Promise of rain a start, more will be needed before summer | Stock Talk

Whatever the outcome it will require a good deal more to get most areas through a tough spring and summer.

As I have driven around the state in the past the few weeks the differences in the seasons are tremendous, from areas that are already considered in drought to those in the south-east that are having a fair to better spring.

With the ram and bull sales well underway it has been good to see solid clearances, averages may be back, but people are still there.

The main discussions at these sales have been about the market and the significant drop from this time last year.

With the above two paragraphs in mind, how as producers do we start to take some control back of our markets?

Australian producers have some of the most stringent systems in place, in regards to on farm producer assurance programs combined with processor assurance programs and yet we are still at the mercy of export markets.

Our clean, green meat goes into a system where price and supply seems to be more important than quality.

In the past few decades, there have been a change from domestically consuming 70pc of what we produce and exporting 30pc to a point that it is now the opposite.

The effect of the Government's decision to take away a large export market without "real" consultation and no plan for where the product will then be sold, and how this uncertainty combined with season and other factors has shown, that we as producers we are at the mercy of people who don't care that we have world best production systems and animal welfare.

Our elite product is thrown into the world market where it may be respected for its quality but that is not what controls the price.

We have the Australia Day lamb campaign for example where we see a bounce in domestic demand, so why are we not looking in our own backyard to grow demand?

We might not be able to eat our way out of this, but there are worse ways to go.

Stock Talk is written by a range of stock and station agents from across NSW. It reflects their opinions and observations from their local district.