#Agriculture

A warning for wine lovers: climate change is messing with your favourite tipple’s timing

A plant-growth-regulating spray might be the solution for vineyards affected by heatwaves.

Recognising indigenous pollination conservation practices

Pollinators such as bees, birds, bats and butterflies are in decline globally, a threat to biodiversity and food production all over the world. The importance of pollinators isn’t new to many indigenous communities around the world.

Digging up the dirt on water quality on the Great Barrier Reef

A huge amount of effort is going into protecting the Great Barrier Reef - often the kilometres away from where the coral is actually living. Researchers now have a better understanding of the system of erosion and sediment transport processes connecting agricultural land with water quality in the Reef. Critical to improving land management practices.

Oldman saltbush helps farm profits and ecosystem health

Oldman saltbush is a regular sight for regional tourists, and a CSIRO variety of the native shrub has been found to improve profitability for graziers in Australia’s most marginal regions.

Faster delivery, lower costs? The answer’s in TraNSIT

Taking product from farm to market in Australia can involve distances of hundreds of kilometres and high freight costs. A group of NSW and Queensland councils has turned to computer modelling to work out where local infrastructure bottlenecks are, and how they could be fixed.

Benefits and risks of neonicotinoid insecticides to Australian agriculture

On the farm, the negative impact to beneficial insects can sometimes negate the positive effects of insecticides. But there's a lack of research quantifying non-target impacts of one particular group, neonicotinoids.

Hybridisation and the new frontier against spread of global pests

Global trade means global pests – not just in the way they spread but in the way they breed. Hybridisation of two moth species has now been confirmed, creating a fast-generating, pesticide-resistant mega pest which threatens broad-acre crops across the Americas. What’s next?

How do you measure the environmental footprint of grazing cattle?

Meat consumption has been on the increase with improved standards of living and growing populations around the world. But how do you quantify the environmental cost of feeding the stock feeding that increase?

As rainfall variability increases, do our graziers have solutions?

Graziers the world over are facing increasingly variable rainfall, new research shows. The next question is: How will they manage their livestock as they face this unpredictability?