death at sea

[***super_nova***]

The live export industry is in crisis amid revelations thousands of sheep from farms in WA and the eastern States died in extreme heat during a horror voyage to the Middle East on a ship which was back in Fremantle loading animals in 40C conditions last weekend.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/wa/a/20787632/mass-sheep-death-on-horror-voyage/

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@punch*drunk wrote:

Australians cant afford to eat lamb, thats why there's not enough demand here. Its too expensive.

---

and why is lamb so expensive?

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@debra9275 wrote:

I  agree Punch, I have never understood that, when here we are exporting so many sheep overseas

---

because the farmers get more money for it there.

[punch*drunk]

---

@crikey*mate wrote:

---

@punch*drunk wrote:

Australians cant afford to eat lamb, thats why there's not enough demand here. Its too expensive.

---

and why is lamb so expensive?

---

I dont know, do you?

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@punch*drunk wrote:

---

@crikey*mate wrote:

---

@punch*drunk wrote:

Australians cant afford to eat lamb, thats why there's not enough demand here. Its too expensive.

---

and why is lamb so expensive?

---

I dont know, do you?

---

yes.

short timeline

cost of raising (feed. stock, land, water, transportation, vet etc)

amount needed to be turned over to make the industry sustainable.

demand/supply

less expensive o/s

[debra9275]

what am I wrong about?

that NZ does not support live animal export since 2003 ( although they do ship cows to China for dairy products, Fonterra owns farms in China)

or that we are not a muslim contry?

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@debra9275 wrote:

what am I wrong about?

that NZ does not support live animal export since 2003 ( although they do ship cows to China for dairy products, Fonterra owns farms in China)

or that we are not a muslim contry?

---

you were wrong about the reasons why we import lamb from NZ

[debra9275]

yes.

short timeline

cost of raising (feed. stock, land, water, transportation, vet etc)

amount needed to be turned over to make the industry sustainable.

demand/supply

less expensive o/s

that doesn't make sense because:

cost of raising (feed. stock, land, water, transportation, vet etc)

they still need to be raised and fed etc. for being sent overseas and if lamb was cheaper to buy here, there would be more demand for it

[debra9275]

OK why do we import lamb from NZ then??

I do know that a lot of sheep farmers gave up due to drought some years ago.

It just doesn't make sense to me that we import lamb from NZ and send our own overseas

[*crikey*mate*]

that's the point - the quantities that they need to be raised in to make farming them viable is not sustainable.

ATM, a farmer gets more oper head to export his lamb than he does to sell it domestically. If he were to sell it all domestically, he needs to be able to raise more lambs to generate the same income. This in turn costs him more money and causes the price of lamb to rise even more or for lamb to become more scarce.

It is evidently cheaper to import lamb from NZ, presumedly because their costs of raising that lamb is cheaper. (or maybe they just have so much lamb that there is an oversupply for their domestic market)

Their conditions and environment are very different to Australia.

Lamb is comparable to veal. similar timeline. The dif is, there is a market for veal once it passes that age, but there is not one for lamb.

[lionrose.7]

Lamb is very expensive in Nz as well, no one can afford it, all the good lamb goes over seas.

Nz has not exported live animals since 2007

New Zealand has not exported live animals for slaughter for many years, instead focusing on producing processed meat for Europe, Japan and Asia. After a public debate about live export in 2006 and 2007, the New Zealand Government prohibited live export for slaughter (the 2007 Customs Export Prohibition Order) unless a stringent set of welfare conditions could be complied with, both on ships and in regard to treatment in importing countries (these included auditing of feedlots and abattoirs, compliance with OIE animal welfare guidelines and stunning of animals before slaughter). No live animals have been exported for slaughter since the Order was introduced, and New Zealand's Agriculture Minister recently foreshadowed it may soon been completely prohibited through an amendment to the Animal Welfare Act.

Former New Zealand Agriculture, Jim Anderton, was interviewed on ABC radio on 18/6/2011 and when asked if New Zealand had been disadvantaged by not exporting live animals, he declared that given the high value of other New Zealand agricultural exports which could be at risk if the country's reputation was tarnished by the live export trade, 'it is a no brainer as a country and we would not ever think about it (resuming live export) now'.