Lessons learnt and progress achieved in a project seeking to catalyse establishment of a group, or common property, farming enterprise are reported in this article. The project concept grew from successful experiences of the farmers initiating the project in working together to address shared...

Meat and Livestock Australia and the Cooperative Research Centre for Cattle and Meat Quality funded a major R&D program in the mid 1990s to investigate the relationships between observable beef and cattle characteristics, cooking methods and consumer appreciation of beef palatability. Out of...

The world of plant breeding is changing rapidly in response both to scientific developments and to economic forces. In particular, there is a growing trend to widespread privatisation of crop breeding. An economist's perspective on some of the key differences between traditional public plant...

The science, funding and organisation of plant breeding in Australia has changed greatly since the 1980s. This paper explores the institutional change in plant variety provision in Australia. The roles of key economic and political agents are emphasized, along with the impact of changes in...

In the past China has been self-sufficient in beef products, but, with a dramatic increase in consumer spending on food, demand for beef, which is seen as a novel and nutritious food, has grown. By employing a partial equilibrium model and sensitivity analysis under different scenarios, this...

Although the Australian dairy industry has performed well it has also faced considerable pressure over the past twenty years. A decline in the terms of trade and major structural change has provided added incentives for the industry to improve productivity. This paper constructs Tornqvist index...

Mounter et al. (2007) developed an equilibrium displacement model (EDM) of the Australian sheepmeat and wool industries. In this paper the EDM is used to estimate the potential annual returns and their distribution among the various industry sectors for nine hypothetical investment scenarios....

This paper provides estimates of consumers willingness to pay for two new sheep milk cheeses, developed as part of a RIRDC research project. In 1998, following an in-store tasting, a sample of 215 consumers were asked to reveal what price they would be willing to pay for portions of the cheese....

Growers in the sugar cane industry have been struggling under financial pressure for several years. Sugar prices have been low while costs of production continue to rise. In addition, adverse weather conditions and pest damage have exacerbated the situation. The future viability of the sugar...