Compliance teams to assess North Burnett livestock owners

Changes to a council policy will see farmers hit with fines, inspections and compliance notices for any wandering cattle called in to the council.

North Burnett graziers often rely on locals to call in wandering cattle, with wild weather and heavy rain affecting fence lines. ​

The North Burnett Regional Council will vote on Wednesday, November 23, to adopt new changes to its Wandering Livestock Policy, with its first review in four years painting a bleak picture for local graziers.

It will be the first time the policy has been assessed since it was implemented in 2016 and local graziers may be in for a shock with proposed updates bringing infringement notices and follow-up inspections.

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In what has been labelled a “financial and operational burden” for the council, the proposed changes to the policy will shift the burden of reported wandering livestock back onto the farmer.

With many North Burnett farms spanning thousands of hectares across several roads, this will put additional pressure on local farmers already battling a heavy wet season and a rising cost in production.

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Proposed changes will see graziers accepting more responsibility for wandering livestock including maintaining all enclosures, preventing livestock from wandering onto council owned land and being responsible for any damages to property made by wandering livestock.

The new policy will also address how reports of wandering livestock is called in, and procedures are being developed to allow “time for stockholders to address reported sightings in a timely manner.”

With beef prices remaining high the last thing farmers want is their cattle wandering where they could be hurt.

Farmers will also be expected to make time for a “compliance team” who will assess the “probable cause for wandering livestock” seven days after the report is called in.

“The inspection of the area may result in warnings, compliance notices or penalty infringement notices,” the council document said.

The council document states this system will allow the council to “recover some costs where land/stock owners are found to be negligent or breaching Local Laws/Stock Route Management Act.”

A council document has said the “existing policy is operationally unrealistic throughout our local government areas 20,000 square kilometres” and “the existing Policy position is not achievable financially, operationally in terms of staff resource availability, as well as health and safety considerations.”

Interim General Manager Corporate and Community Skye Price has said if the council continues to follow the policy as written in 2016 they are ignoring rising biosecurity concerns, fatigue management and costly ongoing training requirements.