Beef

After the release of OBE Organic's Sustainability Report 2022 earlier this year, Australian Rural & Regional News found out a little more about what's involved in farming organic beef in the vast Channel Country and how it came to be Australia's oldest organic beef company from OBE Organic's Managing Director, Dalene Wray.

Global demand for cheaper cuts of beef is expected to increase in the year ahead as rampant inflation and slowing economic growth see consumers trade down, Rabobank says in a newly-released report. And Australia - as one of the largest exporters of beef "trimmings" (the cheaper meat cuts which remain after prime cuts are removed) - is expected to be among the best-positioned countries to benefit from this increased international demand, particularly from the US, the agribusiness bank says in its Q3 Global Beef Quarterly.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the official livestock and production figures for the second quarter of 2022. The data also provided insights on slaughter, production, value and carcase weight for sheep and cattle for the 2022 financial year.

Australia's beef and sheepmeat sectors can expect continuing demand from China despite its slowing economy and continued lockdowns impacting how the country consumes animal proteins. Speaking on a newly-released podcast, Is the Chinese meat market still firing?, Rabobank's Hong Kong-based senior animal protein analyst Chenjun Pan said China's lockdown policies have affected the population's protein consumption habits, with the major short-term change being where people are consuming food.

The Australian livestock industry will work with Indonesian feedlots to help protect their facilities from disease incursions and subsequent trade disruption via a biosecurity support project jointly funded by the Australian Government and Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) ... MLA responded to a question from ARR.News about border closures.

At their Ordinary Council Meeting last Wednesday, Southern Downs Regional Council approved a contentious development application by Arolla Pastoral Company Pty Ltd to build a sheep and cattle feedlot at Mount Marshall ... The feedlot is of much interest to the community, with the application receiving 74 submissions, 11 in favour and 63 against.

Lowering methane emissions through the use of Asparagopsis seaweed as a feed supplement has become a reality, following its first commercial sale in early June, according to Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and FutureFeed. The first commercial sale of Asparagopsis feed supplement in Australia by CH4 Global is a significant step forward for the industry.

Suzie Christensen. A major milestone was celebrated on Sunday 26 June with the return of cattle to two of Lord Howe Island’s patient special leaseholders ... Beef cattle have been grown and raised here almost as long as the island has been settled. The return of quality breeding animals will contribute to the island’s ability to produce its own food and ultimately community resilience.

Tegan George. Agents yarded a total of 1,641 head at the Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange regular prime sale on Wednesday, June 22 ... A fair number of cows were penned along with an increased numbers of bullocks and steers.

An invited presentation by Associate Professor Matthew Harrison from the University of Tasmania presents a summary of recent research in climate change adaptation and greenhouse gas emissions mitigation for the agriculture sector. Questions are welcome.

First-mover companies around the world are taking the next steps to meet their emissions reduction goals and beginning to release climate-neutral beef products on to shelves, Rabobank says in its latest global Beef Quarterly report.

Tegan George. Agents yarded 897 head at the Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange regular prime sale on Wednesday, May 25. The yarding consisted of a good supply of young cattle along with a fair penning of cows. The young cattle consisted mainly of light and medium weight weaners with quality on the plainer side. Cattle are starting to see a drop in condition with the wet weather taking a toll.

Australia’s oldest organic beef company – OBE Organic – is putting sustainability in the spotlight ahead of World Environment Day this coming Sunday, June 5 with the release of a new report that details industry-leading practices in sustainable agriculture, supply chain management and human resources.

Beef Week celebrates 40 years this week. Come along to your favourite events, and if you’ve never been before, here are four reasons to go in celebration of every decade of the Casino event: 1. Free steak 2. Brenda in the moke 3. Men in undies 4. Cows ... lots of cows.

The early supply chain disruptions of 2022, including COVID-19 and floods, have not impacted the continued growth and strength of Australia’s feedlot sector, according to the recent results of the ALFA and Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) survey.

Nicoli Barnes, UTas. It has been suggested that biochar improves animal health and liveweight gain. It has also been suggested that biochar reduces enteric methane and, by increasing carbon content in the manure, may improve soil carbon over time. Together these effects would theoretically reduce whole farm emissions. In an MLA-funded research programme, we are testing this theory using in a farm experiment near Deloraine, Tasmania.

“National parks should not be purchased unless there are funds to fully fence and maintain the park. They are the worst neighbours one could wish for with little to no weed control, no fences, nobody living on the property, little fire-fighting capability, and a propensity to shoot cattle" : Sally Witherspoon, Cape York cattle farmer.

Jo and Don Hearn from Restdown Winery and Jungle Lane Beef Co and their business were recently recognised as part of Tourism Australia’s new international marketing campaign on sustainable tourism, and Tourism NSW has also included them in the top 10 things to do along the Murray River, alongside the iconic Mungo National Park.

The author has set himself an enormous task to survey in depth the history of the Surrey Hills district of north-west Tasmania. Fires, Farms and Forests represents the culmination of much detailed and careful research, combined with the author’s extensive personal experience as a forester, and, in particular, his role managing the native grasslands and buttongrass moorlands on Surrey Hills. All this enables the author to weave a story which encompasses both general history as well as specialist insights into the management of land and forests.