If livestock become stressed, contaminated or injured during assembly for transport, they may pose a food safety risk. Livestock not fit for transport may be an animal welfare concern, and would not meet the expectations of our customers.
How do producers meet this LPA requirement?
To guarantee that livestock are fit to transport and that they experience a minimum stress and contamination during assembly and transport, livestock producers are required to:
Livestock producers must also meet the specific requirements relating to the transportation for sale or slaughter of bobby calves.
Why do we need to ensure livestock are fit for transport?
If livestock become stressed, contaminated or injured during assembly for transport, they may pose a food safety risk. Livestock not fit for transport may be an animal welfare concern, and would not meet the expectations of our customers.
How do we ensure livestock are fit to transport?
Producers should meet the Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for the Land Transport of Livestock and decide whether an animal is fit to be loaded for transport and for the entire journey by road or rail, to any destination within Australia.
Producers can refer to Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) national guide, ‘Is the animal fit to load?’ guide, to meet these standards.
Producers must ensure they do everything they can to minimise livestock stress and contamination during assembly and transport. This includes:
To ensure that transportation is carried out in a safe and humane manner, it is important to keep detailed records.
Consolidate your knowledge on preparation for dispatch of livestock, by completing this LPA Learning module.
Watch this video to understand how to make sure livestock are fit to transport and experience a minimum of stress and contamination during assembly and transport.
As well as ensuring bobby calves are fit and strong enough for transport, producers must also meet specific requirements set out on the Bobby Calf LPA NVDs. This stipulates that bobby calves must be:
Keep records for a minimum of three years, in accordance with State legislation or for the duration of the livestock on the PIC, whichever is longer.
Current LPA NVDs, electronic NVDs (eNVDs) and eDECs are available through your LPA account.
Animals that may have been exposed to physical contaminants such as broken needles, buckshot or wire need to be identified and the information shared with the buyer.
For the maximum period of time that each species can be held off water during transport, see Table 3 on page 15 of the ‘Is the Animal Fit to Load’ Guide . This period includes mustering and any time off water in yards, as well as the journey itself.
Note: these are maximum limits. Some animals may need additional access to water depending on their status (e.g. pregnant or young), environmental conditions (e.g. hot weather), stock condition, stocking density and journey length.
The transporter must ensure that the loading of animals into livestock crates adheres to appropriate penning density recommendations in order to minimise welfare risks.
Loading densities are primarily determined according to body weight (see Table 4 on page 17 of the ‘Is the Animal Fit to Load’ guide) but should also consider the following: species and class, wool or hair length, weather conditions, expected transport time, size and body condition, horn status and design and capacity of the pen/crate.
