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BEEF WARS

What is going on with the ongoing feud between some Australian beef producers and its own peak body Meat and Livestock Australia.

MLA was established with the assistance of the commonwealth government to act as the peak body for Australia’s meat producers. MLA is funded by a compulsory levy paid by every producer on livestock sales.

MLA is well funded and well staffed with marketing offices across the globe. Last years Financial report shows that total revenues were $161 million with $98m coming from producer levies, $11m from processors and just over $1m from live exporters.

According to last years financial’s the board spent $96m of those funds on marketing Australian meat abroad and domestically and about $20m on reaseach and development.

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The company is run by a stable, competent and well qualified board of directors with North QLD cattleman Don Heatley [ pictured above] having been on the board for a decade and Chairman since 2005 . Indeed of the 10 board members 5 of them own farming enterprises. The other 5 board members have long term involvements in the meat industry as processors, scientists or in corporate agriculture.

As an industry funded representative body on the surface of it you’d have to say they don’t get any better than MLA. A case in point is that the MLA spent $116m last year on marketing Australian meat and research and development. Contrast this to the USA whose livestock levies raised just US$45 million to be spent on the same activities.

Things however are not all back slaps, steaks on the barby, cold bear and happy times in the meat industry. In the run up to this years Annual General meeting in November MLA’s long standing dispute / battle with disgruntled cattle producer group Australian Beef Association (ABA) has flared up again.

ABA with signatures of 160 MLA members and levy paying livestock producers has proposed three controversial resolutions be put to members at the upcoming AGM.

Sensationally those resolutions call for a “Vote of no confidence” in the entire board and the removal of Chairman Don Heatley and Managing Director David Palmer from the board?

Below we quote Directly from the resolutions submitted by the Australian Beef Association. Broadly stated these are the issues at the heart on the ongoing tensions between ABA and MLA.

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1. Lack of Accountability. Despite attempts over ten years and in 2002, eight Senate Select Committee recommendations for change to accountability, the Board has not corrected this lack of accountability.

2. NLIS Disaster. We were told by MLA that NLIS was required for us to have access to foreign markets. The USA and South America, with no NLIS, are accessing these markets and getting higher prices than Australia. MLA has refused to acknowledge our concerns at the seriously flawed implementation of the NLIS program and have refused to release the $80,000 study by Ernst Young into the NLIS poll rort by two MLA staff members (who were not dismissed).

3. Cattle Price - Promotion Failure. MLA had our levy raised by 40% in 2005, in a vote taken outside MLA’s Constitution. The Board claimed that it was needed to promote our beef. Since then, their misplaced domestic beef promotion has seen supermarket margins rise and producer prices fall. The non-appearance or contribution by MLA to the Beef section of the ACCC Grocery Inquiry confirmed the “sell out” of its members.

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The board has refused to accept the resolutions with Chairman Don Heatley saying ” they are defamatory or fail to meet the legal requirements for a members’ resolution.”

As a consequence the resolutions will not be voted on at the AGM or the issues discussed.

The board has also raised the ire of some producers by accepting a resolution to be put to the members to increase the combined remuneration paid to MLA directors by $250,000 per annum.

(*Note: see Clarification Correction below on this resolution and actual directors remuneration From the MLA - thanks Damon)

I must say that I do find it quiet extraordinary that the MLA financials posted on their web site do not quote what individual directors are paid.

However our information is that the last time it was available was in the 2004 report. That report quoted the Managing Directors remunerated for 2004 was $489,000 with the other 10 directors sharing $500,000 between them.

The new resolution if passed will see the chairman and 9 directors share a pool of $750,000 as directors fees per year.

One can only assume that the managing directors salary of $489,000 will remain unchanged. This is not an inconsequential amount as the chairman is paid 48% more than the Prime Minister Kevin Rudds who’s salary is $330,000 per annum.

Its time that this long running dispute between ABA and MLA was sorted out. As it will not be dealt with at the AGM, I’m posing these questions for meat producers here online.

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1. How wide spread is producer dissatisfaction with the MLA boards performance?

2. Do you support the motions put forward of a vote of No Confidence in the MLA board and the removal of the Chairman and the Managing Director on the grounds stated?

