The Australian beef industry potentially faces an extremely serious situation with the outbreak of FMD in Indonesia. The outbreak started in April 2022 and there are now over 200,000 animals affected. A vaccination program commenced on June 14. On July 5th, it was reported that there were 63 cases in Bali.
While Australia has an incursion response pre planned, with vaccine available, the threat is not to be taken lightly. An outbreak in Australia of this contagious viral disease would have a severe effect on trade and animal health.
All farmers must educate themselves about FMD, check their animals regularly and know how best to prevent the disease entering Australia. Enforce your biosecurity protocols.
If you travel to Indonesia, try and avoid going near any animals, wash your clothes at a laundromat when you arrive home, and thoroughly clean your footwear.
If you suspect any signs of FMD it must be reported to the Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888 or a local veterinarian immediately. (NSW DPI)
After several years of Covid-19 cancellations the Royal Melbourne Show is on again in 2022!
As one of the premier show events in Australia, this presents another great opportunity for Shorthorn breeders and supporters to showcase and support the breed. The Victorian Shorthorn Committee encourages members to make the most of this opportunity, whether it be in the carcase completion, in the show ring or just in your general attendance and support.
In 2021 and 2022 the Shorthorn breed has had some fantastic results. This includes bull sales such as Naracoorte and stud sales, on Auctions Plus, at sale yards and with the JBS Thousand Guineas program. The Royal Melbourne show is another opportunity to raise the profile of the breed and continue this exciting momentum.
Members can begin entering animals in either the show/judging (from June 3rd) or carcase (from May 25th) competitions, with the entries closing on Tuesday July 26th.
Further details and specifics will be communicated in the coming weeks and Shorthorn Beef would love to see exhibitors, members and supporters around the show ring at the 2022 Royal Melbourne Show.
By Branches Director/Minutes Secretary, Amanda Barlow
Thank you to all members who continue to be involved with the Shorthorn Beef branches. Branch members are still enjoying generally favourable seasonal conditions for their cattle. However this ranges from too much rain in the east to too little rain in SA. For the Riverina, it is the best start to the cropping season in a long time.
Presently, many branch members are preparing their bulls for Dubbo which should be a very strong sale. There are 105 bulls, 13 heifers and several genetics packages. This compares with 71 bulls offered last year. Good luck to all vendors!
The Tasmanian branch is to be commended for organising and running a Tasmanian Shorthorn Feature sale through Webb and Woodiwiss in April. There were over 20 lots of working age and yearling bulls, cow and calf units, PTIC and yearling heifers as well as commercial lines of weaner and yearling steers and heifers. Vendors included North Eastern, Royston, Sillwood and The Den Shorthorns. Some of the results were: 2 bulls sold, $5000 (Lot 5- Sillwood Reagan to JA & R Van Ruiswyk, King Island) and $4500(Lot 9- The Den Reload to Gibson Brothers) -2/2 cow and calf units sold for $3500 to D & L LeFevre, Goulds Country -2/2 PTIC Heifers sold to $4000 (Lot 16- Royston NTR Judith R61 to D & L LeFevre, Goulds Country) and averaged $3875. Semen units sold to $120 a straw for Royalla Trigger. There was strong demand for the commercial cattle with all lots selling. Highlights included: 6x PTIC Heifers a/c RS & RM Woodiwiss sold for $3030 -6x Yearling Heifers a/c RS & RM Woodiwiss sold for $1890 -Weaner Heifers a/c Aylett Contracting and BR Durham and Son made from $5.70-$5.86/kg, weighing from 210-257kg -Yearling Steers a/c Sillwood Pastoral made $5.52-$5.53/kg, weighing from 298-317kg.
The Victorian branch is keen to highlight the upcoming Melbourne Show to members and encourage Shorthorn entries in both the Show and carcass competitions. Recently, Rob and Karen Rogers of Chester Shorthorns of Krowera, Victoria offered a small assortment of 6 PTIC Stud heifers on Auctions Plus. These sold for $4880 per head.
The South Australian branch is working very hard to organise its SA Junior Heifer Expo. This will take place 18-21 July at the Adelaide Showgrounds with the SA branch as one of the sponsors. Chair, Ben Golding, said that organisation is going very well with the event completely booked out in 2 days. Capacity was then extended and there are now approximately 171 competitors entered. They range in age from 8 to 24 and come from as far afield as WA, Queensland and NSW, as well as SA. Ben thinks it is nice to see people coming from interstate after Covid.
The Shorthorn Beef Board wishes all branches success with their events and continuation of high prices and favourable seasons throughout the rest of the year. Well done to all those selling Shorthorn cattle. It is wonderful to see buyers having the opportunity to purchase quality stud Shorthorn stock.
BREEDPLAN is a modern genetic evaluation system for beef cattle. It offers the potential to accelerate genetic progress, tighten up breeding operations, improve productivity and increase prices for cattle sold for breeding and slaughter.
BREEDPLAN has been implemented as the national beef recording scheme in Australia, New Zealand, Namibia, Thailand and the Philippines, and its use is also increasing in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Hungary, South America and South Africa.
BREEDPLAN uses the world’s most advanced genetic evaluation system (based on Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) technology) to produce Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) of recorded cattle for a range of important production traits (eg. weight, carcase, fertility).
The Shorthorn breed is truly unique, from their distinctive roan colour, to their rich breed history and most importantly, the wonderful community of breeders, there is nothing else quite like a Shorthorn.
The key to the Shorthorn breeds advantage lies in their balanced genetic profile, driven by market participation that has been developed and refined, after more than 200 years of genetic selection under Australian conditions.
