Elders Goes Online

 

In a development that is a milestone for Australian agribusiness, Elders - the Australia wide agribusiness – has just opened an online version of its rural supply business, thought to be the first online supply business for farmers in Australia.

Farmers are able to order selected animal health and agricultural chemical products from its AgSure website, and have those products delivered to their farm.  Like customers across many areas, farmers are looking for the best prices. "Farmer buyer behaviour is changing," Elders general manager of strategy and marketing Mark Geraghty said in a statement, "they're shopping around, researching online and are looking to buy at a time, and price that suits them."

The on line system is designed to complement their branch structure, not replace it.

This should allow around the clock ordering, which should be a boon for many in the rural industry.

Delivery may be an issue, so it is to be hoped that their logistics are well sorted out.  That is a characteristic of excellent businesses operating online – all the way from Amazon to Nespresso coffee supplies.  Get the logistics wrong and customers disappear!

Silent Spring - 50 Years Old

http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/09/25/3596835.htm?WT.svl=featuredSitesScroller

This link takes you to an article especially pertinent today, the 50th anniversary of the publicaton of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

Many argue that was the birthday of the modern environment and conservation movement.  The book chronicled the role of DDT in the environment and the damage it was causing from unprincipled use.

DDT is a very effective agrochemical and still has uses today, particularly when impregnated in mosquito bed nets, for malaria control.........it is a great option that really works.  It is just that, in some ways like the use of glyphosate today, DDT was used for everything!  And society did not know enough about the problems that arose until afterwards, and it was hard to get people to listen.

And then came the book Silent Spring.  A slim volume, and I read it, in the mid 1960s studying agrochemical use as an undergraduate in an ag science faculty.  It was a game changer.

It is still in print, and still worth reading if you have not done so before..

It is true to say, the genesis of the environmental movement can be traced to that book release.

Organic Food - A Social Crutch for the Wealthy?

Organic food and organic agriculture will never feed the world, yet adherents in western countries continue to expand.  Or are they?

Recent studies show a connection between organic agriculture and food devotees and altruistic behaviour which may indicate some social and psychological conditions.

Many of the claims made about organic food just do not stack up, especially in relation to freedom from pesticides in comparison to conventionally produced foods.

While the tenor of this recent article is provocative, and probably meant to be that way, it does debunk many claims related to organic production systems, and alludes to the social issues around users of the materials.

Read it yourself, and do not be too indulgent with your food.  A good diet is essential!!

http://qcl.farmonline.com.au/blogs/agribuzz-with-david-leyonhjelm/organic-food-its-a-religion/2611131.aspx?storypage=0

Climate Change and Silent Spring - A Media Relationship?

Frank Graham Jr., field editor of Audubon magazine, marks the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s classic book, Silent Spring, by examining the vitriolic attacks leveled against Carson in the 1960s and pointing to troubling parallels with the assaults on climate scientists today. Critics from industry and agriculture dismissed Carson as a mouthpiece of “a vociferous, misinformed group of nature-balancing, organic-gardening, bird-loving, unreasonable citizenry.” But as Graham notes, Carson’s groundbreaking analysis of the harmful effects of DDT and other pesticides led to important bans on dangerous chemicals. Read the article.  This was published as an intro to a Yale Environment online blog.

It is sobering to think of the effects that Silent Spring has had over the past 50 years.  From distaste and absolute rejection by many initially, to now generally accepted as mainstream science, and bringing some big changes in environmental behaviours.

As the author alludes, is the current rejection of much of the science of climate change essentially the same?

I am not so sure, as we have had in the past 50 years the creation of media "thought leaders" [ or should it be media d***heads" ] who have significant influence over much of public opinion, and at times who espouse some strange causes.  Where they have influence, dispute over views often rules.  Then there is the rise of instant experts without specialised training or considerable experience in the science areas who cloud ideas, and pander to those who are tending to disbelieve the science.  And then there is inertia, NIMBY thinking and the long time frames for effect........remember "Apathy Rules".

The role of the media is far greater today than when Silent Spring was published.  I am not sure we have yet seen any serious embrace of the results of scientific endeavour on climate change in mainstream media, to really convince the public, although the scientific media certainly has.  And with much of the public disinterested and as yet unaffected, change might be slow for some time.

In Australia as elsewhere, with various forms of carbon pricing either in place or coming very soon, then will that influence public attitudes, or will they just whinge and not adjust?  

Spraying with Pesticides? Are YOU operating Legally?

