Page 19 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor
It is the responsibility of those making submissions to ensure the correctness of their claims and statements. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher.
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I am writing in re- sponse to Andrew Reilly’s recent letter in this publication.
have given our family a good way of life over the years and we have survived, they have paid their way, but it’s the capital growth of our farm that has always al- lowed me to do what I have wanted.
goes into research and a lot into paying the wages at APL.
won the pork chop com- petition, so I believe I produce a quality car- cass.
SIR, further research regarding the NSW swine compensation fund.
more accurately, a half- penny per 1 quid.
fund at that time was 20 cents per pig slaugh- tered.
First, I find that nearly all states had pig compensation funds.
The fund was to cease annually once $50,000 was raised.
One ex-piggery of- ficer from NSW, who is well acquainted with government proce- dures, has told me that the money had to go into “something” as it couldn’t just disappear into consolidated rev- enue – I am not that hopeful.
Most have been re- pealed and where the funds got to, I cannot find with a cursory search of Google.
Then it seems the rate was 1 cent per every $3.00 of pigs sold not exceeding 21 cents.
For instance, Queens- land instigated a fund in 1962 at a rate of 1 cent per $5.00 value of pigs sold.
A later amount ap- pears to be 20 cents for pigs amounting to more than $20.00.
This was to be sus- pended once the fund accumulated $300.000.
Where is this money now?
These are my recur- ring questions to all states that have or have had a swine compensa- tion fund.
Apparently sus- pended at a quick read. The parliamentary
Western Australia established a fund in 1942.
speech to suspend the fund noted that the swine fever outbreak in NSW and Victoria in 1961-62 cost $400,000 in compensation with 12,000 pigs slaugh- tered, so they surmised that $300,000 was ad- equate for Queensland.
The details are un- clear and may have had contributions of 50 cents per pig.
The answers to these questions are vital, with the prospect of African swine fever entry into Australia.
Again, where is this money now?
I sent a letter (un- answered) over two months ago to the Min- ister of Agriculture asking where the NSW compensation fund had gotten to and what the accrued amount is.
Are pig producers to pay twice, having al- ready contributed to compensation funds, that have conveniently “disappeared” and then are we pig producers expected to pay half of any future slaughter out costs again?
Victoria seems to have a current fund operating, which in 1994 collected 16 cents per pig.
A second reminder letter has now been sent.
In 2016-17, the fund contributed $250,000 towards what was re- corded as “to minimise a biosecurity threat.”
The non-reply does not surprise me as there is no-one left in the bureaucracy who would even remember the fund.
Just who is to pay what?
Again, I assume this being a current fund, the money will still ac- tually exist.
This is an answer that must be addressed now, not after we have an eradication battle on our hands.
What is its current value?
I have found many ex- Department of Agricul- ture piggery officers – all retired – who clearly remember the fund and the government of 1988 stealing the lot – around $12 million.
All funds legitimately belong to pig producers, not governments.
South Australia estab- lished a fund in 1936.
Just where are they now?
The payment is un- clear but something like 1 cent per $5.00 worth of pigs sold –
I am one of a few pig farmers old enough to remember the NSW fund!
Regardless, this fund was also repealed in 1997.
Where is the money now and what is its cur- rent value?
It also seems to have been repealed.
So that leaves NSW, where the fund was es- tablished in 1928.
Compensation is to be paid but by whom?
The payment into the
Neil Unger
Being from the iso- lated town of Esperance in southeast Western Australia and with over 37 years of pig farming here, money and time has stopped us from going to many pig meet- ings in Perth.
I see a lot being spent on advertising a pork dinner, and let’s face it, how many people have the money and time to make a meal like that?
Why is it that we still get paid by the P2 meas- urement?
So, please forgive me if I seem to not under- stand the political side of Australian Pork Lim- ited.
With this in mind we have a good bank manager and God has blessed me with good health.
As a farmer I feel, whatever industry it is, we produce food for the people of this country, especially the pig in- dustry.
Going forward – as I am 53 years old – for the next 10 to 15 years, with the help of my great team, my clean disease status and my love of producing pigs, I hope to still be here.
In my view, it does not matter who is out the front, there will always be some people that agree and those who do not.
To survive we had to cut the heads off 150 of my pregnant angus cows.
Why do we still talk about supply and de- mand?
Now I ask APL to take us to the next level and work out how we can get paid for lean meat yield, so I can survive, and my children have a future in our industry for years to come.
As long as the ship is going in the right direc- tion and to the better of all concerned is what matters.
This year in Esper- ance, we are going through the fourth dry autumn in a row.
Why can’t the lower paid workers in this country afford a steak or pork chop?
As for the fighting of the wild pigs, in to- day’s climate, how are you going to get money from the government?
In this case, we, the pro- ducer, pay around $3.50 a pig in levies, which goes a long way in paying the bills at APL .
As you farmers on the east coast know, it is very mentally chal- lenging.
Making a 10 percent profit on farm allows us to live, pay tax and interest, and any capital or debt reduction.
Do you know how hard it is, and how much money gets spent on keeping starlings and sparrows out of WA?
I remember back as a young lad the price of pigs always going up and down, and since the import of pig meat into this country, I have found the price to have been reasonably stable.
There is no grain on farms, and again I will have to sell more of my cows so I can buy grain from CBH Group to feed to my pigs.
Today, selling a 70kg baconer, I am getting around $255.
The reason I farm pigs is because I love it, and have since I was a young boy, taking over the family farm of 1400 acres with a 350 sow piggery and a $500,000 debt back in 2000.
Yes, I have been to Brisbane for three expos, to Melbourne for five CRC Bench- marking meetings, and to Adelaide for an APL meeting, all paid for by them.
Why is it still hap- pening today, that we have the animal on the farm for months and it’s in the abattoir and out again in a day or two, and the supermarkets make the money?
Can APL look into put- ting wild camels or kan- garoos into meat meal?
Today having 600 sows, the same acreage and over $1.5 million debt, have I progressed?
If my calculations are right, selling around 15,000 pigs a year, is nearly $50,000 that I have paid a year in levies.
I think we worry too much about our little ex- port market, while more pork meat is coming into this country.
So, having read my epistle, it is only hard work, a good wife, the love of pigs and the fact that I am in too deep that keeps me doing what I do.
I do run sheep and cows and buy in all my grain.
What is going on at the APL side to allow this to happen?
As for APL, I can’t say whether they help me or not. StephenHoffrichter
I feel that the pigs
Some of that money
In 2017, we here at Shark Lake Piggery
Two years ago, I expe- rienced the worst finan- cial position that I had seen in our industry.
We are that small on the world scale of things.
We have gone forward as an industry with quality assurance and group housing.
That got us through to harvest to buy more grain.
We are in the 21st cen- tury.
Where is APL and what have I had from them in all these years of paying levies?
It is costing me $73.50 to get my pigs killed, so I can supply 12 pigs a week to three little butcher shops.
While talking of vermin, with the price of sheep and cattle today, the price of meat meal has gone up nearly $250 a tonne for me in the last few years.
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