Cattlemen, mining services, tourism operators and activist groups all appeared before the NT Government's fracking inquiry in Katherine; The NT Government has granted major project status to a proposed mixed metals mine at Mount Peake, 230 kilometres north west of Alice Springs; Twenty-year-old seed found in an old research station has resulted in a bumper rockmelon crop in the Red Centre; The Batchelor Butterfly Farm south of Darwin is enjoying the most butterflies it’s ever had at this time of the year despite a strong wet season.

Top End buffalo have been exported to Indonesia for the first time in three and a half years, a move which has been welcomed by the industry; Australia's live trade is facing increasing competition with buffalo meat from India and beef from as far away as Spain now infiltrating the wet markets of Jakarta; More information has come to light around negotiations for land access with the Northern Gas Pipeline to run from Tennant Creek to Mt Isa.

Greater regulation for industry was a key message shared among those who presented at the first fracking inquiry hearing in Alice Springs; The Department of Agriculture is establishing a sentinel herd of cattle in Timor-Leste to provide advanced warning of disease outbreaks in the region: Young women make up almost half of Australian Agricultural Company's rookie recruits for its Northern Territory and Queensland cattle stations.

Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has bought yet another cattle station in northern Australia, acquiring Aroona station, 100 kilometres west of Katherine; A Northern Territory Cattleman's Association professional development program is being featured at Indonesia Australia Business Week which starts in Jakarta today; The future of the Northern Gas Pipeline is uncertain with the company announcing construction will be pushed back by a number of weeks; Community hearings for the scientific inquiry into hydraulic fracturing in the Northern Territory kicked off in Alice Springs today with industry, locals and environmentalists first to share their views.

The company behind a proposal to build a large prawn farm in the Northern Territory has delayed the time line for the start of construction; Cattle giant Heytesbury has acquired close to ten per cent stake in Australia's largest live export company, Wellard Limited; The Roper region is where Veronica Januschka has spent her entire life, and since the late 70s, she and her family have run the Roper Bar Store.

The virus which rocked the Territory's melon industry in 2015 has been found in Queensland. Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus has been confirmed on a farm near Bundaberg, the company developing stage two of the Kimberley's Ord Irrigation Scheme is aiming to plant up to 800 hectares of quinoa this year, with plans of exporting the health-food crop to China for the first time, students at Yirara college in Alice Springs are learning how to drive mining trucks, right in their very own classroom, the Keep River National Park has already had more than its average annual rainfall this wet season

The Territory's largest forestry company will change its name as part of a broader push to to change its image, the managing director of the ABC Michelle Guthrie was criticised in a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday over the broadcasters' decision to axe its shortwave radio service in the Northern Territory, the Northern Land Council is calling for expressions of interest to take up a pastoral lease on Indigenous land south west of Katherine, the Bureau of Meteorology says there's a 50 per cent chance of an El Niño forming later in the year, camel soap has become a regular staple on Henbury Station, about 150 kilometres south of Alice Springs.

Indonesian importers will likely still want cattle around the 330 kilogram range, even though the maximum average weight for feeder cattle has been raised to 450 kilograms, according to a Top End stock agent, an increase in foreign investment is the answer to Australia's falling livestock numbers, according to a Western Australian processor, on the eve of switching off the Interim Satellite Service, the National Broadband Network's permanent replacement service, Sky Muster went down across the country, Australian gold production has reached a 17 year high, with a Territory gold mine making the top five of the most productive mines in the country, and a Central Australian farmer is still recovering from the influx of grasshoppers that swept through the area earlier in the year, and is looking at using them as a food source.

A NT cattle producer says changes to Indonesian live cattle permits will make his life a lot simpler, tte company behind a potential rare earth mines on the WA/NT border starts employing people to manage the site, recent rainfall in central Australia causes concerns over the amount of buffel grass growing in the region and the fire danger it causes, the Consolidated Pastoral Company has begun restocking its properties after a great wet season, biosecurity Queensland says it will bring forward a surveillance program targeting cucumber green mottle mosaic virus following a suspected case in Bundaberg, the Tennant Creek Show is at risk of not going ahead, due to a lack of new committee members joining up.

The Indonesian Government has signed off on changes to the maximum average weight of feeder cattle imported from Australia, Roy Chisholm from Napperby Station welcomes the news, but says he's cautious as to how long the weight limit increase will last; A Top End cattle yard is trialling a feedlotting program to fatten feeder cattle before sale; The Top End is having one of its biggest wet seasons on record, which is great for cattle stations, but maybe not so great for the station's working dogs; Meat processers want Meat and Livestock Australia to stop the rollout of objective carcass measurement technology at meatworks across the country until the technology is proven and there's a feasibility study; A new kind of irrigation for the north is being trialled at Anna Plains Station in the Kimberley; A well known fisherman retiring from prawn fishery to work for fish exporter in Darwin.