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/

[debra9275]

well there is something seriously wrong with that.

Australians should be supplied with an Australian product first is my opinion. it just sounds like the greed of a few, pure and simple

[*crikey*mate*]

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@debra9275 wrote:

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

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because we get more money to export it than it costs to import it for our own consumption.

I can get exact figures for you over the weekend, if youn like, but for now I will just give hypotheticals....

it costs $4 to raise a lamb in NZ

it costs $6 here. more if they have to produce more.

We can import it from NZ for $5.

Ours costs $7 to use domestically

But we get $10 to export it.

Say you can get $5 to sell your product to a) or $10 to sell it to b), then where would you sell it?

If you chose to sell it to a), then you need to sell 20 of them (do you have the room and resources to store, and process that many?)

If you chose to sell it to b), then you only need to sell 10 of them to make the same money.

Now keep in mind that every business has a break even point. I have used the example of $100 - each business determines what tyheir break even point is to make it viable for thewm to enter the market.

So a farmer might need to earn that $100 just to break even with the rersources he currently has.

He may not have the resources to make more than those 10 products, but if he can only sell 10 products at the reduced rate, then he will not make enough to even break even.

[punch*drunk]

Dont a lot of our live exports go to Indonesia? How do they afford to buy it, I thought the were a poor country and things were relatively cheaper over there. It would cost me around $30 to feed my family rack of lamb, wouldnt that be about a months wages for them?

[*crikey*mate*]

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@debra9275 wrote:

well there is something seriously wrong with that.

Australians should be supplied with an Australian product first is my opinion. it just sounds like the greed of a few, pure and simple

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greed of the farmers?

[punch*drunk]

it costs $6 here. more if they have to produce more

Why does it cost more per lamb to produce more? Normally costs go down per head when you do things in bigger quantities.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@punch*drunk wrote:

Dont a lot of our live exports go to Indonesia? How do they afford to buy it, I thought the were a poor country and things were relatively cheaper over there. It would cost me around $30 to feed my family rack of lamb, wouldnt that be about a months wages for them?

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it's kind of the same as why do manufacturers miove offshore.

it's cheaper to feed, slaughter, store and process a beast o/s than it is here.

[punch*drunk]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

---

@punch*drunk wrote:

Dont a lot of our live exports go to Indonesia? How do they afford to buy it, I thought the were a poor country and things were relatively cheaper over there. It would cost me around $30 to feed my family rack of lamb, wouldnt that be about a months wages for them?

---

it's kind of the same as why do manufacturers miove offshore.

it's cheaper to feed, slaughter, store and process a beast o/s than it is here.

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So the high cost of lamb is attributed to the slaughtering and afterwards more than the raising then?

[*crikey*mate*]

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@punch*drunk wrote:

it costs $6 here. more if they have to produce more

Why does it cost more per lamb to produce more? Normally costs go down per head when you do things in bigger quantities.

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because the farmers need bigger farms and more infrastructure.

and our weather and climate is so unpredictable it is not conducive with making too many long term investments in these things.

they might need that investment to produce for 10 years to recoup costs, but the next drought may only be a year away.

and as you said, the more they produce, the more prices go down. This means the price per head they get as well.

[debra9275]

from what I remember lamb was relatively inexpensive here prior to the live export trade being established

[*crikey*mate*]

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@punch*drunk wrote:

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@crikey*mate wrote:

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@punch*drunk wrote:

Dont a lot of our live exports go to Indonesia? How do they afford to buy it, I thought the were a poor country and things were relatively cheaper over there. It would cost me around $30 to feed my family rack of lamb, wouldnt that be about a months wages for them?

---

it's kind of the same as why do manufacturers miove offshore.

it's cheaper to feed, slaughter, store and process a beast o/s than it is here.

---

So the high cost of lamb is attributed to the slaughtering and afterwards more than the raising then?

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no.

it's a factor, but so is everything else I have written.

raising them is also expensive in the quantities required over the timeline permitted in comparison to other countries.

and when you say high cost of lamb, what are you comparing it to?

High compared to what?