Home Slaughter Laws

[MarkEinOz]

Isn't it funny though, that no matter how hard we (and the general public) try, that we assign a unconscious label to the "size" of the farms.

We have a property in Western Victoria, near Horsham. It is a 30 acre irrigation (well when we had water......) property, primarily 50% stone and pip fruit orchard and the balance in mixed animal pasture. Now if we had been able to really focus on the orchard (which is about buggered and we have to grub out most of the trees now due to drought) and had standard tatura trellis set-ups, then 20 acres can yield anywhere upto 180 tons of apples for instance.

Now that isnt really micro is it!

This is where we have it all wrong, and mobs like the french (despite being french) have HIGH VALUE accorded to their small farms which on average are specialised integrated systems giving multiple crops onthe same ground. We need to follow this model before all the arable land near cities is sold out to developers.

AP as 1 of an array of farming practices, can help make the small holder highly relevant in this emerging future, and in turn can provide the "cream" on top of what standard crops that can be generated off smaller acerages.

It is the way off the future, IF big business or more relevant, big government dont ruin it for all of us!

Wow! - rant over.....

[GaryD]

Hi Mark,

I agree completely,

If your 30 acres was given over to glasshouse tomatoes it would be a huge farm. Similarly, that area would host a very large piggery or poultry operation. I was born onto a market garden of about half that size and that fed several families.

The French seem to appreciate that subsidising small dairy farmers avoids the need to pay them unemployment benefits. Giving them access to cheap finance enables those same farmers to purchase the equipment to add value to their milk and they become cheesemakers. Because they have whey (the byproduct of using milk for cheese), they need to keep a few pigs so then they have pork and bacon.

They can't have bacon and eggs without eggs, so a few chickens are needed......and, by this stage, they've got large quantities of poop building up around the place so they get a bit of BSF larvae action going. The pigs and chickens like the larvae and the larvicast is used to grow some potatoes and other good things.

Of course, they can't cook potatoes properly unless they have some goose fat.....so a gaggle of geese is a good thing to have. In addition to providing good meat and excellent cooking fat, geese will bite strangers (and sticky-fingered children) and will happily eat grass.

A small-bore shotgun will help you to add pigeon and the occasional game bird to your larder......and a lurcher (a small whippet crossbreed) will put rabbits and hares on your menu. A net and a handline or two will provide fish to have with those potatoes that you're cooking in the goose fat.

Your surplus organic meat, eggs, bacon, pork, poultry can be bartered for bread and other necessities.....like cider, wine and beer.

If you have access to food like this......for yourself and to share with others.....then you don't need a lot of money to achieve happiness.

.......and not an aquaponics system in sight. (Jes' jokin').

Gary

[Finn]

As I understand it, for me to claim "Hobby Farm" status on my taxes I have to have a gross income from farming (aquaponics is actually listed) of $7500. The amount of land that is used does not matter.

I also don't have to upgrade my trout license from "Pond" to "Commercial" until I take in $7500 in a year. That includes proceeds from selling fruit, veggies and any animals, not just trout. I can sell $7499 worth of lettuce and $2 worth of trout and still have to upgrade my trout license. If I don't sell any trout then I don't have to upgrade, but I don't get to use the feed and cost of fry etc. as deductions.

Finn

[djs-sa]

Hi Gary, Hamish and I have been busy clearing non food producing trees, box thorns etc etc general cleaning up of the previous farmers waste. The aquaponics is kicking along ok as we have put little effort in and the fish tank is running with about 1/3 capacity of water, We have about 100 craybobs we caught and no fish as yet.
Hamish has been busy creating the food forest which is coming along very well. We have pulled up the old bore and the new one will be going down this weekend, (170m deep). We have got the site mapped out as to where the greenhouse will be going and it will be made from mostly the old galv. bore pipes
With the size of land we would be classed as hobby or lifestyle farm I spose, As hamish technically owns about 8acres but the area that is fenced as his is at least 12-15acres

Dale

[Dufflight]

I got some mexican fern trees comming. They grow fast and still drop there leaves so great for mulch. And a moringa tree.

