In May this year, ALFA was notified of drone footage captured by an animal activist group with an anti-meat and pro-vegan agenda. They published a website which included drone footage of Queensland feedlots, and suggested they would be publishing images on outdoor billboards in Toowoomba and Brisbane as part of a smear campaign designed to discredit our industry.
As recently as last week, there have been sightings of drones once again flying over Queensland feedlots, with careless disregard to Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) rules.
Our industry is under scrutiny like never before, with advanced technology giving those who wish to discredit us a bird's eye view of our people, cattle and feedlots. It is alarming for operators to be covertly filmed, as feedlots are not only workplaces but often where families live and raise their children.
I write this month with a call to action for every single feedlot across the country to continue to maintain the highest animal and environmental welfare standards in accordance with our industry quality assurance program, the National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme (NFAS).
ALFA takes pride that our members are proactive every single day in upholding these high standards of care. Our daily actions in ensuring the highest cattle welfare outcomes are maintained is what will keep our industry reputation high.
ALFA's shade initiative encourages all Australian feedlots to provide cattle with access to shade. Since its launch in 2020, feedlots have embraced the initiative, with cattle under shade increasing from 56% to 70% of feedlot cattle nationally. This is an extraordinary achievement given COVID-19 impacts over the past few years and the voluntary nature of the initiative - but there is still work to do.
As an intensive livestock industry, we understand that the community may have questions about our practices, and we are open to engaging with those genuinely curious about how we care for cattle, the land, and our communities.
ALFA resources like the Australian Grain Fed Beef website, established in 2021, and our Virtual Feedlot Tour, launched in 2023, provide transparent insights into feedlot operations and the grain-fed beef industry.
We encourage you to share these within your networks and communities to aid in telling the positive story of our sector.