Back on Friday 28 October, Federal Agriculture Minister, Joe Ludwig, and the State and Territory Ministers for Primary Industries did come to an agreement on setting a national time-off-feed limit for bobby calves.
Rather than sitting around thinking ‘isn’t it great that governments can’t decide what law to apply to us’, the Australian Dairy Farmers (ADF) realised that having no law and no standard in place actually meant they were wide-open to criticism by animal welfare activists.
It was an impressive piece of leadership.
Over the following week, ADF, our Association, the Livestock and Property Agents Association (ALPA), the Livestock Markets Association (ALMA) and the Meat Industry Council (AMIC) have reached an agreement to voluntarily apply a 30-hour TOF limit.
A 30-hour limit was endorsed by National Council back in February this year, so this is yet another issue that looks like its coming to a successful conclusion by year’s end.
The practical effect is focused on saleyards and processors. Don’t forget: the new laws will allow no more than 12 hours on-board and no more than 18 hours for delivery.
ADF issued a media release announcing this agreement, which seems to have gone over well in all the papers I’ve seen.
