Lumpy skin disease wreaked havoc on the live cattle export business, big-personality beef leaders handed in shock resignations and Australia signed one of the most valuable free trade agreements ever for beef - and walked away from another one.
2023 has been a rollercoaster ride for beef - and that's before one even considers what went on in the cattle market.
The price of beef and lamb in supermarkets continually riled people.
Many producers hated to see such disparity with saleyard prices, which were bottoming out. That sentiment in itself fired up other sectors of the supply chain who couldn't understand why anyone would argue for less consumer dollars at the end point.
Mid-year, scotch fillet was selling for around $50 a kilogram while heavy steer liveweight prices hovered below $3/kg.
After months of only incremental price drops, and following political pressure, the big two supermarkets in November went head-to-head on slashing lamb prices. They cut between 20 and 36 per cent off price tags for various products. Lamb leg roasts dropped to $8 and cutlets went from $43 to $34/kg.
To ride the wave, Meat & Livestock Australia launched a major marketing blitz in December pairing lamb and beef and featuring the two Sams - Kekovich and Thaiday.
Another launch from MLA this year was the first publicly-available online indicators, OLI and OYCI - the Online Lamb Indicator and Online Young Cattle Indicator.
Lumpy skin woes
In August, Indonesian quarantine authorities reported the detection of lumpy skin disease in a small number of Australian cattle. They went on to ban four quarantine yards in northern Australia from sending live cattle. Malaysia followed suit.
On September 11, the suspension was lifted but further conditions were put in place. Since then, big numbers of northern cattle have been rejected due to minor skin flaws. Concerns are now being raised about what that might mean for the domestic cattle market early next year.
FTAs
After years of negotiating, the Australia-United Kingdom free trade deal came into effect in May, eliminating tariffs on 99pc of Australian goods, including beef after ten years.
It has been labelled the best trade deal the beef industry has struck.
Conversely, Australia had to walk away from an European Union FTA due largely to a poor offering for red meat.
China
Hopes have been high this year that beef will be the next cab off the rank for a warmer reception from China and the Prime Minister's visit in early November brought that to a peak.
Still, there has been no movement on the ten red meat processing plants that remain temporarily suspended from supplying China, despite tariffs being lifted on barley, and reductions on sanctions of coal and timber.
Processors, meanwhile, started to announce plans to increase capacity with the higher volumes of livestock coming down the pipeline in mind. Greenhams Tongala facility in Victoria and JBS Australia's Dinmore in Queensland made big expansion announcements, among others.
Advocacy
Grassfed cattle producer representation continued to evolve, with the arrival of democratically elected regional representation in Cattle Australia, something that was a key issue with CA's predecessor Cattle Council.
Less than a year on the job, CA lost its first chief executive officer when Luke Bowen announced he would stand aside in early September, citing health reasons.
He was replaced by Dr Chris Parker on November 15.
It wasn't the only shock resignation: a week after it's annual general meeting MLA's Jason Strong walked.
In August, CA dropped a bombshell in pushing for the red meat industry's goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 to be replaced with a climate neutral target.
Throughout the year, beef leaders kept the pressure on Agriculture Minister Murray Watt to act on plant-based meat copycat manufacturers who use words like beef and animal images on food labels.
Many beef representative groups were also involved in a letter sent to the prime minister in September, demanding the controversial plan to ban the live sheep trade be reversed.
Innovation
Plenty of new agtech for beef was launched, plus a new online selling platform in the form of On the Box.
Bush Agribusiness' Top Studs, a tool that presents the average genetic makeup of the animals available from each stud that has met qualifying criteria, was arguably one of the biggest hits as far as innovations go.
Class action
The class action members waiting on compensation after the Federal Court three years ago found the Gillard Government's temporary ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia to be illegal kept waiting through 2023.
The Commonwealth made an offer of just $215m, it was revealed in May. A counter was made in December of $510m. No response has yet been reported.
Shan Goodwin
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