3. Do you believe the MLA lacks accountability?

4. Do you believe the NLIS is a disaster?

5. Do you believe MLA has ’sold out’ to supermarkets, big corporates as suggested in the resolution?

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(Thanks to readers Sam, Rod, Monica, John and others)

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Update @ 5pm today. -

MLA has emailed the following “Clarrification” / correction re resolution of Directors remunerations.

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Dear Steve,

I have just read the posting titled “Beef Wars’ on Agmates and there are few points that are incorrect that’d we’d ask to be corrected.

The first point is in relation to the statement that the MLA Board are “…accepting a resolution to be put to the members to increase the combined remuneration paid to MLA directors by $250,000 per annum.”

The company has fixed an aggregate limit on the amount of remuneration payable to the directors (excluding the Managing Director). The current maximum aggregate amount for directors’ fees is $500,000 per annum. This amount was approved by members at the AGM in 2000 and this is the first year that an increase to the aggregate amount has been proposed.

Member approval is being sought to increase the maximum aggregate payable to non-executive directors to $750,000. If the resolution is passed the Board will not use the maximum amount at this time, but would like the ability to increase directors’ fees on an annual basis if required and to have the head room to continue to do so to maintain competitiveness in the market.

The Board intends to increase the Directors’ fees, effective 1 January 2009 by 4.53%. This would result in an increase in remuneration of $1,850 (excluding superannuation) per annum for Directors and $3,701 (excluding superannuation) for the Chairman.

The second point that we’d ask to be corrected relates to the comment: “That report quoted the Chairmans remunerated for 2004 was $489,000 with the other 10 directors sharing $500,000 between them.”

The figure for the Chairman’s salary is incorrect. The current annual fees (set by directors in July 2004) are $40,850 (excluding superannuation) for Directors and $81,700 (excluding superannuation) for the Chairman.

We think it’s important to note that analysis undertaken by respected consultant Egan Associates, found that MLA’s Directors’ fees have not been adjusted over time to reflect market changes. The analysis noted that fee adjustments for Directors in companies of comparable scale would have increased in the order of 60 - 70% since the year 2000.

As a membership organisation, Directors devote a significant amount of time attending company and industry events. For example it is estimated that the time commitment required by the Chairman is a total of 225 days a year.

Damon Whittock,

Media Affairs Manager, Meat & Livestock Australia

Thanks for clarifying that Damon.

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Over to you too have your say! You can enter an alias if you wish - though we’d prefer people to identify themselves (first name) for the sake of authenticity.

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Got a tip off, article or have you seen a video or item you’d like to be seen by the Agmates Community? If so please email it to us at news@agmates.com

Inverell Northern NSW farmer and ABA Chairman Brad Bellinger writes:

The decision by English and Irish Governments to protest against moves by the European Union (EU) to mandate electronic ear tagging for livestock, shows a vote of no confidence in the Scheme.

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“BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British and Irish lawmakers in the European Parliament launched a campaign on Tuesday against a rule that would make electronic tags for millions of sheep and goats across the EU compulsory from next year.

The MEPs complain that the tagging scheme will be very expensive and difficult to implement, particularly in hillside areas. Their campaign against compulsory tagging is also supported by French sheep farmers, industry sources say.”

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These two governments recognise the huge impost costs on the production section that NLIS imposes.

Clearly this huge cost is one which Australian Governments both Federal and State, either do not understand, or do not care about and conveniently forget that the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) has not sold one more kilogram of beef.

Australia’s trade negotiators at the Doha Round of the WTO have been relentlessly and naively critical of the level of subsidies that the USA and European farmers receive.

Now these countries must look on in amazement at why Australian Governments are prepared to burden their farmers with even higher regulatory production costs such as NLIS, further eroding their profitability.

Rather than NLIS giving us a marketing advantage in the world beef trade it is actually reducing our biosecurity and weakening our competitive edge, as our competitors abandon this ridiculous scheme.

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Have Your Say!

Australian Beef Association Chairman, and Northern New South Wales Farmer Brad Bellinger (pictured) writes:

The NFF expressing its dismay at the Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC) decision to increase minimum & award rates of pay by $21.66 per week, illustrates its silver-tail allegiance and lack of understanding of the structure of Australian agriculture.

