Producers urged to attend statewide LPA workshops
The Australian Livestock Production Assurance program is an important part of the livestock industry’s on-farm assurance program covering food safety, animal welfare and biosecurity.
From October 1, producers will need to meet new biosecurity and animal welfare requirements and complete a three-yearly assessment to be LPA accredited. Livestock SA will host a series of workshops across the state over the next four weeks, to allow producers to better understand the new requirements and developments in LPA and why it’s important for the ongoing growth of the industry, with the first session to be held today in Coober Pedy.
The workshops are held in partnership with Biosecurity SA, the Cattle Council of Australia, the Sheepmeat Council of Australia and Meat & Livestock Australia.
Other workshops will be held at Naracoorte on September 11, Mount Gambier on September 12, Karoonda on September 13, Hahndorf on September 14, Cleve on September 19, Jamestown on September 20 and Kadina on September 21.
The workshops will discuss on-farm biosecurity, how to develop a biosecurity plan that allows producers to meet the requirements of LPA but also allows them to manage animal health issues such as BJD to an appropriate level for their businesses.
We’ll also have someone to discuss the latest in electronic National Vendor Declarations and how they can help with producers’ businesses, eNVDs are an electronic platform for the transfer of national livestock declarations.
Recently launched by the Integrity Systems Company (a subsidiary of MLA), eNVDs will transfer LPA information, as well as animal health declarations, Meat Standards Australia declarations and National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme delivery documentation.
The eNVD system can be used to submit and retrieve eNVDs for property to property movements, or movements to feedlots, saleyards and abattoirs. The LPA eNVD is free and available from the LPA Service Centre website at https://lpa.nlis.com.au/. Its use is not compulsory and producers can continue to use paper NVDs which cost $40 (GST inclusive) per book or eDecs.
We were very aware that there were mixed messages around biosecurity and the requirements for our members, so we were keen to ensure our members had clarity around what people required.
We are working with all of our partners, including Biosecurity SA to make sure that there is a consistent message for livestock producers.
There are new requirements for the LPA scheme and these workshops will allow them to understand these changes.
Some people are still confused about the requirements for BJD and these workshops will also allow them to understand the expectations for those.
We will start off with eight workshops, depending on demand more may roll out. I would encourage all producers to attend the workshops to come and meet with us and raise any issues you may be having.
The newly launched SA Brands app will also be discussed at the workshops. The SA Agriculture Minister Leon Bignell launched the app at the recent Growing SA Conference earlier this month.
We’ve had steady registrations and downloads of the SA Brands app since the launch, and I urge anyone needing extra help in familiarising themselves with the app or how to access it to ring the Livestock SA office.
Finally, during the last Saturday at the Royal Adelaide Show the latest round of the WoolTAG toolboxes will be handed out to Tafe SA students who have completed a Certificate Two in shearing or woolhandling. We look forward to meeting these graduates and presenting them with a voucher which will help them to buy equipment vital to their new roles in the wool industry.
Details: To register for the workshops visit www.livestocksa.org.au or ring 08 8297 2299
– Andrew Curtis, Chief Executive Officer, Livestock SA