Of course Bugsy - how right you are!

God bless and phalutations!

http://www.liveexport-indefensible.com/investigations/photos.php

. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:sz0e41mclaMJ:sweetness-light.com/archive/the-eid-festival-around-the-world-graphic-photos+animal+torture+muslim+festivals&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au&lr=lang_en

"Hey Yabby, I'm surprised you didnt pick up Dickie's obvious slip-up re sheep breeds! :) Let me educate you little Dickie. Merino's are rarely slaughtered as they have little meat value - they are wool producers. Merino's may be used as the basis by which to produce certain lines of fat lambs (1X, 2X etc), but are not themselves shipped of to slaughter either here or overseas. Hence Yabby's comments about exit from the pastoral industry (which is essentially wool production when talking about sheep).

"But I digress. My point being Dickie, is that if you dont know that Merino's are not meat sheep, then you obvious know very little about the industry at all." says Country Gal

Is that right, Country Gal? Then I suggest you present your phallacies to Elders Livestock Division:

http://livestock.elders.com.au/live_exports.asp

http://www.liveexport-indefensible.com/investigations/photos.php

. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:sz0e41mclaMJ:sweetness-light.com/archive/the-eid-festival-around-the-world-graphic-photos+animal+torture+muslim+festivals&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=au&lr=lang_en

Actually Country Gal, on this one you had better stick to
accounting :) Being from NSW, I guess they don't discuss
the live trade often in the press, as here in WA.

Dickie would know, from diligently reading her West Australian,
that merinos are the backbone of the live trade. She would
also know the front end, ie where the grass goes in, compared
to the back end, ie where it comes out :) Not much more then
that it seems.

Some interesting figures from the ABARE website. They quote
the top 25% of specialist wool industry farms, between
2001-2004, excluding capital appreciation, as having farm
business profits of 38k$. The other 75% lost 38k$!

So much for these rich woolgrowers! No wonder so many in
the station country are switching to Damaras etc. Its a
PGA hot topic.

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/2007/s2060936.htm

Pale, yet another WA meatworks canned the idea of reopening
in a regional centre. No workers available in WA, sorry.

They don't even have the staff to slaughter the sheep in
WA with the live trade in action. Some years they have trucked
them to the East, now thats not fair on those animals, sorry.

Nevermind, Siba are soon to launch two really flash new boats,
to save WA farmers.

paleif,
"I think you live in WA"

Sorry, no I couldn't get much further away, northern NSW. No access to live exports here, but I don't begrudge the ability to others. Could you clarify if the japanese meat works provided with Australian money is employing Australians?

I don't doubt there is good money in processing, look at the price the farmer gets versus the retail price. I just don't understand why then do so many go out of business.

I'm all for new processors starting up and clawing back live exports, by paying the required price per sheep.

"I just don't understand why then do so many go out of business."

Rojo, there are a number of reasons. Being all perishable its a
difficult and extremely dirty business, ie. everyone is trying to
send the next guy broke. They steal each others markets, they
outdiscount one another, so the cheaper they can buy their livestock,
the more they can shaft the other operators. Farmers are the
big losers from all of this.

I've always said that farmers behave like a herd of zebras. Meat
processors are far worse, they try to eat each other on the way.

Many of the smaller operators are simply undercapitalised and
do not have economies of scale. If you are putting 200k sheep down
a chain per year or a million, there is a huge difference. One
guy can afford modern machinery to reduce labour costs, the other
guy can't.

Few processors do much to value add their product, in the mutton game
most of it is sold at low prices, to the third world. You have limited
markets, who of course play off the processors, one against the other.

When it comes to value adding and creating innovative products, that
hardly happens. Its easier to dump and outbid the next guy by 10c
a kg. If he goes broke, you'd have one competitor less to deal with
in the buying and selling. So its law of the jungle out there!

Live sheep ships sail past all these Aussies trying to send each
other broke, the chain between farmer and consumer is much shorter.

This is off topic but something I am sure most of you here will support. http://www.pigout.net.au