Mecardo Blog

In this series of blog articles, we’re taking a look back at the year that was for agricultural commodities and provide our insight for the year ahead.

This installment highlights 2018’s key movements in grain markets and what to keep your eye on in 2019.

In this series of blog articles, we’re taking a look back at the year that was for agricultural commodities and provide our insight for the year ahead.

This installment highlights 2018’s key movements in the wool market and what to keep your eye on in 2019.

In this series of blog articles, we’re taking a look back at the year that was for agricultural commodities and provide our insight for the year ahead.

This installment highlights 2018’s key movements in sheep and lamb markets and what to keep your eye on in 2019.

In this series of blog articles, we’re taking a look back at the year that was for agricultural commodities and provide our insight for the year ahead.

This installment highlights 2018’s key movements in the cattle market and what to keep your eye on in 2019.

As a serious professional farmer in 2019 it is well understood that “best practice” means you take care of your land, you take care of your animals/crops and you are economically astute. 

Despite that it doesn't matter what you or the industry believes is appropriate. We live in an era of ‘Social Licence’ where the opinion of the ill or under informed has the capacity to determine the future of your farm and its practices.

In this article I take a look at some risks related to the pursuit of social licence.

“Canberra bubble” has been coined the word of the year by the Australian National Dictionary Centre. Mecardo suggests that the equivalent in 2018 for agriculture is “Social Licence”.

Both are somewhat vague in meaning, although they are regularly trotted out by commentators and the plethora of industry opinionated columnists. We have noticed that “social licence” is now pushed to farmers and other agriculture industry participants as something to be “earned”.

This is the first instalment of a three-part blog series which summarises the importance of the live cattle trade to Australia. The information contained within this blog was sourced from a Mecardo report commissioned by Livecorp/MLA and released in November 2018 entitled “Value analysis of the Australian live cattle trade - key highlights”.

This is the second installment of a three-part blog series which summarises the importance of the live cattle trade to Australia. The information contained within this blog was sourced from a Mecardo report commissioned by Livecorp/MLA and released in November 2018 entitled “Value analysis of the Australian live cattle trade - key highlights”.

This is the third installment of a three-part blog series which summarises the importance of the live cattle trade to Australia. The information contained within this blog was sourced from a Mecardo report commissioned by Livecorp/MLA and released in November 2018 entitled “Value analysis of the Australian live cattle trade - key highlights”.

Markets can be volatile, however there are a number of tools which are available to reduce the risk of adverse price movements. 

There are two predominant strategies to reduce the effect of price volatility when selling wool. These are by using a forward contract or using a minimum price contract (MPC). In this article we examine the MPC, and how it can be used by producers.