Agmates

Victorian, Cattle Producer, Feedlotter, Horse Breeder Jenny Bird writes.

Our operation is relatively small..we trade about 4000 steers into feedlots. So we buy in, grow out and send. Wodonga Sale yards on the Victorian / NSW Border (pictured below) is where we source most of our cattle.

Regular sales are Tuesday fat market plus store sale, special sales are held on other days of the week. These special sales require cattle to be yarded the day before and the sales start at 10:30 am. We have arrangements to get cattle out of the pens to dirt yards quickly and then home to paddocks 10 and 15 and 25 k away as the cement footing and radiant heat cook the feet of cattle and cause no end of veterinary work for us.

This is our main processing set of yards on the Bungowannah property under construction. The roof is going on over the yards ($22,000 alone) with lights so we can process cattle when they come in at midnight and get them out into paddocks asap to avoid health issues from standing round on concrete at sale yards and hours of trucking.

Best invention ever a roof over the working area. The power hose is essential to keep the area clean as the cattle are very loose in spring. The heat of the day in open yards in summer is intolerable so we start at dawn and try to knock off by midday……not that it ever works that way!!!!

In the feed on steer job you need to process cattle when they want them so good yards and facilities have become essential….but all are expensive.

The scanning equipment and recording gear we can take to other yards and use portable scales. Above is the sort of crush set up we have in all yards……this one hasn’t got the head grab on it yet. You can’t read buttons manually with out one! All scales need to be programed to the recording box…..if not they can give a false reading of up to 4 kg per 100 kg…..very critical when you are targeting a grid system of price for different feedlots.

We invested in $20,000 worth of crushes and scanner/recording equipment to ease the back pain of having to manually read all cattle on purchased and out the gate so we could check NLIS status of them on the data base to avoid ‘discounts’ at the feedlot entry point.

Above is Bill Weidner, who has been in the cattle business for many years, with some bullocks ready to go to Queensland at the Bonegilla property. Bill and I run his brother’s Estate. AJ Weidner was a very well known commission buyer for 60 odd years. Since Bill had a horse flip on him and break his leg, followed by a horse flinging him into a float and breaking a hip he does very little on a horse now…..but he has a buster off the Ag bike on a regular basis….the brakes on a horse were pretty reliable! At 79 he doesn’t repair as well as he used to!

Manually reading tags is essential on purchase entry as it identifies those cattle who don’t scan; don’t carry buttons at all on arrival; don’t carry a button that matches the NVD; aren’t in fact what they were sold as ie Vendor Bred but second hand, or Vendor Bred but the NVD relates to a different property so they come up on the data base as NOT LIFE TIME TRACEABLE.

The other issue is that when the data is entered on the keyboard, fields don’t hold that data and hours of filling in ‘gaps’ is done off the long hand recording we still have to do.

Nothing beats the written format….except when the dog pi**es on the sheets and you have used a texta pen!!!

“In my spare time I stand 4 Morgan stallions …live service and chilled shipment and breed Pure and Part bred Morgan horses. This mare I originally sold to NZ as a filly but then repurchased when the opportunity arose. I have sold several horses to NZ and every State and Territory in Australia. I have just sold a yearling filly to England….a first.

So when we have a problem on intake we ring the agent and request the correct NVD applicable to the cattle and a roll back of the data entry is done to make the cattle Life Time traceable. Otherwise, we deduct $100 off every incorrect beast purchased.

It is amazing how agents don’t put up a fight!!! It is easier to wear the discount than fix the problem for most……..as they are not computer literate themselves or it occurs so often they would have no time to address their own bottom line profit sheet if they had to fix every “problem” beast!!!

At the price of feed on steers we can’t afford to run 20% non lifetime traceable cattle to punt back into the domestic market!!!…..where Life time traceability doesn’t matter.

Marvelous Encore (pictured) is a Morgan stallion I imported from Arizona in 1994. He arrived mid winter – July 4th in a summer coat but he soon learnt to grow a winter coat.

The filly I sent to England in January went out in 40 degree heat and arrived in -8 with wind chill factor and it snowed the next day. She is growing a winter coat now as she tears off her rugs. It takes horses over 12 months to adjust to the climate change.

I have imported many horses from America, NZ and England as well as frozen semen. The drought and EI has minimised my program but I still have about 25 horses…..but don’t tell Bill!!!”

If only purchasers and breeders and stock owners of cattle would check their data base to see the mess they have on it. Most would recognize that the numbers they are supposed to have in the paddock according to the data base has no relationship to the data they have submitted to the Tax man!!!

Wouldn’t the Tax Office have a field day if they had a look at the data base of most cockies!!!!???? If you aren’t computer literate then ask your Agent to down load a copy of all the cattle you have recorded on your data base. You will be in for a BIG surprise!!! Remember the new buttons in the shed as yet unused are on there too…before you have a heart attack!!!

I headed up a syndicate to import frozen semen from a Palomino Morgan stallion and market that semen as well. Below is a photo of Palomino M0rgan Stallion – PT Cruiser.

