News

More frequently sheared pregnant sheep are more active, have lower stress levels and produce lambs with finer wool, according to University of Queensland research.

First carrots and now capsicum have been identified as good for your eyes – and it is the nutrient linked to the orange colour that counts.

Researchers investigating the heritage of thousands of rice varieties have identified just two distinct maternal lineages, a discovery which could help address the issue of global food security.

Few southern beef producers will have encountered the parasitic buffalo fly (Haematobia irritans exigua), a scourge of the northern cattle industry – but maintaining this state of affairs, and also lifting a burden off the northern industry, has become a race against time, and climate.

Better understanding plants’ complex environmental and food-producing roles is the focus of a new global research program being led by The University of Queensland.

Discover how UQ researchers are contributing to some of the biggest challenges the world faces – the health of our communities, and environments; the quality and quantity of food available; abundant clean energy; and sustainable economies.

It may seem a little hard to swallow but the larvae of a waste-eating fly could become a new alternative protein source for humans, according to a University of Queensland scientist.
Professor Louw Hoffman said black soldier fly’s larvae, which was already utilised for animal feed, was a high quality protein.

What we farm, how we farm, where we farm and even what we have known for eons as food, is changing. Agriculture, globally, is on the cusp of its next technology revolution. It is an exciting and challenging time and one that Queensland and Australia have been positioned to drive and to profit from because of an historic, strategic, decision made a decade ago.

After an international search, and considering a very competitive field of applicants, it gives me great pleasure to announce Dr Matthew Morell FTSE as the next Director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI).

Overall, the crop outlook for the state as a whole will finish below average. Specifically, SWQ and SEQ have yield outcomes ranked in the bottom 25% of all years and yield departures of -27% and -19% from the long-term median, respectively. Conversely, CQ has yield outcomes close to the long-term expectation (39th percentile and -6% below the long-term median).

There is always a chance for a grower to move into something entirely unexpected, and that’s what coming out of a five-year cross-industry project providing research into more appealing varieties of sweet corn, strawberries and macadamias.

Profitability is linked to fertility of cows for northern beef enterprises and can be substantially improved with new breeding methods based on cutting-edge genome technology. The use of genome data is beginning to drive up the fertility of Australia’s northern cattle herds. Differences in fertility can mean up to three extra calves over a cow’s lifetime, so potential gains are large.

This research project developed an industry research framework to evaluate the potential to expand horticultural industries in Northern Australia. This final report explores three major research themes – supply intelligence, market intelligence and supply chain intelligence – as key priorities for action. 

The secret of how fibre shapes the structure of plant cell walls has been revealed, with potentially wide-ranging applications ranging from nutrition and health to agriculture.

University of Queensland PhD student Chris O’Brien has developed the first critical steps to create a cryopreservation protocol for avocado which had never been achieved until now, despite more than 40 years of research.