A decision on the future of national grassfed cattle industry representation in Australia will have to wait a few more weeks after the Cattle Council of Australia postponed a vote initially planned for this week’s annual general meeting.

The Council is holding its AGM in Canberra on Thursday and was due to vote on whether to formally adopt a preferred restructure model agreed to at its last meeting in Melbourne in September.

If adopted the new structure will allow cattle producers to join Cattle Council of Australia as direct members for an annual fee of $110 (inc GST).

The board of CCA would also be reduced from 23 councillors to 10.

Each of the eight State Farm Organisations (NTCA, AgForce, NSW Farmers, VFF, TGFA, SA Livestock, WAFF and WA PGA) would appoint one councilor each to the CCA board, while direct-paying members would vote on independent candidates to fill the remaining two positions

The number of independent councilors will increase to four when 500 direct paying members have joined the new organisation.

CCA chief executive officer Jed Matz says the model will also mean the council will be better funded through direct membership fees and from accessing levy-funded resources within Meat & Livestock Australia to take over some of the strategic industry work the council does on behalf of all cattle producers.

The Council currently receives around $500,000 in funding from Red Meat Industry Fund, around $430,000 from State Farm Organisation memberships fees (A number of SFO’s are behind in their payments to CCA including VFF, NSW Farmers and WA’s PGA), and $450,000 from MLA to co-host producer forums around the country.

Mr Matz said that by accessing more levy-funded resources from MLA to handle strategic industry work, such as funding independent policy research, the council would be $500,000 and $700,000 better off in terms of resources at its disposal in future.

The council was due to vote on whether to formally adopt the new structure at its AGM this week.

However delays in the development of the constitution required to support the new model meant councilors would not have had the required 21 days prior to voting upon it.

As a result, the councilors will be asked at this week’s AGM to vote on a special resolution to hold an Extraodinary General Meeting via telephone hookup 21 days after the AGM to enable the vote to take place.