Highlights from Australian agrifood innovation.

Near impossible to identify and count with the naked eye, silverleaf whitefly has increased in prevalence in recent years.

To make identification easier, University of Southern Queensland researchers Dr Alison McCarthy and Dr Derek Long, in collaboration with Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries researcher Dr Paul Grundy, are developing a new artificial intelligence smartphone app with funding from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation.

The National Tree Genomics program is in the final stages of sequencing over 300 macadamia wild and cultivated varieties.

The national program harnesses cutting-edge genetic technologies for the benefit of Australian horticultural tree crop industries. New tools are currently being developed that will equip Australian plant breeders to deliver new varieties with key productivity and profitability traits. New tools will also stem from this program for growers to enhance farm productivity.

Greater control over breeding processes is producing faster-growing, fatter and more resilient Sydney Rock Oysters, helping the native species gain ground in the marketplace. 

A Scottish agritech startup is set to transform one of the world’s most common sheep husbandry practices. To potential investors, it’s an opportunity that doesn’t come around very often.

The challenge was how to create a tool that farmers themselves could safely use to deliver the dose to where it was needed, at the same time the ring was applied, and in a single procedure. Solving that would help solve one of the greatest challenges in modern sheep husbandry.

MLA, LiveCorp and University of Technology Sydney researchers are seeking interested partners to further develop and commercialise automated livestock counting video technology for live export yards and vessels, saleyards and farms.

Australian Eggs is on a mission to continue to drive farmers towards carbon neutrality by delivering research and tools that will enable farmers to take more steps towards a sustainable future for Australian agriculture. Off the back of this, Australian Eggs has recently developed a solar calculator tool to show the economic and sustainable benefits of solar.

Forest growers across Australia have been enthusiastically exploring recently-launched technology that enables easy and affordable assessment of wood quality in standing trees.

The innovative tool also supports decision making relating to planting locations and forest management practices, to best serve the future quality of stands.

Real-time reports from sentinel oysters could provide an early warning of changing water conditions. 

Investigator Ashfaqur Rahman, who leads CSIRO’s data analytics team at Data61, explains that as the environment changes, the behaviour of animals – including oysters – changes in response. 

Every strawberry season, researchers from the Australian Strawberry Breeding Program trial, taste and assess thousands of new varieties of strawberry developed through natural breeding to identify the best tasting and yielding fruit for Australia.

Funded by Hort Innovation in partnership with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, the program supports the Australian strawberry industry by giving them access to improved, locally adapted superior varieties.   

Heat stress is a complex and on-going issue for the livestock export industry. Many factors influence risk, including that some animals – like humans – are affected by heat more or less than others in the same conditions.

LiveCorp has taken a novel, Open Innovation, approach to fast-track its latest search for solutions. 

Forest growers can now easily and affordably assess wood quality across their resource, while also making decisions around location and management that will best serve the quality of their stands going forward.

Scientists behind a new research project say the ability to predict, maintain and improve timber quality in plantations will help decrease risk and improve the productivity, competitiveness and profitability of Australia’s growers and processors.

Ultra-high pressure water cutting is making its way onto implements used in the cotton farming system.