With agricultural commodities booming, property prices continued to rise.
In July the big news story for Queensland Country Life readers online was that Mundubbera's Rodney and Megan Dingle were the new owners of Tambo district property Bexhill.
They set a stunning district record of $691 an acre, or $1710 a hectare when the property was sold at auction.
The Santa Gertrudis breeders, one of seven active bidders at the AuctionsPlus sale, paid $8.3m for the 4863ha (12,010 acres) freehold property 37 kilometres west of Tambo.
Selling agent, Tim Ludgate described it as an incredible result for vendors Geoff and Cassie Swanson.
"That price exceeded our expectations - we are all over the moon," he said.
The opening bid of $6m meant that the property was on the market from the start.
The state's Agriculture and Fisheries Department said the Queensland dog caught the disease after it had travelled with its owners through Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The tick-borne disease, which has a high mortality rate, was found in Queensland in January but that was from three dogs which travelled to Queensland from the Territory.
This was the first local case.
Readers were also getting a kick out of the use of humble and gentle-natured mules in feedlots to improve safety for pen riding and cattle movement.
The longevity, lower feed demands and fewer maintenance costs of mules compared to horses could also provide solid efficiency gains.
It was thought the new additions to the feedlot stable could spark big opportunities for breeders of saddle riding sized mules in Australia.
Livestock supervisor at B Feeders, Rodgers Creek, Kelly Dudley, who was in charge of 10,000 head of cattle and ten staff, had been trialing mules for two years and says they are a sound economical alternative to horses, with the ability to significantly cut down the potential for accidents.
Now Australia's largest privately-owned cattle lot feeder, Mort & Co, has kicked off a five-animal pilot program to investigate the use of mules across their operations.
Cotton Australia CEO Adam Kay said the interstate road trains were a regular sight at that time of year and would continue to be part of the landscape until a gin near Katherine was built.
"The Northern Territory typically plants before the wet season, so sometime in December, and then picks it around this time of year," Mr Kay said.
"It's just the start of an industry and I think once the cotton gin is developed, we'll see more people have a go at cotton up there.
"It'd be costing them $200 a bale to transport it from up there to the gin, and on a bale that's worth $580, that's a lot of money to spend on transporting.
"If you had a cotton gin there, that would be $200 a bale that would be going into your hip pocket. That's the reason why some of the farmers up there are so keen to see a gin developed."
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