{"id":671828,"date":"2026-05-15T04:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671828\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:12:20","slug":"calls-for-drought-declaration-as-southern-queensland-graziers-begin-to-destock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671828\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for drought declaration as southern Queensland graziers begin to destock"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cloud of dust billows around a cattle truck as it rattles onto a parched farm in south-west Queensland.<\/p>\n

Bill Plant has ordered the truck to take the last of his family’s weaners to sale, as part of a destocking program driven by dry conditions on their Meandarra property, about 380 kilometres west of Brisbane.<\/p>\n

His herd of about 1,000 cattle has been reduced to fewer than 400.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Plant family are navigating the driest start to a year they have seen since 2019. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n

“In the last three months, we’ve sold about 640 cattle, and of that, 70 per cent would be forced sales, cattle we weren’t planning to sell. But yeah, we’ve had to,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Plant said the strategy was to offload most of their stock to preserve feed for their breeding herd, with paddocks almost down to “bare dirt”.<\/p>\n

“When it gets to these dry conditions, what we are keeping are the best-performing cattle because they’ll cost us less to maintain in the drought,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Plant said he learned the approach during the record-breaking 2019 drought, along with digging deeper dams and preparing more silage, but there was only so much producers could do.<\/p>\n

With less than 50 millimetres of rain falling on the family’s property in the first four months of the year, traditionally the wet season, he said it felt like after six good years, the “tap has been turned off” again.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Plants are strategically destocking, so they have enough feed for their best breeders during the tough times ahead. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology does not have a rain gauge nearby the Plants’ property, but figures from across southern Queensland show some sites are experiencing their driest start to the year on record.<\/p>\n

Leyburn, about 60 kilometres south of Toowoomba, typically records an average of 314 millimetres of rain between November and April, but has received just 89mm this season.<\/p>\n

Old Cashmere, north of St George, has recorded 131mm less than its mean over the same period, while Glengallan Creek, just north of Warwick, is down nearly 300mm.<\/p>\n

Mr Plant said he believed conditions warranted a drought declaration.<\/p>\n

“There are plenty of people within 100 kilometres of us in a similar situation, and down south, there are plenty of dry areas. It probably should be called,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Cattle<\/p>\n

The Plants have destocked more than half of their cattle due to dry conditions. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n

Such a declaration would unlock targeted support, including electricity rebates, water licence fee relief, and the possibility of emergency drought assistance loans.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s bad enough now that we could be declared because we haven’t got very much feed left, not very much grass, and our water supply is getting low as well,” Bill’s father, Malcom Plant, said.<\/p>\n

“The outlook for rain is very slim. That’s another big factor.”<\/p>\n

Queensland Minister for Primary Industries Tony Perrett said the government would monitor conditions and work with local drought committees throughout May, with the “possibility of declarations shortly after”.<\/p>\n

Livestock agent Harry Grant said there were “a lot of people” being forced to sell cattle.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Harry Grant says prices are still strong, despite graziers destocking. (ABC Southern Queensland: Dan McCray)<\/p>\n

The price for young cattle has fallen by about $300 a head from its peak in December last year and is now averaging around $1,240, according to Meat & Livestock Australia.<\/p>\n

Mr Grant said prices were relatively strong despite the drop.<\/p>\n

“There is definitely still value in cattle at the moment if you have the feed,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A lot of cattle are going into the western region, where they received significant rain earlier in the year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cloud of dust billows around a cattle truck as it rattles onto a parched farm in south-west…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,13331,291227,4358,324209,324207,59808,75,324208,324210,128],"class_list":["post-671828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cattle","tag-destocking","tag-drought","tag-drought-declaration","tag-dry-weather-forecast","tag-el-nino","tag-environment","tag-graziers-destock","tag-meat-livestock-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}