AGM DATES REVISED
The NAA’s AGM has been reset and scheduled for April 27. Please check your email for details. Agenda and documentation to follow.
23/01/2024 GRADING SYSTEM FOR APPENDIX REGISTRY ADOPTED BY MEMBERS
Following a member consultation period and discussion at the General Meeting of the NAA a proposal for a grading system for registering cattle into the newly formed Appendix Registry was adopted by the members of the NAA. As soon as the grading committee is formed we can begin accepting registration requests for animals that don’t currently meet the criteria for registration under the current Main Registry. The proposal calls for a final step to appoint an independent grading committee with a minimum of four members. Members of the grading committee must be experienced cattle graders/judges with some knowledge or experience of the breed preferred. Current members of the NAA are not eligible for the grading committee. NAA members are invited to submit names of potential members of the grading committee for consideration by the management committee. Please submit names within three weeks of the publication of the minutes of the GM.
08/08/2023 NAA MERCHANDISE NOW AVAILABLE
We have NAA caps available in three colour options. Cost is $22 (incl. GST) per hat plus P&P. Please send your orders to info@nadudana.com.au.
30/6/2023 RESULTS FROM MEMBERS SURVEY ON NADUDANA BREED STANDARDS
The results from the members survey on the revisions to the breed standard are now available. The committee appreciates the excellent response received from members with the summary of the results available below representing responses from 12 members which is a significant majority of current members and thus we feel represents a consensus view.
The majority of traits in the standards received strong support from members but there were a number of traits that clearly need further consideration. The NAA management committee has reviewed this feedback and will propose further modification to a few of the traits with the goal of putting a revised breed standard to the membership for discussion and adoption. The NAA management committee will be in touch again shortly on the next steps.
14/05/2023 PROPOSED REVISION TO NADUDANA BREED STANDARDS
The results of our last membership survey indicated that members supported minor revision to the breed standards. The breed standards represent the ideal Nadudana and presents a guide to breeders for their own breeding programmes. It is important to finalise any changes to the breed standards before agreeing a grading system for entry of cattle into the Appendix Registry, which will be based on adherence to these standards. A membership survey will be conducted online over the next two weeks to get feedback from members on the proposed revisions to the standards and to identify the relative importance of each trait of the standards (this importance ranking will be useful in weighting the traits when developing the grading system). The attached file below shows the current wording of the breed standard, the proposed revision (if any) and the rationale for the change. The overall objective of these revisions is not so much to change the direction of breed development but to clarify and improve the wording of the trait descriptions within the standard. The results of the survey will be summarised and shared with members and contribute to an updated version of the revised standards incorporating member’s feedback wherever possible.
13/3/2023 RESULTS FROM MEMBERSHIP SURVEY ARE IN
The NAA ran a survey over a period of two weeks to gain members’ perspectives on a range of issues to help inform upcoming developments including the development of a grading system and the development of new members survey. Highlights of the survey which was completed by 12 members, include:
- The main reasons for members to own Nadudana are that they want to breed them, they like their look and temperament and they are well suited to their farm properties.
- The majority of members (64%) prefer Nadudana with horns in tact
- The majority of members (58%) would like to see minor changes in the breed standard including changes to the traits of Size, Faults, Horns, Temperament, Dewlap, Hump and Colour as priorities
- Priorities for development of new services for members were a quarterly newsletter, a web page for cattle sales, expert webinars and a Q&A page
You can download a detailed report of the results of the survey below:
19/2/2023 NAA MEMBERSHIP APPROVE AN EXPANDED REGISTRY.
The NAA is proud to announce that its members have endorsed a new Registration system including a Main Registry (for Nadudana with certified lineage as currently applies) and an Appendix Registry for Nadudana without any documented breeding history (i.e. Appearance Certified or Certified on Merit), Nadudana with only partial documented breeding history and crossbred Nadudana. The full details of this Registry System is provided below. For the Appendix Registry to become operational it is now necessary to develop and approve a grading system and the Committee will shortly be creating a sub-committee to develop a proposal for a grading system. Members may send comments or suggestions on the development of such a grading system to registrar@nadudana.com.au.
5/2/2023 – PROGRESS UPDATE ON THE RELAUNCHING OF THE ASSOCATION
On the occassion of the first AGM of the reformed NAA, the President, on behelf of the you committee presented an update on the progress and status of the NAA:
When the decision was taken to re form Nadudana Cattle Queensland (NCQ) as a national association to better reflect the national ownership of Nadudana cattle, a process was put in train that has taken some time to implement. Whilst it has taken longer than anticipated we feel that NAA is now in a very strong position to move forward as a national association to support the development of this breed that we are all so interested in and passionate about.
