00:02Russell specialises in beef production and livestock welfare across North Australia.
00:08The animal welfare issues are not going away,
00:12but we need to mitigate the risk at every step of the way in the supply chain.
00:17He says a lot of producers lose money on their cattle without even realising it.
00:23And that's just to do with infrastructure, animal handling improvement,
00:27preparation round will be for transport in particular.
00:31It can be gained anywhere between $20 to $50 a head.
00:39Practising what he preaches, Russell recently installed a large and expensive piece of infrastructure in his yards,
00:45an experimental loading ramp.
00:49It's the brainchild of his uncle, John Lethbridge, a retired truck driver.
00:54To create this massive steel structure,
00:57John combined ideas from the best loading ramps he'd seen across the country.
01:02The idea to make a change came mainly from watching what went wrong
01:06and how that affected the cattle and truckers.
01:09The stress and the hardship and the danger to both animals and truckies.
01:15And after witnessing that, on my bucket list when I was retired, I said,
01:22don't ask me why, but I just had this urge.
01:25I said, I'm going to research this, which took me five years.
01:28And I said, I'm going to try and get all the good ideas I've ever seen in my career.
01:34And plus add a few of my own and try and give to the industry the best ramp that I
01:42possibly can.
01:42Try and set the bar.
01:44John was impressed by David Carter's wide loading ramps at the Blackall Sail Yards in central Queensland,
01:50which allow cattle to walk side by side on and off trucks.
01:55This cattle haven't been on a truck since they were offloaded as wieners.
01:59They've never seen this ramp before.
02:02And I've been assured that they're not trained professionals.
02:06Even with us standing here, look how easily they are walking up.
02:09takiego cliche, I don't mean one.
02:10They they're the big boys and on months.
02:15They weren't in.
02:15Like you said, I'm going literally tick off fall in the air.
02:17Speaking of the bus yere say responders, they're the be
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