Australian cattle ban and the impact on our industry

[Flying Binghi]

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Cost jobs

Import diseases to our doorstep

Alienate a neighbour

Leave animal welfare no better off


This ban seems too wide to be productive | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog (http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/this_ban_seems_too_wide_to_be_productive/)







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[topendtorque]

spot on FB, mrs tet had just finished reading to me the article referred to while i was doing something else then i flicked over here.

our whole country has gone mad at the moment there is no doubt. interesting to note the WTO action.

[Flying Binghi]

A letter to ABC's Four Corners from live export industry stakeholder, Scot Braithwaite


Dear Sir,

I must introduce myself. My name is Scot Braithwaite and my life has basically revolved around live export since I was 10 years old. I was unloading cattle boats in Malaysia at the age of 13.

I have worked for all the major cattle companies including as a Head Stockman in the Northern Territory. I have a degree in economics from the Queensland University and I personally have sold more than 1.5 million head of cattle into Indonesia since 1991. I am presently employed as the marketing manager for Wellard rural exports.

I am writing to you after Monday's program to say that although I abhor the treatment of the animals shown in the video, your one sided approach to the subject and the possible effect of that of a ban on live exports is too big a price to pay for a report based on the evidence of an organization that’s charter is to shut us down.


I have the following points to make. I would like to have the same time as those who denigrated my life to show you the other side of our industry. To show you what is really going on. In Australia there used to be thing about “A Fair Go”. You have gone with images provided by one person followed up by your investigative journalist who spent a week in Indonesia. Your report makes out that close to 100pc of Australian cattle are treated as was shown on TV.

The ship that appears in the footage “for less than 30 seconds” is a vessel that cost tens of millions of dollars to build. We have had three separate media groups sail with this ship and it can in no uncertain terms be described as best in class. The Wellard group has another 3 vessels of the same standard with another 2 being built in China. This is a total investment of $400 million to ensure that livestock exports from Australia are undertaken at the utmost levels of cow comfort and animal welfare.


The feedlot that was filmed was given a 10-second view. This feedlot is without doubt world-class. Your viewers should have at least had the opportunity to view large numbers of cattle eating and sleeping comfortably in a fantastic facility. This company has in addition moved to kill all its cattle through stunning system that he has control of. This owner has spent 20 years of his life in the industry, has built his business from nothing, has done all that is required of him from an animal welfare point of view yet your reporter makes no mention of these things.


Within a three-hour drive or 15 minute helicopter trip there are another three world-class facilities. All three feedlots including the one filmed, are at, or better than, what can be found in Australia. The cattle being fed, and the ration being fed, leads to a lot less animal health issues then a similar size operation in Australia. One of these facilities is operated and owned by a large Australian pastoral house. They had no mention in your supposed unbiased report. The operation is run by a North Queensland man who, through his absolute dedication to excellence has built a feedlot and slaughtering system that his company, the industry and himself can be very proud of. The system is closed, all the cattle are already killed through their own abattoir. They import 20 to 25000 cattle year. They have been doing this for at least five years. Why should they be shut down? For what reason could anyone justify closing this operation down, especially without even bothering to look at what goes on?


The other world-class feedlots that could have been investigated within a three-hour ride in the car are owned by a large publicly-listed Indonesian company. In all, they have on feed 50,000 cattle and import about 120,000 cattle a year. They have recently built an abattoir (the one that was briefly shown on the program). They built this two years ago as they knew that modern methods must come to Indonesia and they were willing to make the investment to make it happen.
The total investment from these 3 lotfeeders alone in infrastructure and stock is more than $100 million. Add to that the hundreds of millions that Wellard has recently invested in ships and do you really believe that these people would leave the final product to a murderous bastard with a blunt knife? They not only have tried to ensure the welfare of the animal but have made investments to make the changes all along the chain. These people deserve to have their side of the story heard. If the system is not perfect, and it isn’t, they have the wherewithal and the incentive to make it happen in a very short time.

These three importers who have shown a commitment to everything good about animal production, handle 45pc of total imports.

Social responsibility

The other major issue that was not covered was the social responsibility that all lotfeeders in Indonesia practice. Their operations are in relatively isolated poor areas: the feedlots provide employment opportunity, advancement through effort, and a market for thousands of tonnes of feedstuffs grown for the cattle. My understanding is that 8000 people are directly employed by the feedlots and over 1,000,000 people are reliant on the regular income made from supplying corn silage and other feedstuffs. This is not made up, it is fact. It can be easily checked. I will bet my 1,000,000 farmers against the 1,000,000 signatures on the ban order. It is very easy to sit in your comfortable chair and criticise but is it really worth the human cost to ban something that can be fixed and fixed reasonable quickly?

That is Sumatra. In Jakarta there is the largest privately-owned abattoir that kills about 4000 to 6000 head a month. It is a well-run facility that has no welfare issues. In addition it was working on getting a stun system in place well before the Four Corners report. No photos from here, yet this is another who has been doing the right thing and who will lose his business now that the trade is banned.

The largest Importer into Jakarta, has also built a slaughter facility in the past 12 months. It has not been commissioned yet but can be made ready within a month. They also have a private bone to pick with the program. As was not reported in the show, abattoirs in Indonesia are operated by any number of individual ‘Wholesalers'. They control the space and the manpower kills their number for the night and then hand-over to the next team. In any one night 8 to 10 separate operators can use the same facility.

