States Australia has its own unique set of issues they’ve learned a lot particularly with sorum um they’ve been learning a lot about the yield penalties with full armor room ma is always a bit more clearcut with the damage at the trial field Dr joer and the team are focusing on developing guidelines to help Growers decide if and when to take action this involves a combination of methods like monitoring beneficial insects and targeted insecticides to control for army worm populations effectively and this season they had no shortage of full army worm to experiment on this is a really great venue for us because we have such high pressures of full army worm so with our trials here we’re able to allow a natural infestation to occur we don’t have to go to the extra effort of trying to inoculate we’ve had a natural increase in the levels of full Army wor we can use that information to develop relationships to predict a full army worm infestation into the crop at different levels of infestation and at different times and how that affects the size of the canopy then we can predict how that reduction in canopy size is like to impact yield not just here but also in other environments like Western Downs where water more frequently reduces yield than radiation Joe’s team is focusing on the timed use of insecticides on Maze and sorghum and when to apply at the fourleaf six Leaf eight or 10 Leaf stage of development they’re using insecticide at levels which would be cost prohibitive to Farmers and probably not great eating to find the most economic method with these s plants for example Joe’s getting close to rolling out an effective model to Farmers so if you were to summarize this for a farmer what’s the takeaway that canopy reduction is not necessarily going to uh cause a yield loss in all environments at least in the seedling stage they need to be protected once they’ve got six leaves they seem to be able to survive and it’s a similar story with the Maze and insecticides with a fairly Stark outcome when comparing cob sizes so this is this cob has been from a crop that was infested at Four Leaves it had two to three full army worm in each plant from when it had four leaves to when it had 12 leaves then from 12 leaves we got rid of the infestation and maintained it throughout you can see this here we’ve had some direct chewing on the um on the cob but more importantly is that this massive reduction in the size of the cob is because there simply wasn’t the canopy there to grow a big cob jez it looks Terri by no means was it able to fill that cob and is that direct munching there too or is that just the way the cobs grown that’s just the way it’s grown so all of these have aborted because there wasn’t enough uh photosynthesis because there wasn’t enough canopy there to intercept the light to turn into sugars to to fill those grains while the insecticides are doing part of the job there are still a lot of unknowns integrated pest man man agement or IPM is another method being Tri to find control Solutions in terms of IPM I guess we’ve got a bit of a way to go to convince them that some of these things can be incorporated and will add value rather than create a greater risk so if you pull back from spraying insecticides you want to be sure that you’ve got something else to fill that Gap uh so it’s a real chicken and egg thing with IPM in sweet corn because you want to create a Gap a gap that natural enemies can fill but you don’t want that Gap to be so big that full army worm causes damage Dan P has been working with bugs or integrated Pest Management for the past 45 years I became very aware of course when fall Army wom first became a new invasive species here and um we were already producing little was parasitoids for sort of closely related moth pests and I guess we’re Al always sort of a little bit interested in whether anything we were doing might be part of the big picture of trying to find a solution and is it well it’s there’s a a lot we’ve yet to learn um but a lot of the work Molina’s been doing has been really encouraging I would say yeah so I think I think there’s a lot of potential he’s providing the beneficial insects to Target full army worm before they even hatch at the moment we’re releasing a tiny little wasp incredibly tiny little wasp you can virally not see it with your naked eye and it it lays its eggs into the eggs of of the moths and uh the idea is to encourage biological control as much as we can and and as part of that we aim to minimize the use of pesticides the University of Southern Queensland is also collaborating with Queensland daff Dr Allison McCarthy and Professor Robbie gurling are focusing on possible parasites affecting the fall army worm that work is really looking at developing camera systems to be able to identify where parasitoids are moving around so the small insects that feed on other insects in this case they’re egg parasitoids so they’re feeding on the eggs of the full arming worm uh and to really understand what the distribution is in the field how effective those uh natural enemies are at controlling the uh the pest uh and really being able to then give give some advice to Growers to really understand what management practices they need to put in place in order to be able to benefit from these uh natural enemies this is our first trial with the cameras this season so it’s been in about 2 months so quite early stages in our research and initially we are validating and developing the system which involves an infield camera watching an egg mass and watching for any of those natural enemies visiting the egg Mass we see this is potentially being a tool for the industry to be able to automatically and real time assess those parasitoid levels and levels of natural enemies battle plans to control full Army work are not just happening in the padic at the Queensland University