The stories of improper pesticide spraying are the stuff of legends.  I am aware of some few cases where those involved,  had made people ill, and in a few cases people have actually died due to poor practices.


More common issues involved wrong areas, wrong product, spray drift causing problems, neighbours affected, or sometimes even worse, properties some distance away being affected,

Thankfully, the last problem is much less common now......but it did happen sometimes if products such as 2,4-D were used poorly.

All this means you must take reasonable care.

If  looking to brush up on knowledge of when and how to record weather data, you now have a new resource.



The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) has released a new Spray Equipment fact sheet, Weather Monitoring Equipment for Agricultural Spraying Operations.

The fact sheet answers key questions, including when and where to measure weather conditions and how long to keep records.

Compiled by consultant Bill Gordon, the fact sheet delivers key tips, including:
• There are legal requirements to measure and record the weather parameters at the site of application during spray operations.
• It may be useful to have more than one device to compare accuracy.
• Select equipment that can be easily operated and easily recalibrated.
• On-board weather stations offer ‘on-the-go’ monitoring to allow the operator to make better decisions about the suitability of conditions while spraying.

To download the fact sheet and other information about spray application, visit www.grdc.com.au/GRDC-FS-Spray-Equ ipment-Weather-Monitoring

A US Farmer's View on Biotech

Too often the urban public attack farmers and agriculture - as producing too much, too little, or poor food sources.

A farmer has hit back - quietly and with dignity.

Read more here - http://westernfarmpress.com/print/government/gmos-biotechnology-offer-agricultural-blessings?page=1

pointing out a few fundamental flaws in some of the arguments used to condemn farmers and the crops and livestock they grow.

Well worth a brief read.

Fake Agrochemicals - Farmers BEWARE

It had to happen........the rural and related agrochemical and fertiliser industries are worth many millions of dollars and both agrochemical and fertiliser sales annually are also worth millions of dollars, even in a relatively smallish market such as Australia.

A recent scam involved sales of dirt.......yes common soil.......as a marketed and manufactured fertiliser from an overseas source, with the material actually making it to a rural location before detection. That also was a major biosecurity concern, as well as a straight out scam.

With input costs a major factor in producing crops, shaving these by a few dollars can be important. But the new scam is to produce suspect agrochemicals for sale. They do not perform as expected and often on investigation, formulations are just plainly wrong, or they even are made using dodgy liquid ingredients including tainted and dangerous wastewaters, or may not even contain the active technical ingredient, or contain by product chemicals that could damage crops.

Yes, there are successful low cost reputable formulators, capable of offering suitable agrochemicals at discounted prices, and supplying to Australia. But it is very necessary to be sure about who you are dealing with and their reputation, both technically and financially.

Needless to say, China seems to be a source, but some eastern European operators are also involved.

The old maxim applies .......if it seems to good to be true, it probably is too good to be true!!

This is expanded further in a recent on line article:
http://qcl.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/grains-and-cropping/general/fake-chemicals-pose-risk/2299664.aspx?storypage=0

It should also be remembered that any agricultural chemical used in Australia should have been assessed and given the okay by the relevant Australian authorising agency, the APVMA.

If in doubt have a look at their web site, www.apvma.gov.au and this statement is off the web site -
'Before an agricultural or veterinary chemical product can be legally imported, supplied, sold, used, promoted or advertised in Australia, the APVMA must register it. Part of the APVMA's role and responsibility is to monitor and enforce compliance of agricultural and veterinary chemical products in the market place."

SO BE AWARE.

Problems with Glyphosate??

This article appeared in a recent on-line edition of Queensland Country Life. It is an important issue and needs a wide readership as the use of glyphosate is of considerable importance for weed control, plant health and overall yield performance.

While the issue is aimed at broad acre farming it is probably of as much or more relevance for the urban use of glyphosate, especially by local councils, where the indiscriminate use is seen as great waste areas around the local posts and trees, often resprayed every year, even though there is NOTHING growing, and the bare areas are getting larger!!

Glyphosate is a very good agrochemical.........more careful use is needed.

There has also been a series of articles I have seen suggesting that glyphosate has even more sinister effects, including effects on people. Some of these have been a bit outrageous, but often there can be some truth hidden within the rants.

However, the issues with more general nutrition effects have a degreee of documentation. But it is about over use........and not sensible usage, including various rotation systems.

Maybe the Otto von Liebig's and the scientists at Rotheamstead of the 1800s were right afterall about sensible sustainable farming!!