In the case of the footage of the head-slapping, the camera panned to the cattle waiting and the tags of AA, Newcastle Waters and his company were made very prominent. Yes, they were there but the team that handled was different to the one being filmed. They protest, that their crews are well trained, no head-slapping occurs and very large and sharp knives are used to ensure a bloody but quick end. I have no reason to doubt them because I have seen a lot of their cattle handled at point-of-slaughter and their crews are well trained with immediate results. Where can their case be heard?

I have watched literally thousands of cattle slaughtered in the boxes in Indonesia. Yes there are problems, as there are at every point of slaughter on every type of animal in the world, but 98pc of the cattle I watched killed was quick and without fuss. Why is there not one shot of what happens 98pc of the time?

The shots of outright cruelty are totally unacceptable and the slaughter of cattle is still gruesome and confronting but is not as prevalent as portrayed in your report. Yes, it does sometimes happen but it is the exception, not the rule. And we are already taking steps to improve the system and we have the ability to ensure all animals are stunned in a very short time.

Yes, there are a couple of operators who in the short term will not be able to handle the new way. But they will be dropped: no commitment to stunning, no supply. No negotiation. There are also a number of operators privately-owned who were, to all intents and purposes, doing the right thing. They were asked to supply through the boxes and they have. They will be asked to only supply though a stunning facility, and they will. They have far too much invested in the whole industry over many years to not do as we ask.

I am asking for a fair go. You have been expertly manipulated. Hear the actual other side of the story let the Australian public see both sides. I am happy to make all the arrangements. This is too important to let sit with the images you portrayed last Monday without recourse.

Scot Braithwaite


Setting the record straight with Four Corners - Beef Central: cattle and beef news daily (http://www.beefcentral.com/news/article/192)






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[topendtorque]

Just one of many such stories. and the second of the zebra painted R22's.

Things are starting to get desparate in cattle towns across north and western OZ.

Ban takes toll on families - Local News - News - General - Katherine Times (http://www.katherinetimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/ban-takes-toll-on-families/2246766.aspx)

WHEN Danny Hayes gets up at dawn he finds himself something to do – to keep his hands busy.
“You can’t just sit down and do nothing,” he says.

So he fixes machinery that needs attention, cooks dinner for his two children, does the washing, the housework.

“There’s nothing wrong with being domesticated,” he says.

But you see, this time of the year, Danny would usually be in a helicopter, somewhere between the Queensland border in the east and Fitzroy Crossing in the west, mustering thousands of head of cattle, working from dawn till dusk, making a living for his family.

The life of Danny Hays, a fifth generation “man off the land” who rode horses at the age of three, revolved around live export.

With an export yard, a hay making business and three helicopters the contract musterer had 12 people working for him before the Federal Government put a halt on the export of cattle to Indonesia seven weeks ago – without warning, without providing options – and put an industry in jeopardy which the population of northern Australia relied on.

Danny Hayes has not earned a cent of income since.

But expenses keep creeping up – machinery that needs fixing in case the export gets rolling again, interest on his 20,000 acre station at Carbeen Park, 35km outside of Katherine, water, power, fuel bills, food for his children.

“But we are lucky,” the father-of-two says. My wife owns a clothes shop at Fitzroy Crossing, where she is now, selling clothes to earn us a few dollars. We’d be well and truly buggered without it.”

From his 12 employees Danny Hayes has two left – some had been working for the family business for eight years.

“Some are off to see the sights, others went to work in the mines – they knew there was no future in the industry. We’ve put a lot of time into training them. If it all gets going again we have to start all over again, with new people, new training.”

And although the live export ban has been lifted, things have not changed.

“They say the export is open again – but it’s not. It’s open when the boats go again.”

Elders were the first to obtain an export permit last week and their first ship load of cattle is expected to head for Indonesia in the second week of August.

But Danny Hayes future doesn’t look bright.

“If nothing changes very soon, I go broke. And I don’t think I’ll be by myself.”

The chopper pilot, who has flown helicopters for 20 years, spent eight months a year mustering cattle across the Northern Territory and Western Australia – at times without seeing his children for six weeks before stopping for a quick stint at home and heading back out bush for work.

“You make those sacrifices because you expect to get somewhere,” he says.

“It takes five to seven years to build up a business.

“It took a ten-minute video for someone to come and pull everything out from underneath your feet.

“Do they shut down every pet shop because somebody somewhere once kicked a dog?

“Do they shut down the horse racing industry because somebody somewhere once saw a starving race horse?

“They make us feel as if everyone is against us. The government is against ya, the greenies are against ya, but from what I’m concerned we just want to do our job and provide food for a nation. But they don’t want us to do anything.”

Danny Hayes is now looking at getting a job in the mines, or taking a cook van to Fitzroy Crossing to sell food. Or at doing something else to keep his hands busy – hands that are used to work the land to make a living for his family.

And Carbeen Park is on the market.

[Ag-Rotor]

It is hard to explain the anger I hold for our current government...I can't remember a time where a government of this country has been so intent on kicking the guts out of hard working Australians. :E:E:E To Julia, Wayne and Mr Ludwig, I only have one finger of reflection to this toxic three-some......Oh I forgot the other prick Bob Brown.