The comments on greenhouse gas emission by livestock already submiited that stand same for this also.No new comment at this momment.

To try and satisfy a couple of concerns about kangaroo farming put forward by Perseus, two responses:
1) in WA, the average size of pastoral properties is about 500,000 hectares. My earlier post stating 100,000 ha was an attempt not to embarass those of you living in the smaller states. :-)
2) kangaroos have been evolving in Australia for some 60 million years (maybe longer). I don't think they need any further genetic improvement in order for pastoralists to successful farm them.

Well Bernie, that million year breeding program was not to produce an animal suited for farming. It is all very well extolling the environmental benefits of 'roos but if they are not suited for the business of farming then they simply will not be farmed.

The big places will be farming Camels long before anyone goes into 'roos. But be my guest. Why not invest you own superannuation in a 'roo farm if you think it is that good. Why not approach the so-called "ethical" investment companies?

Thank you Perseus , My thoughts exactly .

Bernie , mate just for fun let's pretend for a moment that a large market exists , Large enough to consider farming roo .

You send your free range roo into market & get a price that makes supplying them profitable . all good .

Time goes by & demand is increasing , However the price you recieve is decreasing .

Why ? You wonder .

The next truck load leaves your property & you follow it to the saleyards . Just to see how they sell .

At the yards you see your animals all fit & clean , A walk along the other pens pens of roo reveals something .

Farmer P & farmer J must have more feed than me . They must have . You think to yourself .

How else could their roo be so much larger , more muscular & fatter than mine ? You think .

Anyway let's just watch the sale .

Wow the buyers went mad over the other pens of roo , They just kept on bidding , good prices too .

But your free range animals only drew three bids . Much lesser price too .

On the way home you start to think about how to compete with farmer J & farmer P , You'll be out of business soon if you can't .

You think ; maybe I should fence off a section & grow a fodder crop , Yeah good idea I'll do that . Also I might put the best looking buck with the best looking does & see what I get , Yeah that's what I'll do .

..Now this is where the reality of market forces kicks in ..

An excellent point, Jamo. I hadn't thought of the counterveiling need to keep the 'roos out of the paddock so the fodder crop can grow properly and then be progressively grazed. So we are back with the cost of a 'roo proof fence and, more importantly, a multiple strand electric fence (at hideous price) to ensure that the crop is grazed in stages.

In fact, an electric fence won't work because 'roos will usually be in mid-air when they touch it and there will be no jolt. The current won't be able to go to earth. So one of the greatest technological innovations in farming, the humble electric fence, will be useless.

And all the economic and environmental benefits of cell grazing will be lost.

Well, Ive just stumbled across this forum, and I will definately be keeping an eye on it in future. Even the loopy academics have agreed that farming of kangas is impossible without using drugs to pacify them. Kangaroos can't even walk backwards. If anyone on this forum thinks that the broader Australian community will allow our wild kangaroos to be drugged, castrated, branded, genetically altered, hit with hormones, and whatever else farmers now do to cattle and sheep, think again.

It's illegal to herd, constrain or otherwise interfere with wild kangaroo populations, and that situation is unlikely to change. Public opinion wont allow it, the Feds who have the final say wont allow it, nor will the general Australian public eat kangaroo meat anyway. If they would, we wouldnt need to send trimmings, kangaroo offal and crushed bones, and other undesirable bits and pieces overseas to make Russian salami. (Don't buy imported salami!)

I like this forum, it provides us with lots of reasons to stop killing kangaroos, please keep it going!

Pat O'Brien, President, Wildlife Protection Association of Australia Inc.