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Agricultural Tours Riverina

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25.01.2022 During winter ATR has provided farm and industry visits for groups from India, delegates to the Murray Darling Association annual conference, and Japan. The Indian farmers visited farms and factories in Queensland (strawberries), New South Wales (sugar cane and beef), and Victoria (market gardens, robotic dairies and wheat farms). Their major interest was in mechanical and electronic aides to intensive farming operations. Murray Darling Association members and their partners... participated in two tours designed to familiarise them with the breadth of farming activities in the Riverina region. Japanese academics from the Hiroshima area were also interested in gaining a general appreciation of Riverina farming, as part of their research leading to publication of a socio-economic geography textbook for senior high school students. The group visited dryland (broadacre cropping, wool sheep) and irrigated cropping (rice, cotton and wine grapes) and toured Toorak Winery. Photograph shows their visit to ram shearing near Barellan, NSW.

24.01.2022 We are currently working on tour itineraries for a couple of educational institutions interested to give students an appreciation of rural matters more broad and realistic than same old same old Zoom and Virtual Reality experiences. One group is of senior secondary students of food technology, interested to see actual food processing in action and in talking with technology managers. Another group is following the supply chain of rice -- a topical industry, especially during the COVID19 experience -- from seed variety development through farming businesses, processing, product development, marketing, storage and distribution. Of course, irrigation water availability and the Murray Darling Basin Plan loom large in this industry focus. See https://www.agriculturaltoursriverina.com.au/riverina-farm/

22.01.2022 In early January two academics from College of Economics, Nihon University (Tokyo) spent time in the Leeton/Temora/Sydney areas gaining an understanding of attitudes towards commodity industry de-regulation in the rice, wheat and general grains industries. The pics below show the academics, together with a Leeton-based interpreter, visiting rice farms (organic and conventional), a cotton farm, and a wheat farm and enjoying lunch at Coolamon's famous Cheese Factory. The visitors spoke with farmers, rice, cotton and wheat industry officials over three days.

21.01.2022 Shearing the rams at Dumossa Station near Barellan NSW late August 2018.

20.01.2022 Executive members of an agricultural corporation from Indonesia study broad acre rice farming techniques, November 2015

20.01.2022 Farmers from south of Brazil examine irrigated field crops and visit Charles Sturt University agronomy research in the Riverina region. January 2015

19.01.2022 In January ATR collected 12 members of a Shiga Prefecture Japan Agriculture organisation at Tullamarine airport, Melbourne and spent 3 days with them looking at the Australian rice and other irrigated rural industries. Great tour!

16.01.2022 One of our larger recent tours involved 210 employees of a Chinese agro-chemicals company who asked us to help them understand Australian regulations relating to use of farm chemicals. How do you provide a meaningful experience for a group of 210 non-English speakers? First of all, find several crackerjack interpreters who not only know both languages but have a knowledgeable feel for agricultural systems in both countries. Then find several neighbouring farms owned and managed by enthusiastic, articulate farmers proud of their operations and who are people--oriented. Split the 210 visitors into smaller groups so everyone can hear and see and touch. Ensure you have a caterer who delivers culturally appropriate food on time. Finally, arrange a cool summers day with sunshine and a light breeze. Easy, really!

16.01.2022 Groups touring with Agricultural Tours Riverina usually meet socially over a meal with farmers and others whose businesses they have visited during the day. The relaxed atmosphere contributes to much discussion and creates great networking opportunities..

14.01.2022 Shearing the rams at Dumossa Station near Barellan, late August 2018

14.01.2022 While international travel is simply not on, some city dwellers are venturing into the countryside to see for themselves how their food and fibre is produced. In recent weeks we've met bankers, medical workers, engineers, motelliers, chefs and a retired real estate agent who've all been impressed with what they've seen of modern agricultural practices. They have visited olive groves, honey producers, cotton/rice/barley/wheat/canola farms, cherry/citrus orchards, beef and sh...eep farms, woolbrokers, farm machinery dealers and many other interesting sites. Some have picked their own citrus and cherry supplies to take home to family and friends. Why not take advantage of the COVID downtime, get a group of family and friends together and see for yourself how modern farming is carried out? You'll be surprised at how sophisticated it really is! See more

14.01.2022 Spending mid-April in Adelaide at ATE'18 (Australian Tourism Exchange), the biggest tourist marketplace in the southern hemisphere. Great opportunity to meet with international buyers, and also to chat with large numbers of domestic sellers -- good contacts all around. Tourism Australia has assisted in arranging 50,000 meetings between buyers and sellers. And the food.....! And music....!

11.01.2022 A group of families from Dubbo and Sydney spent two days in January 2018 visiting a wide range of farm types in the Murrumbidgee and Murray River valleys. At many of the farms visited, including this organic vegetable farm at Leeton, they were able to sample some of the farm products. The group also visited a rice farm which mills its own rice, an emu farm where they met the emus and saw the range of health and other products made from emu oil, and a free range chook farm producing 7,000 eggs each day. The tour ended with a visit to the National Environment Centre near Albury, where manager Rob Fenton led a tour of his farm, based on the principle of minimal energy inputs to produce a wide range of products including vegetables, mushrooms, eggs, various meats, honey and other high quality organic products.