of Technology Dr Julia ble and a small team are using RNA interference which makes the plants deadly to the pest it’s a technology where you can silence a gene in the insect by expressing something into the plants and what are the results uh so far the results are very promising Julia can you give me a very simplified version of what’s going on here placee yeah so these are transformants we’ve transformed the plants with a technology that will uh kill the insect when the insect will come and feed them the plants and when the insect come and feed them the plants the insect most likely will die so you are targeting insects and trying to uh kill them it’s not about fertility or anything like that some of our technology uh because they are targeting different genes will have a different effect but yeah we want complete killing of the insect that are hoping to manufacture an environmentally friendly anti-parasitic treatment using an Australian native plant so do you think there is a world where we can see the eradication of fall Army wor I hope there is it will be difficult but I think if we like you know put put all our effort um and you know like the combination of different methods to like control the insect I think there is a possibility yes there’s all this work learning about fall Army wor in the best to combat them being done by scientists in field trials the next step is to get that information to Farmers and Industry groups and that’s what’s being done here today the purpose of this event is really to bring everyone together um to discuss the research that has been underway in the interim last time we met was over 3 years ago industry bodies agronomist and other interested groups attended to hear what progress had been made on Research there’s a lot of rehashing of what we knew but they’ve progressed I guess one new thing was having grains here as well so having grain and the grain industry and horiculture together is a big step forward um working together and collaborating together so that’s really important there’s a lot to do the team the researchers everything have done a great job so far but yeah there’s a long way to go I’ve leared that there’s some really good things coming down the pipeline in regards to biological and biorational controls uh that’s really promising to see because we know that chemistry has a pretty limited lifetime um especially when you start to consider some of the resistance issues that we see because they burrow down after four years of infestation Joe says farmers and agronomist still have to realize this pest Works differently to those they are used to there is no precedent for coming in checking plants at this stage no one has had to open up those those worlds to look inside to find bugs which is a very onerous timec consuming thing that we need to do because damage doesn’t mean there’s a full Army wind still in there it can mean it’s gone the main source of drinking water in South Australia’s air Peninsula is expected to be depleted by next year if current extraction rates continue a desalination plant is proposed for Port Lincoln to replace it if built it will draw water from Bays which support a thriving muscle industry and as Evelyn Ley reports that has locals worried [Music] Dawn in Port Lincoln sees muscle Farmers bringing in their catch Yuma muscle Holdings Harvest up to 40 tons of native blue muscles a week from the sheltered Waters of Boston and proper Bay 22 km away the muscles are iced as soon as they’re brought on board Mark show us is that a good size yep so what we do here is we always harvest the mus what’s the fattest muscle so it’s what you eat is inside of IT company general manager Mark Andrews says Yama contributes to about 60% of Australia’s muscle production with an annual turnover of $20 million its success can be attributed to Natural Lara floating in surrounding protected Bays I moved here for one reason and that was a natural spat our p Lincoln is so unique at the at the numbers of natural spat lava uh that spawn and settle from May through to September every year but he says his business is at risk from a proposed desalination plant to be built at Billy lights point in Port Lincoln its intake and discharge pipes are expected to reach out into the surrounding Waters of Boston and proper Bays that the business relies on my main concern about a a decent eltion plant that has an intake that takes up 5 G of water per year is what they’re talking initially a percentage of that spat will go on the intake what percentage nobody can can determine that the company’s operations manager Andy Dyer shares Mark’s concerns he’s checking on the crews Who harvest muscles from one of the company’s 24 sites Tom out looking good yeah it’s not bad yeah the prized muscle spat settles and grows on ropes left out at Sea tonight this Hall will be shipped to Adelaide then interstate and also onto International destinations like Singapore Hong Kong and [Music] Dubai Andy and his wife launched the muscle farming industry in Port Lincoln more than 25 5 years ago we established that there were natural muscles in the bay they were attached to yach Club Moorings they were attached to some of the early uh tuna farming cages so we decided that we would take the plunge and and try and develop a muscle industry here and today it’s been I think quite a success story for poor Lincoln he’s concerned about sa water’s proposed project being placed so close to a thriving agriculture Zone we can’t say whether a desalination plant is going to affect the muscle settlement but neither can they so from an aquaculture perspective we always have to do things under the precautionary principle marine scientist Paul mcshain has been Consulting Yuma on sa water’s latest plans for a D cell plant he says the unknowns about muscle larae movement lead to a risk that can’t be Quantified on the