SA livestock advocacy continues to grow

Livestock advocacy continues to strengthen in South Australia, with South Australian producers recently appointed to leading roles with both the newly formed Sheep Producers Australia (SPA) and WoolProducers Australia (WPA).

The new President of SPA is Livestock SA Board member Allan Piggott, who also chairs the SA Sheep Industry Blueprint. Another Livestock SA Board member, Jamie Heinrich, has also been appointed to the SPA board. Livestock SA Board member Richard Halliday was returned as President of the WoolProducers Australia Board at its recent annual general meeting. Livestock SA President Joe Keynes is also on the WPA Board.

SA is also represented on Cattle Council of Australia by Amanda Giles and in the Goat Industry Council of Australia by Peter Lauterbach who is the Treasurer of that organisation.

James Morgan was recently re-elected Board Member to the Australia Wool Innovation Board. At Meat & Livestock Australia’s Red Meat forum in Alice Springs last week, Snowtown sheep producer Andrew Michael was appointed as a Director to the MLA Board. Farrell Flat sheep producer Jane Kellock was re-appointed as the sheepmeat producer representative on the MLA Board Selection Committee.

Recently Keith producer James Pitchford was also a finalist in the Rising Champions Initiative run by the Cattle Council of Australia. Amanda Giles also represents

It is great news for SA producers to have such widespread representation across these industry advocacy and representative bodies to advocate on issues which can directly benefit South Australian producers.

At the Growing SA event earlier this year, Livestock SA, through Primary Producers SA, re-joined the National Farmers’ Federation, further continuing our push to have a voice at a national level. The benefits of this are many. After about 10 years of not having a direct link to the NFF we are now able to discuss SA’s perspective on many issues such as market access, freight efficiency and biosecurity.

Advocacy is also particularly key in South Australia at this time, with latest results from the PIRSA 2016-17 Food and Wine Scorecard showing a record-breaking industry revenue of $19.95 billion, up more than $1 billion on the previous year. In the livestock sector, gross revenue increased to $4.8 billion.

I am a passionate advocate for producers to put their hand up to participate in industry groups, as well as partake in extra training for the many leadership and advocacy programs available through organisations such as SPA, CCA and WPA. There are also many programs available at a state level through the SA Government.

Key outcomes from “stepping up” and becoming an advocate are many: it not only benefits the industry but the individual and the state, creating opportunities and influencing decision markers through strategic and clearer actions.

We encourage anyone wanting to become more involved to contact us at Livestock SA.

– ANDREW CURTIS, Chief Executive Officer, Livestock SA