NEW GENES RAISE Graziers’ wagyu bid pays
AUSTRALIA’S murder rate is lower than ever before.
The latest report of the National Homicide Monitoring Program reveals there were 238 homicide incidents in Australia in 2013- 14, compared with 307 deaths in 1989- 90.
The national rate is now down to one victim per 100,000 people: the lowest since the program began in 1989.
The report, by the Australian Institute of Criminology, shows knives were the most common murder weapons, responsible for 86 deaths while beatings accounted for 37.
Guns killed 32 people, a 63 per cent decline since 1989- 90. BILL Shorten will today demand an inquiry into whether Australians are living in buildings with similar risks to those of London’s Grenfell Tower.
The Opposition Leader wants the Senate Economics References Committee to investigate nonconforming building products and call witnesses from Australian Building Codes Board and fire agencies.
Polythene core tiles were used in the London building, which authorities attribute to the intense fire.
“I don’t want to see a similar tragedy occur here,” Mr Shorten said.
Inferno toll surges: p15 BURDEKIN River graziers Jono and Jess Rich are helping blaze a trail that could see the Japanese wagyu cattle breed become an integral part of North Queensland’s beef industry landscape.
Given its rich, succulent flavours, wagyu is often described as the Grange of beef.
One Sydney butcher priced a classic carcass of Victorian- bred wagyu at $ 450/ kg which places it up there with Grange Shiraz, Australia’s king of reds.
Mr and Mrs Rich from Mt Ravenswood Station on the Burdekin River, 170km south- west of Townsville, have leapt aboard the wagyu express and are not looking back. They are buying in top quality wagyu bulls with “superior genetics” to cross with softer European breed cows.
“We’re aiming at a good, crossbred wagyu herd using full blood, best quality wagyu bulls,” Mr Rich said.
He said this resulted in a first- cross offspring which is at least 50 per cent wagyu in genetic content. He said the first cross- wagyu steers were sold at a premium price to a Darling Downs feedlot. He said heifers were retained for breeding, but older cows were sold to the same feedlot for a similar premium.
Changing direction and going into the wagyu breed in what is traditional brahman country is a radical departure from the norm.
It was not something the Rich family did lightly and there were reservations. But, now it is paying off and they can see a long- term future for their wagyu venture.
“I wasn’t all that keen on the idea at first, but now love it,” Mr Rich said.
Apart from getting farmgate prices almost double what they were getting for their brahman product, the Rich family have discovered other dividends.
One is that the bulls are highly fertile and sexually ac- I