Eliza Spencer
@amelizajane.bsky.social
370 followers 210 following 250 posts
Journalist at The Land, Ngunnawal-Canberra via Wiradjuri-Cowra 📩 [email protected] / [email protected] 🌾 she/her seedisclaimer.com
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amelizajane.bsky.social
Very grateful to have been awarded the Star Prize for Rural Writing with NSW Farm Writers in Sydney last week, for my feature article "Green and Gold: how a farming community responds when miners come to town." 🧵
amelizajane.bsky.social
October is Mental Health Month and, as always, looking after your brain and body is a big topic in #AusAg.

I made the ring around to some good folks to hear more about how they look after themselves each day, to tackle the bad days and the good.

www.theland.com.au/story/908283...

#AgSky
Speak up, reach out: how Aussie farmers look after their mental health
Hear from four ag advocates on how they look after their minds on farm.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
Baby dhalarug-wattlebird! 🐣 So confident and not at all afraid to scream at me for food
A baby yellow wattlebird, dhalarug in Wiradjuri.
amelizajane.bsky.social
Two years after farmers, rural advocates, Traditional Owners, environmental activists and trade unions marched on NSW Parliament, the Narrabri Gas Project is back in the headlines.

Their message is the same: no coal seam gas in Ag communities

#AusAg #AgSky

www.theland.com.au/story/9083291/
'Unconscionable cost': farmers slam Premier's renewed support for gas
NSW Farmers, Farmers for Climate Action and CWA say no to Narrabri.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
Is this the first (successful) faba bean crop in the Southern Tablelands? 🤔

According to a fair few farmers who visited Tirranna, near Goulburn, for a Tablelands Farming Systems field day, it might be!

www.theland.com.au/story/9077793/

#AusAg #AgSky #FabaBeans
New ventures as farmers test faba, dual-purpose crops for profit and purpose
One family has transformed cropping systems to provide choices in tough times.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
It's a good day for news when a regional roads story has 8 other links to rural roads reporting 🛣️🚗

A welcome reprieve for regional road users, but there's still a multi-billion-dollar repair bill for council roads. It's a long way to go!

www.theland.com.au/story/907710...
Funding announced to repair more than 20 regional roads: is yours included?
See which state roads will benefit from new repair works across NSW.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
#BREAKING biosecurity news: NSW has a first-ever Biosecurity Action Plan with set targets across six areas.

It's been a long time coming, and we'll be updating this piece with reactions from Biosec and Ag experts throughout the day.

www.theland.com.au/story/9068973/

#AusAg #AgSky #Biosecurity
First-ever biosec action plan launched for NSW to tackle growing threat
Upgrades to biosecurity research and more jobs are on the table.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
DAFF have released this image of what to look out for in new and used nappies - pictured here on grains of rice.
A tiny khapra beetle smaller than a grain of rice and a larger brown larvae about the size of a grain of rice.
amelizajane.bsky.social
Pour one out for the parents being asked to check nappies new and used for any bugs 🤮
amelizajane.bsky.social
📣 Check your nappies! 🪲

In big biosecurity news, a bug that can decimate stored grain crops by up to 70pc has been found in nappies stocked at Woolworths.

If you have a little one or know a friend who buys Little One's value pack in size 5, spread the word!

www.theland.com.au/story/9067835/
Khapra beetle found in nappy pants, biosecurity battle to keep pest out
The beetle is the major exotic pest threat to Aussie croppers.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
Alrightly #AgSky and #AusAg - any NSW farmers, ag researchers or otherwise ag-related folks want to chat about the National Climate Risk Assessment and what it means?

It's gotta be NSW specific for The Land, but my DMs and emails are open 📬 [email protected]
amelizajane.bsky.social
Huge news over at ANU today.
drdemography.com
BREAKING | ANU staff in the College of Arts and Social Sciences have received a Cease Work Order due to dangerous working conditions. Under the WHS Act staff will be paid while this order is in place. The order seeks to protect lives and wellbeing.
N
E
T
U
National Tertiary Education Union
Cease Work Order in CASS A CASS Health and Safety Representative
(HSR) has ordered that unsafe work cease due to psychosocial hazards and psychological injury resulting from Renew ANU
NTEU is supporting the HSR and members in CASS.
This email contains information on your rights in this situation
amelizajane.bsky.social
On farm butchers can slaughter an animal, process it metres away from where it was raised, customise cuts and save costs ... except there's a catch. The industry is unregulated in NSW, and commercial sales are banned.

