Richard Norton’s decision to leave Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) at the end of this year will disappoint many staff and stakeholders as during his tenure he drove change, transparency and accountability to a level that would be admired in most corporate organisations. Have no doubt he did upset some stakeholders with his bold approach to challenging the status quo and his relentless commitment to lift the prosperity of the industry for which he has an intense passion.
There has been many significant outcomes during his five-year tenure, one of which was industry adoption of DEXA being objective carcase measurement technology across the processing sector. At the time, some industry identities were offended at the way he determinedly pursued its adoption. Richard knew it was right for industry and accelerated the implementation, which will be of significant benefit to all stakeholders.
His approach for the red meat industry was that “The consumer is king” and he was fiercely protective of “Brand Australia” internationally. That is a positive for all of us, particularly the industry levy paying producers.
Richard commences with Elders Limited as general manager of network operations in 2019. “Elders is an iconic Australian brand with a strong commitment to rural and regional Australia and a dedicated team of people whom I am looking forward to working with,” Richard said.
He certainly does not take up his new role as a novice, having spent considerable time in the agency business previously. He worked for competitor Landmark for a number of years primarily in livestock marketing and management roles and went on to become Managing Director of Landmark Operations.
The Eastern Young Cattle Index ticked just over 500c/kg carcase weight at close of trade last week, which is 15c cwt back on same time last year. An interesting perspective state by state, is that Queensland has had the largest decrease brought about by the drought situation and where young cattle had softer prices for longer and struggled to maintain rates for most of the past year. Queensland was back 90c cwt since the start of the year, compared to NSW, which was back 61c cwt. The west was relatively left unscathed back only 8c cwt with the benefit of better seasonal conditions.
Medium cow prices are up on the same time last year. Earlier on, the cow price was struggling mainly due to weight of numbers becoming available throughout the winter. Now, as processors struggle to find suitable supplies there has been significant increase in cow prices and they should maintain current rates for the near future.
Toowoomba has kicked off the marketing week with the physical market maintaining last week’s improved rates for the better-finished cattle. Best of the bullocks sold to 309c live and heavy cows to 254c live. If we can maintain our markets at these rates until the season breaks, we will not be doing too badly.
Former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce it appears remains in the bad books. His tell all publication Weatherboard and Iron I am told has sold close on 2000 copies since publication. It would appear to me that continual leaks out of Canberra could be a legitimate reason for the slow sales. Most of us knew the contents of the book prior to publication. The federal member for Tamworth can take some heart as his publication has polled better than the Allan Jones/Mark Latham cookbook which to date has managed about half of Barnaby’s numbers. With Christmas fast approaching you may get a two for one offer at a discount maybe!
Great to see consumers are not deterred by the idiots that are seeking to destroy the strawberry industry by way of inserting pins in the popular fruit. Farms have been inundated over the weekend with people visiting, picking and buying the product. News to hand is that one prominent operator was convicted previously of dealing drugs. I have heard of people getting high on mushrooms, but not strawberries.
