AGFORCE

Cattle Transaction Levy

All beef cattle producers are required to pay a levy on transactions involving cattle. Components of the levy are used to fund research, development and marketing activities through the red meat industry services body Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), programs conducted by Animal Health Australia (AHA), plus contributions to the National Residue Survey.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s Levies Revenue Service (LRS) receives the funds and forwards them to the relevant organisations, in addition to distributing the Australian Government’s matching research and development (R&D) contributions. Levies are introduced and administered by the Australian Government at the request of the beef industry.

The rate of domestic levy for cattle and livestock transactions is calculated as follows:

• Cattle Transaction Levy
• Cattle (grass fed) $5.00 per head
• Lot-Fed Cattle# (grain fed) $5.00 per head
• Bobby Calves# $0.90 per head

The transaction levy was initially set at $3.50/head, however, in 2005 industry voted to increase the levy amount to $5 to enable more funds to be directed to beef marketing.

An independent report from a 14-member Beef Marketing Funding Committee - released in May 2009 - found that the additional $1.50 levy, utilised for marketing by MLA, has delivered five times the investment back to producers.

As a result, industry voted in 2009 to retain the levy at $5/head.

From the $5 cattle transaction levy, $4.58 is allocated to MLA to carry out the research ($0.92) and marketing ($3.66) activities for industry.

AgForce has seven seats on the national industry representative group, the Cattle Council of Australia (CCA), which provides recommendations to the Federal Agricultural Minister on the levy rate and advises on how funds should be spent by MLA (under its annual operating plan).

Through CCA, AgForce ensures that MLA’s research and marketing activities deliver profitable outcomes for Queensland producers. Areas which the industry has directed MLA to invest include:

• Responding to the increased US beef competition in north Asian markets;
• Capitalising on the market access wins for beef in Europe and Russia;
• Increasing investment in emerging markets such as countries in South-East Asia, Russia and the Middle East;
• Increasing emphasis on jointly-funded marketing activities with MLA and importers/exporters; and
• Maintaining an emphasis on nutrition as a core domestic marketing program.

These outcomes will feed into MLA’s 2010-11 Annual Operating Plan, which AgForce will critically assess to ensure it will deliver targeted outcomes for Queensland producers.

For more information on the transaction levy, including the payment process, download the LRS fact sheet at www.daff.gov.au