They have supported the big end of town, in the same way that they have worked with the supermarket duopsony, as it robs farmers with huge mark-ups on their products.

NFF staff should leave their sheltered Canberra cocoon and visit the country town offices of the Salvation Army, the Smith Family and the Rural Counselors to see what a mess the real farming community is in.

They should read the recent report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, the Australian National University, and La Trobe University. This report shows the results of a survey of 8,000 people and illustrates the rural depression that has developed under the watch of the NFF.

The study reveals that drought’s effect has been worse than expected. It shows that 21 per cent of farmers in drought-affected areas have had to pawn or sell something in 2006, compared with 16 per cent of farmers in below-average-rainfall areas.

Four percent of farmers had to miss meals because of lack of money. This was 2006! the past 18 months has seen the problem become far more serious, as the record farm debt explodes.

The NFF needs to understand that most farmers don’t employ people - they look for part-time jobs to try and make their farm a viable one.

The supposed swing to corporate faming is also a myth as AMP, Prudential, Squire Group and others leave the industry and the AA Co appears to be struggling.

From the 1890’s shearers’ strike on, the Graziers Association obsession with holding down shearers’ wages got rid of shearers and farmhands; - it seems that NFF has learnt nothing. Their staff should be stuffed and exhibited as museum pieces.

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Have Your say! Do you think Brads criticism of the NFF is fair or do you believe that the NFF as the peak Australian Farm Body is doing a good job.

Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes

Brazilian owned JBS is on the verge of being the largest beef processor on 3 major cattle producing continents. This is world domination of the export beef market on a grand scale never seen before.

JBS S.A. advised it has received approval from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to purchase multi-species processor Tasman Group. JBS paid $150 million for the Tasman Group with the sale expected to now be finalized on the 2nd of May.

Tasman will become a subsidiary of Greeley, Colo.-based JBS-Swift & Co., already the owner of four beef processing plants and four cattle feedlots in Australia (formerly AMH).

Tasman operates six slaughter facilities and one cattle feedlot.

1. Brooklyn VIC - the largest Multi- Species Plant is the Southern Hemisphere.
2. Cobram VIC - Capacity of 3,000 lamb and sheep a day.
3. Yarrawonga VIC- Capacity 330 cattle aday
4. Longford TAS - Capacity 450 beef & 1,500 Sheep, Lamb & Veal a day.
5. King Island TAS - Capacity 180 Cattle a day
6. Davenport TAS - 150 Cattle & 2,500 Sheep, Lamb & Veal a day.
7. Yambinya feedlot NSW - Licensed to Feed 25,000 cattle & 45,000 Lambs. 7,000 acres of country and 5,000 megalitres of irrigation water. Extensive cropping area.

The newly structured Australian assets will have more than 5,000 employees and a capacity to slaughter some 25,000 animals per day.

JBS purchased Swifts last July 2007 for $US1.4 billion ($A1.7 billion) which owned AMH with has abattoirs in Townsville, Rockhampton and Dinmore near Brisbane and at Beef City on the Darling Downs, where it also has a major feedlot that complements similar fattening operations at Mungindi in Queensland and Caroona and Prime City in New South Wales.

With a market capitalisation in Brazil of $US3.2 billion, JBS is South America’s largest beef processor and one of the world’s largest exporters with 23 plants in Brazil and six in Argentina.

JBS is currently awaiting U.S. Department of Justice approval for acquisitions of U.S. beef processors National Beef Packing Co. and Smithfield Beef Group.

If approved, JBS-Swift, currently the third-largest U.S. beef processor in terms of slaughter capacity, would become the USA’s largest beef processor and control some 30 percent of its entire slaughter capacity.

That will mean JBS will be the largest beef processor on three continents - North America, South America and Australia.

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Have Your Say!

What do you think will be the consequences for beef producers in North America, South America and Australia of JBS’s domination of the worlds export beef production?

Leave your comment below or click on the blue word Comments and the text box will appear.

Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes;

This is why we need Royal commission into Meat Prices:

Retail Price to Consumer AUD$50 a kilo.

