The first full day of the Australian Livestock Markets Association (ALMA) National Saleyards Expo being held in Rockhampton provided members with a plethora of industry-related information, with the varied range of topics detailing everything from solar infrastructure to how foot and mouth disease will be combated if it ever reaches our shores.
ALMA chair Steve Loane welcomed the delegates for the official start of the expo.
“We had a big spread of delegates from all over the nation here today, who received vital information from a host of presenters during an extremely interesting day of panel topics,” he said.
Member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, officially opened the expo and said it was “an honour” for ALMA to choose Rockhampton as the location for the seventh annual expo.
“Rockhampton owes its past and present fortunes to the beef industry, and we’re proud to tell visitors that CQLX is the largest stud selling venue in the Southern Hemisphere,” she said.
She said Australia is the sixth largest consumer of beef worldwide, and exported cattle and beef products to 84 countries globally for $8.5b in 2015/16.
“Saleyards are an important contributor to that figure, and the various venues across the nation provide great marketing opportunities for producers to return more dollars to their pockets.”
ALMA Southern field officer Mike Atwell presided over the saleyard managers panel, with Doc Morrison, Gunnedah, Paul Martin, Wagga, Chris Dahlenburg, Hamilton, Ned Coombs, Gracemere and Stewart Smith, Mt Barker, providing a regional roundup up of the recent successes they’ve achieved, and the challenges they’re facing.
Australian Saleyards Managers Association (ASMA) president Jeff White said in the last 12 months he’s attended ALMA meetings in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra “and it has been an honour to represent saleyard managers”.
“We need to continue to have input to truly make ALMA a national body.”
He said current issues and challenges ASMA are focussed on include: ensuring biosecurity protocols are being met with in relation to stock in transit to and from the saleyards, the importance of saleyard inductions being carried out, and the need to secure more ASMA members.
“ALMA and ASMA need to be more proactive in raising our profiles, though the media and other avenues, we need to look at and promote our future path.”
Western Downs Regional Council's Ray Brown spoke about the benefits the Dalby Saleyards upgrades have created.
Dalby is the third largest selling center in Australia with 206,000 head (4300 per week) entering the facility during the last financial year.
“The renovated facility was officially opened in April 2015 after receiving $12.6m in upgrades funded by Local and State Government,” he said.
The business achieved a profit of more than $500,000 last year, and Mr Brown said he’s proud of the Dalby facility, and the many councils that have helped it grow.
He said saleyard managers have to be ahead of the game when it comes to technology, need to network, and make sure vendors are looked after.
“We need to value add to our animals, work with our neighbours in the industry, and make sure we’re all working together so there is better gain for everybody.”
MSA operations manager Hayley Robinson discussed MSA pathways and training options for saleyards through Meat and Livestock Australia.
“What we’ve found though community engagement is that people are willing to pay for a high quality product,” she said.
“In 1999 we found there was a huge issue with beef consumption among consumers, as their was almost a 50 per cent chance people were buying inferior quality meat.”
Ms Robinson said the MSA Paddock to Plate quality system, takes the guesswork out of buying meat for the consumer.
“We surveyed over 100,000 people in eight countries, and asked them to rate the meat they tried on tenderness, juiciness, flavour and overall liking from 0 to 100, and then tick if it was unsatisfactory, good everyday, better than everyday or premium, which is how we developed the rating system.”
Major factors impacting beef eating quality: breed content, physiological age (quality of life), fat cover, the way the animal is hung, marbling and Ph.
She said the MSA index helps producers makes informed decisions, as its a universal system, so they can benchmark at a local, state and/or national level.
Chris Ruberg from Meat and Livestock Australia detailed his work with automated objective carcass scanning - DEXA.
“We’re all working together for success, and the evolution of automation, objective measurements, and consistent and transparent value chain data will help bolster that,” he said.
The potential gross benefits of objective measurements will amount to $420m annually by 2030.”
“With the technology you can measure more precisely making it easier to differentiate your products.
“DEXA provides much more precise fat percentage measurements than currently used tech like P8 for beef, and it adds efficiency to processing.”
“we’re now running trials on live animals to make them as accurate as carcase results.
Australian Solar Council president Steve Blume said solar is the cheapest energy available.
“We have a massively growing energy storage market, and commercial solar infrastructure is now 90pc cheaper than in 2009,” he said.
He said most systems have a 25 year operating period, and provide a great way to save on energy costs for saleyards where they can be mounted on rooftops, as standalone infrastructure or over steel yards, which has the added benefit of providing shade for livestock.
