CONCERNS about the future of the Pastoral Board and its activities have sparked Livestock SA to call a meeting for pastoralists in Marree on October 28.
The proposed abolishment of the board - announced by Premier Jay Weatherill in last month's Boards and Committees Interim Report - raised alarm bells for producers, particularly regarding the question of Pastoral Lease Assessments, and who would undertake this role.
"We are very concerned about what the government's doing," Livestock SA board member and Allendale Station's Andrew Clarke said.
"They've done no consultation; we would like to be involved in the process on behalf of pastoralists."
Mr Clarke said Tuesday's meeting followed on from letters sent to Premier Jay Weatherill and Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation Ian Hunter expressing Livestock SA's concern regarding the board's future.
In the letter to Mr Wetherall, president Richard Halliday stated: "it is essential that whatever replaces the Pastoral Board also works for the current interests and the future of the pastoral industry".
Livestock SA requested it be involved with reform development in the wake of the board's closure.
It has yet to receive a response from government.
"They should be consulting us about this, not announcing things and then running off to the rabbit warren and hiding," Mr Clarke said.
Michael McBride, Kia Ora Station, Burra, was on the board for 28 years, including seven as its presiding member.
He said his main concern was the 42-year pastoral leases, and who would now carry out assessments.
Mr McBride - the first non-government and non-department member to sit on the board - was instrumental in introducing assessment procedures.
"As a measure to make sure country is being used properly, the board has built an assessment process where each property is assessed every 14 years, so that the lease need not go down below 26 years before it gets a 14-year top-up to 42 years," he said.
"This was all devised initially through the University of Adelaide's Dr Bob Lange, a pastoral sciences lecturer."
The board oversaw the introduction of a scientific method to measure and monitor grazing impact on land.
A series of photo points across pastoral leases is used to document land condition, and repeated at 14-year assessments to provide benchmarks for monitoring land management and stocking rates.
"It's all done with an oversight, but bearing in mind the ultimate interest of the person that is the unpaid ranger of that land," Mr McBride said.
* Full report in Stock Journal, October 23, 2014 issue.