Have your say! To ask Jenny a question online or leave a comment click on the Blue word Comment below.

Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes:

I just don’t get the whole plastic bag thing. I don’t know about you but my humble little plastic shopping bag is bloody useful. A recent survey show that I, like 93% of people responsibly reuse them.

My plastic bag sock in my pantry that Sue bought me. Just about everybody I know has one. It’s great you can stuff about 20 of the little shoppies in there and they just poke out the bottom, ready to use.)

But the other day my newsagent Rick (the Plastic Bag Warrior) bailed me up. “No more” he told me, “we have to do something about plastic bags, there destroying the environment.”

But don’t worry for just 70cents Rick could solve the problem – “A re useable bag” (but hang on I reuse all my shoppies).

Rick would have have none of it. He shamed me into buying his 70 cents environmentally friendly, save the planet bag.

Rick was very pleased, he was doing his bit to save the planet.

(I’ve got to say I miss my old bag sock. Oh but maybe I’ll get use to the colour)

I’ve felt OK about being environmentally responsible, (I know Rick was happy with me) although imagine my confusion when I found out my new save the planet bags are made of “plastic”. Hmm. Not until I started to run out of my little shoppies did I realize how many of them I depend on.

Running out of Shoppies and concerned about what to do now with my kitchen food scraps I went back to my “Plastic bag Warrior” and part time News Agent Rick for the solution to my problem. After all he’d shamed me into this.

“No worries Mate” he told me, “just buy a composter. Throw all the scraps in there and then straight into the vegy garden, its great.”

After pricing a composter at about $500, I’m starting to become a little wary of Rick’s logic. I use to get my plastic bags for free, now I have to pay 70 cents for a thicker plastic bag, spend $5oo on a compostor and build a vegy garden.

(Ah the good old days when life was simpler and I just pulled a “free” shoppie out of the sock and put it in my kitchen bin. When it’s full of scraps pull it straight out, tie the tops and straight into the wheelie bin.)

I seem to be collecting a heap of these horrid red bags. I don’t know about you, but I’m lucky to remember to take my mobile phone and glasses when I got out the door, now I have to remember the red bags in case I stop off at a shop.

Not wanting to have to spend 70cents on a re usable save the planet shopping bag (Rick assures me I’m getting a bargain, those bloody big supermarkets are charging $1) and also having to buy plastic bin liners (to replace shoppies I use to get for free), I tried the solution below.

This is what my office waste bin use to look like. So simple, paper in plastic shoppie liner, when it’s full, tie it up and then straight into the yellow topped recycle bin.

Just look at it now.

This is not working.

So back down to Ricks for more advise. “No worries mate”, say Rick, ” just slip down to the supermarket and buy some bin liners” (but hang on a minute Rick, there plastic, how is that any different, except I’m now paying for all my plastic bags.)

Rick smiles at me all knowingly, as only someone who is on a crusade to save the planet can.

He assures me, “Yes mate, I know, but we’ve got to do something about all these plastic bags, their destroying the environment you know.”

Dumbfounded and confused I just left Rick to his crusade of saving the planet from plastic bags. He knows and I now know I’m just too “thick’ to work it out.

For some strange reason this whole ban “free” plastic shopping bags crusade has me thinking of that old fable “The Emperors New Cloths”.

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

Queensland Grain producer Rowell Walton in his “View from the header” writes:

The period from the early nineties till now has seen dramatic changes in grain marketing, from fully regulated domestically and internationally to the now entirely deregulated domestic market.

(My view from “the front of the header” during the 2007 Wheat harvest at Yulabilla Condamine QLD)

With the current push by certain groups to do away with he single desk of the Australian Wheat Board and complete the return to pre 1930,s marketing conditions grain producers need to consider carefully their future prospects.

While the world oil shortage and political need has seen the US move rapidly toward domestic production of fuel via ethanol from grain and following decades of low grain prices production has languished.

Now, a strong lift in prices has sent a signal to growers and observers that once again grain is king.

In the shadow of this profitable grain situation it is possible for political operatives to pursue with enthusiasm their agendas for change (code for deregulation) and utilize apathy as growers busy themselves to at last make profits.

(Delivering Wheat to the silo’s during last years harvest)

At any time grain production matches consumption and reserves are available grain price growth will be constrained, in this environment the vast majority of grain producers understand the need for a exporting system which gives them a semblance of ability to extract from the market a fair price. This has been the norm for the life of this producer.

(Header in action during last years Wheat harvest)

Just how the advocates of dismantling the single desk think Australian growers can benefit from the interchange of commerce when several sales people approach the same buyer in some far of place is beyond me, domestically however if a grower is weak and sells below a reasonable price then at least some local benefit may be appropriated, some feedlot or chicken producer who employs Australians, but to give away market power for nothing in return, is senseless.

