ESCAS implementation hurdles

That is according to winner of 2013 NAB Agribusiness Rising Beef Champion Blythe Calnan who has been a part of the Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) Live Export Program (LEP) for five years as a consultant in the Middle East and Russia.

"Some of the concepts we were introducing and threatening to enforce, with withdrawal of livestock, are not things which even people in their countries have the right to," Ms Calnan said.

"Most confronting for me was having the job of instigating cultural change in an instant.

"Once ESCAS was in, there was no leeway, no learning curve, our industry needed compliance and we needed it now, and it was largely up to the LEP to achieve it."

Habits are difficult to break, MS Calnan said, and knowing Australian farmers were relying on LEP consultants to get it right in-market was a huge responsibility.

During her time in the Middle East and Russia, Ms Calnan works as a live export consultant in facilities that process from two to 2000 head with up to hundreds of staff.

Based in Australia, she spends up to five months overseas annually supporting exporters in achieving the ESCAS compliance and improving welfare in supply chains.

Her role was to determine whether the Australian exporters and overseas import facilities met these ESCAS standards and make recommendations for training, maintenance, infrastructure upgrades and support to meet Australia's expectations.

She worked alongside staff educating them on "the instruction manual for our livestock" doing formal classroom and practical training sessions, met with management and vet staff to work through issues that existed or helped in design and construction of facilities that aided flow of livestock and worker safety.

"The sophistication, or simplicity, of facilities varies greatly," she said.

"The programs role is not in policing activity, but in offering services to aid improvement and providing recommendations and feedback to the relevant exporters for the supply chain."

While her initial aims was to combine her passion for livestock, travel and challenge, Ms Calnan said her personal objective had expanded to help strengthen relationships with Australia's trade partners through developing their businesses while ensuring they had access to the country's livestock.

ESCAS was introduced to improve animal welfare standards in all Australian livestock export markets following the controversial trade suspension of live cattle to Indonesian in 2011.

She said the introduction of ESCAS had proved a logistical and cultural challenge in its initial introduction and instigation.

"If ten years ago someone had scried and predicted the improvements we had made in sovereign nations with not much more than faith in our product and good relations with our trading partners, the world would have told them they were crazy," she said.

"Major trading partners are seeing ESCAS as the way to ensure their food security, by meeting international standards and further strengthening their ties with the best provider of clean, green, red protein in the world - us.

"Introducing it under compulsion took enormous sensitivity, tact, understanding and persistence."

She said, the impact of the program was evident when revisiting facilities that had successfully implemented LEP's concepts.

"To arrive unannounced at a facility that you've worked with and watch unseen from the sidelines as a team uses pressure and release to move a difficult bull into a restraint box without shouting, electric prodders or force, is an incredible feeling of satisfaction," Ms Calnan said.

"To watch a Russian who previously viewed his horse with nothing but fear, use that animal to calmly and effectively work cattle in the paddock is one of the greatest achievements for me as well as realising that knowledge can stay with them for ever, making their job easier and their animals' lives better."

She said the presence and ongoing relationships on the ground was critical.

"To have a sustainable industry we need a consistent supply, a consistent product and a consistent demand," Blythe said.

"Australian Government and industry are enforcing welfare regulations like no one else in the world, we need to have the product support to ensure our customers understand why we were doing that and what the benefits are which is what I believe where the LEPs impact is."