Benefitting the northern beef industry
Host: Northern Beef Futures
Written by Trevor Price – Productivity and Profitability Manager, Department of Agriculture and Food’s Northern Beef Futures Project
Trevor Price.
Hi, I’m Trevor Price and I am the Productivity and Profitability Manager for the Department of Agriculture and Food’s Northern Beef Futures project which supports the State’s northern beef industry to grow and develop.
I’ve hit the ground running since I started in January this year at the Northern Beef Development Centre in Broome. I already know quite a few pastoralists in the area from my previous travels as a seed stock producer and have a good understanding of the northern beef industry from my work on cattle stations in the Northern Territory. I established my own tropical Bos taurus cattle stud in north-west New South Wales in the early 2000’s and I’m passionate about the northern pastoral industry and the role that genetics and nutrition will play in lifting productivity in the North.
Since being in the job I have taken several road trips south of Broome and into the Pilbara while the Kimberley dries out after a fantastic wet season! The recent Kimberley Pilbara Cattlemen’s Association (KPCA) Field Day at Minderoo Station, followed by a Conference and Dinner in Onslow provided a great opportunity to engage with industry and the KPCA are to be congratulated for providing such an opportunity for networking and collaboration. The entire supply chain was represented from: Stud Producers, Pastoralists, Backgrounders, Feed lotters, Processors, Agents, and service providers to industry.
In my new role as Productivity and Profitability Manager with the department, I am aiming to focus on the on-station productivity aspects of the Northern Beef Futures project. My presence in Broome provides industry with an opportunity to engage with me either at the Northern Beef Development Centre or on-station. Don’t hesitate to contact me any time, early or late, seven days a week!
Greetings from a friendly Anna Plains Station heifer.
During these periods of engagement I hope to highlight the opportunities available for pastoralists through the project and seek feedback on what more can be done to reinforce change and capacity building within the industry. I strongly feel that collaboration and robust relationships are vital to getting the most out of any industry and my hope is to improve outcomes for the Pilbara and Kimberley beef sector by identifying and addressing issues and challenges to growth while optimising the value of the industry as a whole.
I am looking forward to catching up with pastoralists and working together to ensure we are all in tune with the needs of end-customers. I’m hoping to get to as many industry events as I can to build relationships and provide a local link across the integrated beef supply chain.
There is some great work happening in the productivity and profitability space at the moment, with beef industry infrastructure improvements, excellent research in the Mosaic Agriculture area and the on-station Business Improvement Grants Program. You can read more about these areas in Geoff and Kevin’s blogs later in the week.
Want to know more? Drop in and see me at DAFWA’s Northern Beef Development Centre at 12 Gregory Street Broome or call me on (08) 9194 1441
The Department of Agriculture and Food’s $15 million Northern Beef Futures (NBF) project is an investment by the State Government’s Royalties for Regions program.