Beef Producers will again have an opportunity to learn more about Organic beef production and the growing global demand at a producer forum being held in Armidale next week.

The forum will outline what involved in becoming Certified for organic production, and will give information on markets, production methods including treatments, and feed supplements.

Held as part of a jointly-funded Meat & Livestock Australia and Australian Organic Meats Group project to increase organic beef production in Australia, the forum will address the common beef producer concerns when it comes to understanding organics.

AOM group director Simone Tully, said the project, which started late last year, had already led to properties representing more than 12,000 head of cattle starting the process of conversion to Certified Organic production.

“Producers find it hard to understand the conversion process – this project gives one-on-one support to farmers, and has already had the first producers successfully undergo their initial Organic audits,” she said.

“Global demand for organic beef continues to grow.  I attended the US National Cattlemen’s Association annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee recently, where a key growth area in the consumer market was identified for Organic beef.”

“It was conceded that the US industry itself was unlikely to be able to fill that demand.  My belief is that Australia will become an important and growing source of supply of organic beef as the category expands,” Ms Tully said.

“We cannot forget our domestic market as well.  We still have not fulfilled the domestic growing demand for quality Organic beef onto our own supermarket shelves,” she said.

“We have achieved a lot over the last couple of years – but much more is yet to be done.”

Beef Central’s weekly kill report last week quoted Certified Organic steers at 500c/kg on export processor, Teys Australia’s southeast Queensland price grid. That values a 300kg carcase weight Certified Organic steer at $1500.    

• Next week’s Armidale producer forum will be held at Moore Park Inn on Thursday, March 27, from 9.30am. The forum will be broadcast as a webinar for those unable to attend.  For more information or to register, contact Marg Will on 0417 674 790 or visit www.organicsystemsandsolutions.com