TO COME from nothing once is hard, but for outspoken beef industry figure John “JR” McDonald, the second time around wasn’t any easier.

Mr McDonald, who has been a long-time advocate of a beef-grading system in Australia, entered the industry nearly 60 years ago as a teenager at Casino, running trucks and buying cattle.

At 20, he moved to Sydney and began trading meat out of Homebush abattoir.

His operation expanded, until he branched into running a service kill at Casino abattoir, as well as boner rooms and chilled storage.

However, after deciding the service kill was less than efficient, Mr McDonald stepped up to purchase his own meatworks and by the time he was in his 30s, he owned facilities at Dubbo and Wodonga, as well as the storage and boner rooms in Sydney.

His company, JR Meats, also maintained its own export and marketing facilities, making it a powerful player in the beef industry at the time.

However, Mr McDonald’s business was dealt a near-fatal blow in the late 1970s, as the State Government stepped in to assist financially troubled council-run abattoirs.

New subsidies offered to local government meatworks eventually squeezed JR Meats and several other private companies out of business, although for Mr McDonald at least this was a temporary setback.

He began his “comeback” on a smaller scale in 1981 and until several years ago, his Bindaree Beef owned three abattoirs – at Inverell, Orange and Murgon, Queensland.

Bindaree’s abattoir at Inverell remains, but the Murgon plant was sold and the Orange one closed and scrapped.

Full coverage and analysis of the Armidale forum in The Land, March 4.