06/23/06 Australian comments

Australia Comments With the large beef export market Australia enjoys, you would think things are pretty rosy for cattle producers there. But, they have issues. I'm Jeff Keane I'll be right back to explain. Jack Field, executive vice-president of Washington Cattlemen's Association, recently visited Australia with a Washington State trade mission group so I called Jack for a visit. Jack related Australian beef producers have a lot of the same issues American producers face here. These include endangered species listings and regulations, animal welfare activists with PETA leading the charge, feedlot permitting problems, dealing with animal ID, taxes, and beef checkoff concerns. These all sound pretty familiar don't they? Cattle at Australian sale yards are sold by pen lots with each seller's agent acting as the auctioneer for their pens. Taxes, levies, and checkoff monies collected at the sales yard run about $33.00 per head with three to five dollars going to the checkoff; with $2.50 to $3.00 of that amount funding international marketing promotions. Jack stated, while talking about international marketing, David Inall, executive director of the Cattle Council of Australia, proposed that the United States and Australia work together in supplying world beef markets since no one country can supply all the beef that is needed. Competition is one thing, but why would a country voluntarily want to share markets? Maybe I'm too suspicious, but I think this is an interesting concept that U.S. producers need to watch closely. I'm Jeff Keane