BRISBANE pensioner Ellen McDonald (picture left) was stewing chuck steak yesterday, still shocked that her local butcher was selling premium lamb cutlets for $50 a kilo. Click Here to read that story.

Photo by Darren England - Courier Mail article 23rd of April.

Wholesale Price AUD $6 a kilo.

In the article the Butcher tells that he has paid a wholesaler $6 a kilo for the meat he sells for $50 a kilo. A mark up of $44 a kilo.

Processor Price to Farmer AUD $3 a kilo.

The processor pays the farmer approx $3 a kilo and sells it for $6 a mark up of $3 a kilo. In that the processors has all the costs of killing, storing and delivering the meat to the retailer. The processor would hope to keep perhaps 20 cents a kilo as profit.

The Farmer gets AUD $3 a kilo.

Western Australian Beef cattle producer John Fry of Torridon Grazing has told the ACCC inquiry into grocery prices that he receives less from wholesalers than it costs to operate his feedlot, and warns that the industry may be forced into ruin.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is conducting hearings on the price of groceries.

Agmate John Carter wrote an article on this just last week. - Supermarket Duopoly Ripping Off Australian Cattle Producers. Click Here to Read that Article

The Australian Beef Association claims that Red Meat Consumers in Australia are paying $3-4 billion a year too much for meat. They have called for a Royal Commission into what consumers pay for meat and what producers are paid. To see that article click here.

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Have Your say!

Leave your comment below or click on the blue word Comments and the reply box will appear.

Northern Territory Cattleman Rod Dunbar “Nutwood Downs” writes:

It is certainly good to read a transcript of Australian Beef Associations (ABA) John Carter’s USA address in last weeks Agmates AgNews.

Mr Carter and I do have one thing in common; we are both former directors of ABA. In an online reply to that article I questioned Mr Carter regarding ABA’s NLIS policy because I know that the ABA did not have a policy on NLIS when I was a Director.

However seeing it is quite a long time since I was a director I am interested to ascertain if a policy had been formulated since my departure.

(Below is a photo taken from the air of my cattle station “Nutwood Downs” which is approx 400kms south of Katherine and 100kms North East of Daly Waters in the Northern Territory. We run approx 18,000 cattle on the station.)

It may interest some to know that when I was a director the ABA had no dedicated published Policy Document on any issue facing the grass roots of the Livestock Production Sector; moreover there was a strong underlying principal for the board to concentrate on strategies of political opinion and public ridicule, without proposing a viable alternative or indeed, an other appropriate defense against intrusive bureaucracy; that is the difference between a strategy and policy.

(Below is a picture of our station “work horse”. Because of the huge distances up here we use the Schweizer 300C Helicopter on a daily basis to muster cattle, check fences and stock waters and many other station activities.)

I did not dismiss Mr Carter’s speech; I simply say I have heard it before and that the strategy did not work here in Australia and question how it is possible to work in the USA, given that Mr Carter proposes no action only political rhetoric?

Mr Carter’s comment regarding the application of Law is an extraordinary one; one that puts the ABA at odds to their sister (?) organization in the USA, R-CALF.

By definition R-CALF, the group Mr Carter delivered his speech too; is the “Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund”; they have a clear policy which embraces Court Action and has been used very effectively to protect their Members interests when there is an impasse.

(The photo below is of our river, the Hodgson River in flood with the homestead in the distance. We are in the middle of our traditional Northern “wet season” and having our average yearly rainfall of 26 - 30 inches) (650- 750mm).

By implication, Mr Carter seems to be saying here that the policies that flow under that framework are wrong and “Just riding a Tiger”. I can just see it now, “ABA does not agree with sister organization R-CALF in the use of legal avenues to address Livestock owners concerns when battling illegal actions of governments and bureaucracy”. “ABA’s John Carter calls legal policy “just a ride on a Tiger with no dismounting strategy!!!!!!!!”

Additionally, Mr Carter’s speech omits the crucial piece of advice which should have been delivered to R-CALF, learnt from the Australian enforced regulatory application of NLIS; fight Premise Registration Implementation (PIC Codes).

(The season is a good one as you can see, last year was one of the worst in 20 years, there are Mitchell/ Flinders grass plains; the country is mostly lightly timbered and all the grass is natural pasture.)

