ON Thursday morning the Member for New England, Tony Windsor, welcomed the lifting of the ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia, which was imposed in the wake of shocking footage of animal cruelty aired on the ABC at the end of May, and said he was pleased an outcome had been reached.
"This has been an incredibly stressful time for the cattle industry and the people who depend on it for their living," Mr Windsor said.
"However, starting the trade up again before animal welfare concerns have been properly addressed would have greatly strengthened the case of those who would seek to end live animal exports altogether.
"That would have done the industry much greater damage in the long term," Mr Windsor said.
In the short term confidence within the beef industry seems to have been shaken up very badly.
Their emergence from drought gave local beef producers every reason to be feeling optimistic earlier this year, it was good rain and the best seasonal outlook for 10 years. Then five weeks ago, Top End cattle producers found themselves fighting against the federal Government's blanket ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia that threatened their very livelihoods.
The question we asked is what has that northern battle done to our local industry?
Many of Inverell's aucti-oneers believe the 'ripple effect' has already started and although they hold differing views on many aspects of the present situation, many agree that the recent drought and northern events are impacting on this area's beef producers.
Livestock agent for Elders, Andy Lockyer, thinks there was still uncertainty.
"There is a lot of ind-ecision about at the moment; this week's sale was a pretty tough one," Mr Lockyer said.
"Prices are down and I think that has something to do with it all, there's still a bit of instability about from what's happening up north and I think people are just not sure which way to jump at the moment.
"But I don't think the numbers coming through have much to do with the numbers up north yet, you have to remember, this time last year was still very dry," Mr Lockyer said.
© 2011 Inverell Times
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