WARRAWINDI stud sheep and cattle breeder David Galpin supports more industry levies being diverted into building consumer trust in livestock production and telling the good stories about farming in the newly launched Red Meat 2030 plan.
"The biggest problem is we have a widening gap between city and country folk - we keep saying that you go back a generation and city kids all had an uncle, an aunt or a cousin that had a farm that they went to on holidays and now they don't," he said.
"As an industry we need to be better at showing what we do, how we do it and why."
The Penola producer believes most people will continue to eat red meat but would personally prefer to see it being promoted as a nutritious food rather than using the term red meat which has a stigma attached to it.
"We have got a radical few that we are never going to appease but the general public can sometimes just believe what they hear, sometimes we need to tell our side of the story," he said.
"Ninety-nine per cent of farmers treat their animals better than most people treat each other."
Mr Galpin is particularly bullish about the next decade for the sheep and lamb industry where Australia is a dominant global player and says having the world's best traceability system will stand producers in good stead in our export markets.
On this optimism the Galpin family have taken on two new studs in the past year which culminated in a sensational sale last week where 303 rams sold to $5100 and averaged $1632.
"We have taken the opportunities as they have come along," he said.
" I believe we are breeding the type of sheep that is right for the industry and it is starting to slow with our client base willing to come back and getting the results with their lambs."
- Start the day with all the big news in agriculture. Click here to sign up to receive our daily Stock Journal newsletter.
