MEMBERS of the Pimelea Project will send a delegation to meet with Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) representatives after their application for funding was knocked back.
Almost $400,000 has been pledged to the research project which aims to develop a probiotic microbe, in the form of a drench, that can degrade the toxin in the rumen before it affects the small intestine.
The Pimelea Project, led by AgForce, was hoping pledged funds would be co-matched with a grant from a Research Development Corporation.
But due to the MLA being oversubscribed with funding applications the Pimelea Project application was declined.
A delegation will meet with MLA and outline the problem and need for Research and Development in a bid to keep the project alive.
Pimelea is a native, but poisonous seasonal plant, that causes symptoms of fluid swelling, diarrhoea and weight loss leading to constriction of the vessels taking blood from the lungs to the heart.
Producers describe it as the ‘cruelest death’.
Attendees of a Pimelea Project Update meeting at Roma in March competed a Pimelea Impact Survey with about 30 producers reporting an average business loss from Pimelea of $70,000 each.
Pimelea Project group member and Landmark stock agent Rod Turner said there were still people reporting calving losses of 20 to 40 per cent and the group would look to organise more field days from Injune to Dirranbandi.
“It’s expected it will continue to be a problem this winter,” he said.
“There is a lot of stress in it. I know my son on that property we have got south of Roma he said, ‘It gets that way Dad every time you see an ant hill your heart goes and you think there’s another dead one’.”
Member for Warrego Ann Leahy and Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Member for Burdekin, Dale Last visited affected properties last week.
Mr Last said he would begin talks with MLA and both levels of government with a view to have funding put aside for research and development.
“All these producers have actually put their money where their mouth is and have stumped up some considerable amount for funding to contribute towards research and development,” he said.
“It’s particularly devastating for producers given that the cattle prices are at historically high levels.
“Here I am standing in a beautiful paddock of buffel that most producers would give their eyeteeth for and they can’t use it because it is inundated with Pimelea.”