Moving to add more value and improve supply chain communication will lift the whole red meat industry, according to Teys Australia manager of corporate and industry affairs John Langbridge.
He said beef’s commodity cycle concerned processors and undermined the industry’s sustainability.
“We think there are things we can do to take out peaks and troughs,” he said.
Mr Landbridge said these included actions to shore up consistent, high quality supply, such as a value-based payment system that would strengthen the relation between consumer preferences and the feedback provided to farmers.
“Over time we want to move to a value based payment to our farmers,” he said.
This would include streamlining kill sheet feedback to farmers, which would capture each carcase’s quality of loin cuts, the lean meat yield plus premiums, such as for European Union eligible, Pasture-fed Cattle Assurance System (PCAS) and Angus cattle.
Such as system would let farmers know which animals performed better to inform breeding and management decisions. He said in the next six to 12 months, Teys would work with farmer focus groups to refine this idea.
He said the developing system would be based on objective measurements strengthened by the use of technology including cameras and xrays, and possibly robotics in the future.
He said this would help improve the consistency and quality of Australian beef supply, which could allow Teys and other processors to charge a premium to overseas customers who took 70 per cent of beef processed in Australia. Mr Langbridge said that was vital as Australia could not compete on price against other supplying countries.