10.01.2022 AGRICULTURAL TOURS RIVERINA IS A COVID19 PREPARED TOURS BUSINESS This document describes our COVID19 preparedness. If you see difficulties or gaps in our Plan relating to your tour’s special requirements please let us know and we’ll make every attempt to adapt to your particular circumstances. Even though there is plenty of advice available to retailers, restaurants, destination sites, etc running a tour design service presents different issues relating to COVID 19 precaut...ions. Most important of course is the fact that our tours take people to farms, factories and other sites managed by their owners and operators. That might help explain the first Action in our preparedness Plan that follows. ACTIONS 1. Ask managers of all sites to be visited and all services to be used as part of each itinerary to outline what measures they have taken to minimize the spread of COVID 19. 2. Take note of directives and advice from appropriate health authorities about local lockdowns and other matters. 3. Ensure a central list is kept of names and addresses of all participants on a tour. 4. Provide sufficient quantities of hand sanitizer/sanitized wipes and face masks, appropriate to each tour group. 5. Maintain social distancing of 1.5 metres wherever possible. Where social distancing cannot be maintained, ensure its lack for the shortest possible duration. 6. Where groups must assemble at any site being visited ensure where possible they assemble in the open air or in covered but not enclosed spaces. 7. Exclude from tours clients who are unwell and avoid visits to sites where managers or staff are unwell. 8. When catering is provided by ATR, avoid self service or buffet style meals. 9. Ensure regular sanitization of shared equipment eg hand-held UHF radios and shared hard surfaces. Agricultural Tours Riverina has always been conscious of hygiene and safety. Our awareness is a requirement of site managers for reasons of biosecurity,animal (and staff) welfare and food safety. Well before COVID 19 we kept a store of face masks, ear plugs, hair nets and gloves and had ready access to overshoes and disposable gowns for our client groups visiting food processing sites, for instance. Extending our efforts to cover extra precautions required by the pandemic is consistent with our ongoing culture of care. See more

09.01.2022 ATR prides itself on designing bespoke study tours, within client specifications of topic, duration, budget and so on. We have had some interesting requests. One of the more difficult recent briefs was for a group of 38 Brazilian farmers, all members of a giant multi-product cooperative with an annual turnover of $1.1bAUD. This group gave us a detailed list of out-of-the-ordinary topics, such as "biofertilisers not dependent on mined or otherwise unsustainable inputs", "fe...edlot supplies from development of pasture seeds through cropping, silage storage and remote computerised measurement of feed delivery within feedlots", and "discussions on non-GM soybean futures", among others. We provided the program over two states (Victoria and Queensland) and two of our associates accompanied the group to ensure everything went smoothly and to provide expert commentary between sites visited. The agent representing the cooperative has expressed his intention of bringing more groups to Australia for similarly detailed itineraries as soon as COVID19 restrictions on international travel are lifted. See more

08.01.2022 THE RIVERINA IS RICE and fish farms, malted grains, water markets, bioenergy production, jujubes, water management, automated farming, tree nuts, cotton ginning, food processing, soil microbiome enhancement, farm financing, biochar, flavour and aroma extraction, RAMSAR listed wetlands, liquorice, farm management techniques for growing climatic variability, regenerative farming techniques, art deco period and vernacular architecture, organic farming systems, different types of...Continue reading

07.01.2022 So far during March ATR has provided assistance to two quite different groups. One, a group of interested residents of the nearby town of Cootamundra, were taken to meet managers of fish farms, rice and cotton farms. We arranged for them to stay overnight at a very interesting farmstay cottage between Leeton and Griffith. The second group of five were from three universities (Tsukuba, Mie and Hiroshima Shudo) in Japan. (See picture below.) The group are writing a socio-economic geography textbook for senior high school students in Japan. They want to include a section on the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and its irrigated industries. We showed them walnuts, cotton, citrus and various sites associated with the region's rice industry. We hope to see some of them again later in the year.

05.01.2022 March and April are shaping up as important promotional months for Agricultural Tours Riverina. In March we will have a booth at a tourism marketplace held in Sydney by ATEC (Australian Tourism Export Council). Then in April we have a booth at the biggest tourism market in the southern hemisphere (ATE or Australian Tourism Exchange), held this year in Adelaide. More than 700 travel agencies attend to learn of tourism products they can offer their clients. 550 local tourist producers (including ATR) will display their wares to the buyer agencies and to 80 national and international media outlets. We look forward to attending our first ATE event.

05.01.2022 Early April John Collins and Thane Pringle accompanied 12 members of a Malaysian agricultural cooperative interested in knowing more about the Australian rice, citrus and olive oil industries. We collected them from Tullamarine airport in Melbourne and after technical visits in Finley, Jerilderie, Coleambally, Leeton and Yanco we waved goodbye to them 4 days later at Wagga Wagga. Cooks between Melbourne and Wagga Wagga asked to provide halal meals rose magnificently to the occasion and we ate royally the whole tour. Pics show members of the group at various stops along the way.

02.01.2022 Members of a Sydney Wine and Food Appreciation Society spent 6 days visiting the Riverina Wine Industry, and farms producing food normally associated with wine. February 2016

01.01.2022 Our June Newsletter is available at https://www.agriculturaltoursriverina.com.au/riverine-ag-t/. It features background information on Riverina industries, examines a new industry (barley malting combined with generation of biochar) and gives a short bio of popular ATR group tour guide, Thane Pringle.

01.01.2022 Australian farmers from the Liverpool Plains compare irrigation methods with farmers near Leeton NSW February 2016