Australian atelier replaces workshops with home leather kits
Simétrie, a Melbourne-based atelier whose leather-making workshops were paused due to coronavirus, is selling leather kits to allow consumers to make leather accessories from home.
Kits for coin purses, mobile phone pouches and a tote bag are said to be suitable for beginners with no prior leather experience or for experienced consumers who can use more complicated flourishes.
Consumers receive an online video demonstration and pre-cut vegetable tanned kangaroo leather pieces with pre-made stitching holes, as well as coordinating linen thread, two needles and a zipper.
MLA’s cattle and sheep market reporting returns
After being suspended since March 25 because of covid-19 disruptors to market reporting, Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) full suite of market reporting including all cattle and sheep indicators will return Wednesday, 3 June 2020.
The organisation said Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI), National Trade Lamb Indicator (NTLI) and the indicator charts, tools and values across the MLA webpages will be available this week. The EYCI Daily Summary report, Eastern States Daily Indicator (ESDI) report and Comprehensive Indicator report will also resume.
Full versions of prime and store cattle and sheep saleyard reports will be available. These provide muscle score, fat score, estimated carcase weight, estimated dressing percentage and skin values.
The return of the indicators comes after MLA’s Livestock Market Officers (LMOs) resumed physical market reporting at all saleyards covered by the indicators.
“Ensuring the health and safety of LMOs and the wider community has and continues to be our priority, and so we have taken a staged approach to LMOs returning to saleyards,” said MLA chief marketing & insights manager Lisa Sharp.
“Saleyards have put in place really stringent and detailed processes over the last few months to manage sales and social distancing. These processes, combined with changes to government requirements, have enabled LMOs to now return to saleyards.
During the disruptions to market reporting, MLA developed alternative CV-19 cattle and sheep indicators to keep stakeholders informed, with LMOs working remotely to collect information.
This information was then fed into the CV-19 indicators, which provide a weighted seven-day rolling average live weight price, across several categories.
Ms Sharp said MLA will continue to publish the CV-19 indicators on the Prices & Markets webpage but will regularly review this in line with the broader operating environment.
MLA is exploring ways to close the missing data series of livestock indicators caused by the disruptions from March to June.
“The CV-19 indicators have provided a very comparable assessment during a challenging, unprecedented time. Any replacement data MLA can generate will undergo a comprehensive and rigorous assessment using historical data before being publicly released and MLA will advise when and if this data is available,” Ms Sharp said.
She thanked the stock agents and auctioneers, saleyard operators and their staff, saleyard software service providers and the livestock buying community for helping to ensure reporting continued despite the circumstances.
