By Georgia Eather
Edited for online by Alicia Moo

Queensland is experiencing an over population of cattle causing several cattle to be killed or transferred to southern Australia in an effort to save them.

The beef industry is suffering at the moment with dry conditions and a ban on live exports causing Queensland to kill or ship their animals to better pastures.

At least 300,000 heads of cattle are at risk because of a price crash and a subsequent oversupply to the market.

Cattle industry lobbying organisation AgForce president Ian Burnett says Queensland’s drought is not helping the cattle industry and the only option is to transfer the cattle.

“While they are still strong enough to transport the decision has to be made to move them,” he said.

“There has been some areas that have had quite good rainfall so to move them onto better fodder to save them while they are still in a strong enough condition.”

Mr Burnett says the ban on live exports to Indonesia and Egypt while saving the animals has harmed the industry.

“Even though the Indonesian market was reopened the numbers have certainly been reduced. The situation in Egpyt, which is another valuable market has been closed off,” he said.

The rising production costs and the high Australian dollar are also factors causing the producers and industry to struggle.

“To put a hold on some of the production costs has really put pressure on those producers, it really had huge impacts on all exports,” he said.

Mr Burnett says these higher costs to the farmers will most likely be passed on to the consumer.

“As far as in the supermarket, we haven’t seen too much change as yet. But as the price drops the change in price at butchers should flow through,” he said.

A Beef Crisis Summit which will be held in Richmond tomorrow to address the issue.

Mr Burnett says AgForce will be attending the summit.

“We are going to be meeting tomorrow in Richmond to listen to the concerns of the producers there and to put forward what viable options and actions we see may help the situation,” he said.

To find out more visit AgForce