Largest sustainability study of red meat industry in Australia is underway
'Food for the future' will involve producers across 10 million hectares aiming to prove that getting farming foundations right can lead to big gains in productivity and profitability.
Transcript
00:00 When the going is good in Central Australia, it's hard to find fault with this country.
00:07 Astonishing in its beauty, but also its productivity.
00:14 In the good seasons, yeah, this country's like second to none I don't reckon, like cattle
00:20 grow out of sight.
00:22 Willie Brown and his wife Amanda are slowly learning the finer points of cattle country
00:26 in the Red Centre.
00:28 Having worked right across the north, they moved here to head up the cattle conglomerate
00:33 that is Ngawi Tuma, Glen Helen, Napabe and Derwent Station in Central Australia for agricultural
00:39 giant Hewitt.
00:44 That's a breathtaking 2.7 million acres and 35,000 head of cattle.
00:50 Hewitt has a big stake in the industry.
00:53 As Australia's largest organic meat producer, they also run their own integrated supply
00:59 chain.
01:00 Very simple in my mind, ensuring that the land's there for generations to come, almost
01:05 into infinity.
01:07 We have an obligation to future generations, the broader population, to ensure that the
01:12 land is managed well.
01:13 We're massive custodians.
01:18 It goes to the very essence of why they, along with Bush Heritage Australia, Integrity Ag
01:23 and Environment, Soil, Land, Food and Meat and Livestock Australia, are leading such
01:29 an extensive sustainability study.
01:33 Scientists and environmentalists are given unique access to measure and report on how
01:37 Hewitt has been refining their production practices and land management with a greener
01:43 focus.
01:46 Fresh off the press, preliminary results are certainly eye-opening.
01:50 The study shows the growth in market opportunities can be as high as 50% when meat is grown in
01:57 a farming system where natural assets and sustainable practices are an investment focus.
02:04 A lot of those things are about combining the science, understanding the practices we
02:09 carry out on the land and bringing them together and really getting to a point where we can
02:14 match the science and the production and how that works together to quantify what we've
02:20 been doing.
02:21 The sheer breadth of geography and variety of livestock means the findings will resonate
02:26 right across the red meat industry.
02:29 And that's exactly why Australia's peak meat body are also stumping up their dollars.
02:37 We're able to co-invest in this type of a project which gives us that geographical spread,
02:41 gives us scale, gives us the spread across cattle and sheep, but also it gives us the
02:49 ability to then share that information more broadly.
02:52 [Music]
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