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Within the company there is a wealth of experience in the livestock industry as well as access to much more information. The following services are to be offered for client use:
Livestock Evaluation
This is one of the key services of the business. When you take the care to nurture and feed your animals well, it makes sense to be producing livestock that have the ability to reach perfection from a consumer point of view. To this end the company are providing a livestock evaluation service that is geared towards producing tender, tasty meat. This service will be provided by in field evaluators who will be responsible for evaluating and suitably identifying superior stock.
They will work on a contract basis, structured around their experience and the number of stock they evaluate. The company will charge clients an evaluation fee that will cover the running costs of the service (see fee structure at end of this page). The company will be concentrating on provision of a service for the selection of breeding stock that will guarantee that the numbers of stock with the correct genetic traits and trait balance for tenderness and taste increases in the future. A service for the evaluation of stock for processing will also be available.
The main requirement for the company evaluators to be able to carry out an efficient evaluation will be a serviceable set of stock yards and crush.
Carcass Evaluation
Evaluators will be responsible for following stock through the abattoirs and evaluating them after they are slaughtered to double check their grading and re-identify them. It is planned to introduce an electronic identification system as soon as throughput justifies the cost. Blood or hair samples will be taken from every animal at this point and recorded to provide a trace back mechanism for the company to follow up on consumer feed back where required. Again, evaluators will be paid on a contract basis as above.
Pasture Management
This service will also include grazing management, an integral part of pasture management in all grazing enterprises. It will be available to producers looking at establishing new pastures as well as those looking at making their grazing management practices more efficient and/or intensive. It is planned to obtain the services of agronomists for technical advice, as well as use information and experience within the company’s organisational structure. Within our company we have people who have been at the forefront of initiating controlled grazing programmes in this country Assistance will also be available for those producers finishing stock in feedlots in regard to the layout and structure of such enterprises.
Fodder Conservation
This is an important consideration in areas where there is a wide fluctuation in seasonal conditions that lead to peaks and troughs in feed availability. It ties in with the previous service and is part of the company’s plan to assist producers to increase the efficiency of their enterprise by increasing returns without major capital input. Fodder conservation is a critical issue in drought areas, where forced sale of stock at rock bottom prices is usually followed by having to buy back when the drought breaks at very high prices. The cost of fodder conservation is very small compared with the losses incurred in such a situation. This service and our pasture management service are a major part of the company’s aim to promote grass fed beef and provide options to ensure continuity of supply on a year round basis.
Marketing
At this stage the company’s long term aim is not to be a primary marketer of products. There will probably be a necessity for the company to take a leading role initially to support producers using the system to establish markets and the company’s quality standards. It is our aim to develop an electronic marketing system for products as one of the key strategies in our marketing plan. The company will ultimately co-ordinate, but not necessarily be directly involved in local, national and international marketing of meat products including value added products.
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