The ability to trade cattle interstate is vital to the success of Victoria’s weaner sales.
Interstate buyers again purchased a significant proportion of the cattle during at the Western District weaner sales.
And at last Thursday’s Elders and Landmark Hamilton’s Hereford and Euro steer weaners sale, Agriculture Victoria staff Emily Huglin and Elle Moyle were there to ensure compliance with traceability, biosecurity and animal welfare requirements.
One task that keeps them and the rest of their team busy is checking off declarations and certificates needed to send cattle interstate.
“Last year, we did a lot for (cattle going to) Queensland, but since they’ve deregulated Bovine Johne's Disease, we haven’t had to check off as many certificates,” Ms Huglin said.
She said Tasmania still had restrictions on BJD.
Dr Moyle said they also had to check off Enzootic Bovine Leucosis (EBL) requirements to send cattle to Tasmania, including test results, monitor results or that the herd of origin has existed for at least three years and there has been no evidence of EBL during that time.
The cattle also have to be free of other notifiable diseases.
“We haven’t had any issues so far,” Ms Huglin said on Thursday.
“That’s usually the case for these cattle; people are offering their best weaners here.”
She said they had to certify each property/vendor individually, with each certificate potentially having multiple properties on it to certify.
“As a team in Hamilton we've probably signed between 10-20 certificates already but certified more like 50-plus properties so far,” Ms Huglin said.
“Whilst it does take time to complete it is also a very important process that Tasmania currently requires.”
“The agents have been good to get them to us as quickly as possible,” Dr Moyle said.
The importance of biosecurity was emphasised to Dr Moyle on a recent trip to Nepal, where she learnt about foot and mouth disease.