NTCA Attends Cattle Connect 2025 – National Beef Industry Forum

Jess Daniels – Southern Regional Director, NTCA

Dalby, Queensland | 11–12 November 2025

Last week, Romy and I travelled to Dalby for Cattle Connect 2025, Cattle Australia’s flagship national forum. The event brought together producers, researchers, government and supply-chain leaders for two days of discussion on the major issues shaping Australia’s beef sector.

The opening session explored the value and future of the cattle transaction levy, led by Garry Edwards (Chair, Cattle Australia) with panel input from John Lloyd (Chair, MLA) and Cattle Australia CEO Will Evans.

Speakers acknowledged the levy’s critical role in funding marketing, R&D and industry services, but also highlighted the need to modernise a structure that has remained unchanged for nearly two decades. The discussion centred on ensuring transparency, equity and long-term value for producers across all production systems and regions. For northern and extensive producers, this conversation will be particularly important as national consultation progresses.

The standout of Day One was the sustainability session featuring Dr Sarah Klopatek, JBS Global Chief Livestock Scientist. Her keynote cut through much of the complexity around emissions, urging industry and policymakers not to compare “apples with apple-pie” when assessing livestock against alternative proteins.

She emphasised:

the efficiency advantages of Australian production systems, and
the risks of incomplete or inconsistent comparisons influencing policy or market settings.

Her message strongly aligns with the realities of northern production, where low-input, extensive systems already achieve strong environmental efficiency. The panel discussion that followed reinforced the need for evidence-based sustainability frameworks that genuinely reflect how Australian beef is produced.

A highlight for me on Day Two was seeing NTCA CEO Romy Carey facilitate the panel on the Value of Agriculture in Education, featuring Anthony Lee (CEO, Australian Country Choice), Luciano Mesiti (CEO, Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia) and Grace Collins (National Rural Ambassador 2025)

The discussion focused on improving agricultural literacy, strengthening industry pathways, and highlighting real-world experiences that connect young people to careers in agriculture. It was encouraging to see national recognition that education is central to future workforce capability, an issue particularly relevant for remote and regional industries like ours.

Across both days, the conference also covered:

national market trends and customer expectations,
cattle station security and rural crime,
next-generation leadership,
bovine respiratory disease on-farm,
and the value of Australia’s export markets.

While broad in scope, each session reinforced the need for strong national alignment, industry collaboration and clear communication of the strengths of Australian beef.

Cattle Connect also offered a great opportunity to reconnect with colleagues from state farming organisations across the country as well as our friends from Cattle Australia. Another highlight of course, was catching up with our former NTCA CEO Will Evans, now leading Cattle Australia, and former NTCA President David Connolly.

Cattle Connect 2025 affirmed the importance of keeping northern voices at the centre of national industry discussions. The insights gained, particularly around levy reform, sustainability metrics and the future workforce will contribute to NTCA’s advocacy and communications work as we head into 2026.