Glyphosate: friend or foe?
MATTHEW CAWOOD
05 Sep, 2011 04:00 AM

Glyphosate, the chemical underpinning the world's most productive farming systems, may becoming an agent of harm, a visiting US scientist believes.

"Glyphosate has been a very powerful tool for us in weed control, but it's been seriously abused by continued overuse," said veteran American plant pathologist, Dr Don Huber. "I feel that's one of the main reasons that we're seeing a lot of other factors come to threaten the sustainability of our production."

Dr Huber links glyphosate to the increasing severity of diseases like fusarium and take-all, and the explosion of Goss's wilt of corn and Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) in soybeans in America's mid-west.

Now retired from his career as a plant pathologist at Purdue University, but retaining the title of Professor Emeritus, Dr Huber is in Australia to air those concerns at the invitation of Owen McCarron, director of the IPM Masterclass series.

If it is allowed to accumulate in the soil, glyphosate doesn't just kill weeds, Dr Huber told Rural Press.
The chemical is a strong chelator, meaning that it can bind positively-charged mineral ions in the soil to its own molecules, making the mineral unavailable to plants. It is known to have an affinity for copper, zinc, manganese and molybedenum, among others.

"Glyphosate can make a number of elements unavailable for the plant to use, so there are many of the physiological functions of the plant that are compromised," Dr Huber said "In that compromise period that plant becomes very susceptible to diseases, fungal diseases especially."

Glyphosate also affects important soil organisms in different ways, according to Dr Bob Kremer, a microbiologist with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service and adjunct professor at the University of Missouri.

In the soil, where it is carried by spray, rainfall or plant roots, the chemical is an energy source for some microbes - including those responsible for its degradation in the soil - but a killer of others.
Among the organisms that flourish in the presence of glyphosate appear to be certain strains of fusarium, which in European studies were shown to multiply in the presence of the compound, Dr Kremer told Rural Press.

That appears to line up with old Canadian research which found that wheat sown in fields that had been fallowed with glyphosate was more susceptible to fusarium head blight than control wheat plantings.

"(The researchers) hypothesised as the susceptible weeds died, it built up the fusarium populations and then when the wheat was planted later, there was a higher instance of fusarium head blight compared to fields that did not receive glyphosate treatment," Dr Kremer said.

Other organisms are suppressed by glyphosate, including the rhizobium bacteria reponsible for nodulation in legumes and the the algaes that are an important soil glue.

But Dr Kremer said the research needed to clarify these effects isn't being done. When he wants to interpret some of his own observations, he often has to look at research done decades ago.
And yet, he acknowledged, some of these processes, and glyphosate's chelation effect, have the potential to be highly damaging to crop profitability.

Dr Huber became interested in glyphosate when, after a long career in plant pathology, he and his colleagues saw crop diseases that had been adequately managed for decades suddenly burgeon out of control. Goss's wilt of corn, for instance, was first discovered in the US in 1969, but only in the past few seasons it has emerged as a major pest of the Mid-West corn belt.

Dr Huber believes that genetic modification for glyphosate resistance contributes to disease vulnerability.

"Just the presence of the glyphosate resistance gene reduces the efficiency of the plant for many of the micronutrients - like manganese, iron - up to 30 or as much as 70 per cent, depending on the original variety," he said. "When glyphosate is applied there will be an additional reduction in uptake and efficiency of micronutrients that are immobilised by the chemistry."

He is calling for "much more prudent use, and certainly much greater research to establish glyphosate's safety".

"There are a lot of indicators that it's not nearly as benign a product as we thought. With the growing residues that we're finding in our soils and crops and feedstocks, there's a very serious concern for the health and safety aspects of the products."

* Dr Huber will be talking in Bendigo, Vic. on September 5 and Corowa, NSW, on September 7. For more information call Oen McCarron on 0419 006 100 or email owen@ipmmasterclass.com

[ from online edition of Qld Country Life]

Endosulfan Registration Cancelled in Australia

Registration of Endosulfan Cancelled in Australia

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) on Tuesday advised that it had cancelled the registration of the insecticide endosulfan.

This decision followed a recent assessment of new information by the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) that the prolonged use of endosulfan is likely to lead to adverse environmental effects via spray drift and run-off.
A full risk assessment conducted by DSEWPC concluded that these long term risks could not be mitigated through restrictions on use or variations to label instructions.

From 12 October 2010, agricultural products containing endosulfan are no longer registered in Australia. The three current approvals for endosulfan have also been cancelled, and the five products containing the chemical will be phased out over the next two years.

Read the Full Report here.