Meat and Livestock Australia Web Site

[farmers_son]

I am passing along this message I received from Meat and Livestock Australia.

This new website is an excellent source of information and worth checking out. It is remarkable to see what Australia can do with a mandatory $5 checkoff. It is very obvious to me how the Aussies have gained a competitive advantage over Canada as a beef exporting nation while Alberta bickers and ditheres over checkoff refundability. Meanwhile Australia promotes their industry with a mandatory check off yet is able to import beef into Canada without paying a checkoff equivalent to $1 per head into our industry to promote Canadian beef. This is because the Alberta Stelmach Government cannot or will not commit to being part of a mandatory national check off. We are not able to charge beef importing nations a check off because the Stelmach government is standing in the way of a national check off for Canadian producers.

Begin of Paste:

MLA has just launched its new and improved member website www.mla.com.au

More than 4,500 members and other stakeholders assisted with the development of the site, which now provides simple and efficient access to a host of new features including:

Market information hub
Timely and accurate market information

On-farm tools and information
Tools, calculators and guides for a broad range of production issues

Red meat industry facts
The facts about the red meat industry's credentials in environmental management, animal husbandry and feeding the community

Weather centre
Search for national, regional and local weather, including current conditions, forecasts and the radar

[Happytrails]

Very impressive web site by people who take their business seriously. Two things jumped out at me. First that the LPA (livestock production assurance) program is voluntary and second that our traceability system is certainly equal to or better than theirs (at least in AB, SK where livestock inspectors record cattle movement).

[smcgrath76]

Welcome back FS. While I don't
necessarily agree with mandatory
checkoff without a clear demonstration
of value, I do think that the Aussies
run circles around us when it comes to
being serious about international trade,
effective regulation (firm and fast) and
commitment to the beef industry. They
have a long term governmental approach
to market development, research and
development and basing decisions on
customer needs/wants. They also have
the advantage that they are not next
door to the largest consumer market in
the world, so dumping product based on a
lower price due to currency differences
is not an option. I think this has led
to a much stronger, value driven
industry than we have in Canada.

[farmers_son]

I do not want to give the impression that I am "back". My wife would object. However did want to let people know about the Aussie site.

[DaneG]

sort of ironic how the have not provinces will have to take up the slack for alberta's refundable nco.

[Kathy]

As I understood things, Australia is big on shipping
"Live" animals, especially to those countries in
which the population has little access to
refrigerators.

It would be beneficial to any producer, if he could
just send his cattle to the port of call and load them
on a boat to their customer. You'll note below that
their main live exports go to the Middle East and
Asia. These "warm" countries have not lost their
local butcher shops, like we have (thanks to the
harassment of CFIA).

One Aussie (who raises sheep and cattle down
under) informed us that when the animals die on
board the transport (boat)... they are thrown over-
board for the sharks (which follow the boats). Not
to sure how the shark manage eating all that wool.

Maybe Canada should look at shipping more in the
way of live animals... to these regions. Australia
has a geographic advantage, yes.

from the website in AU:

"Australia is the world's leading supplier of high
quality live cattle, sheep and goats to countries
around the world, in particular the Middle East and
Asia. Many countries across these regions do not
have the resources or geography to efficiently
produce enough livestock to feed their population.
Australia meets the demand for essential red met
protein by exporting livestock for food production
and breeding, as well as chilled and frozen meat
products.

Transporting livestock:

Australia exports livestock by sea and air. The
industry is recognised as having the world's highest
animal welfare standards for livestock export.
Australian live export operates under strict
regulations and is committed to maintaining
Australia's world leading reputation."

[grassfarmer]

Believe me Kathy you don't want to go down the live shipping route - it's a media image disaster. We had this in the UK with the "farmers ferry" shipping live lambs to continental Europe after the commercial ferry companies refused to handle the live animal trade - to much bad press, ports blockaded by animal rights people etc.

The media in N America maybe doesn't pick up the stories of the Australian boats laden with sheep that get turned away from the docks in the Middle East due to a supposed disease risk or a trade dispute. Thousands of animals on a boat in 100 F temperatures with their food running out. I've seen the stories and it ain't pretty. It's a primitive, lowest common denominator type of trade that doesn't have much future. Thankfully this is only a small part of Australia's export industry.

[Kathy]

According to my Aussie friend it was a very
common method of delivery of meat. aka Australia
is the world leader in exporting live animals.

Since we own land only suitable (most years) for
grazing... I am in the business of turning grass into
meat. Now that the AB government has passed Bill
36, what we will see is "other industries" getting
priority over agriculture, and water.

Our region, is cattle and oil, and an ATCO High
Voltage DC 500kV is soon to go through here.
Unless open pit mining comes to our property, we
will continue to be in the grass to beef industry.

Don't think you understand the reasoning for the
"traceability" program; its disease control for the
movement of "live animals", (superficially anyways).
As more and more 'native' Canadian/Albertan
ranchers retire and sell out, the buyers will be
foreign multinational corps. who have no qualms
transporting these animals by ship. I don't think
they'd have much protesting at Chinese ports.

[grassfarmer]

The Chinese maybe wouldn't protest but the folks in Vancouver would. It's always at the point of loading in the more developed country that the protests take place. Google "Australia sheep exports" to see the problem - "savethesheep.com", "liveexport-indefensible.com", liveexportshame.com,animalliberation.org.
- this is not somewhere we want to go with our livestock sector.

[smcgrath76]

I agree with GF on this one. One hard
lesson we have learned through BSE is
the difference in value between beef and
cattle. We can argue and work on who
owns the beef and how it gets processed,
but I don't think we want to start
shipping cattle. That puts us back
firmly into the bed we have been
building for the last 40 years.
exporting jobs, exporting value and
becoming dependent upon foreign
nations/multinationals to add value to
our product...