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NATIONAL
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Vol 5. No. 9 September 2022 National Poultry Newspaper PO Box 162 Wynnum 4178 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Email ben@collins.media
Uncertainty continues for Aussie egg farmers
Dr Tamsyn Murray from Josh’s Rainbow Eggs with the Poultry Grad event attendees.
Poultry Grad and Ideas Exchange
IN late July, Poultry Hub Australia had the pleasure of hosting 15 eager PhD students at Poultry Grad, which was held in Geelong, Victoria.
for industry personnel and researchers to come together to develop re- lationships and collabo- rations that benefit the entire poultry industry – will be held on October 11-12 in Melbourne.
We started day one with talks from Mark Dunlop from the Queensland De- partment of Agriculture and Fisheries Queens- land, Kat Matthews and Megan Craven from Deakin University and Matt Hilliar from Turosi.
We then discussed the importance of being concise and clear when discussing research with stakeholders.
with each other will help them through the com- pletion of their PhDs and into their careers.
We are looking for- ward to catching up with you in person finally – sharing our achieve- ments and exchanging new ideas for the future of the industry.
by TAMSYN CROWLEY Director
The speakers gave great advice on life after the completion of their PhDs – the opportunities and the challenges.
On day two, we headed on-farm to Josh’s Rain- bow Eggs, where Tam- syn Murray gave a fan- tastic tour and explana- tion about the business, the challenges and the future.
A massive thank you to the speakers and Tamsyn Murray for contributing to the event.
Registration for the conference is by invitation only, so if you are interested in attending or want to find out more, contact us at poultryhub@une.edu. au
We then put the stu- dents to the test with an activity called ‘poultry bucks’.
The Ideas Exchange – a fantastic opportunity
This activity comprised of the students being given the challenge of completing a 40-second elevator pitch on their PhD projects.
The students took the opportunity to ask some excellent questions and it was wonderful to see the farm in operation.
They were all given some poultry bucks and had to decide whose re- search was worthy of in- vestment.
We received fantastic feedback following the event, with the students commenting that speak- ing to people in the in- dustry directly was ‘in- valuable’ and that it was a ‘great experience’.
Shiva Greenhalgh from the University of Sydney received the most invest- ment and was declared the winner.
We hope the networks the students have built
Dr Tamsyn Murray from Josh’s Rainbow Eggs explained the farm’s operations to the 15 students who took part in the Poultry Grad event.
Congratulations Shiva!
A NGRY Australian egg farmers are dissatis- fied the animal welfare guidelines, released on Thursday August 18, fail to allow the option for conventional cage-egg production to continue for a further 24 years.
to write the Regulatory Im- pact Statement.
dump their cages.”
In agriculture, the lifecy-
The standards and guide- lines are an important issue for egg farmers, impacting their livelihood and profit- ability.
Egg Farmers of Austral- ia chief executive officer Melinda Hashimoto said the guidelines had taken over seven long years to process and, given indus- try had not been listened to, they are a slap in the face for the nation’s hard- working cage egg farmers.
cle for assets to be written off is 20 years and it is unprecedented that govern- ment would consider clos- ing farmers’ businesses in a short timeframe that could possibly be only nine years.
Egg Farmers of Australia and state farming organisa- tions will carefully consid- er the document to progress a favourable outcome for industry.
“Unfortunately, the re- view totally ignored evi- dence on why conventional cages should continue un- til 2046,” Mrs Hashimoto said.
Egg Farmers of Australia chair Bede Burke said, “A long lead-in time to phase out cages was required to ensure farmers could exit without debt.”
‘Animal Welfare Stand- ards and Guidelines for Poultry’ include the care of layer hens.
From the original sub- mission, it was explained that you can’t close down part of a business due to the time cages were built and then come back to shut more sheds erected at a different time in later years.
“Given our submission has been ignored by cur- rent agriculture ministers across the nation, state ag- riculture ministers need to work through how an in- dustry crossing borders can deal with changes to state legislation on the standards and guidelines.
Industry leaders called for the federal and state governments to consider restructure and exit pack- ages to help assist farmers should they be required to transition from convention- al cage-egg farming before 2046.
“The document states that conventional cage farming must cease, with a timeline suggested as early as 2031 and at the latest by 2036,” Mrs Hashimoto said.
“We could end up with different standards in dif- ferent states, which is not ideal and could have been avoided through the Agri- culture Ministers’ Forum advising a timeline for im- plementation.
Conventional cages con- tribute 50 percent of the nation’s egg production.
“It’s 10 years too early and could drive many fam- ily egg farmers to the wall.
“Given that farmers bor- row millions of dollars from banks to invest in cage eggs, the new Ani- mal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for poultry fail to allow them time to pay off current debt and re- invest in alternate farming methods,” Mr Burke said.
Egg Farmers of Australia have not had any consulta- tion on structural adjust- ment or exit packages and nor was this discussed with industry by those engaged
“This is because bank loans can spread over 30 years for existing cages and equipment.
With the release of the poultry industry standards and guidelines, the future of Australia’s egg supply could be under threat.
“In comparison to barn or free range – cage eggs are cheaper and have the low- est carbon footprint of any egg farming method,” Mrs Hashimoto said.
“Farmers now don’t have time to pay off that debt before they must
Mrs Hashimoto warned the move would contribute to a shortage of eggs in Australia in the future.
“According to CSIRO, 40 percent of egg sales in Australian super- markets were caged eggs.” “Without them, Australian families would face less choice, a shortage of eggs and higher egg prices.
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