Tennant Creek Region

NEXT MEETING

Tennant Creek Region
Current Chairman:	Mr George Scott
Next Meeting:	Branch General Meeting
Venue:	TBA
Time:	TBA
Documents:	TBA

As part of the ongoing relationship with the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association, Livestock Nutrition Technologies (LNT) is proud to sponsor the NTCA's four branch AGM’s.

LNT has supplied quality supplement blocks to NT cattlemen for over 40 years. With Shaun Coutts, our local Northern Territory area manager, based in Katherine LNT is committed to long term support of the NT cattle industry. 

For more information visit Livestock Nutrition Technologies online.

BRIEF

The Barkly Tablelands is largely semi-arid. The climate is monsoonal with well defined wet and dry seasons.

Nearly all rainfall is received during the hot summer months, November to April, with the greatest incidence during January and February. The variability of rainfall has an important effect on the cattle industry. Lack of summer rains reduces pasture growth and can induce drought. The chance of drought occurring on the Barkly's is approximately 1 in 10 years.

Most properties in the Barkly region are company owned and, in general, the size of the properties is larger than in other regions. Properties range from 4000sqkm to 14000sqkm in size. The average property runs over 24,000 head of cattle.

FACTS AND FIGURES

MARKETS: The Barkly membership predominately value added to other corporate operations in Queensland

CATTLE NUMBERS: 140000 + are turned off

RAINFALL: The average annual rainfall varies from 625 mm in the northern part of the district to 250 mm in the south eastern corner. Most stations receive an average of 400 mm to 600 mm.

Mr Henry Burke, Tennant Creek Chairmen: 2007 Branch Report

The past twelve months for NTCA has seen the organisation tackling some major issues which have and will continue to affect all beef producers in the NT.

The Pastoral Land Act is an ongoing issue which we are hoping should be finalised this year.

A hotly debated topic on everyone’s agenda at present is the local Government Issue. This issue is one that is being forced on us as pastoralists and unfortunately we are not getting much of an opportunity to have input into.

With the huge distances covered for cattle leaving this area the driver fatigue policy is another one which is going to cause some problems to the pastoralists in this region. Already we have seen good experienced road train drivers leaving the industry in fear of them losing their license due to the new rules regarding loss of points and log book hours.

A special mention must go to Robyn Peatling who has made a huge commitment to ensure that she lobbies the relevant health authorities to deliver the best possible health services for all people living on the Barkly.

The Barkly district has enjoyed a good season throughout 2006. The area has seen some change throughout the year with some properties changing ownership. Change of ownership of course brings with it new people to our area, and I would like to extend a welcome to the new owners and Managers to the Barkly.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Stuart Kenny for his commitment and professionalism in his position as Executive Director of our organisation.

The Branch would like to also thank Roy Chisholm and the other executives of the Association for their time and effort on behalf of all members.

Henry Burke
Chairman
Tennant Creek and Barkly Branch
February 2007