BEEF industry identity Troy Setter has thrown his support behind importance of practical animal welfare in the livestock industry, becoming a public face for the pain relief product Tri-Solfen.
Mr Setter features in advertising running in agricultural media including Queensland Country Life this week saying pain and wound care is vital for the Australian beef industry and an essential part of animal husbandry programs.
"Whether it's dehorning, castration, branding or HGP implants, the results of giving pain relief are plain to see, but is also beneficial on several fronts," Mr Setter said.
"Animal welfare is of great concern to our industry, also coming into focus across the wider community."
The chief executive officer and director of Consolidated Pastoral Company said providing pain relief was not only the right thing to do by animals, it also made sound commercial sense for producers.
"The trial work we have done across our properties involving thousands of cattle shows time and time again that providing pain relief to our animals results in less stressed, more productive and profitable animals," Mr Setter said.
"It's not surprising that the use of pain relief is becoming increasingly widespread in across the livestock industries.
"Cattle producers universally report calves are less stressed, mother up much more quickly than untreated animals, and that products like Tri-Solfen are easy to use.
"The small investment we are making to provide pain relief is far offset by the positive results that we are achieving."
The Australian cattle industry has already committed to have 100 per cent use of pain relief for invasive procedures by 2030.
The pain-relief pledge is in line with the promise to be carbon neutral by the end of the decade.
"The development of effective and practical pain treatments has been a major advance in alleviating the pain during animal husbandry practices such as castration, dehorning, mulesing and tail docking and de-horning, and their use is becoming common practice," the MLA developed Australian Good Meat website reads.
"Pain relief products available in Australia for sheep, cattle and goats include fast-acting/short-lasting local anaesthetics and slow-acting but longer lasting analgesics.
"By 2030, the beef industry aims to have 100pc use of pain relief for invasive procedures."
CPC runs more than 300,000 cattle on eight properties covering 3.6 million hectares of country across Australia, plus majority shareholdings in two feedlots in Indonesia.
CPC was one of the early adopters of Tri-Solfen, closely following the work of Cloncurry-based beef producer, the late Zanda McDonald, who helped pioneer the product.
Tri-Solfen is a blue gel, which is manufactured and distributed in Australia by Dechra.
The product contains two local anaesthetics, lignocane and bupivivaine, plus adrenalin to stop bleeding and an antiseptic to prevent infection. It is administered using an applicator gun.
An application of Tri-Solfen costs between about a $1 and $1.50 to treat each animal. It is described as best suited to calves aged six to eight weeks and is designed to provide pain relief for 24 to 36 hours.
A redesigned applicator gun helps make the positioning of the gel more effective.
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