The 30th Stock & Land Beef Week is planned to proceed in its usual on-farm format from January 27 to February 3, 2021.
Stud Beef Victoria’s Beef Week committee decided Australia’s largest on-property beef cattle field days would go ahead subject to any restrictions applied by government authorities.
The areas covered by Beef Week, Victoria and the Riverina, have extremely low Covid-19 infection rates, and If the suppression strategy goes to plan, Beef Week can be conducted safely according to Beef Week director Geoff Phillips.
“Demand for bulls has never been better with many Spring sales topping the $10,000 average with some potential bull buyers unable to fill orders. This should be reflected in continued strong demand in the autumn bull selling season which is Beef Week’s immediate focus”, he said.
A recent survey of Beef Week participants strongly supported a Beef Week event in 2021 as a low cost high value promotional tool.
“It is however prudent to have a contingency plan in case the unpredictable Covid-19 situation creates an environment that makes it impossible to conduct Beef Week in the traditional format,” said Mr Phillips.
If a traditional Beef Week (with property visitations) is not possible, a virtual Beef Week will occur on the same dates 2021
- The Beef Week book will still be published as a stud directory and distributed as usual as a loose insert in Stock & Land in mid-January.
- The usual strong advertising/promotional campaign will promote the availability of the book in an easily readable flick page format through the Beef Week and Stud Beef Victoria websites as well as the websites of Stock & Land and its sister publications.
- Beef Week participants will be able to submit a video of up to 60 seconds containing vision and/or audio promoting studs and the availability of sale bulls at upcoming bull sales or by private treaty. The videos will be searchable on the websites mentioned in the dot point above. A call for these videos will be made once the Beef Week format is decided.
Mr Phillips said there were many reasons to be confident that Beef Week 2021 will go ahead in the traditional format. If this is not possible, a virtual Beef Week will provide valuable marketing opportunities.
Entries are now open through beefweek.com.au and close on October 15.