smaller scale in terms of the proximity of the diesel plant to the muscle growing area we don’t know what the impact will be there’s certainly going to be an impact we just don’t know what the level of it is Port Lincoln’s deputy mayor says the council does not support the Project’s location and many concerns from the community have been communicated to council their concerns are the risk for the aquaculture industry that is based here on the bay the aquaculture industry is one of the biggest Employers in the area employing directly and indirectly about a quarter of the population or or closer to half probably and what we’ve got is those concerns about are we putting an industry that is a sustainable food source at risk bungala traditional owners of the region have also voiced opposition to the project but declined to comment and time is running out for sa water to provide reliable drinking water for the air Peninsula water supply issues were identified from the late 2000s today Port Lincoln heavily relies on the ulie South Basin for its water about 75% of the Region’s water is drawn from this underground source and that’s where we’re headed to now water is drawn up from the Basin through these pipes and pumped back into tanks that store water for the residents it’s predict the base and will be depleted next year with increased salinity already detected in some of the production BS and the Region’s landscape board has recently announced it’s urgently reviewing its water allocation plan which is why sa water argues the plans for the desalination plant should go ahead it would take around a year to build and if the project is delayed it says it would have to consider staged water restrictions we are seeking to build a desalination plant in order to protect the water security of the air Peninsula to ensure that the customers of today have water but also we can continue to support the customers of the future sa Waters Peter celticus is showing what a desalination plant looks like on a much larger scale he says Port Lincoln’s proposed desalination plant would have minimal risk to the muscle industry the studies that we’ve done recognize that there is less than .1 1% um chance of muscle spat uh in the bay being entrained within the within the intake of the desalination plant but the muscle industry is wary of the studies carried out by sa water and the state’s research and development Institute saying risk could not entirely be ruled out and the plants have been rushed through now the Yuli Basin is in stress Mark Andrews is well aware of the water security issues but says Alternatives should have been considered earlier so Mark if you hold this process up we’re going to have to put water restrictions on put on the lower air penen well it’s not my fault you know i’ I’ve been around doing my thing you’ve been around for a long time a lot longer looking for water security and locations before now so what have you been doing all this time sa water says it’s already considered over 20 sites in the the region we have been through an extensive process of review uh and we will um and we’re very focused on delivering a desalination plant uh as soon as we possibly can to ensure the water security of the air penitent I’ve set up this business employed 76 people and invested a lot of money we’re the leading shellfish muscle farmer grower marketer in Australia uh we’re leading in all the areas of new product development and everything else I can’t afford for any RIS to my business a development application for the desalination plant is expected to be submitted by midyear coming up later in the show hello I’m sha Murphy reporting from the Waters of Shark Bay in Western Australia how sea cucumbers could play a vital role in the growing carbon economy and it’s a sort of close loop seagrass Meadows grow more they ref fertilize and it just keeps on going so you get more sea cucumbers and more SE grass the loss of grass affects the Dolphins here their food source sharks stingrays everything depends on the [Music] grass hi I’m Kath Sullivan DNA testing has confirmed invasive fire ants found at a southern Queensland army base are linked to an existing Brisbane infestation prompting calls for an audit of all defense land Queensland Premier Steven miles has told Parliament compliance and tracing investigations are ongoing but the ants found at Oki west of tumba were from an existing biocurity zone I’m advised that the ants arrived in the area from a Turf Farm within the southeast Queensland infestation Zone the invasive species Council says more than 100 nests have been confirmed at the base located in the condomine Balon river system prompting fears the aggressive and devastating ants could spread throughout the maray darling Basin until recently it was considered Australia’s largest dairy farm now the remaining slice of woth in Northwest Tasmania is up for sale it follows years of controversy including allegations of animal cruelty mismanagement and the loss of a major contract to supply fona earlier this year in a deal approved by then Treasurer Scott Morrison Chinese owned moonlake investment purchased the farm for 200 $80 million in 2016 trading as van dery at the time of the sale the farm was milking almost 18,000 cows over more than 7,000 hectares with plans to expand and sell fresh milk into China but that part of the business was never realized and recently Parcels of land have been sold off demand for Pacific island seasonal workers is falling after a postco boom in numbers and it might be Backpackers that are taking their Place new figures from the development policy Center show a 10% drop in demand or about 3,000 workers across the farm sector during the 9 months to February under the Pacific labor scheme from July 1 employers need to guarantee 30 hours of work per week for seasonal workers for the duration of their