I guess what sets me aside from many others is that I acknowledge my ignorance. That's part of why I'm here - I have much to learn!

"I guess what sets me aside from many others is that I acknowledge my ignorance. That's part of why I'm here - I have much to learn!"

Well you can just get in line Otoko.

Desmond:”I ain't related to no pig.”

Prove it.

Yabby, I fully understand your situation, esspecially the previous years. I don't blame you for live export, it has been one of few options available as WA is to far away from the rest of Aus to be price competitive. I am not against you personally, just LE itself.

I have had five butcher shops, some huge, up to 15 tons of hanging meat per week and, never in my entire 20 + years have I brought directly from a farmer or an abbitor as I believe everyone has to make a living. If I buy direct, people loose jobs. This is why I am against LE, nothing more.

Now back to WA. I used to buy a product branded Q-Lamb from WA. Fantastic product, very tender, full of flavour, very expensive, but, it took up to three weeks to arrive, even then I didn't know exactly what I would receive until it arrived.

I currently buy Tasmanian lambs,as they are hormone and seriod free and in my opinion the best. They are very expensive but I charge accordingly.

Perhaps WA should be seeking a 'point of difference' with their lambs, as this may justify the freight costs.

*I am not against you personally, just LE itself.*

I know that Rehctub. I am not against you personally either.
These days I avoid the LE topic, as it really has been done
to death on OLO, for years and frigging years lol. But you
mentioned it a few times, now, so I thought I would just
restate that the situation in WA is very different from
yours over East. But if I can avoid it, I don't really want
to go over all that old ground again.

*never in my entire 20 + years have I brought directly from a farmer or an abbitor as I believe everyone has to make a living. If I buy direct, people loose jobs*

That's nice in theory, but our economy does not work that way. Fact
is that farmers are at the bottom of the food chain and unless they
stick up for themselves, everyone does well and they get the scraps,
so many shut their doors, certainly here in WA.

So these days we benchmark, so that we can clearly see, who is getting
robbed and who is doing the robbing.

Last year when the saleyard price crashed to 2.50 or so a kg, I helped
a friend set up a direct marketing business, which even cuts out
blokes like you :) This guy picks out the lambs he wants in the
district himself, has them slaughtered and packed, then home delivers
them. Last I heard he's moving 100 a week and both farmers and consumers
are thrilled, because its value for money all round.

Who is the big loser? Shopping Centre owners who charge crazy rents.
I am not about to shed tears for them lol. Its a great business
plan, you should try it.

Humans have now transferred the H1N1 virus to pigs and infected a 2,000 sow intensive piggery.

Another damn good reason we should give more thought to animal welfare - because ultimately it is going to affect ours.

Is this nature kicking us in the arse and say 'wake up to yourselves'?

PF
Farming is all about using the facility to its best potential and, consumers ultimately decide the fait of farms in this country as they simply will not pay for what it is you are wanting.

Bacon is a prime example. 90% of the bacon produced in Australia is made from improted pork. Why, becasue our farmers simply can not compete with the price of the imported meats, yet, if the consumer were to boycot imported meats and pay the extra for home grown, there would be no problem.

You see a pig farmer has a shed, say 500m2. Now grower pigs, as they are known, are placed in this shed and fed for around 23 weeks. Thats 2 turn arounds per year.

Now if you limmit the amount of pigs they can put in these sheds by say 20%, up goes the price of the pigs and, ultimately, the end product. Just for the records, Australia's demand for pork last year saw a shortfall of approx 20,000 pig per week. Imagine how that number would have grown if you limmit their farming practices.

The reason for this is due mainly to the number of pig farmers that have quit the industry as they simply could not compete with the imports.

Remember, you can have alomst anything you like, you just have to pay for it.