Production

New Australian Standard for loading ramps published, but details at a cost

Beef Central, 23/11/2020

AFTER a year of development Standards Australia has finalised and published the first Australian Standard for Livestock loading/unloading ramps and forcing pens.

It says the 37-page document provides guidance on the safe design and practices for the 85,000 or so agricultural businesses across Australia that use loading ramps, according to NFF statistics.

However to see the detail set out in the Australian Standard it appears livestock producers and others in the supply chain will have to pay a minimum fee of $125 to download the full document from the Standards Australia website.

Beef Central was this afternoon seeking guidance from Standards Australia as to whether the detail of the new Standard will be provided free of charge to livestock producers, or whether they will have to pay the $125 fee to view the full document, which would not seem particularly conducive to achieving widespread uptake.

In a media release launching the new standard today Standards Australia said AS 5340:2020 Livestock loading/unloading ramps and forcing pens has been developed to help promote consistency across the farming sector

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Comments

  1. Peter Mackay, 21/03/2021

    If you expect cattle farmers to follow the new standards why in the world would you charge for this information. I can only see farmers unhappy to pay , meaning you will probably have about 80% of farmers not having any idea what the new standards are. Maybe a little common sense is needed here.

  2. Paul Franks, 24/11/2020

    We should just be realistic and most people will continue to build them as they see fit.

    This is a typical bureaucrat response whereby the thought is once a standard/rule/law is made, the job is done and everyone will follow it like sheep.

  3. John A. Mohr-Bell, 24/11/2020

    When are we gonna develop a standard to just keep idiots out of the way of farms. Like say a standard which all need to be inducted to having learned a bit of common sense!!

  4. Chris, 23/11/2020

    The report should be available free to all who are working with cattle Producers have probably already funded this report and they want another grab at the bottom line If you want uptake of new ramps and pens make it free so everyone builds to the same specs.

    Full names required for future comments please Chris – as per our long-standing reader comment policy. Editor

  5. Valmai Jones, 23/11/2020

    Firstly, the assumption that producers are ALL having a good season is so far wrong, many are still in drought. And the $125 is just one more cost to an Industry still trying to recover from drought. High cattle prices or not producers still need recovery time and for some it will take years

  6. Daryl Jenkins, 23/11/2020

    It would be interesting to see the dimensions recommended for the loading ramps. Our experience is that many of the “off the shelf” ramps are too narrow, which causes unnecessary stress to
    cattle during loading and unloading .

  7. Anthony Fellows, 23/11/2020

    Maybe i am missing something here or am i just cynical?……ALRTA encourage all business with ramps to review their designs and operations against the new standards, and as referenced in the article the NFF believes there are approx 85,000 such businesses.
    85,000 downloads @ $125 = 10.6M, i struggle to aceept the cost of download is therefore just for cost recovery, which is disappointing for positive welfare improvement; soemone is lookign to make a handy profit!

  8. Paul Fry, 23/11/2020

    Interested in the comments from alta regarding instant asset write off. I thought as fixed improvements cattle yards were ineligible. Would recommend people check with their accountant if they are factoring the instant asset write off into decisions on new yards or loading ramps.

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