A 12-member body has been appointed to advise the Murray–Darling Basin Authority to help guide the basin's management and implementation of the Murray–Darling Basin Plan.
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The authority is to be commended on the calibre of those appointed. They hail from all areas of the vast basin and come from a wide range of agricultural pursuits and service providers.
No doubt they will come under pressure from competing interests including some that are vested.
Some present basin representative bodies could wither on the vine finding it hard to find a bureaucratic audience.
DAIRY DILEMMA
A campaign across dairy regions by Sam Kekovich should have been aimed at the consumer instead of industry problems.
Kekovich could have pointed out the health, nutritional and eating experiences provide by dairy products, but instead, his focus was on a crisis in the industry, the implementation of a mandatory code of practice and mental health.
Does anyone believe consumers will buy more dairy product because of these factors? Many dairy farmers are operating profitably and yes, there are some that are under pressure from price structures and the pressure of costs. To this add seasonal conditions.
Much of this has been inspired by chasing manufacturer incentives to milk cows outside the benefits of the grass production curve.
An example is a western districts dairy farmer who is changing factories this week to take advantage of a payment structure that matches his low-cost pasture-based operation.
The difference for a year’s production is $100,000. This is an issue that should be the focus of pressure groups.
And how about the non-dairy items in supermarkets piggy-backing off the reputation of nutritional, clean and green dairy products?
SHEEP SHAPE
A north east ag industry dinner being held in Benalla next week will focus on the future of the sheep industry in Australia.
Surprisingly, neither AWI or MLA are on the speakers’ list.
However the Liberal member for Farrer, Sussan Ley is going to outline her private members bill to phase out live sheep trading.
This should be of great interest, as it is fair bet not one sheep from the north east ever sees a ship.
The fact she is speaking at an event under the auspices of the Indi independent has raised eyebrows in the Liberal and National parties.
Maybe Ms Ley could ask Joel Fitzgibbon from the ALP to speak in her electorate.
