PASSIONS are running high again as the Johne’s biosecurity plan fall-out continues with the new deadline only seven weeks away, which coincides with the new Livestock Production Assurance certification scheme.
At the NSW Farmers conference many speakers were urged to cool it, and end the vitriol over the plans, with some Cattle Council members copping flak.
Up in Casino next week there’s a town meeting which will call to try and stop the scheme. Peter Carter, a vet and farmer from Wellington, has been a strident critic of the scheme and is involved in the Casino gathering. There are also anti-J-BAS coalitions forming in Queensland.
But with due respect to producers who have viable arguments against the scheme, it seems a little late to try and shut the gate.
At the end of the day the J-BAS system may have little or no effect on how cattle trading proceeds in Australia. It seems likely for most cattle producers it will be business as usual from October 1 on.
Farmers are often hamstrung by government bureaucracies. But the devolution of responsibility for biosecurity to the individual farmer seems to have been met with a quick rejection. For sure, if the system had been more wisely communicated, and was made simpler, and that almost all people in J-BAS 6 score areas just received certification, life might have gone on. But as we saw at the Farmers Conference many didn’t know about the scheme until they read about it in The Land.
Everyone knows Bovine Johne’s disease is a minute issue in Australian cattle. The problem is that Ovine Johne’s was ever linked to the debate and language. The anger on Ovine Johne’s handling still runs raw among many farmers.
But at the end of the day it may be the market place that has the final say. It is still very unclear how sale yards will handle the new system, if say J-BAS score 6 cattle will be separated from other cattle. And how will feedlots respond. Will they be requiring J-BAS certification for cattle. Will they become more tight-knit with certain suppliers?
Certainly the weaner sales early next year, where cattle will be bought then brought up from Victoria to NSW and Queensland, will be telling in how the marketplace responds. If there is no premium at sales for J-BAS certified cattle, are people really going to adopt it? How this plays out over time in the industry will determine if the paperwork is necessary at all.
