News for the week ended 20 November 2003

Welcome to new Associate member Trevor Fowke of Clifton QLD.

Board Meeting

The Directors of ALBS will be meeting in Armidale this weekend to discuss issues relevant to the Limousin breed and the Society. Some of the issues on the Agenda include the current financial situation and the budget for 2004, the response of ALBS to a proposal for a multibreed secretariat, a possible rejig of the ALBS fee structure,the date of the 2006 National Show and Sale and how it will relate to the 2006 World Conference in Australia, , plans for the 2004 National Show and Sale, promotion of the breed, progress of the Limousin Assurance Program, the need for more member workshops and the recognition of long term contributers to the Society

BJD Financial Assistance

I am pleased to report that after a two year battle, that Cattle Council of Australia have finally agreed to the utilisation of some of the $4m BJD reserve to provide financial assistance for beef herds found or suspected to be infected with Bovine Johnes Disease. This is a major break through for stud herds which are impacted most heavily by BJD infection.

The assistance will be to provide for a long term management plan for eradication of the disease and payment of up to $3000 per head for cattle that have to be slaughtered to to remove possibly infected animals from the herd by way of a a full or partial destock. It is also likely that one or more veterinarians will be employed on a national basis to provide specialist advice to those herds which wish to remove the disease from their herds. This would provide consistency of treatment of the herd owners across state boundaries. This break through demonstrates of how breed Societies can work together as members of the Australian Registered Cattle Breeders Association to achieve gains that could not be achieved by individual breed Societies.

Unfortunately there is no provision for retrospective financial assistance for those herds that have already been through the trauma of having infection found or suspected of being in their herds.

Red Meat Feel Good

During my attendance at the Cattle Council meeting in Perth there were presentations by MLA staff on MLA programs which are funded by producer levies.

Two most impressive presentations were on the change in attitudes to red meat created by the MLA marketing program over the last four years and the work being done by MLA on creating new red meat products and enhancing the value of byproducts.

MLA Program manager for marketing David Thomason showed that consumer expenditure on red meat had gone up from $5.8b to $7.4b from 2000/01 to 2002/03. This included an increase in beef consumption of 11% in a period when retail prices had increased. He attributed a fair portion of this increase to the MLA promotion of the nutritional value of lean red meat to the medical profession, the red meat television advertising programs such as the dancing butchers and more recently the development of the CSIRO endorsed 16 page "Wellbeing diet" which recommends 3 to 4 red meat meals per week. He claimed that the return on the $6m of producer levies spent by MLA in the domestic market had returned $800m.

It is of note to Limousin breeders that all of the MLA domestic promotion and the CSIRO endorsed wellbeing diet are based on lean red meat.

MLA Program Manager for Value adding and Byproducts, Christine Raward also presented some impressive results on research into the development of shelf stable products, and new red meat based convenience foods which have been very successful in the market place. They have also done impressive work in developing or extracting valuable products such as nutraceuticals from blood and cartilage. One product being marketed in the USA at $1500 per litre can be extracted from the blood of just two beasts. One of the MLA "defensive" research programs is about what to do with rendered product (fat) which has so little value and is hard to dispose of.

I could not help but think that the MLA is a very well managed company giving red meat producers a very good return on the levy funds they pay via the transaction levy.

MLA has a very small marketing budget for red meat compared to the gross value of production and to be more effective especially in the promotion area MLA needs more money via an increase in the transaction levy of around 20c per head for cattle.

Sobering numbers

There was also a presentation from Dennis Laycraft, the Executive Officer of the Canadian Cattleman's Association on the impact of BSE in a single cow which occurred in May this year. Like us, Canada exports around 70% of their production largely to the USA and these exports were immediately suspended once the outbreak was announced causing liveweight prices in Canada to fall from around $1.15 per pound to 18c per pound. The lost trade and the cost of managing the situation was put at around $20m per day until the US market was reopened in August for beef from animals under 30 mths. The total cost is estimated at $1 billion. Even now animals over 30 mths are priced at about 30c per pound so there are ongoing losses.

Canada had a barcode ID system but no central database but will now move to an RFID tag system with movements recorded on a central database similar to that used in Australia for EU accredited cattle.

Had Canada had the RFID system and database in place Laycraft estimated the ban could have been reduced by 14 days or a total of $280m because movements of all associated cattle would have been known within 30 minutes rather than two weeks. If that is not compelling evidence that we need the NLIS system based on the RFID system then I don't know what is.

As Laycraft said Canada has about 80,000 very independent beef producers who do not like being told what to do who and strongly resisted the introduction of a national ID system when it was first proposed in 1977 and finally introduced in 2001 using a barcode system and no central database because it was the cheapest option.

He said the cost of running the central database in canada is around 20c per tag issued and this will come down.

He said that "It is much better to say you have introduced a national ID system before the event rather than because of the event".

It's never too late

Thank you for your newsletters. They are great!

It is probably too late for this news, however, you will find it interesting. On 18 Sept 2003 Nowra Sale Yards our cull limousin steer weighing 370 kg topped the sale, 227c / kg, . He was 11 months old. Not bad when we were short of feed!

Kim & Judy Armitt Conjola Hill Limousin Stud Nowra NSW

From Bruce Brown

Alex, Am sending the results of young cattle sold at Gunnedah (NSW) Saleyards on 28 October. All were 100% Limousin and did it tough during the drought; not great animals but the price was good! Your weekly email makes good reading.

Four yearling steers; 432 kg @ 194.8c/kg = $842.50

One yearling heifer 360 kg. @ 193.2c/kg + $695.52

Yours in Limousin

Alex McDonald