If the use of fear to drive change was a key tool in enacting new biosecurity regulations then that tact has been successful, as agents field a stampede of calls for advice. Many are cries for help from client producers who never signed up to the digital revolution.
Kempsey livestock agent Ian Argue said his office staff has received an unprecedented number of inquiries asking how to get a level 6 Johnes Beef Assurance Score.
With older producers not keen on computers, staff have been sitting down with them and providing person to person training in order to get these people over the line.
The massive mail-out by Meat and Livestock Australia currently underway should help alleviate some of the pressure felt by agents everywhere but the question remains: Will producers be left out of markets if they don’t comply?
The answer is yes, of course. But Mr Argue played down concerns that low-score producers would lose customers in areas with high compliance, noting that the effort required to get to level 6 – the basic starting point moving forward – was simple enough.
Whether the market demands tougher biosecurity in the form of higher, more complicated levels, remains to be seen.
“My gut feeling is that the commercial market will roll on at level 6,” Mr Argue said. “With the cattle market dropping, people will be less inclined to spend more money testing their herd for Bovine Johnes Disease.”
Stud breeders are already demanding greater security, with Beaudesert Ultra Black breeder Nick Cameron, Nindooinbah, saying sales to Western Australia rely on him being a level 8 and he cannot afford to buy from anyone with a lower score.
Not a drama
Tamworth cattle consultant Alistair Rayner reckons new requirements ordering producers to file a six page self-assessment by the end of October aren’t all that arduous.
“Most breeders are doing some form of bio-security anyway,” he said. “In the time it takes to argue about it the form could be filled in.”
Current bio-security regulation is a follow on from previous contentious rules, like the introduction of NLLS ear tags and yet those requirements allow a supermarket box in China to be traced all the way back to the paddock. The ear tag technology will allow the next level of biosecurity to work.
