Great talking with a few of the old timers the other day, about all things Rural, bureaucrats and international trade. My constant whinging about the lack of quality decisions made by our bureaucratic establishments who are controlling our Beef Industry is made up of the following. The flurry of overseas beef imports from countries with BSE problems, the demands of the bureaucracy in regards to our land management and the basic lack of knowledge by our “Masters” of the practical abilities to survive in today’s agricultural industry.
Then it was suddenly like a little light going on amongst the three of us, as if we had found the overwhelming problem to all the above issues. As one old fellow said to me, “the biggest trouble with most of the people who have their degrees, sharp suits and fairly extreme wages, is that not one of them in their lifetime would know how to grow a blade of grass, let alone manage things like animal health, fencing, pasture development and the ever present bank manager”.
Quick as a flash I replied, “We ought to get one of you blokes to have a crack at these top jobs”. It was as if I had dropped a grenade, as they headed to all corners of the earth, mumbling under their breaths “I haven’t got time for all that bureaucratic rubbish” !
Maybe this is our real problem !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a good sign that the rural industry is really starting to hurt and following on from the protests in Canberra over land rights, is the Forum to be held in Armidale on Feb 27th. This is in regards to the performance of our red meat industry organisations, being led by the Bindaree Beef Pty Ltd.
With costs of close enough to $10 per head, just in levies, many in the industry are asking ”are we getting any bang for our buck?”. The main concerns appear to be of the use of Peak Councils, Red Meat Advisory Councils and other organisations such as the MLA which appear to be eating up funds at an alarming rate with little to show in return. An example being the blowout of the MLA’s budget from $96million to $160million whilst in real terms, cattle prices are 20% lower than those paid twenty years ago.
Another fact being that the per-capita beef consumption has continued to decline at a long term rate of 1.7% per year.
Is it a fact that we have too many fingers in the pie with very little results showing any marked increase in sales or consumption?
Any people wishing to go this forum, please contact me at the office, as I feel we need to get these questions answered or maybe reformed.