One wonders why Mr Carter chose not to pass this on to the R-CALF Meeting; NLIS cannot exist without Premise Registration (PIC Codes).

An examination of history may give us the answer; when Mr Carter headed up the NSW Meat Authority, as a Regulator, in the times prior to ABA; he implemented a strategy from which emerged the National Vendor Declaration (NVD) system; NVD’s are Mr Carter’s brainchild; the concept of a PIC was a regulatory necessity, to achieve the NVD system. By implementing that strategy Mr Carter laid the foundations of both NLIS and LPA through Premise Registration (PIC).

The strategy employed by Mr Carter’s ABA has failed to empress a Liberal Government over the previous decade and seems unlikely to influence the new Labor Government.

(The yards are called the Starkvale Yards and they are one of 3 sets, all steel, that can accommodate about 1500 - 2000 each comfortably. We run Brahman cross cattle approx. 18,000 head and the annual production predominantly go live export.)

The question for the ABA now is relevance; how can they achieve and address the removal of over regulation in the Livestock Production Sector, something that they have failed utterly to do thus far, without a major overhaul in their mode of operation; at the same time justifying the annual expenditure of members fund’s, to their membership?

I think Mr Carter’s perception of the ABA as a permanent opposition group to the mainstream, using only political strategies, that are permanently opposing, whilst at the same time riding and flogging a dead horse is misconceived; the trick for him will be at what point he will he dismount the dead horse, not to mention the danger of riding and flogging a dead horse in the first instance.

Have your say! To enter into an online discussion with NT Cattleman Rod Dunbar or leave your thoughts click on the Blue word Comments below.

Based on the Australian experience John spells the reasons why US Livestock Producers should fight Mandatory Livestock Identification “to the last Cowboy”. This article is an extract taken from NSW cattle producer and Australian Beef Association (ABA) member John Carters address to the R-CALF USA annual conference in Omaha Nebraska.

“Australia, being a desert island in the middle of a huge ocean has the least disease of any continent. Despite this, Australia has had Premises ID for cattle since 1980. We used a paper or plastic wrap-around tail tag that had to be affixed before sale. Around 1990, I got individual animal numbers put on those tags for use in producer carcass quality discovery. It was hardly ever used.

(Photo below is left to right, fifth, sixth and seventh generation Australian cattlemen John, Ben and James Carter at work in the Cattle yards at the family property near the nations Capital - Canberra.)

Three years ago I spoke to you in Denver. I advised you not to allow mandatory RFID (radio frequency identification) to be foisted on you because it would be very costly and it wouldn’t work. I am back today to tell you that I was right.

In those three years, Australian cattle producers have been the fall guys for the international tag manufacturers. Follow the money. Put your money on self-interest - you always know that it is trying.

ABA has no problem with voluntary RFID use. If I were unfortunate enough to own a feedlot, I would use it in many ways to save (from) feeding inefficient cattle.

Mandatory tracing is an entirely different matter. We have abandoned our efficient mandatory tail tag system for expensive chaos.

(Below is a photo of the Country where the Carter Family has grazed cattle since 1853)

No other large-producing country has mandated the RFID traceback system.

All the reasons given for its introduction are now in tatters. Face-saving and blame have replaced them. Remember an ounce of prevention is worth pounds of cure. Don’t let anyone take you (US producers) down this suicidal path because once you are on it,

• it will become the unchangeable custom and be used by your packers (meatworks) to discount your cattle.
• Its administration will cost you a fortune -
• all for no purpose but to increase tag-manufacturer profit and give jobs to bureaucrats.

In Australia, the tag manufacturers beat us with lies and propaganda.

They provided letters to the papers signed by producers who didn’t exist amidst a flood of propaganda.

At one stage, the rural press did a poll on NLIS (National Livestock Identification Scheme) acceptance by producers on one of its farm polls on the Internet. On Day Three the poll showed 75 percent of producers voting the NLIS as being hopeless or a failure. About 10 percent were approving. In two hours, this was reversed. Fortunately, ABA had a computer fanatic following the vote and trying to boost the negative vote.

We immediately did a press release stating that the poll was being fixed. It was withdrawn and hasn’t been attempted since. Investigations showed that hackers had the poll alteration from the database team at MLA (Meat and Livestock Australia) - our Beef Board. We called for a full disclosure.