The following lists some of the activities that the committee has undertaken in the last 2½ years:
- Resolved issues of unconstitutional trading of NCQ
- Registered name change with QLD Fair Trading
- Development and discussion of NAA’s mission and vision
- Registration of new domain name for NAA and establishment of dedicated emails
- Development of a new website for NAA at www.nadudana.com.au
- Drafting of new content for NAA website
- Creation of new logo and application forms
- Creation of new registration forms and digital registration certificate
- Created a stud certification systems for breeders willing to sign a code of conduct
- Review of all old NCQ registration information
- Opening (since July 2022) a registration system based on the old NCQ model
- Creation of a dedicated NAA Facebook Group for member interaction
- Conducted a national census for the breed, now reported to RBTA
- Purchase a Zoom account to enable on line meetings
We have achieved this with a small core group and with a minimal call on our meagre funds, which meant that we had no real option to call on external service providers (for example to develop the website). We are proud of these achievements and we feel that, following the launch last year, the Association is gathering pace and moving in the right direction and we are now well ahead of the position held by NCQ, both in terms of membership and financial standing. At the time of writing we have 16 members, and four registered studs and we thank our members who have been active in recruitment. We now feel that this level of membership represents a critical mass which makes the Association viable financially and also means that we can expand NAA activities in a worthwhile way. We are now in a position where NAA can go from strength to strength. Whilst membership has grown significantly the number of new cattle registrations, since the system reopened in mid 2022, has been disappointing. However, we are aware of members preparing their registration applications, which can take time and we are expecting to start receiving more registration applications in the near future, and this is likely to accelerate greatly when the new registry system is implemented. Moving forward the priority for the Committee is to complete the expansion of the registry system through the adoption of the proposed restructure of the national herd book to include an Appendix Registry and then to build a grading system to govern the entry of Nadudana cattle into the Appendix Registry. This is the critical step that will drive the expansion of the national herd and we have been actively seeking member input to the system and will appoint an ad hoc sub-committee to lead the task. With the number of members now having attained a critical mass we can also start offering further services to our members and are currently planning a quarterly newsletter, the finalisation of a welcome pack for new members, the inclusion of a web pages for Nadudana sales and another for member to share their Nadudana experiences on the website and the initiation of a webinar series where experts will be invited to address members on key issues of interest. We are also open to other new ideas from members and are happy to engage members wishing to make contributions.
3/02/2023 – IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THE UPCOMING AGM – FEB 4, 2023
Agenda Item 2: Adoption of minutes from the general meeting held 14th December 2022. These can be downloaded below:
Agenda Item 6: Registar’s Report: Under the Registrar’s Report there will be a submission of the updated proposal for the expanded Registry which will be proposed for Adoption by members. The updated proposal can be downloaded below:
Agenda 7: Committee Position Nominations:
Three positions are up for election at this AGM, the Committee Positions for President, Secretary and Treasurer. Nominations were invited but only one valid nomination was received by the identified date as follows:
PRESIDENT: Katherine Alcock
Valid nominations have been received in writing for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer but these were received after the deadline. Thus these two positions remain open for further nominations which can be provided at the meeting itself.
22/01/2023 – ANNOUNCEMENT RE UPCOMING AGM – FEB 4, 2023
Start time: 1730 hrs NT– Please confirm the time zone for the state you reside in
Provisional Agenda
1: Approval of the Agenda
2: Adoption if the minutes of general meeting held 14th December 2022
3: President’s report
4: Treasurer’s report
5: Secretary report
6: Registrar’s report and discussion / adoption of registry proposal and grading system
7: Open Committee positions- elections
8: A.O.B (Any Other Business)
Please note that all members were asked to submit and topics for AGM by 23.01.2023, topics received at time of posting are as follows;
*Approval of unregistered cattle and steps involved
*Quality control measures and breeding advice
*More meetings and more communication to members
*Different certificates or different classifications on certificates
(1, 2 and 4 of these are relevant to the discussion in agenda item 6 and should be raised there)
While all attempts will be made to discuss the topics raised under AoB, time may not permit. Those that are not dealt with can be noted and deferred to the next GM. Members are welcome to submit their comments and the unaddressed topics to info@nadudana.com.au.
A friendly reminder to keep all interventions concise and to the point and to observe rules of respect and courtesy.
Please use the “raise hand” option which appears on the zoom meeting screen.
If anyone is unclear on the functions and utility of Zoom, the host is happy to give a brief rundown when the meeting starts.
Documents relating to the AGM along with nominations for positions received will be circulated a week before the meeting.
