check off increase

[Bruce14]

Thanks for the info Sean. Good to see there were some producer meetings explaining things.

Beef promotion and finding new markets (we are far too dependant on the U.S. market) is a necessity. Of course nobody wants that money to come out of their own pocket.

[cowman]

My main problem with the ABP or the CCA is this: They are not working for the whole industry on a lot of things! I do understand that in this day and age we need a strong lobby group as that is how politics works these days.
The grazing leases are one area where they have waded in when they should have stayed out of it. How fair is it when one group is being paid to pasture their cattle on the public domain? How do you compete with that?
Another thing that bugs me is the blatent support for our big feeders over the cow/calf sector. Bring in diseases that do nothing for the cow/calf sector, bring in a ID system that the cow/calf sector pays for entirely?
And now they have brought in the cattle buyers, the auction marts and the packing houses. All part of the ABP now! Maybe its time we had a group just for the cow/calf sector? And that group could collect the $3 to lobby the government to keep out blue tongue etc.?

[Bruce14]

Cowman: "Bring in diseases that do nothing for the cow/calf sector, bring in a ID system that the cow/calf sector pays for entirely?"

I agree with you on anaplas. and bluetongue but explain to me how the cow/calf sector pays for the ID system in its entirety.

[cowman]

Bruce: Lets see... I pay for the tag. I put it in. Everyone else benifits from the added safety factor. The feeder, the packer, the retailer, the consumer, the government! This isn't rocket science?

[Bruce14]

So cowman you think the entire cost of the ID system is the tag and the bit of time it takes to put it in?

That is being simplistic.

[cowman]

Enlighten me?

[grassfarmer]

As far as paying for the cattle ID system goes why shouldn't the producer pay the $3 or $5 or whatever. Lets face it if you can't afford that off a $6-$800 calf maybe you should be looking for another job. It's not a big cost as long as we are paying for the tag only. UK farmers have always paid for eartags and now it is being proposed that they should pay for the entire tracking system ie the passport system which will be a lot of money as it covers wages, offices and computers. Now THAT would be a bad deal and worth fighting!