Drought, biosecurity, mineral exploration and the adoption of electronic identification (eID) tags for sheep and goats will be the 'hot button' topics at the Pastoralists' Association of West Darling's (PAWD) annual general meeting on Friday.
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PAWD councillor Lachlan Gall said mining and exploration activities on pastoral properties, along with eID, had created a great deal of concern and anger in western NSW in the past year.
Mr Gall said the continuing failure to address flaws in the eID implementation plan and problems with interactions between agriculture and mining would lead to some tough questions put to NSW Department of Primary Industries deputy director general of biosecurity and food safety, John Tracey.
"Exploration and mining activity on pastoral properties in western NSW has been causing biosecurity issues, disruption for livestock, damage to landscapes and concern for the safety of local pilots engaged in agricultural work coming into conflict with survey aircraft which in some cases have been turning up without prior notification," Mr Gall said.
Related reading: Sheep eID has left producers asking more questions
But it will be eID tag that top the list of PAWD's list of concerns.
"A total rethink of eID is required," Mr Gall said.
"Consultation has been woeful and decision makers need to reflect on why they are forcing us down the path of mandatory individual electronic tagging for sheep and goats when New Zealand have considered the same issue and have elected to stick with their existing mob based traceability system.
"Fixing the longstanding problems with individual identification in the cattle industry first, instead of imposing a flawed plan onto sheep and goat producers, would be a much better idea."
On top of that Mr Gall said there was also the cost of implementing eID, with electronic tags at $2 each, NSW livestock managers reporting the cost of using eID at between $40,000 and $70,000, and the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Livestock Traceability Report putting the initial roll-out at $350-$400 million and the 10 year cost reaching about $800 million.
"Can the livestock industry really afford to adopt what is an absolute lemon of a proposal, especially when we've seen light Merino lambs sell for $5 at Deniliquin last week and we're not even in drought?" Mr Gall asked.
He said serious consideration should be given to adopting PAWD's eID recommendations, including:
- Connecting National Vendor Declarations created on the NVD web or app platforms to the NLIS database electronically so stock movement documents are automatically uploaded to the database when they are created.
- Electronic tag free movement options for lambs, sheep and farmed goats from property of birth direct to slaughter. Existing provisions requiring identification with a visual NLIS tag would continue, acknowledging the reality that using an electronic tag does not improve traceability in these circumstances.
Mr Gall said PAWD already had one eID win, with the association's behind-the-scenes work being instrumental in securing tagging concessions for rangeland goats.
"We're in this eID debate for the long haul. We have support for our position from industry stakeholders across Australia, and any expectation that we will eventually give in and accept the dog's breakfast that is being served up to us is completely misplaced" Mr Gall said.
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Meanwhile, it's getting drier in the far west with much of southern Australia receiving significantly below average rainfall in 2023.
"Long range forecasts aren't at all encouraging at the moment and pastoralists are already offloading livestock," Mr Gall said.
"The '17-'20 drought is still fresh in our minds, especially so for areas where dry conditions persisted until big rains fell in the last week of April last year."
Other guest speakers include DPI livestock systems group director Dougal Gordon, Goat Industry Council of Australian president John Falkenhagen and Western Local Land Services biosecurity officer Brooke Anderson.
Morning tea will be available beforehand and lunch, by the Royal Flying Doctor Service Women's Auxiliary.