Thank you look forward to seeing you all there.
Kind regards
Katherine Alcock, NAA President
18/11/2022 – RESULTS OF CRUDE NATIONAL NADUDANA BREED CENSUS
Based on the call that went out to members and owners of Nadudana the current census for the national population of Nadudana conservatively estimates the total number of reported Nadudana at 127 being made up of 44 bulls, 53 cows and 30 heifers. Of this number, 58 (17 bulls, 24 cows and 17 heifers) are reported as being either registered or regiterable under the current NAA registration system, which is based on breed pedigrees and DNA parentage assignment. Under the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia (RBTA) criteria the breed will remain under category of CRITICALLY ENDANGERED (i.e. less than 150 breeding females and less than 25 registrations per annum). NAA reopened for registrations back in July and for the year to date only two new Nadudana have been registered under the current system. These numbers are considered to be conservative as head numbers were not obtained for a small number of known breeders, however, it is extremely unlikely that any further reporting would elevate numbers anywhere close to 150 breeding females.
24/9/2022 – MEMBERS CONSULTATION ON PLAN FOR EXPANDED REGISTRY
One of the committments of NAA at its relaunch was to work to expand the registry system for Australian Nadudana so that we can capture the large number of unregistered cattle out there. This is not a simple exercise, there are many models for livestock registries and we needed one that could be well adapted to the current situation of the breed, that respected the old system and the recognised the committment that some breeders had made to fully register their cattle and yet allowed new members and unregistred cattle to contribute to the national herd. The system has to be manageable and yet needs to be detailed enough to be able to cover all circumstances including fully registered animals, animals with only partially documented breeding histories, animals that are thought to be Nadudana and look like Nadudana but have no documented breeding history and also crossbreds and backcrosses, and also map clear pathways for upgrading programmes. We hope the proposed system meets all of these needs but it is therefore necessarily qyute detailed. We are now seeking input from NAA members and those interested in the future of the breed. The proposal can be downloaded below for review. Feedback can be provided at the NAA Facebook Group. Please download the proposal here. Please note that the Registry system will depend upon the adoption of a grading system for Nadudana cattle. This proposal references a grading system but the grading system will be developed when we have agreement on the Registry system.
04/09/2022 – CALL FOR INPUT ON NATIONAL NADUDANA BREED CENSUS
Through this message we are reaching out to all Nadudana owners nationwide. We have been asked by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia (RBTA) if we can provide them information on the status of the Breed in Australia (currently listed as critical). Due to the hiatus in the association we do not have reliable current data, the breed registry is very much out of date and there are no recent registrations. The NAA is trying to build up a Registry of currenty owned Nadudana and this will take some time and be too late for the purposes of RBTA. Thus we are requesting all owners of Nadudana to let us know the status of your current herd. We will conduct this census through the NAA Facebook Group and there is a message there on which you can provide a response with information on the number of animals in your herd according by sex according to registration status (I-Registered, II-Registerable under the current system, III-other). The NAA Facebook Group (under the name Nadudana Association Australia) is set up to focus on breed issues and to debate issues related to NAA and is currently for now set up as a private group requiring invitation to join. All Nadudana owners are welcome to join and you can request to join by responding to this message or by sending an email to info@nadudana.com.au. If you don’t want to join the NAA FB group or are not a FB user you can send the information about your herd directly to the above email address. Please share this request with anyone you know who owns Nadudana. It will certainly be interesting to get a snapshot of the status of the national herd through this process. Many thanks.
17/8/2022 – ASSOCIATION RELAUNCH
As President of the newly nationally formed Nadudana Association Australia (NAA), which takes up the mantle fro the previous Nadudana Cattle Queensland, I am delighted, along with the Committee, to proudly launch NAA. As stated on the website homepage, NAA has the mission to promote this wonderful endangered rare breed with a focus on networking amongs oners and all with a genuine interest to join NAA and a desire to engage in a collective effort to secure the future of the breed for all to enjoy. The website and the functions of the NAA have been developed or redeveloped by our Committee and some processes remain work in progress and will be shaped by the membership. Our first priority is to build up a core membership.
In this regard we will also create a Facebook Group “Nadudana Association Australia” which will in the first instance be a private group and focus specifically on discussion of issues related to moving the Association forward. It has taken us much longer than anticipated to resolve issues with the registration of the Association and to build the website and associated systems. With the new direction of NAA we are very conscious that a good association with a robust but flexible registry supported by a good collegiality among members is fundamental to securing the future of any rare breed.
We look forward to welcoming new members with a friendly and constructive dialogue.
Like cows, “we all work together better in a herd”