Western Australia Country Hour

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.

Federal authorities say there are no are concerns for the health of the animals on board a livestock carrier forced to return from the Middle East this week.

President of the WAFarmers livestock section says the regulator's delay, in getting an independent vet on board the ship anchored off the WA coast, is preventing finalising a plan for the livestock on the MV Bahijah.

The Premier says the livestock export ship, ordered to return to Australia due to security issues in the Red Sea region, is now sitting just off the WA coast, and is expected to dock at the Port of Fremantle tomorrow.

The livestock export ship at the centre of security concerns in the Red Sea, and redirected back to Australia, is due to arrive at the port of Fremantle in the next 24 hours. The regulator is yet to approve an industry plan to re-export the shipment.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will conduct an inquiry into Australia's supermarket sector, including the pricing practices of the supermarkets and the relationship between wholesale and retail prices.

The Prime Minister has revealed Australia's consumer watch dog, the ACCC, will conduct a supermarket pricing inquiry.