MLA spent $81,000 of OUR MONEY on their auditors investigating, refused to release the results, and did not sack the two hackers. One can only presume that someone above had instructed them. A divisional head noted for his careful work resigned and was appointed as Integrity Officer by the packer organisation.

Reasons that tag manufacturers used with their stooges in Government, the packers and our NCBA equivalent.

Their Claim - “Greater Market Access”.

The Reality -In 2003, we were told that we had to have mandatory RFID (NLIS) because the USA was getting it and we would lose market share to the U.S. in Japan and Korea. The U.S., with no RFID (NLIS), is now regaining its market share in Japan and will get back into Korea despite your two cases of BSE (Mad Cow Disease). Australian producers are getting 60 percent of your prices. Brazil and Argentina - with no RFID (NLIS) - send many times Australia’s small 6,000-ton quota to Europe.

Their Claim -”Customers are demanding it”.

The reality - This was a farce, as the system cannot trace beyond the packinghouse (meatworks). Inquiries in Japan showed that no one was asking for it. Our packers claimed that McDonald’s required RFID (NLIS). Knowing the U.S. situation, I rang the McDonald’s purchasing officer in Sydney. She denied ever making such a claim.

Their Claim - “Disease control”.

The reality - The inaccuracy of the system and its slowness has shown that it would be of little use in an outbreak of exotic disease. We are supposed to inform the database of any movement of any cattle off our ranches, including to another pasture. Very few are doing it. NLIS couldn’t track a bleeding elephant through a snowfield.

The minute tag number on the outside (readable with glasses) is different to the computer number inside. See the photo of this pen of my Limousin Angus cross steers below. What hope have you got to see the tag let alone the number.

Australia has been sold inferior tags by the multinationals - they think that we are stupid - I’m afraid that they are right.

(Two weeks ago, I did an audit of my account on the database. In three years, I have bought 900 tags. They are on the database. I have bought 92 cattle - 79 percent are on my account. I have sold 618 (like the pen of my cattle in the photo below) - 74 percent have been taken off the account.)

Their Claim - “Prevention of stock stealing”.

The reality - Australia has decided that RFID (NLIS) is not a legal means of identifying livestock because the tags can be easily cut out and substituted. The recent severe floods in Queensland have seen police and owners rely on the firebrand to identify the thousands of stock on other ranches.

However, enthusiastic bureaucrats are demanding the producers put orange RFID tags in the ears of cattle that they have identified as theirs on other ranches before they take them home. An orange tag indicates that the beast has no whole of life accountability and will be discounted by the packers (meatworks).

Their Claim - “Carcass feedback to producers”.

The reality - Our packinghouses (meatworks) were supposed to supply feedback to the breeder who put his tag in the ear when the beast was sold for the first time. They eventually agreed to give a carcass or a live weight but many are not doing it.

I have had the required carcass weight at abattoir (packer) when killed on 58 percent. I have had fat depths - wildly inaccurate - given on 14 percent. I have had 20 cattle killed on my account that could not have been mine. I have had 22 recorded as deceased on ranch that never died.

The photo below is of one of our carcases that won the Southern NSW Carcass judging last year.

Mandatory Livestock Identification hasn’t worked in any major beef-producing country.

United Kingdom

Their Auditor General’s Report on Livestock Tracking released on Nov. 12, 2003, should be compulsory reading for anyone involved. At that time they had 700 bureaucrats chasing 10 million cattle at an annual cost of $60 per head sold with 20 percent missing. The committee concluded that the system was “in complete chaos”. That is a paper trail system.

The UK lamb RFID trial release (late 2006). They concluded that it would not work as well as the paper trail and would cost the lamb producers so much that they would lose their European markets.

This has caused our sheep equivalent of your NCBA to say ‘NO - not without a cost-benefit analysis‘, which we had unsuccessfully demanded of MLA.

The sheep people don’t seem to like the idea of paying $3 for a tag for a sheep that they may sell for $1. This doesn’t seem unreasonable.

European Union (EU)

Their IDEA trial on RFID had not found RFID to be feasible.