stay and beef 2024 is kicking off in rockampton against the backdrop of a recovery in cattle prices an intense focus on margins across the food supply chain and the industry’s ambitious carbon neutrality goals to Mark the event a new report from A&Z shows the importance of ensuring the cattle industry works as a whole to share the costs of carbon abatement the sooner a farm business is able to demonstrate uh the natural Capital characteristics and the way the farm business comes together for all of its ESG credentials um the better place there will be for a future world beef only happens every 3 years and it’s become one of the largest events held in Regional Australia more than 115,000 visitors are expected to attend this year and finally today a topend teenager has reeled in the most lucrative catch in the country winning the main prize of the northern territory’s million dooll fish competition thanks to a 67 cm baramundi caught on the cine River 19-year-old Fisher Keegan Payne is now a millionaire y well I’m buying a new boat theava and maybe the SAA and a new car it’s the first time in the competition’s 9year history that the million dooll fish has been caught he turned it around and then there was a tag and it was like no way no way and then he was jumping around screaming for the family of eight siblings from Catherine the money is lifechanging it’s pretty hard going for us at the moment with money but yeah now with a million dollars to don’t have to complain about it I wanted to buy me a new Rod it’s a great story and that’s landline [Music] news in South Australia’s Riverland citrus trees have been removed to make way for the planting of one of Australia’s biggest outdoor cannabis crops with more than a million Australians using medicinal cannab since it was legalized we have one of the fastest growing markets in the world but not many producers renmark reporter Eliza berlage met one and his backstory prompted the move from Citrus to [Music] cannabis these workers are harvesting medicinal cannabis at at one of the very few outdoor growing sites in Australia once harvested the sun grown crop is dried indoors before it’s ready for processing this is Medtech Farmers secure facility in south Australia’s Riverland region one of the country’s biggest cannabis Farms one THC it’s actually growing in the market a lot more and being a lot more accepted which is managing director Brad Gallard says it’s taken 5 years to get here and he’s yet to make Ascent even though the the plant does grow fast it’s been it’s been a long journey to to get to this point um bit exciting now we we’re pulling down and we’re going all down into the clean rooms and preparing the product ready to be packed to go out toy so we’re certainly uh we’re excited about this point in time now these will be 8 weeks in flour um high THC strain the third generation Citrus grower is convinced his foray into medicinal cannabis will pay off less than 6 months ago this facility was just a patch of soil after citrus trees were cleared plants that were standing next to here I think went in about 21st of December they’re very aggressive growing plant they’re fed ripe we are all organic here too we’re feeding them a lot with Organic but much every day you know obviously the sunlight here the heat they you know you keep the water up they also love the heat but if you long as keep the water up we still we were chasing our tail a little bit we didn’t have Irrigation in here in November so it was game on since since we got our license uh and approvals you know in September the region is better known for citrus and wine grapes but with the wine industry in crisis due to an oversupply it’s seen as vital that new Industries like this develop to provide new opportunities for the area to diversify smells good too Serena langy hadn’t even graduated University when she was chosen for a role with Medtech was it ever a job you thought about doing growing up absolutely not but it’s very exciting there’s so much learning to be done it’s a constant Learning Journey and we’re forever experiencing new parts of the process and improving our practices on site the Agri bus graduate is one of about 30 staff employed at the operation site manager d fitzner is also new to the world of cannabis cultivation but has worked with Brad before at a juice company I was involved with Brad in a beverage startup project so we’ve got a working history Derek says as the site grows it will offer more job opportunities somewhere between the 50 and the and 100 people is something that has the potential and that’s across the entire business not just in cultivation but across all aspects of the business so far three hectares of medicinal cannabis have been planted here in South Australia’s Riverland but there’s plans to expand that to 10 hectares to grow more of this in demand crop for Harvest next year for Brad the decision to push ahead with a multi-million dollar investment in a new crop is personal my parents got to be ill from my father’s Parkinson’s disease my mom had scoda and ulcers and and tried a bit of the product uh you know just after it was sort of legal and uh and saw you know a reasonable result for at least a few days so I thought better look into it the latest figures from the therapeutic Goods Association show about 1.2 million Australians have accessed medicinal cannabis since it was legalized in 2016 seeing the results of people and and and how they get through and how it helps them there’s no doubt that uh you know there there is you know a big uptake going on with medical cannabis in in Australia especially at the [Music] moment Medtech farmer is not only growing cannabis Outdoors the company also has indoor grow rooms and plans to build a lab to develop new strains to grow from seed to shelf the mother room is where the team nurtures the female cannabis plant