King Island beef producers came together at the King Island Club for the 26th annual Beef Day and dinner. Farmers gathered to gain insights and listened to new ideas.
This year’s theme was “Fine Tuning Beef Production.”
“The annual event is really good considering that we have island-specific issues which we can share on a day like this,“ Beef Producers Group president Nick Lyttle said.
Around 70 farmers converged on the King Island Club for the conference day and 40 attended the dinner that followed.
There were five guest speakers.
“You first think it may be difficult to find guest speakers, but as we have built a network, we have found it easy to attract specialists to the island,” Mr Lyttle said.
“We had Adam Coffey, Director Cattle Australia and beef producer talking about methane emissions and how it’s misaccounted for in CO2 emissions, which is important and how do we get from climate neutral to carbon neutral; Jen Alexopoulos introduced an economic comparison of fixed time AI and natural mating in Angus beef heifers; Peter McGilchrist who has conducted research on King Island for five years, spoke on breeding and feeding to produce better beef; Marek Matuszek of AgLogic discussed the weather stations that have been placed on King Island and drainage mapping; and the day finished with Roger Clemons providing an FPA update,” Mr Lyttle said.
“Transport is still one of our challenges. Anywhere else you have a feed budget for winter, because you know when the cattle are gone at a certain date. We do run into trouble in autumn now and again when we get ship delays. Usually, we don’t have long delays but this winter we have.
“Beef prices are down. Fortunately, in Tassie we have enough grass to back it up.
“However, prices are set in NSW and Queensland where it is a lot drier. Although we can still get the kilos on the animals, as in production, we lose out on the price. We are in a time when you have to look at the price of production rather than the price you receive,” he added.