Biosecurity staffing, feral pig numbers pointed out at Cunnamulla

At the first round of Biosecurity Qld informations sessions being held to explain the mandatory system being introduced in 2025, Cunnamulla grazier Lindsay Godfrey asked what was being done to fill positions that had been vacant for months.

"There are people at Roma and Goondiwindi, sure, but here at Cunnamulla, we're a major centre for cattle to the west," he said.

Mr Godfrey's questions came in the wake of a presentation by Charleville-based DAF extension officer Bec Brayley on being ready for emergency animal disease outbreaks.

Ms Brayley said she couldn't comment on specifics, and NLIS guru Doug McNaught, who has had over 25 years as a biosecurity officer with state primary industry departments, said everyone was having similar labour problems.

Ms Brayley commented that she was driving as far west as Birdsville to bleed cattle.

"That makes us doubly concerned," Mr Godfrey said.

The issue has previously been raised by Katter's Australian Party leader Robbie Katter from a North Queensland point of view, saying that region was without a major line of defence.

The Godfreys also questioned the amount of notice given for the eID tagging sessions, saying there had been no communication about them from the government, and that it was AgForce who had done a good job in letting people know the meetings were on.

The sessions were promoted in Agriculture Minister Mark Furner's latest Furner's Fencepost e-newsletter, issued on August 8, the day the first meeting was held, in Quilpie.

A departmental spokesperson also noted that a link to the information sessions on the DAF Engagement Hub website had been put up.

The session at Cunnamulla, the second in the department's schedule, sent a message that the state government should be incentivising the plan for mandatory electronic tagging of sheep and goats with a subsidy.

Wyandra's Alistair Webb queried the point of bringing in a costly traceability scheme if feral pig numbers weren't brought down.

"This is all about disease control but the biggest problem with disease is pigs, and we're doing zero with pigs, and we've got nothing to get rid of pigs," he said. "They're all going out counting pigs but they're doing nothing to eradicate them."

Mr McNaught acknowledged that feral pigs were a major issue in disease control, but said it had been shown that 75 per cent of the population would need to be killed to have an effect.

"You can run down the road and kill everything you see, and you won't put a dint in the population," he said.

He added that sentinel pig herds in the Gulf were tested for advance warning of a disease incursion.

Cunnamulla producer Carol Godfrey was curious to know how exclusion fencing would impact disease management, when sheep and goats were tagged. Speaking after the information session, she wanted to know what growers' rights were with exclusion fences in a biosecurity outbreak.

"We put the fence up to benefit our business, so we should be able to shut the gate, and if you can manage and maintain whatever is coming in, then you should be able to keep trading," she said.

"You get a truck in, you put a special tag on the closed door and the truck goes out to where it has to go. The tags will help in that because they know we're behind wire, and that's a very good thing for the future."

The proposed legislative differences between farmed goats and harvested rangeland goats, and therefore the different tagging requirements, were confusing to Cunnamulla goat producer Darren Jackson.

Mr McNaught explained that if goats weren't born as the result of a breeding program, and hadn't been subject to any husbandry, it was 'business as usual', meaning they could be moved directly from a property without tagging.

"So if I load farmed goats I tag them, and then load rangeland goats out of the same yards, they have no tag," he asked. "Where's the traceability."

Mr McNaught said he understood a harvested rangeland registration would cover that.

He also clarified that if half a property was fenced, people would have to tag the goats running inside that, but not the ones that were outside it, on the same property.

He said the harvested rangeland definition initially had the words "behind wire" but that had been removed, because it could affect a person in the middle of a fencing cluster who hadn't paid for any wire.

There are three elements to the system - a PIC number, an eartag with a microchip, and entering information for each animal into an NLIS database, which is what is used for cattle and sheep now.

In Queensland last year, 205,000 NLIS-approved tags, or 10 per cent of the flock, were sold, and 33,000 goats were electronically tagged, suggesting an element of acceptance already.

People at the Cunnamulla meeting believed that an eNVD would suffice to record movements but Mr McNaught said that only identified a mob, not individual sheep.

"That can find a sick animal, but it's every cohort it's been in touch with that we need to know," he said.

Mr McNaught said it was up to buyers to transfer stock bought via online auction systems to their own PIC number, which often caught people out.

He said the transfer was done for producers when they bought out of a saleyard and so people thought the same thing would happen after an online purchase.

"That is just a platform - it's up to you to do the paperwork," he said. "When this comes in, you will start getting animals back from your neighbour."

Confirmed dates for upcoming information sessions include Blackall on August 29, Longreach on August 30, St George on September 5, Goondiwindi on September 6, Inglewood on September 7 and Meandarra on September 8.