The Caamaño family have seen their fair share of farming’s ups and downs over the last 40-plus years. From farming vegetables, citrus, and now coffee in Queensland’s Far North, Debbie, José and family have seen cyclones, frosts and everything in between.

The wheels are turning on the Skilled to Drive program that will see 10 Lockyer Valley locals trained, licenced, and farm-ready within 10 weeks.

Across the state, growers continue to invest in improving soil health, minimising erosion and sediment runoff, and increasing nutrient and pesticide efficiency, supporting both productive farming systems and better environmental outcomes.

Farming comes with enough uncertainty. From crops, staff, machinery, audits, and getting produce to market, it can be difficult to take a step back and ask: “Where are we now? Where do we want to be? And how do we get there?”

Throughout 2025, 130 horticulture growers across the Great Barrier Reef Catchment - from Gympie in the south to Tolga and Mareeba in the north - rolled up their sleeves for hands-on, peer-to-peer workshops focused on sharpening pest management practices.

Strong attendance from Lockyer Valley farm owners, operators and Human Resources representatives at the recent Getting Farm Safety Right training event in Gatton shows that growers understand their responsibility to lead from the front on safety.

Growers and industry stakeholders from the Wide Bay-Burnett and Central Queensland regions hit the road in October for the ‘Pest, Dirt & Fert’ Study Tour that provided insights not only on farming practices, but across the supply chain.

When it comes to growing Queensland’s agricultural workforce, women are stepping up – and a new initiative is giving them the skills and confidence to thrive.

For many young families, buying a home in the suburbs comes with dreams of renovations or extensions. For young farming families like Dimbulah papaya growers Ben Bozzo and Jaime Smith, those dreams look a little different. Their reno project was re-laying 3.3 kilometres of ageing irrigation pipe.

When it comes to mother nature, Queenslanders tend to keep one eye on the sky and the other on the forecast. The state’s severe weather season – which extends from October through to April – can bring the full gamut of extreme weather events from heatwaves and bushfires to floods and cyclones.

Twin Bull Kauri pine trees, with their six-metre-round trunks, stretch nearly 50 metres into the air amongst the lush rainforest that surrounds Lake Barrine. They’ve stood there for a thousand years.

When talking to job seekers about farm work, picking and packing roles are often the first that come to mind. However, once all that fresh produce is harvested, it must be transported off-farm and those are important jobs too.

Since May last year, nearly 480 English-language students at TAFE Queensland’s Toowoomba Campus have been introduced to the world of agriculture through Growcom’s Agri-Connect program. This opportunity has given students a chance to sample a career in agriculture and see the diversity of employment opportunities available.

Growers in the Lockyer, Bremer and Pumicestone catchments are leading the way in land stewardship, with their efforts prompting the Queensland Government to extend funding for the South East Queensland Horticultural Best Management Practice (BMP) Incentive Program.

Protected cropping offers a controlled environment to nurture some of our most delicate and valuable horticulture crops, but it takes infrastructure, technical expertise, and can present challenges around pollination as well as input costs and intensity.

From fresh-picked strawberries to high-tech tractors, the journey from paddock to plate relies on an incredible mix of skills, smarts, and dedication. But ask most young people what it means to “work on a farm,” and chances are they’ll say, “picking and packing.”

Everything Ag is flipping that script.

Across Southeast Queensland, a quiet but powerful shift is underway. From Kalbar to Mount Sylvia, local farmers are making smart, sustainable changes that go beyond increasing yields - they’re actively protecting the waterways that run through their communities and into Moreton Bay.

As a grower, you are your business.

You know it all – from the soil, to the lay of your land, who to call when that tractor plays up, even everyone’s wages.

But what happens if you’re suddenly off-farm? Whether it’s due to illness, injury, a natural disaster, or simply on a long-overdue holiday. How would your business carry on without you?

Far North Queensland growers are no strangers to nature’s challenges. But when Ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper swept through in late 2023, it left damage and disruption that would rattle even the most experienced farmer.

Growers recently came together in Goomboorian with a shared goal: building healthier soil for stronger, more resilient crops.