Northern beef producers position for prosperity

Yet their communities were being marginalised and undervalued and the year had been marked by numerous attacks on that prosperity.

This was the message from the grazier at the head of the north’s peak pastoralist representative body, the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association, Tom Stockwell, in opening the organisation’s annual conference in Darwin this morning.

There were plenty who came in for his wrath.

But he also had a word of sage advice for producers themselves, about not getting carried away by the increasing value of their holdings.

Rising demand for live cattle and beef in Asian markets and beyond and the toll of drought on the national herd elsewhere had created the perfect storm for property values and changes of ownership in the Territory, Mr Stockwell said.

In the past 12 months there have been 20 sales of Northern Territory leases completed or commenced.

Property prices have increased significantly with interest from both interstate and overseas buyers.

“The worst thing we can do is believe our own bulldust,” Mr Stockwell said.

“It doesn’t matter how much you can get paid per beast area, productivity is still largely controlled by land capability and water availability and the season that drives it.

“The country will not produce any more grass and the cattle won’t grow any faster or bigger because land prices have gone up.

“The productivity versus stocking rate relationship is unforgiving.”

There is clearly enough for producers to battle outside their backyard without letting grazing management principles slip and production rates decline, judging by Mr Stockwell’s talk.

From the Bureau of Meteorology’s removing of the Barkly weather radar services and the attempts to make UHF linking repeaters illegal to WWF’s drones to spy on landholders, Mr Stockwell had a swag full of colourful examples of what he called “uninformed decisions made in the southern smoke without consultation”.

The NBN has a fair use policy restricting use in the bush but has the capacity to supply services to QANTAS, he pointed out.

And the one that takes the cake - the national broadcaster unilaterally deciding that the bush no longer needs shortwave radio.

Meanwhile tweeters from “lotfed inner suburbs of Sydney” were testing the resolve of northern pastoralists and our beef trading partners overseas were making decisions that challenge our share in the provision of food for their population.

All these were attacks on the prosperity of the business, according to Mr Stockwell.

The keys to defending it?

Maintaining comparative advantage, sustainability and trade, he argued.

A dilemma of our time, Mr Stockwell said, was determining if and how the northern beef industry could co-exist with the unconventional shale gas industry.

“The politically polite energy policies of state and federal governments over the past two decades has cost jobs, manufacturing industries and landed added expense to those who have survived,” he said.

“Without a major shift in direction, worse is to come.

“Already our beef sector is trying to compete globally while paying three times as much to process a carcase as our competitors in the US.

“When Australia is full of coal, natural gas and uranium, why don’t we have cheap power to improve our comparative advantage?

“Why would we sell our cheap stuff and then impose expensive and unreliable renewables on ourselves?”

Mr Stockwell also discussed the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework, delivering the message that if producers do not practice what they preach, particularly in regard to animal welfare and environmental stewardship, there were big risks.

Globally, the sustainability ‘industry’ comes after only climate change and health bureaucracies, he said.

“The framework is really about telling our story,” he said.

“Using it we can describe and improve production and marketing systems and can communicate and plan amongst ourselves and with our customers and consumers abroad and at home.

“Due in part to customer demand, and also to ever diminishing resources from governments, the beef industry and the individual enterprises within it need to be more responsible and proactive in monitoring and regulating its own performance.

“Clearly we need to do this efficiently, and without the addition of red tape, but we should be crystal clear about the risks if we don’t.”

Mr Stockwell’s presentation set the scene for vibrant discussion, debate and analysis as a diverse and experienced line-up of speakers took the stage at the 2017 NTCA conference.

More than 500 industry stakeholders were on hand to hear about everything from equality in the beef sector workforce to what the latest predictions are for the cattle market.