“The beauty of it is that solar uses regional energy, creating regional employment and local contracts.”
National Saleyard Quality Assurance Inc (NQSA) president Ian O’Loan, detailed the 2017 set of standards introduced by the body – which ensures everything going through saleyards is clean and residue free – to reflect changes in industry, and to protect the welfare of animals being transported
He said the NSQA audit process is now a two part process.
“The first step is an internal audit to be completed by the saleyard a month prior to the AUS-MEAT onsite audit.
“The on-site third party audit is conducted using the revised NSQA audit checklist which has been released inline with updated standards.”
He said the main changes are that the checklist now includes biosecurity components, an ID and traceability focus and an animal welfare component.
During the day he presented Dalby Saleyards’ Ray Brown with his accreditation certificate after its successful internal audit on June 29.
“They got up to speed very quickly, they’ve done a sterling job, and are now compliant, it’s an absolute credit to systems they have in place.”
Meat and Livestock Australia Data Intelligence manager Damon Holmes provided a market update and Australian herd predictions for beef and sheep during his presentation.
He said the national cattle herd is at a 20 year low and though there are signs of recovery, the supply will continue to be tight.
“It’s expected that the recovery in Northern Australia will be slower, and the south will be the engine room of the rebuild, as it’s much easier for them to turnaround down there, with dependable rain,” he said.
He said the cattle kill has been limited by low herd numbers and the intent to rebuild, which has also led to lower female slaughter.
“We’re expecting a sharp dropoff in turnoff for 2017 with a slight rise over each of the next several years. Producers are holding females now, and calves aren’t expected to hit the ground into early next season.
“The national sheep flock has levelled out in last five to six years, and lamb slaughter is the most stable it has ever been, prices will remain strong.”
He said stable supply should assist in reducing price volatility, with the stability expected to last over the next five years.
NLIS Limited Chief Operating Officer, Jo Quigley, provided a introduction to the recently formed Integrity Systems Company (a subsidiary of MLA) and detailed the programs and initiatives it manages.
A key recommendation of the SAFEMEAT initiatives review, Integrity Systems Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Meat and Livestock Australia and is charged with growing red meat value chain opportunities through integrity and information system innovations.
She also highlighted the benefits of the Electronic National Vendor Declaration System (eNVD) for saleyards, feedlots, processors and producers, and the changes that will take effect from October 1, 2017 in relation to the Livestock Production Assurance system (LPA).
“Two new elements will be introduced: on-farm biosecurity and animal welfare practices,” she said.
“LPA-accredited producers will need to complete an assessment every three years, and as part of a new funding model, producers will pay $66 for LPA accrediation every three years.”
She said new online learning modules are available now to upskill producers.
Wellard general manager – China, Bernie Brosnan, said tough times lie ahead for the Australian live export industry with 2017 numbers expected to be down considerably.
“The current end of year expectation is for 250,000 to 300,000 head to be exported,” he said
Mr Brosnan said contributing factors for the decline include a strong run of record beef prices in Australia, which has led to a supply and demand imbalance for the past 18 months, the strength oof the $AUD versus the $USD is too high at present (it needs to be below 70c), and the inability of exporters and importers to pass on price to the consumer due to the cheaper protein options available such as Indian buffalo meat, chicken pork and fish.
“Changes to government policies in importing countries is also playing a part, such as Indonesia introducing price capping, the importation of Indian buffalo meat and their self-sufficiency program.
“It’s the worst trading conditions for live exporters at present since the 1997/98 Asian crash, and it doesn’t look like it will improve in the near future, unfortunately.”
Queensland chief veterinary officer Dr Allison Crook, gave the final presentation for the day and focussed on the systems already in place in case Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) ever manages to reach our shores, and how it can be avoided in the first place.
“FMD effects multiple species, including anything with cloven hooves, and the virus spreads quickly,” she said.
Dr Crook said risk pathways are open to Australia through overseas trade, and are dynamic and increasing.
“Animals don’t die from FMD disease, it causes loss of production. It’s a disease caused by trade, and if we have to deal with it in Australia it will create a national emergency.”
“A small outbreak (less than 10 properties) in North Queensland for example would cost $6b to contain over a decade, and a large multi-state outbreak would cost $52b over the same period.”
She said we need to aim to protect from infection over cleaning up an infection after it reaches our shores, and preparedness planning is the key to success.
“The threat provides strong encouragment for producers and saleyards to have good biosecurity measures in place.”