Rehctub, the problem is not subsidised freight. Just this week,
one of the agents in the know, mentioned at a public meeting, that
it costs the big boys 35c a kg to cart meat from East to West or
West to East. So even if that was paid by Govt, it would make
no difference to the realities of the WA marketplace.

They are that you basically have 3 processors that matter and
their buyers all know each other extremely well. Unless there
is an extreme shortage of livestock, as right now, they can basically
dictate their terms. For they are each specialised in different
areas, so there is hardly competition in the marketplace.

Processors are there to make a quid and I have yet to see them
pay a penny more, then they really need to. That just seems to
be human nature. So the only solutiion to that, is completely
different competition. The live trade provides it. They work
a bit like an airline, but a floating one. So much for the trip
per head. They realise that without farmers, they won't have a
business. The processors clearly took no notice of that in the
past. Farmers see what is going on in the saleyards. Even one
of the salyard managers recently mentioned on radio, that when
there was a tiny surplus of lamb, the buyers pushed the price down
to 2.80 a kg. He then heard farmers saying, "thats it, I'm selling
the flock and cropping the lot".

As for the lamb distribution business I mentioned, its functioning
in Perth and they are doing extremely well. Bugger all overheads,
great turnover and everyone wins. Yes, they are left with a dollar
a kg, a bit more if they do boned shoulders etc

rechtub as you know my time at school was short and unproductive.
But life has told me much, do you think as you write?
Bloke do you understand what makes the economy work, the principals of both world trade and commercial reality's?
Are you aware bloke in your last few posts you asked government to become a purely Socialist one?
To intervene in both world trade, and commercial, fund transport for producers on the other side of the country, maybe helping them survive but costs surely loaded onto consumers?
How would it affect eastern producers
live exports as yabby has shown are not of prime Australian Lamb, not salable in the home market in those numbers at the profit to growers they get from export.
On one hand you want to tell producers who to sell to and how, and yet want to pay them to bring it here.
If I had the years,and the money, I think setting up a sheep packing house in WA for sending packaged sheep mate meant for sale as whole carcase cut up and in one box for bulk sale in super markets would be an earner.
My freezer would have one in it at all times, free market at work but how would it be with your shops if it happened?

Belly, my question to yabby was hypothetical. I don't expect any government to pay freight.

Now as for 'sheep meat' being unsaleable here, I am sorry but you are wrong.

Back before LE there was a huge trade for sheep meat with most of it going in to 'cheap sausages' and smallgoods, also meat pies.

In the early 90's, I could buy a sheep for about $16.00. I would cut them up and sell them for $23.00. A 30% margin. Everyone won, including the farmers at the time.

Now, that same sheep costs me more like $80 and, with the increases in costs, including employment costs, rents, power and complience costs, smaller butchers need to have a margin of at least 40% or they will go broke. That means the same sheep would now cost the consumer $135.00. Still affordable for 20 kilos of meat, but an increase of almost 500%. Mainly due to a lack of supply.

*Back before LE there was a huge trade for sheep meat with most of it going in to 'cheap sausages' and smallgoods, also meat pies.*

Rehctub, the live trade has been exporting 3-4 million sheep a year
since the 70s, or around 35 years. So your theory of before LE"
is a nonsense. For they were exporting then too.

So what has changed? The nature of the sheep industry. Old sheep
used to be a byproduct of the wool industry. Wool made money,
whatever you got for old ewes was a bonus. Wethers were always worth
alot more in the West, as they went on boats.

Today wool is becoming a niche product. Women don't wash those
jumpers by hand anymore, if the machine won't do it, they won't
buy it. It hardly pays to grow wool now. Its become a byproduct
of the sheep meat industry, as consumer tastes have changed over the
years.

So sheep meat now stands on its own. Either it pays to produce it,
or people will do something else with the land, that is more profitable.

Mutton continues to be used in pies, sausages etc. The Japanese
have been known to add enough pork flavouring, to turn it into
pork sausages.

Until just a year ago, they were paying 1$ a kg or so for mutton,
weight and grade. That gave farmers yet another reason to sell the
flock, as it wasn't profitable to run sheep anymore. Thousands did
and bought large cropping machinery. The net result in WA alone
was that when they counted, 10 million sheep had vanished.

Now they are short of sheep, those people who screwed farmers into
the ground. Serves the bastards right :)

The live trade has nothing at all to do with all this.

Well I can't argue with that Yabby. Point taken.

As for 'pork sausages', well they are also sold here as well and marketed as 'BBQ Sausages.

They have a great machine at present called an 'emulsyfier', not sure about the spelling. What it does is passes the rind of pork (skin) though very small holes and makes a 'paste'. This paste is very high in nutritional value and when added to other meats, gives the sausage a 'pork flavour'.

I see no problems with that as we eat crackling anyway.

In any case, farming is no different to any business or industry. If all players don't make a decent living, then the industry collapses.

I do feel for farmers, however where I get frustrated is when the government only assists farmers and not the other industries that rely on them for thier very business. Definately not the fault of the farmers though.

rechtub I was referring to an extra 4 million sheep being sold in the east instead of live exported.
I once bought half a hogget every week, put in in my back pack hopped on the Coma mail and took it home every Friday night to a hungry big family returning to the city to work Sunday night the same way.
It cost me 45% of my weekly wages,less today if you look it would cost less than a third at you quoted price to buy better quality and the whole sheep.
You bloke are quite wrong.
Have no doubt in saying government supports farmers more, if no only in your words
Tax concessions for plant and machinery cars and trucks have been there for you under both governments.
In getting behind farmers in troubled times it is Australia's interests government is protecting.
20/20 vision is required if you want to make claims of favoritism.