NORTH EAST AND GOULBURN MURRAY
Part of the Farmer Group Rural Newspapers Covering Victoria Published since 1984
37 Rowan Street, Wangaratta 3677
MARCH, 2015
Duck Season
PAGE 16
Livestock
PAGES 18-20
$1 at newsagents
Farmer to Farmer
PAGE 20
RESPECTFUL AND RESPONSIBLE: Saturday, March 21 is the opening of the 2015 duck season, which will run for the full 12 weeks with a reduced bag limit. The
Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia (Victoria) is focusing on securing the future of hunting by encouraging all hunters to respect the hunt and act responsibly. See page 16 for the Duck Season feature.
‘Boycott’ hits prices hard Processors’ refusal of pre-sale cattle weighing wiped up to 30 cents per kilo off farmers’ profits BY JODIE FLEMING
jfleming@ nemedia.com.au
Both farming lobby groups have condemned the processors’ ‘boycott’ which wiped 20 cents to 30 cents per kilogram off the
price of most cattle leading to one-third of export-weight cattle being passed in at the opening of the Northern Victorian Livestock Exchange (NVLE) at Barnawartha North. The ‘boycott’ is driven by the processors’ refusal to accept pre-sale weighing of cattle at the yards, with the VFF brand-
ing their behavior as “an act of outright bullying”. VFF livestock president Ian Feldtmann said the meeting held at Wodonga last week was called to give concerned producers the opportunity to come and raise their issues and to discuss the fallout from the meat processors’ ‘boycott’.
“We need to look for a way forward and where we can go with this, if that means further lobbying or other options then that is what we will do,” he said. “We are really trying to collate views from those producers that have real concerns about the selling process. “My understanding of what
ON PROPERTY SALE TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015 Jim Bruce 0419 600 355 Stephen Street 0428 579 338 Trevor Parker 0428 578 074 Kevin Sanderson 0418 574 237
ANGUS www.witherswoodangus.com.au
happened with the boycott is that it is a private selling complex and the buyers had withdrawn from the buying of that sale because they had indicated prior to the sale that they would only purchase on a post-weight selling system and that the private operators had told producers that while this system was for further debate, the first sale would be a pre-sale weighing system, and as a result the buyers withdrew from this. Continued page 4
70 Bulls on Sale Manager: Ian Peake 0419 111 936
John and Joan Woodruff 0412 002 509 Hoysted Road, Taminick via Glenrowan
V/12d12844-V3/06-15
PEAK farming groups are calling for a Senate inquiry into increasing market consolidation taking place in the Australian red-meat processing sector. Both the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) and NSW Farmers have also called on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to investigate the recent meat processors’ absence at the Barnarwatha saleyards, which is putting a dampener on the buoyant cattle prices.