Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Agriculture - Beef Industry - Northern Pastoral Zone

Northern Pastoral Zone

Benchmarking Rural Industries' Practices and Productivity Performance and Review of Industries' Capacity to Change

Where is beef produced in the Northern Pastoral Zone?

The beef industry's Northern Pastoral Zone stretches from Cape York, around the gulf and into the Kimberley region. Beef cattle are grazed over 145.5 million hectares of land. There are very few feedlots in this region. 36% of the pasture in this region are sown or introduced, and 64% of the pasture is native or naturalised. The following maps represent the distribution of cattle and feedlots within this region.

Map of region

How much beef does the Northern Pastoral Zone produce?

In 1999, the statistics on beef production in this region were:

What land and water resources are used in Australian beef production?

The Northern Pastoral Zone experiences a tropical and subtropical climate with a reliable monsoonal rainfall effect. The climate is described as hot humid and hot dry summers with arid, mostly summer rainfall

Enterprises in this region are substantial in size, mainly constituting pastoral cattle enterprises. Some localised areas support a limited range of grain crops. Enterprises in this region average approximately 114,626 hectares in size and produce beef for mainly foreign markets.

Beef cattle typically graze native pastures in this region.

What are the key characteristics of beef producers and farms in the Northern Pastoral Zone and how do they compare with industry averages??

Key characteristics of beef producers and farms in this region include:

Region
Key characteristic		 Industry average Region Average
Age of owner/manager 58 years 51 years
Owner/manager education and skill:
- Completed university/tertiary or trade		 30% 8%
- Completed 5-6 years high school 22% 54%
- Completed 1-4 years high school 34% 28%
- Primary or no schooling 15% 10%
Family members working on farm 71 hr/wk 95 hr/wk
Owner manager work on farm 45 hr/wk 53 hr/wk
Number of dependent children 0.6 1.0
Farm cash income ($) 43,954 132,784
Total farm debt - June 30 ($) 120,487 326,932
Farm business profit ($) - 9 033 32,975
Total off farm income ($) 29,858 10,441
Owner work off farm 6 hr/wk 2 hr/wk
Area operated - June 30 11,688 ha 114,626 ha
Farm ownership/ tenure:
- Freehold		 12% 4%
- Long term crown lease 85% 92%
Employment of non-family labour 9 hr/wk 42 hr/wk
Landcare membership 33% 76%
Length of group involvement 6 years 8 years

Producers in this zone work longer hours than the industry average, have a higher cash income and larger farm debt than the industry average, positive business profit, and have a higher than industry average landcare group membership levels. This combination of attributes suggest that the industry in this region has a capacity to implement change, but financial and tenure considerations will need to be taken into account due to high debt levels and sometimes insecure leasehold tenure arrangements for land.

What environmental challenges face the beef industry in the Northern Pastoral Zone?

The proportion of beef farms with significant degradation problems is shown in the chart below. Weeds have been identified as the most significant of the nine ABARE (2000) surveyed degradation forms. In addition, other environmental challenges that stem from the integration of production systems into landscape systems exist. Native population grazing pressures (eg kangaroos), combined with pest populations such as rabbits, woody weeds and foxes, affect the production capacity of the pastoral systems to maintain adequate feed sources. In response, landholders in south west Queensland have prepared a set of best practice guidelines on Total Grazing Pressure (TGP) that includes both production and landscape function related management responses.

Graph of proportion of farms with significant degradation problems (1998-99)

What is the beef industry doing to meet these environmental challenges in the Northern Pastoral Zone and across Australia?

The regional adoption and applicability of various management practices being implemented by the beef industry are illustrated in the chart below. The numbers represent industry averages.

Chart of management practice adoption and applicability (1998-99)
Codes of Practice in the Northern Pastoral Zone.

The beef grazing industry does not currently have a specific code of practice, however, some guidance is provided to farmers through codes of practice for general agriculture such as that developed by the Queensland Farmer's Federation or through the PROGRAZE program.

The PROGRAZE program, jointly developed by NSW Agriculture, the Meat Research Corporation and the International Wool Secretariat, commenced in NSW in April 1994. PROGRAZE uses a series of organised courses run by state department officers and other accredited deliverers such as agricultural consultants. The courses concentrate on setting and achieving livestock and pasture production targets using skills in assessing livestock and the quality, quantity and stability of plant species within the grazing system

Research and development being undertaken/planned in the Northern Pastoral Zone.

The Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for the Cattle and Beef Industry (meat quality) is a joint venture between the University of New England, CSIRO, NSW Agriculture and the Qld Department of Primary Industries. The CRC officially commenced operations in 1993 and has funding of $60 million over seven years. The Commonwealth Government and industry sponsors provide funding for the CRC operations.

The principle objectives of the CRC are:

The CRC receives sponsorship from over 40 commercial firms from the beef production, processing and service centres. These firms provide cash or in-kind resources to facilitate research and education activities. Producers in this region participate in this program.

In addition, the CRC for the Sustainable Development of Tropical Savannas conducts research pasture and production system in the area bordered by Townsville, across the gulf and top end and over to the Kimberley. Research from this CRC investiges how the landscape works and various savanna ecosystems function. This research assists in the development of sustainable production systems in this region.

How is the Australian beef industry working with other agricultural industries to overcome some of the challenges faced by this region

Beef produced in the northern pastoral zone typically does not form part of mixed farming systems and/or mixed farming regions. In all districts across the zone, beef is the dominant industry. Climatic and soil quality constraints limit other land uses. In localised areas, some grain production occurs as a supplementary feed source.

Many of the pastoral properties have leasehold tenure, and many in the area are subject to native title claim or under consideration for environmental purposes. Cooperatives approaches are evolving in the zone to resolve these environmental, cultural and production issues.

Historic natural resource management issues that have potential to impact on regional environmental values and beef production include:

The resolution of these issues requires ongoing research and development. The beef industry in the zone has involved itself in the planning processes presently proceeding on natural resource management issues such as:

An analysis of adoption rates for management practices surveyed indicate that a variable rate of adoption of recommended practices has occurred. Additional research and extension is needed to reverse degradation levels and to develop management practices that complement the fragile landscape processes of the expansive areas of the northern pastoral zone.

How do these factors affect the future prospects of the industry?

The beef industry in the zone is geographically remote. Production levels are generally trending up over time with the live cattle export market increasingly being serviced by cattle from this zone. The once depleted supporting infrastructure of the zone is progressively improving with additions to port facilities and road networks.

The general extensive nature of grazing systems within the zone results in natural resource management issues such as woody weed infestation, total grazing pressure, dryland salinity and streambank degradation difficult to manage. Additional insecurities such as native title determinations and tenure arrangements impact on the industry's capacity in this zone to implement changes in NRM management practice.

Technology and research will need continual development if salinity, woody weeds and erosion are to be checked. The variability in the number of producers implementing improved management practices suggests a capacity for the region's beef producers to progressively implement some change, however as landscape processes become better understood, ongoing programs to maintain change behaviour will need to occur.

Further information

Link to Map maker to make a map using this information.

Link to data available for download on "A spatially consistent sub-set of agricultural statistics (AgStats) data 1982/93 to 1996/97"

"Benchmarking environmental challenges and agricultural practice - an overview" report

Link to related web sites:

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