Support for cattle sales plan

Bollon grazier Rob Moore developed the concept for a compulsory “eBay for cattle” portal last year and now has his Primary Production Pricing bill before the Department of Agriculture in Canberra for consideration.

He told graziers at a meeting in Cloncurry last Monday the first-in first-served trading platform idea was borne out of the need to bring competition, transparency and equal access back to markets.

Under the concept all secondary handlers – processors, live exporters, feedlotters – would list what they want in terms of quantity and specifications, plus the price they were willing to pay, so that growers were able to shop around.

Stud sales and saleyards transactions would remain separate from this system.

“The last thing I want to do is upset existing trading arrangements,” Mr Moore said. “If, say, Sid Kidman sells 3000 cull cows to Borthwicks every April, they can still be on the phone to each other as the listing takes place and an offer can be made there and then, if that’s what they want.”

A number of comments were thrown at Mr Moore through the meeting – the problem now is not enough kill space and too many cattle, since the boats have started again the prices are better, cattle aren’t like material that you can store, vertical integration systems adopted by the likes of MDH are the solution – but Mr Moore kept harking back to the need for producers to have control.

“Debt is the cancer behind all this – if you owe money you can’t get off the merry-go-round.

“Yes, prices might be better at the moment but it’s temporary. Wouldn’t you rather be in control?

“We won’t be in business unless we sort this out now – we can’t go another year with these sorts of prices.”

On the subject of supply and demand, Mr Moore said there had never been more demand for our meat than now and yet processors were “embarrassed with profit”.

“My system couldn’t make it worse,” he said. “All I want is a true market. If the true market is bad, then we all share it.”

When questioned on the role for stock agents if an offer board were set up, Mr Moore said that 80 per cent of cattle were going direct and buyers were only going to saleyards for a token appearance.

“If the game was up and people began hedging their bets, the trade would go back to 50:50.

“You can’t run out of cattle at Dinmore on a Thursday so people would start running up to Dalby or wherever, the price would go up, and that would be the yardstick reported, for everyone to use.

“Agents benefit from commissions that way, and from organising sales and trucks and ensuring people get paid, especially for those reluctant to use a computer.”

Member for Mount Isa Rob Katter attended the meeting and described the idea as giving strength to producers.

“I agree with the principle he’s outlined and even if it’s not successful, it’s not hard to implement and is low cost.

“It would have to be compulsory though – an opt-in scheme wouldn’t work.”

Response from graziers was generally supportive but unconvinced of the desire of government to change anything:

Kalinda Cluff, Blair Athol, Boulia: I’m totally supportive. We know there’s meat mafias but we have to sell to live. We’ve got to start somewhere but I’m not sure if politicians want to listen to us. Not many of us primary producers have the money to throw at it.

Martin Jennings, Mount Isa: I don’t condemn him for his ideas but this isn’t creating more competition, just transparency. When you’ve got cattle booked in for months, the bill won’t correct that. We need more players.

Mick Seymour, Camooweal and Tambo: It’s a tough one. The only way we can pull processors back is for no-one to sell them cattle for 100 days and that won’t happen. I was a processer, and I know it doesn’t cost what they say it does. We should get paid for the whole animal. This is all controlled by the big three – I hate to say it but they’ll be working out how to defeat this.

Rob Atkinson, Katandra, Hughenden: I congratulate Rob for having the fortitude to stand up and try and create more competition. Everyone whinges about the farm gate price but he’s having a crack. The main event now is the farm gate price – we can’t decrease our production prices much more. This is like AuctionsPlus in reverse. We buy our airfares over the computer, where we can compare and it’s easy.

Russell Pearson, Bull Creek, McKinlay: You can’t legislate for a free enterprise system. Prices were ruined by the live export shutdown putting a lot of cattle in the system, and when it rains it will come back to normal. I think it’s a cyclical thing, supply and demand. People should shop around anyway. The market will sort itself out, and I think this is rubbish.

Jacqueline Curley, Gipsy Plains, Cloncurry: I agree with Russell about the supply and demand, but for the first time in my life, I don’t have confidence in a long term price recovery. Farm gate prices can be assured if live export is there to put a floor in the market, but so many vested interests can pull that down, as we’ve seen. Cattlefacts in Australia, and Cattlefax in the US is a private version of what’s being talked about here and it’s a principle that works. I think Rob Moore’s bill has merit.