[kenc45]

Reading through these posts, I notice that no-one put an answer really - to whether you can home butcher animals.
Although I'm no lawyer and can't keep up with changes in laws from day to day, when I bought my property in 2004 and decided to head toward self sufficiency, I checked to make sure that it was OK and not just a pipe dream.
At that time, I was told that it is OK if it is for your own consumption and that of guests - so long as they are not paying guests (eg. you can't run a bed and breakfast and feed them on your home grown lamb). You can have your mates over and put on a bbq. You also cannot use it in the production of other food for sale
There is a book that I am buying called Home Butchery in Australia by Alec McVicar. I have seen it mentioned on government websites from WA, Vic and NSW - I mention this because government depts generally don't advertise books teaching how to do things you're not allowed to do. I'm hoping it might mention the laws (at time of writing at least).

[GaryD]

Hi Ken,

The situation you've described is similar to my understanding. The point of my initial post on the matter was to suggest that, if you're doing it for your own consumption, it's really no-one else's business. I've found that when local government bureaucrats are pressed for answers on things, they often adopt a narrow perspective......and there's very little that a council inspector can't get involved in.......when responding to complaints from neighbours.

The book you mentioned sounds like it would be a good buy. Let's have a review once you've got your hands on it.

GaryD

[MarkEinOz]

Yeah that is all correct. You can butcher a beast/fowl on premises for your own/family/guest consumption, but the meat is NOT allowed to leave the property in any form.... legally speaking.

There is a federal legislation for this which I will try to locate so we are not all just you know what'ing into the breeze!

[MarkEinOz]

Here is a starter

http://kb.rspca.org.au/?View=entry&EntryID=227

RSPCA Australia is opposed to the sale at (street) markets and saleyards of individual farm animals destined for home slaughter because it cannot be guaranteed that such animals will be humanely and competently handled, transported and then killed. Such practices may occur, for example, during certain religious festivals where it is common to sacrifice an animal, e.g. a goat, sheep or cow.

Our policy on transport of food animals states that we support the humane slaughter of food animals as near as possible to the point of production. Our policy on humane killing states that an animal must be killed instantly or instantaneously rendered insensible to pain until death supervenes. In addition, the method of killing and the skill of the operator are essential aspects of the slaughtering process. For instance, the RSPCA considers shooting by firing a bullet into the brain to be the most consistent and reliable means of humanely killing an animal.

Home slaughter is not illegal in Australia but meat from animals killed 'at home' is not allowed to be sold in a commercial context, i.e. it is for home use only.

Home slaughter may also be carried out 'on farm' where individual animals may be slaughtered (usually by the farmer himself) for personal consumption. The concept of a mobile slaughtering unit arose from this need. A mobile slaughtering unit drives into the paddock, the animal is shot, the meat processed inside the unit and the carcass/cuts provided to the owner of the animal. However, mobile slaughtering units are unregulated industries and there are no set standards to which mobile butchers are expected to adhere.

This method of slaughter is not designed for large-scale meat processing (around 40 million cattle, calves, sheep, lambs are slaughtered in Australia each year). It would seem that regulation of the industry, licensing of mobile butchers, and the ability to comply to food safety standards are the initial steps which could eventually lead to these butchers being able to sell their meat commercially and subsequently operate on a larger scale.

Mobile slaughtering units with experienced operators offer a definite welfare advantage in terms of eliminating the stress of (long-distance) transport, the stress of mixing with unfamiliar animals and the stress of the slaughtering process itself.
Inexperienced persons slaughtering an animal, for example in the form of a religious sacrifice, would certainly nof fulfill our expectations for humane slaughter. The RSPCA strongly condemns such practices.

[anniefish]

RSPCA Australia is opposed to the sale at (street) markets and saleyards of individual farm animals destined for home slaughter because it cannot be guaranteed that such animals will be humanely and competently handled, transported and then killed.

Mmmmm....so when I see a truck load of pigs go past screaming their heads off they are being treated humanely, when I see truck loads of chooks with no protection from the wind blowing through their open pens, that's humane, when I see a cattle truck on the side of the road with the driver perched on top with a cattle prod trying to get beasts to stand up, that's humane. Sorry, not in my book.

I know animals have to be transported but please don't try and tell me it is done humanely. If the rspca was serious, slaughter houses would be closer to farms as they were in the old days, where every town had a butcher.

Sorry, enough soap box.

Anniefish