which cuttings and clones are taken from so Derek these plants are so green and bright and leafy um you know what’s the thermostat read like so at the moment we’re feeling it um and and what people often say is um what we feel in temperature is what the plants also feel so if it’s too hot for us it’s too hot for them too cold for us too cold for them at the moment as we stand here it’s a perfect 24° at about 80% humidity they looking nice and Dre because I’ve obviously got a really nice balance of all of those elements as well as a nutrient and irrigation regime um going [Music] on the majority of the more than two dozen varieties of cannabis plants grown here have THC cannaboids the psychoactive compound which can be smoked as a flour or ingested as an edible CBD more commonly used for oils and tinctures does not create a high feeling for users they are both relevant to the medicinal space in simple terms there are particular CBD strains for example that are very um centered on sleep and epilepsy for example but across both CBD and THC there are specific strains and varieties that people have a preference for with their pain management with their anxiety with their sleep issues we’ve got several different strains in here how important is your your record keeping and your monitoring yeah traceability is huge throughout the entire production process right from the genetic stock with the mother plants here in the mother room through to production purposes and then eventually harvesting as well we record keep the entire process and you grow in here from seed yes we have some seedlings going in here yes and then eventually they get to uh an age where we can take clones from the plants but it’s clear licensing and security to grow a pharmaceutical grade cannabis product can be a lengthy process there’s a lot of commitment and a lot of years of weight obviously you’re dealing with the office of drug control and it’s un narcotic drug so you have to you know very tight security and and obviously then to ramp up and and get going and to understand everything that industry needs as well to supply this pharmaceutical drug Australia has one of the fastest growing medicinal cannabis markets in the world but only about 50 licensed Growers research scientist and Industry Advocate Emily Rigby launched the Australian cannabis cultivators group last year to help producers grow the domestic Supply I think there’s a you know huge potential for us um around Australia and because we’re able to provide jobs I I really think we do need to see the government get a little bit more behind um the Australian industry to help this emerging industry while we are learning and while we’re we’ve got competition from Imports but I think Australia’s Got a really great position if it’s done in a clever way um with a f efficient production methods once more Australian cultivators bringing online the price will come back which is great and people will become more efficient um at growing the product and we then once once the volumes come out there and the doctors are able to you know learn how to describe it and people the uptake will be better you know it’s still on a very very fast fast growth for Brad starting up a seed to- shelf plant medicine company from scratch is just the latest Venture for the risk-taking former Citrus grower he’s also raced regularly and won the iconic Fink desert race near Alis Springs what was scarier driving in the Fink desert race or uh starting a new crop like this in the time frame you’ve got probably be a bit of B actually so made me a bit bit nervous on a few things on on both but uh you know certainly this has been uh this has been a lot of our life you know really engulfed us but it’s been exciting and uh it been a great journey and um you know we’re we’re looking forward to the things to come good day I’m Matt BR Northern Australia’s wet season is officially over and and if we look at the rainfall map you can see most of the north enjoyed an above average season with some record rain through parts of the territory but sadly cattle stations along the wa Coast missed out so that’s the rainfall map but what about the grass well these satellite fod maps have been put together by Aussie company sibo Labs the company’s Alistair Raina says most regions in the north have had really good pasture growth and the Barkley has bounced back after those huge bush fires last year I’ve been watching the the Barkley fairly closely and I think that that’s been a really interesting little story in terms of that and and and I think reflecting back um to the end of the dry season we had those huge enormous fires that happened through there on a phenomenal scale and and that probably um made a lot of people very nervous about how this season might have sort of played out because if the wet hadn’t happened where would we be go where would we be in terms of going into a dry season um for 2024 and what we’ve actually seen has been you know pretty consistent rainfall it’s pushed down across most of that Barkley region and you’ll see um that green progression over the months as we go I think the other thing that’s that’s really useful to note is as you look at those Maps you’ll see where that that rainfall and that flow of water has progressed down through those channels and those feeder channels so out of the golf flowing down through Western Queensland and down into to south Australia so there’s a lot of feed is is really happening across that channel country and in that that Western Queensland Parts as well you know it’s it’s reinforcing what people are saying when I’m talking to them and when I’m in those areas you know they say what a great season has been and we’re seeing that feed reflecting on that so heading now into May alist what do you think the cattle industry should get from these maps in terms of forward planning look