The clinic is designed for health practitioners, especially those working with disabled, disadvantaged or people who have special needs, as well as horse riders of all sports and disciplines.
The clinicians include coach Sally Francis and physiotherapist Kim Slavin. The special guest is London Paralympics gold medallist Joann Formosa, who will be in the saddle to assist Sally and Kim with their presentations.
For more information, contact Euroa Horse Park owner Vanessa Hawkins on 0417 363 710, email visitus@euroahorsepark.com.au or go to: www.euroahorsepark.com.au
What goes around comes around
This National Recycling Week, CropLife Australia is calling on government to get behind industry-led initiatives to tackle agricultural plastic waste.
Out of the 82,300 tonnes of plastic used in Australian agriculture annually, just over 12 per cent is recycled. However, with investment in the right logistics, infrastructure and know-how, the intelligent reuse of waste holds enormous untapped potential.
“Plastic packaging plays an essential role in Australia’s agricultural industry by protecting seed, pelletised pesticide and other agricultural inputs for their safe transport, use and storage,” CropLife Australia’s Matthew Cossey said.
“However, it can end up in landfill, is destroyed in an environmentally unfriendly manner or remains as on-farm waste.”
This year, CropLife’s drumMUSTER program celebrates 25 years of operation across 840 collection points across Australia. Since the first collection in 1999, drumMUSTER has diverted more than 42 million plastic drums from landfill and recycled them in Australia into new products.
CropLife in partnership with the Australian Seed Federation also celebrates the first pilot of its new bagMUSTER program, Australia’s first industry-led collection and recycling pathway for plastic agricultural input bags.
“Only through well informed public policy settings and effectively targeted government programs that support initiatives like these, will we realise the true potential of recycling programs for agricultural plastics,” Mr Cossey said.
Have your say on the net zero plan
A new farmer survey aims to discover how farmers are already reducing their emissions, and find out where governments can invest to further help farmers reduce emissions whilst increasing productivity.
Farmers for Climate Action’s new Net Zero Plan for Agriculture Survey will aim to capture a broad cross section of everyday farmers, regardless of their attitudes to climate, and their emissions reduction efforts.
The survey comes as the Federal Government begins consultation on its agriculture sector plan for net zero, and Farmers for Climate Action will hand the results directly to the federal agriculture minister before the consultation period closes.
“It's crucial farmers’ voices are the central plank of the plan and we know this is one of the busiest times of year for farmers, so we’ve created a 10-minute survey to make it easier for farmers to have their voices heard," Farmers for Climate Action’s Natalie Collard said.
For more information or to access the survey, go to: www.farmersforclimateaction.org.au
Sleeves up as science tackles citrus virus
Scientists are developing a vaccine-like solution to arm Aussie citrus growers with an effective way to combat citrus tristeza virus (CTV), a significant challenge for the Australian citrus industry.
Delivered through Hort Innovation and collaboratively led by The University of Queensland, NSW DPI and Auscitrus, the $1.5 million initiative will see researchers work with the citrus industry to gather information about different variants of the virus from across major citrus-growing regions so that an effective plant-protection solution can be developed.
The impact of CTV on citrus crops can vary from no effect to 100 per cent tree death, depending on the variant. CTV can cause tree decline and stem-pitting, resulting in significant loss of yield and productivity. There are only limited control options.
Hort Innovation chief executive officer Brett Fifield said access to a CTV vaccine “will be game changer for citrus growers, as they will be able to trigger their trees’ immune response and elevate their defence systems against the virus”.
University of Queensland principal research fellow Dr Andrew Geering said the research will pinpoint the core causes of the virus to develop an effective in-field solution.
“CTV is a highly variable virus, with many strains known to occur,” he said.
“This research will establish which strains are the core components of CTV. Once those strains are identified, we can reverse-engineer a dead or a mild version of those strains that can be used to trigger an immune response, in a vaccine-like manner.”
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