Beef sustainability document ignores trends in major state

It’s meant to showcase the sustainability of Australia’s beef industry but an annual report card has shown there are gaps in the data.

A new sustainability report on Australia’s beef industry has exposed some gaps in the industry’s self-assessment tool, as well as showing the sector has a way to go to meet targets.

Key trends such as those on animal welfare, one of the major parts of the sustainability framework document, have been drawn from a survey which did not include participants from the Northern Territory.

And much of the report does not have third-party verification.

The Australian Beef Sustainability Framework released its 2024 report card last week and used information from a survey completed by Meat and Livestock Australia earlier this year to gauge trends from a producer survey to support some of its arguments on key issues like animal welfare.

The breakdown of survey participants showed that while Queensland has 45 per cent of the nation’s cattle herd, just 28 per cent of survey respondents came from this state. And the Northern Territory, which runs 7 per cent of the nation’s cattle, had no survey results included in the analysis.

The report said that 31 per cent of producers were using appropriate pain relief for “invasive” husbandry practices, which was marked as an improvement.

And while the industry “aspires to 100 per cent use of effective and appropriate pain relief” by 2030, the survey results show just 352 survey respondents out of 1188 said they used pain management for practices like dehorning, disbudding, castration and spaying.

MLA Beef Sustainability manager Jacob Betros said the update took “an entire industry approach to showcasing continual improvement in sustainability”

“Where possible, the ABSF uses data that has been verified by a third party or other assurance and auditing regimes,” Mr Betros said.

“However, not all priorities have third-party verified data available, so we seek other data sources.”

Mr Betros said the lack of verification had not affected trade or market access requirements.

“We do understand, however, the desire to gain that assurance,” he said.

“We are seeking ways to verify future annual updates in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) requirements to ensure we are meeting international reporting standards, and our customers and investors can be confident with the information we publish.”

In releasing the report, Red Meat Advisory Council chairman John McKillop said sustainability continued to be a “core pillar of the industry”.

“The regular monitoring, evaluation, feedback loops and reporting by the ABSF enable all stakeholders to stay responsive to evolving challenges and opportunities and guiding us on our continuous improvement journey,” Mr McKillop said.

“The fact that the annual updates (come out) ensure that this is undertaken in a transparent and accountable manner cannot be overstated.”