Canada

I phoned the Canadian ID Agency on Monday (Feb. 18, 2008). I was told that their system of informing on stock movement is still voluntary and that few producers send in cattle movements to the agency, as they (the producers) are not computer literate!

This fact was obvious to ‘Blind Freddy’ in Australia and was uncovered in the EU trials. You can have the best computer database system in the world but it is garbage in garbage out.

Monumental Failure.

When we began this war in Australia, I said that there were 200,000 who sold cattle every year. MLA and your NCBA equivalent said that there were only 60,000. We now have 160,000 on the database. We have around 27 million cattle in Australia, and the last figure on the database showed many millions unaccounted for.

I live in one of the better areas with higher stocking rates and a controlled system. I have the equal oldest registered firebrand in Australia (1853). I have tattooed every calf born with that brand since 1955. My experience would be better than most. Linda Hewitt, who addressed you last year and is now in serious floods, with her family runs 15,000 cattle. She has had error notices from the database on thousands of cattle.

(Below is a photo of me in work “clobber” holding our family fire brand and tattoo earmaking pliers that we use to identify our cattle. Brands and earmarks don’t fall off, NLIS tags do.)

We have an international embarrassment on our hands because the tag companies bribed, cajoled and fooled those in power.

Those in power refused to do a cost-benefit analysis; they refused to do a trial. They mandated an impossible system and are now lying very low.

They have had two small inquiries, which produced what they paid for, but with very heavy qualifications on what needed to change to make it work. No senior bureaucrat, politician or NCBA equivalent will stand up and say that it is a success.

They know what any producer who goes into his account knows. It is as the UK Committee said of their system in 2003 - it is ‘in complete chaos’.

Fight this one down to the last cowboy. With 900,000 producers in 50 different state legislatures, your bureaucrats have even less chance of making it work than ours have.

That isn’t the point though - you must stop the transfer of your money to multinational tag manufacturers. Follow the money and don’t be fooled as we were. I think that you will win. Good luck and thank you.”

Have your say! To leave your thoughts / opinion’s or comment for John click on the blue comments link below.

New South Wales cattle Producer John Carter writes:

“I have just returned from a brief visit to the USA where I attended and was a key note speaker at R-CALF USA’s 3 day annual conference held in Omaha Nebraska. I participated and spoke as a representative of the Australian Beef Association (ABA). This is the 1st of a 3 article series on matters of interest to Australian farmers.”

Leading US Cattle Futures Trader Predicts “Boom Times”.

Over three days of the conference I heard some great presentations, but possibly none of more interest to Australian cattle producers than that of respected Cattle Futures trader Charles McVean (pictured below) of McVean Trading Company Memphis Tennessee.

The McVean trading company is a leading US agricultural commodities broker with 75 staff and offices in Tennessee, Alabama, Texas and Iowa.

Mr McVean said “Barring a full collapse of the US economy he sees the shortest cattle supply and the highest real cattle prices since 1973 starting in July this year.”

McVean sees this happening as the US herd is (contrary to the United States Department of Agriculture forecasts) still falling fast due to the droughts and debt.

He doesn’t see a US herd rebuild in sight due to land going to other uses on a huge scale (mainly due to the US Ethanol rebates).

Mr McVean said “We are looking at the most positive outlook for beef prices for 35 years!”

For those of you who don’t know R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is an independent organization that represents cattle producers across 47 states of the USA. The Australian Beef Association is it’s “sister” organization in Australia.

News South Wales Cattle Producer John Carter writes;

“This is the second in the series of articles written after my return from the USA where I attended and was a key note speaker at R-CALF USA’s 3 day annual conference held in Omaha Nebraska. I participated and spoke as a representative of the Australian Beef Association (ABA).”

Free Trade Agreements benefit “Billionaire Thugs” and not ordinary citizens.

Conference Key Note Speaker, Lorri Wallach , Director of the 200,000 strong Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch gave Free Trade the most energetic and fact based demolition that I have ever heard.

Her description of the brainpower of those who negotiated the recent Free Trade Agreements is unprintable.

However to summarize Ms Wallach and her organization believe “the US/Australian Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is of no benefit to the ordinary people, but is of huge benefit to multi national chemical companies and other billionaire thugs.”

