VIEWS ON BEEF
QUESTION: Outline some key emerging entries to the beef trade. What is their value to the wider industry?
ANSWER: Increasing international demand for protein and the high-quality beef we produce here in Australia means that our industry can – and should have – a bright future.
A key strength of our industry is our disease free, ‘clean, green’ image, and showcasing our sustainability is only going to become more important to meet the changing expectations of our customers and stakeholders.
One of the best ways we can do that is through the Grazing Best Management Practices Program (Grazing BMP).
Grazing BMP is designed to assist producers to improve their long term productivity, profitability and sustainability in the areas of grazing land management, soil health, animal health and welfare, animal production, and people and business.
It enables producers to confidentially benchmark their business against the best industry standards using the best available science to identify and implement opportunities for improvement.
About 1800 producers across Queensland managing more than 28 million hectares of land have adopted Grazing BMP, and it’s been exciting to see how producers like the Hughes family have used the program to improve and enhance their business.
The Hughes family have a ‘paddock to plate’ business with grazing properties throughout central and southern Queensland and supply beef direct to the consumer through their company, Rangeland Quality Meats.
The Hughes’ viewed accreditation through Grazing BMP as a way of “getting on the front foot” to showcase their sustainable farm practices to consumers who are becoming more interested in where their food comes from and how it is produced.
AgForce is currently in discussions with a number of organisations that represent the supply chain and financial institutions in using the Grazing BMP and accreditation to underpin their claims of sustainable beef production.
AgForce is currently in discussions with a number of organisations that represent the supply chain and financial institutions in using the Grazing BMP and accreditation to underpin their claims of sustainable beef production.
Having gone through the Grazing BMP process myself recently, I can attest to the fact that it is a great way to put every aspect of your business under the microscope.
Continued advances in digital technology is also emerging as a critical factor in ensuring our industry remains competitive and efficient.
Frictionless supply chain information transfer will reduce costs in the system, save time and improve traceability from paddock to plate.
Customers are demanding more information about the product they are buying and we are working across the supply chain to deliver this.
Whether it is through NLIS tags, DEXA technology or geofencing, to name just a few examples, individual animal data will become the norm.
Electronic National Vendor Declarations (eNVDs) are the start of an easier pathway for industry to complete all industry declarations, enhance traceability and manage compliance.
In the future, block chain – which is essentially a public, decentralised digital ledger – offers tremendous benefits to producers allowing for the development of end-to-end supply chain provenance and increasing their market share of the final sales price.
For our beef industry here in Australia, which prides itself on adopting the best production standards and methods in the world to produce some of the best beef in the world, these new technologies can only help us showcase our case to our customers locally and internationally.