“It doesn’t take rocket science to recognise an unworkable, costly system that will do nothing to help cattle producers”.
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These frustrated words come from Boonah-based Brahman breeder Jan Delroy, who has started a “No to J-BAS” petition and calls for the new biosecurity system not to be implemented.
“I’m currently in a position where a cattleman would like to buy my heifers but he wants to be a J-BAS score 7 and I feel taking on a J-BAS 7 will be to costly for me and would prefer a J-BAS score 6, so therefore I can’t sell him my heifers and that’s a market closed to my smaller Brahman stud already,” Ms Delroy said.
To tackle her concerns head-on and see if other cattle producers felt the same, Ms Delroy started an online “No to J-BAS” petition at www.change.org/p/cattle-council-of-australia-no-to-j-bas this week.
“In an ideal world I would love to see the end of this J-BAS system and I thought it was a quick, easy way to try and get the word out so people actually know it’s happening,” she said.
But, Cattle Council of Australia’s biosecurity advisor Justin Toohey cautions livestock producers who aren’t directly impacted by Bovine Johne's disease (JD) about dismissing the new J-BAS scheme.
“Johne’s disease is immaterial to most cattle producers, especially if they send their cattle direct to slaughter because it’s not a food safety issue, but for those cattle operations in Australia who are involved in the live export trade the J-BAS (score) gives them a tool to help keep JD away from their herd,” Mr Toohey said.
“While JD has a minimal economic impact on a cattle herd it does have potential trade implications.”
Mr Toohey said JD could have a major negative economic impact on our nation’s live export livestock trade.
Ms Delroy’s online petition currently has 17 signatures with a plan to present the Cattle Council of Australia with the final document in the coming months.
“There is a lot of cattle producers around our area who don’t even know J-BAS is happening yet,” she said.
“All of a sudden there’s new obligations being imposed on Queensland cattle producers and the word isn’t getting out to those people impacted by the new JD self regulated scheme.”
Mr Toohey concedes communicating the message about a JD management scheme has been challenging, but firmly supports self regulated conveying of JD status from property to property.
“If a livestock producer wants to know the disease status of the animal they’re buying, they needed some sort of standard in which they can get that information passed to them, so we developed the J-BAS tool,” he said.
“The J-BAS was designed to be truly and simply a national scheme, deregulation across the country, and property to property transfer of information with the livestock.
“What’s made it an issue has been the ongoing regulation in WA and then their late pickup of J-BAS as the tool to use as part of their regulation.”
Mr Toohey added he believes livestock producers will embrace J-BAS as understanding of the new scheme increases.
The “No to J-BAS’ petition is currently online.
The Cattle Council of Australia and Animal Health Australia have information on the current J-BAS scheme.