there’s a couple things that I think about a lot and I think think about two things one is that we’re going to have a reasonably good feed base to to plan forward so there’s probably a lot of people who can look at that maybe make some good plans around what first round Master might look like and what we could probably expect in potentially in terms of Weights um from some of those cattle also I think then is how we might utilize some of that feed better for some of those cows are in lower body condition to try and give them an opportunity to access maybe better feed if that’s possible build those body conditions up and actually get some good reconception but also might mean that GE you know we’re going to have a bigger bulk of feed that will die off so how do we use that dry feed do we need to think about some supplement strategies ahead of time so we’re not chasing supplements when everyone else is and be you know forward planned and actually get it when it’s a cheaper option so you know there are tools there now that are incredibly powerful for locations that’s Alistair Rainer from sibo Labs the big wet season has delayed mus in in a number of areas but most stations are now getting stuck in although I’m told there’s still a lot of motorbikes getting bogged in the North in the live export trade prices out of D Port have eased slightly as more cattle become available and demand from Indonesia remains solid in the domestic market prices for Slaughter type cattle kicked and the latest export data from MLA shows beef exports are up 46% compared to last year the biggest customers in April were the US followed by Japan South Korea China and Indonesia sheep and lamb sales returned to wager this week which influenced the national indicators in a positive way restocker Lambs up 16% the wo Market retracted this week with prices falling across all types especially at the finer end and this was despite the smallest offering since early March now the organization that represents Dairy processes claims farmers in Australia are being paid above the global average for their milk by as much as 30% but it would seem this premium is about to be slashed seudo wrote to its suppliers this week saying that it expects opening Farmgate milk prices next month will be reduced to factor in Market volatility and ensure that Australian dairy products remain competitive Chicago wheat Futures eased this week but in the domestic Market wheat prices went up across most Port zones there was some handy rain in wa but a lot of Growers there are desperate for more large parts of South Australia remain dry cotton Futures fell this week but the bidding war for Australia’s largest cotton Processing Company heated up with both Lou draus and Olam Agri up in their bids to buy neoy cotton here’s a look at Neo’s share price which has doubled in the last 6 months as the bidding between Lou draus and oam has intensified and that is the landline check on prices keep it [Music] rural long before European settlement there was a thriving trade between indigenous communities in Northern Australia and Indonesians searching for sea cucumber now in Shark Bay in Western Australia the local Malana people have revived the trade and they’re hoping they’ll revive their community in the process landline Sean Murphy has the [Music] story in the world heritage listed Waters of Shark Bay in Western Australia the eagle one is heading to harvest sea cucumbers what makes the crew unique is that they’re indigenous and they’re continuing a trade to Asia that existed centuries before European settlement Skipper sha moose mcneir has been a professional fisherman and diver all his adult life but first and foremost he’s a mul man be proud of who we are here so people with your people we’re M this place we call gur here is not just a place of Tourism or a place to visit for us it’s our home so like anywhere in your home environment it’s really important to look after we say here you know culture First Family First and business after so our priorities here culture and family which is what we are but also to juggle that business into things is there it may be an ancient trade but this crew uses modern technology to record the wonders of their traditional country drones GoPros even mobile phones are used to capture and share the incredible biodiversity of the Bay [Music] every trip we always try and use the technology that we have the Drone and the cameras and stuff to make sure that we record biodiversity changes um adaptations you know different water moves conditions um it’s always you know Picture Tells a thousand words divers Alex Dodd and cheyen net are mger men but like many they’ve lived away from the bay working for tidal moon has brought them home physically and spiritually it means a lot for me to be able to come back here I was born and raised in gerton so I never really grew up in the bay to come back as an adult and actually start looking after the place and learning a lot about it means so much more than having that respect for it and being able to do all that kind of stuff and learning from my daers and all that to taking that knowledge tidle moon was granted a special indigenous fishing license in 2017 it’s a Wild Harvest but the crew try to treat the sea like a farm harvesting paddocks and then resting them on rotation we don’t want to take them all from one spot we know they’re a slow moving creature so we try to disperse our range of where we taken our wild stock from although they’re trained as Master divers in Shallow Waters the tidal Moon team doesn’t use tanks they troll on a line behind the boat [Music] so basically what we’re doing there is we’re getting trolled behind the boat pretty much like life bait and we’re looking on the seaf Flor for cucumbers so sometimes they’re in between the debris the coral or the seagrass so it takes a bit of a