Community & Business
9 November, 2023
Big year for Malanda Beef Plan Group
A STRONG attendance of 26 producers recently gathered for the Annual General Meeting of the Malanda Beef Plan Group (MBPG) at James and Deana Nasser’s East Barron property.
Being an active not-for-profit organisation, it provides support, education and advocacy for the beef industry and its producers across the Atherton Tablelands.
It also provides an inclusive learning and social environment and a united voice for its producers.
Membership helps support the group’s activities and fosters the interest of its up-and-coming producers with sponsorship of local youth in rural education. Meetings are generally held every second month on members’ farms across the Tablelands.
MBPG president Gordon Carcary said the group comprised of around 50 to 60 members with 20 to 30 members attending meetings on a regular basis.
“Members range from people with hobby farms to large scale commercial operations and stud breeders,” Gordon said.
“The group was formed in the late 90’s by farmers in order to have a collective voice on issues affecting them on the Tablelands.”
Throughout the year, the MBPG has been involved in discussions on a wide range of topics and has held a number of events which are of interest to producers including a pasture and cattle performance workshop held earlier in the year.
The MBPG also sponsors the Malanda Show Society prime beef cattle section.
It also promoted the recent Rocky Creek Abattoir North Queensland Best Beef Carcase Competition (NQBBCC) with members having enjoyed success in this competition.
In May this year, the group volunteered its time to assist with a beef cattle education camp for the youth of the region with 150 participants having attended the three day camp.
Members are provided information about funding grants which are available for individual producers as well as for the group.
This year, members were made aware of the minimum record keeping required by Tablelands producers for reef regulations.
Members are encouraged to forward their ideas for potential speakers and topics for meetings, as well as any ideas they may have regarding a product, supplier, tip, skill or problem they would like addressed so it can be discussed at a future meeting.
Several guest speakers gave presentations at the recent AGM.
Cailan and Shannon Byrnes from Rocky Creek Abattoir gave a presentation on the recent North Queensland Best Beef Carcass Competition, which allows producers to benchmark themselves against others in the industry whilst allowing butchers to highlight the quality of their meat.
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) beef extension officer Niilo Gobius gave a very informative presentation about nutrition and grazing principles involving feed intake and liveweight gain.
He demonstrated this with an interesting exercise in relation to the maintenance of a 400kg steer and its relative liveweight gains regarding how much it would have to eat on different pasture and grain diets.
DAF pasture agronony extension officer Katie Hay spoke about the Northern Pastures Resilience Program.
This program gives tailored one-on-one advice, including mapping information and soil tests, and gives recommendations on which pasture and legume species are the best for a producer’s property.
Producers can also obtain help with sourcing seed and equipment.
Other representatives were in attendance so that producers could have discussions with them after the meeting.
James Overall from Virbac was present to answer any producer enquiries about devising tick, drench and vaccination programs, as well as any concerns about possible resistance to the chemicals used to control these parasites.
Feral Management Qld was also in attendance. They are a volunteer group that offer help with any feral pest management for farmers.
The MBPG group has a strong focus on Navua sedge control and members were given the latest Navua sedge update in that it has now been listed as a restricted species.
The meeting discussed weed management and feral animal control and the need for new land holders to be advised of weeds of major significance.
The 2023 management committee comprises of president Gordon Carcary, vice president Dave Andersen, secretary Kasmin Brotherton and treasurer Trevor Petersen.
A future event which members are invited to participate in will be a bus tour to be held on 14 November to the lime works at Mt Garnet (Miriwinni Lime) to allow producers to view how it is mined and produced.
New members are always welcome. For further information, email malandabeefplangroup@outlook.com
