CEO Update September

The last couple of months has been a whirlwind at Herefords Australia, there certainly has been a lot happening. First of all, I have to acknowledge the departure of Alastair, Ambrose and Naomi and thank them for their support and friendship. Each of them has made their own huge contribution over their time at Herefords Australia and their presence will be sorely missed. We wish them every success with their new roles.

These changes give us the opportunity to take a fresh look at how we deliver services to member and restructure roles and responsibilities within the team. We have put in place interim support services that ensure we will be able to continue providing timely support for members while recruiting new team members.

I am genuinely excited to be stepping into the CEO’s role and taking a leading role in developing opportunities for the Hereford breed. I have been lucky enough to have been a part of the Herefords Australia team for the last two and a half years as Research, Development and Extension Specialist. Over this time, I have been fortunate to meet many members and get better insights into their business needs. The common theme from my conversations with members is the need to grow the market share for both stud and commercial Hereford cattle.

I firmly believe that we are well placed to do this with firm foundations in place and positive signs of new opportunities emerging. Over the last couple of years, we have firmly demonstrated how successfully Hereford cattle are meeting industry specifications using MSA feedback data. In addition to this we have consistently received feedback from major supermarket chains saying that if cattle keeping grading well, they will keep buying them.

More recently we have seen reports from the AI industry where producers are specifically using Hereford bulls to ensure that calves can be finished off grass to better meet industry specifications. Highlighting the quality of our product, we have seen the news that Australia’s number 1 ranked steak restaurant which also ranks number 2 in the world proudly serves Hereford beef on its menu.

There have also been positive signs of the rise in popularity of the Hereford breed internationally, in particular the outstanding sale results from the Churchill Herefords dispersal in the United States.

There are many great news stories and a lot of good reasons to run Hereford cattle. This is why we are currently redeveloping our marketing strategy to get this information out to the broader industry and grow market share. The one thing that I ask of members is that you play your role in the marketing strategy by sharing the good news stories widely. The conversations that we have, articles that we write, and social media stories that we post should all aim to give people a reason to choose Herefords.

I look forward to working with all members to continue delivering on our strategic plans and grow the market share for Hereford cattle.