Queensland Country Hour

From crashing fish numbers, to warming seas and imported diseases, the seafood industry has faced its fair share of challenges. But recently, supply shortages are not one of them, and researchers have endeavoured to find out why.

The United States has an "insatiable appetite" for beef and so far this year, has imported 155,430 tonnes of  Australian beef. That's up 75 per cent on the same period last year, and the highest since 2015. So why is the home of hamburgers so hungry for steaks from Down Under?

Global legal cannabis spending reached more than $56 billion in 2022 and is set to reach $153 billion by 2027. While most of the growth has been driven the United States, Australian farmers have set their sights on a new wave of medicinal users — Europeans.

Public Health Association experts fear the "best estimate" was that anyone who welds as part of their job had a 28 per cent increase in the risk of lung cancer, but the industry says it's complex.

Queensland Agriculture Minister Mark Furner hosted his national counterparts in Brisbane at the peak of the CFMEU scandal. So what makes him confident the state was above the fray? And ahead of the EKKA, are we ready for bird flu?

Australians loved avocados when they were expensive, but they really love them when they are cheap. Unfortunately they aren't eating enough to keep prices good for farmers as more and more trees bear fruit. But there is a plan to keep both brunch-lovers and the avo farmers happy. 

In the hot Summer months, beekeepers from Western Queensland seek out cooler climes for their bees, with plenty of pollen for food. But with destructive varroa mite surging in NSW, their usual options are off the table.  

Love a good wine or a crunchy apple? Many of your favourite fruits, vegetables and even sugar cane love a cold snap in winter - it makes them sweeter. While the cold came a little later to southern Queensland, it did set some temperature records set across the state. But while the crops like the cold weather, the farmers not so much - even those that have worked cattle in Russia and Canada's bitter winters. 

There are a few questions that send a bolt of terror through a family quite like, who gets the farm? And how do you fact in your child's spouse? 

What's been done to get more young people into the dairy and wider agricultural industries?