Beef

On the back of strong cattle and grain prices, the NAB Rural Commodities Index is now almost 20% higher than the same time in 2020, according to the bank’s November Rural Commodities Wrap. With a La Nina event now officially underway, the prospect of a wet summer for eastern and northern Australia could see grass fever push record cattle prices even higher, while grain prices are also rising.

With above average rainfall predicted for all major cattle regions over the next three months and increased rainfall in northern Australia, pasture growth is expected to surge and strengthen the national herd rebuild into 2022, according to Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) latest Australian Cattle Industry Projections.

In the lead-up to the G20 meeting in Rome and the COP 26 Summit in Glasgow, and after some necessarily tough negotiations with their Liberal Party Coalition partner, the National Party obtained some concessions it says are designed to prevent the 'heavy lifting' of emissions reductions being placed unduly on rural and regional Australia.

As the only IP holder globally for Asparagopsis, Australian innovation start-up, FutureFeed, is the founding authority on the natural seaweed that helps fight climate change and produce more food with fewer resources. Built from strong scientific foundations based on proven results, FutureFeed exists to support the growing use of Asparagopsis as a natural ingredient for livestock to significantly reduce carbon emissions.

The prestigious Greenham’s Trade and Export (Carcase) Cattle competition is going ahead. The competition has been held annually since 1983 and in recent years producers have been entering the National Beef Expo which is held every three years at Rockhampton with much success.

The McGowan Government has welcomed the announcement of a new co-operative of northern pastoralists to own and operate northern Western Australia's only abattoir. The Kimberley Meat Co-operative (KMC) will acquire the beef processing facility 100km east of Broome, operating the facility on a contract based with its members and processing at least 40,000 head of cattle per year.

The McKenna family behind Midfield Meat Group has acquired the Wanderribby feedlot and grazing and farming property in South Australia, four years after the vendors initially put the asset to the market with hopes of as much as $10 million. South Australia’s third-largest feedlot, the 2,311-hectare Wanderribby has been used as a custom feedyard, feeding for three main clients, including at times Coles and Woolworths supermarket contracts, and the yard utilised in the past as a live export depot.

Mark Knowles. A new scientific project, dubbed SpaceCows, aims to help Indigenous rangers track and manage feral herds on their land in Cape York and northern Australia. The joint project, a partnership between Aboriginal land management groups, universities, CSIRO, a satellite company and Microsoft, uses artificial intelligence and data from satellite tracking to predict herd movements.

The Pattisons, from 'Minmi' at Burraboi, market their beef directly through the Pattison Pastoral brand, tapping into consumer demand for sustainably raised beef with provenance. Hayley is excited by the opportunities the new micro abattoir will bring. “It will do wonders for my brand to have local processing ... With my paddock to plate business, the welfare of the animals is so important."

High cattle prices and the housing crisis have led to changes at the casino Food Co-op. Shifts have been reduced and the co-operative plans to build worker cottages on site. Chief executive Simon Stahl said the price of cattle was too high for the meat processing plant.

The WA State Government is working with the Western Australian cattle industry to reduce the regulatory status of Johne's disease cattle strain (C-strain) after infection was confirmed on a cattle property in southern WA.

In an increasingly competitive world, Australia has some innate advantages in delivering high quality red meat protein to global markets: it is in the right neighbourhood to access growing demand in the Asia Pacific and world-leading shelf-life performance underpins an expanding chilled trade ... However, global shipping and air-freight have been in turmoil over the last year.

Restrictions on beef exports out of Argentina – the world’s fifth largest exporter of beef – could have a significant impact on the global market, according to Rabobank’s latest global Beef Quarterly report.

Red meat producers are featuring in a series of new videos, sharing their stories to inform consumers on how red meat is produced in Australia.

The Queensland Government’s Department of Environment and Science has snapped up Australia’s northernmost pastoral property, Bramwell Station, for about $11.5 million after auction.

BeefUp forums provide an opportunity for northern Australian beef producers to learn something new, stay up to date with the latest on-farm research and technologies and meet others working in the red meat industry.

North Queensland grazing and farming property Inkerman Station has been sold for over $30 million, with the cattle price boom propelling its value to almost triple what it was less than five years ago.

The first of a series of themed animations being produced to debunk myths about the environmental impact of red meat production in Australia has been launched by Meat & Livestock Australia. The animation explains how methane from cattle is part of the natural carbon cycle, demonstrating how the environmental impacts of emissions of methane from cows and carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, are fundamentally different.