fine- tune eye to be able to see them but once you get The Knack of it it’s PRS pretty [Music] naturally the catch is also known as Trang or B a the name c cucumber is a misnomer they’re actually an animal it’s identified as a fish uh it has all the organs all the operations as a normal I suppose animal but no brain doesn’t have a brain so it’s very interesting it’s a defense mechanism like squid does with the ink these things spit all their guts out wow look at that he’s under stress right now and he’s going to spit all his guts out but he can grow it all back again and I can feel his oh I can feel his body Contracting it look at that he’s it’s like a sponge that’s completely it’ll go a bit harder now back to shape yeah uh in the shop but put him back in the salt water and he’s fine tile Moon sells its catch into the specialty food market it’s twice cooked and dried in a process that can take 10 to 12 days so this is where we leave our this is where in product ends up the company’s chief executive officer m we says the product is highly prized in Chinese cuisine and is thought to have medicinal properties these are worth maybe $400 a kilo and depending on market price up in China but uh they do go from our Singapore INB into Singapore then distribute out through [Music] Australia tidle Moon produces less than a ton of product a year it’s still recovering from the covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of markets in mainland China it needs government grants and philanthropy to survive but the company is now working with the CSO to investigate new and more lucrative markets for medicinal and cosmetic products so you want to try to Pivot the market towards the Western Market and show the health benefits of taking C cucumber in a capsule a serum health and beauty product something in those lines which more as a western Market Michael we says the goal is to create a working middle class of Mula people at the moment most leave their traditional country because there are no jobs or houses you got to create the opportunity there aren’t too many prospects around there’s only when you talk about class you’re either on welfare or you’re rich there’s no middle class and you have to create the middle class you can’t create it by any means but a free market Enterprise and that’s what we’re trying to do is build a big free market Enterprise that can trade internationally and attract more M people back to our homeland just as science on the medicinal qualities of sea cucumbers is incomplete so too is the understanding of how important the organisms are to the health of seagrass Shark Bay has the world’s largest reserve of seagrasses studies in Tanzania have shown that sea cucumbers are vital for the health of seagrass Meadows I actually fertilize The seagrass Meadows and it’s a sort of Clos Loop seagrass Meadows grow more they refertilized it just keeps on going so get more Morey cucumbers and more C [Music] grass Marine ecologist Gary Kendrick hopes his research will confirm the same closed loop relationship in Shark Bay it’s critical he says because more than a quarter of Shark Bay seagrass Meadows were lost in a marine heat wave in 2011 only 10% has naturally recovered his team from the University of wa’s oce Institute has been working on how best to restore the lost seagrass it’s vital work he says because the exposed sea bed contains a vast store of carbon which can be released to the atmosphere in storms so if you disturb the sediments under cigares you’re releasing carbon because you’re oxygenating the sediment and you’re getting enriched breakdown rates from the organic carbon buried in them the buried carbon in The cigaros Meadows t fold that off the carbon in a in a rainforest so if you measure the rainforest trees and the soils uh the carbon buried in in a meter of soil underneath a seagrass met can be up to 10 fold the amount of buried carbon that you find in the [Music] rainforest the uwa researchers have been working with the local Charter tour operator at Monkey meire on Trials to recover the lost seagrass sand filled tubes have been laid on the seabed to stimulate seagrass growth it’s been successful but progress has been slow the charter operator Greg rley says he spent his own money and has sponsors ready to expand beyond the trial phase but he’s been unable to get a permit we haven’t got the license yet it’s it’s all pending still we’re not interested to making money at all of wanted to get the grass growing out here so like the the loss of grass affects the Dolphins here their food source um sharks stingrays everything depends on the grass the particular Bank we we want to work on is probably the best Jong feeding Bank on the planet what it was and we used to go out there and look at jongs like you’d have 40 or 50 jongs around the boat now you’re lucky to have three or four or five title moon is also seeking a permit to begin its own restoration work it has more than2 million available from mining giant BHP for a 3-year 100 hectare project with the University of wa the wa government says it’s supporting seagrass restoration trials but it’s made no decision on expanding to the sort of scale researchers say is urgently needed the government says there’s no risk to shark Bay’s world heritage status we lose one hectare of seagrasses every 30 minutes globally that and we can can we you know we’re planting less than one hectare in a year we’re not being effective as you know managers of the marine environment and the and the work we’re doing in Shar bit is unique because it’s actually trying to do everything at scale we’ve got 7 months of employment for indigenous employees to get out there and Transplant shoots and to put out socks what what better can you ask for if it can get approval a tidal Moon Restoration Team could get more environmental funding as part of an emerging blue carbon