Ms Wallach contends that the World Trade Authority (WTO) is undemocratic and operates in secrecy, that it is controlled by big business interests who exploit cheap labor abroad and that it has begun to encroach on the rights of countries to protect their environment and restrict imports of unsafe foods and hazardous materials.

However it was the Leadership Townhall meeting following my effort that really impressed me. Sponsored by R-CALF and the Coalition for a Prosperous America, some 300 men and women sat around dinner in the ballroom of the hotel.

An old, dignified Nebraskan Senator spoke of America being brought to its knees and the need for a rebirth. We then listened to seven brilliant speakers address answers to correcting what they believe is the impending US Depression .

Leaders in manufacturing, the trade unions (Union Boss Richard Trumka addressing the conference in the photo below) and farming attacked the de-regulation and free trade policies of the past 20 years.

A man from Paul Revere’s 1801 Revere Copper Products, explained how China was putting them out of business.They could manufacture a Revere silver plated bowl for $20 but China could do it for $14.28, not because of cheaper labor but because of their currency.

Colorado apple farmers are being put out of business by China for the same reason. Free trade just doesn’t work with different currency regimes.

The Union official spoke brilliantly on jobs being lost , health care becoming unaffordable. This was an inspiring coalition.

It was a privilege to be part of a general panel for questions. It was a privilege to be a part of this most inspiring gathering. Photo of me (seated centre) with Judith McGeary of the Farm & ranch Freedom Alliance and R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard answer questions from those at the conference on the Animal ID and Trade Panels.

I wished that anyone with influence in Australia was listening. Here is the policy platform for a new Australian party to take.

This was the heart of America rising against Globalization greed and distortion.

Belatedly Americans are realising that China has outsmarted them. One speaker said “We put the small crooks in yellow suits and send them to gaol and the big ones in pin stripe suits and send them to Washington”.

They see both major parties as multinational stooges. There is a grass-roots mood for change in the USA and these people are serious about getting the de-regulation and Free Trade policy’s of the last 20 years reversed.

New South Wales Cattle Producer John Carter writes:

“This is the third in a series of articles written after my return from the USA where I attended and was a key note speaker at R-CALF USA’s 3 day annual conference held in Omaha Nebraska. I participated and spoke as a representative of the Australian Beef Association (ABA).”

The US Economy Is in Deep Trouble

Radio legend, Derry Brownfield, a friend of ABA’s Christenson family, made a great lunchtime speech at the conference which I think conveys what is happening in the US economy.

In it , he held up a silver 1923 dollar and a paper 2008 one.

He explained that the 1923 dollar is now worth $17 and the 2008 one is worth $1 if he could find someone to pay it. Brownfield believes that the US is now in recession and headed for a repeat of the 1930’s Depression.

(The photo below is of me speaking at the conference. I was there at the invitation of R-CALF USA, the sister organization to ABA, to speak on how our NLIS is performing. Contrary to Australian propaganda of five years ago they don’t have one.)

The US now owes China $1.5 trillion and the Chinese Government is buying huge slices of US private business and public infrastructure.

Debt is seeing the land of free enterprise being socialised by a communist Government in the same way I believe that Australia is being taken by the Singapore Government.

Earlier, on my flight to Dallas, I had read The Economist’s list of indebtedness and interest rates for 43 countries.

The US, Britain, South Africa, Pakistan, Mexico and Australia (in a mineral boom!) are now the basket cases of the developed World.

For nearly six years Australians and Americans have been told that we have a strong economy! The reverse is true.

A TV interview I saw gave me an insight into the depth of the division between rich and poor in the USA. In the interview a big Afro-American female Senator with her white eyeballs gleaming on the screen said ” The Sub Prime Loans are transferring $190 billion from poor and upwardly mobile black people to billionaire bankers and enslaving them for another two generations”.

This made me reflect on something Union speaker Richard Trumka said during his talk at the R-CALF conference “the US average yearly wage was now achieved by the average US CEO in less than one day !”. This is a recipe for revolution.

Barack Obama is capturing a new mood of hope in the US but the American people I meet at the Convention are working for a major change in how Washington treats its electoral masters -the people- as opposed to Wall St and the 92 billionaires in the US.