Read all about it 👇

www.theland.com.au/story/9066165

#AgSky #AusAg
Modern home kills bring the butcher to the back door: but there's a catch
It's a common practice on farm, could this cottage industry grow?
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
📣 Girls to the front - AMIC's Apprentice of the Year has seen some stiff competition from women butchers, including one farmer who decided to take matters into her own hands. 🥩

Turns out, there's a lot more that goes on between paddock to plate!

#AusAg #AgSky

www.theland.com.au/story/9063584
Home kills to butcher's block: farmer turned butcher fights for top honours
The AMIC Apprentice of the Year competition is underway in Sydney.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
Two years of eczema medication finally headed to sharps disposal today, these two full containers represent $760 of scripts under the PBS, or $42,240 without PBS. 💰

That's a 2 year supply for less than 1 private script!

(Plus, the disposal container was free from the NUAA as a rural resident)
A large yellow sharps disposal container  and a taped up container, both of which hold used medical needles.
amelizajane.bsky.social
And in some ✨personal news✨ Bea, Ed and the Litchfields very warmly welcomed me when I was covering my first ever bull sale back in autumn.

Six months on, and with a lot more experience, it's a joy to come back to Cooma to celebrate 160 years.

www.theland.com.au/story/9059317/

#AgSky #AusAg
Interstate buyers dominate sales at Hazeldean Angus for 160th anniversary
Buyers from Vic, SA and Qld joined a strong showing of locals.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
So damn proud to be part of The Land's FIRST live blog today 🎉

Absolutely massive day for livestock sales across the state, and it's still going at nearly 8pm. Bulls, rams, and balls, it's been all adrenaline and quick maths since midday.

#AgSky #AusAg

www.theland.com.au/story/905860...
Catch up on all the big sales that happened right across the state
Journalists will be providing updates from sales across NSW.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
Huge W for Australia
brocklesnitch.bsky.social
Everyone Paris Paloma has a new song coming out and the intro is my loser headline and it’s spoken by EMMA THOMPSON 🚨🚨🚨 and she knows who I am
amelizajane.bsky.social
Pleased to report fermenting invasive species for liquid biofertiliser is far less smelly than I thought. Could we soon see farms with fert barrels for pigs, foxes and fish?

#AusAg #AgSky #BioFert

www.theland.com.au/story/9054411
Fermenting foes: pests turned to liquid biofertiliser in farm pilot program
Fermenting fish in a barrel: it's less smelly than you may think.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
Dipped my toe back into charity writing to share one of my favourite things about the Cowra Saleyards: the social enterprise running the kiosk.

"When [participants] get a bit self-conscious, we just wrap our arms around them, and say come on in."

www.theland.com.au/story/9053074/

#AusAg #AgSky
Step inside the saleyard kiosk that cooks up opportunity alongside a burger
Once a week, a post-sale snack can give back to this rural community.
www.theland.com.au
amelizajane.bsky.social
Early bird gets the worm (or the carp) or something like that. 🪱 🐟

One carp story coming up, after coffee.
Snapshots of a story showing its creation at 5:49am and edits through to nearly 7am.
amelizajane.bsky.social
It's antibiotics and painkillers from here until the rest of the splinter yeets itself from under the nail 🫠
amelizajane.bsky.social
Three hours and three doses of local later, the damned splinter is still in, but thankfully still have a fingernail. Big ups to CSU for having rural medicine students in Cowra, love to see it!
Eliza looks tired and stressed with a gauze on a finger.
amelizajane.bsky.social
Not Good Game Hex 😔 RIP to a real one
amelizajane.bsky.social
Redhead v local anaesthetic: double dosed up and still have feeling in the finger, whoops.
A hand wrapped in gauze.