There are approximately 8700 registered agricultural chemicals and hormones used in food production in Australia as well as many more unregistered chemicals.

“Organically/naturally produced food is
not a luxury it is how food is meant to be produced”.

Conventional farming practices using pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides and fungicides have the potential to weaken crops and livestock natural immunities in the long-term especially when applied in untested combinations.  The use of such chemicals and hormones can also lead to residues in meat.  The effects of these residues is largely unknown although for some of the chemicals used in food production in the past such as organo-chlorines have now been proven unsafe and severely detrimental to good health.

Meat Standards Australia (MSA) is the world's leading eating quality grading system that identifies beef and sheepmeat eating quality and recommended cooking methods according to consumer tastes.  Elliott Premium livestock are managed in accordance with the MSA requirements which include:

• Continually grazed or fed rations to a level that is adequate for growth for a minimum period of one month prior to dispatch;
• Handled and mustered quietly to reduce stress;
• Free access to water until dispatch;
• Free access to feed until dispatch, other than a minimum period required for preparation through cattle yards;
• Nil consignment of any livestock of poor temperament or with signs of severe stress;
• Nil consignment of any sick livestock or cattle within a withholding period for any treatment;
• No mixing livestock from different mobs or pens on the property within two weeks of consignment;
• Nil consignment of livestock purchased or moved from another property/saleyard within one month of arrival;
• All livestock loaded quietly, preferably with no use of goads and electric prodders;
• All livestock loaded at the recommended densities set out in the trucking industry code of practice.

NLIS is Australia's system for livestock identification and traceability. It is a permanent whole-of-life system that allows individual animals to be identified electronically and tracked from property of birth to slaughter, for food safety, product integrity and market access purposes.  Benefits of NLIS include:

• National traceability performance standards for determining where animals resided at any stage in their lives, and the current location of all cattle they have come into contact with
• Reduce the financial and social impact of a livestock disease epidemic or chemical residue incident
• Maintain access to international markets
• Maintain consumer confidence in the safety and quality of Australian beef and dairy products
• Identify individual animals with NLIS devices
• Check market access of  cattle on your property (lifetime traceability, European Union etc)
• Integrate NLIS data, such as carcase feedback, with on-farm management systems, to improve management practices or breeding programs
• Check transaction for your property
• Flag animals that have gone missing
• Reconcile cattle on your property with devices registered to your property on the database