Take the recent AWB board who have tried to make change and used name calling and innuendo to advance their call. Even the chairman a Queensland’er, asserts he has a mandate (more like a decree) while he fails to observe the rules that govern him, the constitution of the AWB requires that 75% majority be achieved for such changes.

Those are the rules the board must follow. It is this typical refusal to abide by rules, which has taken us to this sad place where even some growers think as a result of certain events we should dump the AWB.

(The men waiting for moisture levels to drop so we can get started again during the 2007 wheat harvest at Yulabilla Condamine QLD.)

Here’s a thought, those who refuse to abide by the rules should no longer hold the confidence of the shareholders and thus should resign forthwith and the shareholders should re elect a board that is prepared to follow the constitution and its rules.

No, I will not label them traitors; I will leave it for history to do that.

And who will benefit from the change advocated.growers? I think not.

Have your say. To leave your thoughts / or to tell Rowell what you think, click on the blue comments link below.

A Chronicle of Telstra indifferent / appalling service its country customers in Australia!

Unhappy Telstra Customer No 1 – Susan Carlson writes .

(Susan pictured below with her Champion mare Dammit Janet)

Not all customers are treated the same!

I have been using the net since 1996. During this time I was using a locally based ISP. Why? Because they were reasonably priced, offered service and I very rarely had trouble getting on line!

While I may have changed my towers, hard wear, soft wear and desks, I have always used the same ISP. I like my ISP, because time after time I heard my friends say how hard it is to get on line. Most of them are with Bigpond, or as I like to call it, Big Puddle!

This year I decided to upgrade my net access to broadband. Not because of the large downloads, although that is very attractive for my photographic service, but because my Mum is 86 and hates it when she can’t get through to me. So broadband seems the perfect answer.

Of course that’s perfect for me but not for Telstra. I’m not ‘with them’. And I don’t want to change!

So when I asked my ISP about getting broadband, they advised me that I would be paying a fee to Telstra, an increased monthly fee and also buying a new modem.

That’s fair enough and so I paid them. I trust them because I’ve done business with them for 12 years! So why has Telstra knocked back my first application?

I don’t owe them money and always pay my phone bill on time? Why did my ISP have to present my application again and why two months later are Telstra still ‘looking into my accessibility’!

Makes you wonder why a friend of mine (in the same phone area) has had broadband for the last few months? OH she’s not only a Telstra customer; she has her email with them!
NOT HAPPY JAN! Telstra lift your game! Susan Carlson.

Got your own beef with Telstra. Want Telstra to improve their service to Country people? Click here to leave your own personal Telstra Horror Story or click on comments below to leave your thoughts or message for Susan.

A Chronicle of Telstra indifferent / appalling service its country customers in Australia!

Unhappy Telstra Customer No2 – Agmates writes:

After moving the Agmates site from a server in the USA to our own dedicated server in Australia we became aware that many people could not access the site either by typing in the address, clicking on the AgNews links or by Google.

After 100’s of emails and calls, we noticed they were all from Telstra Bigpond Satellite or ISDN customers. I then spent 2 full days on the phone none stop to Telstra to sort this.

When we first contacted Telstra they said that it would be fixed shortly. So we waited, then on Monday almost a week later, when contacted again they blamed everything from the new hosting company, to the old hosting company in the USA to faulty modems.

Finally I got a Telstra Tech to tell me that it was because the settings in the Telstra DNS Server had not been changed. Try as we might we could not find anybody to change it.

Finally I was told the only way we’d get it changed was if enough bigpond satellite and ISDN customers complained they would do something, but otherwise nothing could be done.

By this time I was furious.

Totally frustrated I called Telstra’s Corporate office in Sydney and asked to be put through to Media Relations. I got a very helpful guy – Daniel. I told Daniel my woes and that If I did not get the settings changed by tomorrow I would be launching a “Hate Telstra campaign” on Agmates and actively promoting a competitor.

Because we have 1,000’s of users / readers in the bush, they suddenly became very interested & helpful. Daniel left me on hold for half and hour and came back and said that he’d spoke to 7 different departments but could not find the department in charge of the Telstra DNS Server. He told me he’d keep working on it and suggested I call back tomorrow.

Mysteriously about an hour later it was working. Don’t know if the threat of bad publicity to corporate office was the catalyst and don’t care. But it seem’s very coincidental – doesn’t it.

Got your own beef with Telstra. Want Telstra to improve their service to Country people? Click here to leave your own personal Telstra Horror Story or click on comments below to leave your thoughts or comment. 

Forwarded to Agmates by Marie-Therese Los:

Tink the Dashound is fostering this guy for another mother who couldn’t take care of him. He had his eyes closed, but now they are open. He is just a little bigger than her other pups.

She loves this little guy more than the other puppies and she is nursing him back to health.He is the cleanest puppy ever because she licks him all the time.

This is ‘Pink’ short for Pig & Tink

Pink and the puppies nursing.

Pink “nurses” all the time.

Pink sleeping with his siblings

He is sooo cute

Tink is very protective over Pink

She keeps him close to her

The family sleeping

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.