Cattle Council of Australia representatives spent last week in Texas, USA, as part of the annual Five Nations Beef Alliance conference.

The Five Nations Beef Alliance (FNBA) conference provides an opportunity for beef producing counties to share experiences on pertinent cross-nation beef challenges including trade, sustainability and animal health and wellbeing.

Members of the Alliance are the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (USA), the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Confederacion Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas (Mexico), Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Cattle Council of Australia.

This year representatives from Paraguay and Brazil were also present as observers.

Reporting on the tour, Cattle Council of Australia President, Andrew Ogilvie, said the conference provided an excellent opportunity for member organisations to come together and share their experiences of global beef trade.

“Being in Texas was particularly interesting for Australian producers as there have been a number of comparable circumstances shared between the USA and Australia in recent years, including drought conditions which have driven down cattle prices and depleted the cow herd,” Mr Ogilvie said.

“The Alliance aims to liberalise the global beef trading environment, so one of the key discussion points for 2014’s conference in Austin, Texas, is further progression of the Trans-Pacific Partnership – where all parties are seeking transparent, plurilateral, and non-discriminatory market access outcomes from the negotiations.

“Prior to the formal conference, delegates were hosted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association to tour the beef production systems in Texas, including visiting President, Bob McCann’s property in Victoria, Texas, the renowned King Ranch, a feedlot, H.E.B. innovative grocery store and sale distribution centre.”

Young beef producers from all five member countries also participated in the FNBA Young Leaders program. Australia was represented by Cattle Council of Australia Rising Champions Blythe Calnan, WA (2013) and Sam Becker, QLD (2014).

Source: CCA