Friday, March 29, 2024

$2 levy for beef’s M bovis response

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Beef farmers look set for a $2 a head levy to pay for the Mycoplasma bovis eradication programme. The levy will be a short-term measure, Beef + Lamb chairman Andrew Morrison told the annual meeting in Timaru.
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Consultation will begin soon on raising the beef producer biosecurity levy from 45c a head.

The levy will not apply to cull dairy cows because dairy farmers will pay their share to DairyNZ.

Dairy farmers will pay the biggest part of the industry component of the costs and Morrison said he recognises it will impose a significant financial burden on many dairy farmers.

The Government is paying 68% of the programme costs, leaving 32% to be met by farmers – dairy farmers will pay 94% of it and beef farmers 6%.

The dairy-beef split was adopted after a recommendation from an independent panel set up by B+LNZ and DairyNZ.

It was unchartered territory for both groups, Morrison said.

“This was the first time that there had been an industry contribution to a biosecurity incursion under the Government Industry Agreement for Biosecurity and it won’t be the last and it was important we got it right.”

M Bovis does not affect beef trade so the main consideration for the panel was the impact on production and the scale of each sector.

“The fact is that M bovis does not have much of an impact on beef production. We agreed to the eradication programme in support of dairy farmers, whose production would be significantly affected over time.”

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