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<pstyle:2 – Body Text>After a highly successful Gippsland Red Meat Conference (GMRC) at Sale in 2023, organisers say they have listened to feedback, moving the date to late summer/early autumn and returning the event to its roots in Bairnsdale.
Organiser Craig Bush, of Gippsland Agricultural Group (GAgG), said given last year’s conference sold out, they appreciated the opportunity to fill a larger venue this year at the Riviera Christian Centre.
“The last time the event was held there was during the Covid upheaval in 2022 and there were density limits and vaccination checks, and an understandable reluctance by some to congregate in large numbers,” Craig said.
“It was a time when the phrase ‘herd immunity’ was at the fore, not for animals, but for human beings.”
In fact, at the time the 2022 Gippsland
Red Meat Conference was hailed as an industry leader, showing the way to other conference organisers, sponsors and attendees, that large-scale conferences could be run safely, and would be embraced by producers after such a long period of absence.
Other feedback organisers responded to was the request to have producers talking to producers, because they relate to them so well.
One such speaker is Ben Young from Chiltern Park Angus, well-renowned as a leading seedstock producer and an advocate for the use of Estimated Breeding Values in bull selection.
His main skill, however, is his ability to connect with grass-roots producers and share the lessons he has learnt about good decision making.
In what has been a challenging year for south-west Victorian producers, he has had to make difficult decisions around feeding or de-stocking, relying on his ‘farmer’s toolbox’ to analyse and respond to changing conditions.
“In regard to speakers, it wouldn’t be a GRMC without our favourite market analysts Simon Quilty and Rob Herrmann,” Craig said.
“It’s the only red meat conference in the country that offers this double act, and the two analysts, who are normally competitors, thrive on telling a combined story from two different perspectives.
“And the election of Trump as President-elect of America will give these two plenty to consider.
“Will the threatened China tariffs eventuate?
“What impact will they have on low-cost exporters like Australia?”
The Gippsland Red Meat Conference is hosted by the Gippsland Agricultural Group and will take place on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, at the Riviera Christian Centre in Bairnsdale.
Tickets will go on sale prior to Christmas through the Trybooking website.
For further details go to the Gippsland Red Meat Conference Facebook page or to the Trybooking website.
