Australian Lamb Finishers Scoping Workshop

Summary

The participants of the workshop agreed to establish an industry working group as an alliance with Sheepmeat Council of Australia.The working group will have representation from each state and will develop a proposal of appropriate structure, charter and lines of communication for SCA consideration at their February 2006 meeting. Although still to be confirmed, SCA would plan to provide the secretariat, support and guidance for the formation and operation of the working group.

Immediate priorities have been agreed and include a code of practice and guidelines around animal health, welfare and environment; and nutrition. MLA committed to ongoing R&D consultation with the sector and will host an R&D forum to outline current initiatives and expose them to the human resources already engage to work in this area.

MLA will also seek a joint input from SCA and this working group on the development, guidance and communication of R&D in lamb finishing. Delegates were elected from participating states and include: Victoria: Hamish MacKinnon South Australia: Kelvin Westbrook, Wayne Hawkins (proxy) New South Wales: James Conner (interim) Queensland: Felicity Bartlett Western Australia: TBA (Craig Heggerton confirmed, 17 Feb 06) Tasmania: To be explored by SCA Tasks of the delegates are to: identify stakeholders (producers, processors, service providers,DPIs) engage those with key roles seek their interest and commitment identify their priorities develop the structure & charter in consultation with SCA. Their initial focus is on Lamb Feedlotters, but in the long term they may seek to involve all intensive lamb finishers (eg. Irrigators, fodder crops, lucerne, etc.) It was agreed that the name of this collection of interests is better called; Australian Lamb Finishers.