Western Australia Country Hour

Some of the biggest and most welcome rains across WA's agricultural region over the weekend fell around Hyden, about 300 kilometres south east of Perth.

The only abattoir in WA's north has just gone into voluntary administration. What will that mean for northern pastoralists?  

The operator of the only large-scale abattoir in northern Western Australia KMC has called in administrators amid an ongoing government investigation and the pursuit of its parent company over millions in unpaid debts.

The owner of a Pilbara cattle station says it's been almost two years since the last decent rain and he's now investing a lot of money in bores and feeder bins to ensure his cattle are fed and watered.

For a lot of people in Western Australia, ex Tropical Cyclone Lincoln turned into a bit of a fizzer. The low pressure system did bring some rain to properties that needed it, but maybe not as much as what was needed.

Australia has processed a record number of lambs in 2023. Almost 25 million lambs were through the meat works last year, smashing the previous record set in 2016 by almost two million head.

This year's first shipment of WA cattle to Indonesia is on the water, another is scheduled to leave the Port of Fremantle today and the first ship out of the north, leaving Broome, is scheduled for the first week of March.

DPIRD January figures reveal 104, 500 WA sheep and lambs went to the eastern states. That is a  201 per cent increase on the December figures and the highest monthly total since November 2022.

The federal minister for climate change and energy has revealed plans for an offshore wind farm in the state's south-west.

Carnarvon fruit farmer Wes Bassett says the ongoing heatwave could wipe out up to half of his avocados. 

The state government's vision of a world-class marine park along the state's south coast has been released today with a proposed 25 per cent 'no-take' sanctuary zone.

Mining giant BHP has just announced it's considering placing its Nickel West division into a period of care and maintenance. 

The federal government has agreed to change the way it taxes farmers to pay for biosecurity.

The remaining 16, 000 sheep and cattle on board the MV Bahijah will begin to be offloaded this afternoon.

Strong local and interstate feedlot interest at yesterday's Mount Barker cattle market saw a significant rise in prices.

A new grain grower lobby group has officially been launched with a key focus of reinstating rebates for growers who sell grain to the state's main grain handler, the CBH Group.

Grape growers in the Swan Valley are bracing for another potentially damaging period of hot weather in the coming days. It follows last week's hottest day on record.

The Federal Agriculture Department has rejected an application to re export the livestock on board the MV Bahijar around Africa to Israel.

A sheep producer in the state's Great Southern has lost dozens of lambs after an outbreak of salmonella on the property last month.

State agriculture minister Jackie Jarvis says the livestock vessel docked at Fremantle Port has metropolitan communities reflecting on the live trade, perhaps for the first time, and perhaps in a negative way, which is not ideal.