Market using seagrass to offset greenhouse gas emissions it could expand the restoration to thousands of hectares and open the possibility of turning its C cucumber Wild Harvest into an aquaculture ranching operation what we’re doing is creating that human capital so they can actually do both seagrass restoration and seum harvesting it’s a big vision and according to Michael it can restore the seagrass and build a sustainable business with long-term jobs and economic independence for Mullan a people the whole purpose of what we’re trying to do is create that middle class and you can only do it with jobs jobs and employment training opportunities so that people can actually gain access into an industry gain life skills and they stay away from that vicious circle that abigal people get stuck in [Music] next week on landline controlling brumbies without culling how rehoming is working I just love seeing the transformation and I love giving people the opportunity to learn this those skills so you know like I could I could break in a Brumby you know continuously and I still wouldn’t be able to rehome as many as we can through the camps it’s pretty amazing what can be a achieved in such a short amount of time at the Brumby training camps that story next week now it’s time for the bureau’s monthly climate and water Outlook but don’t forget all of the landline programs for this year are on I view I look forward to seeing you next time bye for [Music] now welcome to the bureau’s long range forecast for May to July 2024 first let’s look at recent condition conditions April rainfall was above average across parts of Northern and Eastern Australia in early April some areas of Sydney and the ilara had flooding after 200 to 300 millim of rainfall in 2 days in contrast large parts of the country had below average April rainfall especially in the far Southwest South Australia’s rainfall was the eighth lowest on record since October there has been above average rainfall for much of the north this wet season four tropical Cyclones crossed our Northern Coastline and other monsoonal activity also brought heavy rainfall April was warmer than usual around most coastlines and much of Tasmania some areas had their warmest April on record including parts of Far North Queensland and Coastal Western Australia in contrast it was cooler than average for a large area in land and into the South sore moisture this month has been above average across large areas of the north and east but below average in some Southern areas especially in Western Australia and South Australia at the end of the northern wet season most water storages in the north are full some storages in the South are lower than this time last year including the Southwest coast at around 35% the long range forecast for the months ahead shows most of Australia is likely to receive lower than average rainfall during may this may not be so noticeable in Northern Australia where rainfall from May to July is generally less than 25 mm historically most other areas have between 10 and 200 mm of rainfall during May so this forecast shows the likelihood that rainfall may be less than usual for this time of year however the forecast for June rainfall looks very different to May the forecast shifts towards some areas having an increased chance of more rainfall than usual in June large areas have no strong wet or dry signal and have roughly an equal chance of above or below median June rainfall the typical range of rainfall for this time of year may be the best guide for these areas near median to high Stream flow is likely for most forecast locations until June however low flow is likely for most sites in Tasmania and in the southwest while the months are getting cooler there is still a high chance of above median temperatures across the country from May to July let’s look at some of the recent influences on our climate the significant warmth in the oceans continues to be a major feature of the current Global Climate ocean temperatures have been at record high levels continuously since last April the bureau will continue to monitor sea surface temperatures in the Australian region as they have a large influence on our climate in the Pacific Ocean the El Nino Southern oscillation has returned to neutral conditions neither elino nor in summary the forecast shows rainfall is likely to be less than usual in May there’s a chance for above average rainfall for some areas in June and high higher than usual temperatures are likely for May to July you can follow the long range forecast on the bureau’s website it’s updated regularly with the latest guidance for the weeks and months ahead you can also select your location on the maps to see more details for your area bye for now [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]
00:00 On this episode of Landline;
00:47 Australian scientists fighting back against the destructive fall army worm.
13:21 Concerns a desalination plant in Port Lincoln to fix drinking water issues could impact a thriving mussel industry.
22:07 In Landline news, DNA testing confirms fire ants at a southern QLD army base,
23:01 Historic Tasmanian Woolnorth dairy farm back on sale.
23:50 Demand for Pacific seasonal is falling after a post-COVID boom.
24:20 Beef 2024 opens in central Queensland amid industry’s ambitious carbon neutrality goals.
25:08 How life might change for the young fisher who reeled in the million dollar fish in Katherine, NT.
26:15 From growing citrus, to medicinal cannabis; we visit one of the country’s’ biggest outdoor cannabis crops.
35:36 In markets, how northern Australia’s wet season has impacted fodder growth.
41:07 The Indigenous community breathing new life into an ancient trade – harvesting sea cucumbers in Shark Bay.
53:20 Plus the Bureau’s monthly climate and water outlook.
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