Better Business Management and Succession Planning in North Queensland Extensive Family Beef Businesses

Abstract

At first glance the extensively operated North Queensland (NQ) beef industry appears a simple agricultural production system involving the grazing of adapted cattle on predominantly native pastures grown under reasonably reliable monsoonal conditions. Production is carried
out with scale, and on the surface looks to involve relatively few inputs, minimal management activities and low capital requirements, in essence, a low-cost system. In reality, the NQ beef cattle production system is affected by a multitude of variables, each having a bearing on productivity, profitability and return on investment. Property values are influenced by producers’ land trading, seeking scale advantages, or pursuing ‘fair’ succession. Additionally, superannuation funds and private investors with long investment horizons look to ‘park’ funds in the perceived stability of the northern beef industry. The result island prices well exceeding production values.
Under these conditions, hundreds of families run large operations in often isolated circumstances and unforgiving conditions. They have built their businesses through hard work and calculated risk taking. Predominantly husband and wife businesses, they run big herds across extensive rangelands, mostly with the assistance of their families and some contract labour. They have generally undertaken some property development where viable to do so, mostly involving strategic fencing and stock watering systems, providing better herd management and utilisation of the native grass base, with some areas improved using introduced pasture species.