Australian Drought Stirs Tension Over Public Lands.

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Australian Drought Stirs Tension Over Public Lands.

Almost three-quarters of farmers surveyed by the Queensland agricultural lobby AgForce said this drought is having a heavier financial impact on Australia's northern cattle industry than the previous dry spell. Stock prices have crashed from around A$500 for a calf to A$200. In the outback town of Longreach, adult cattle recently traded for just A$20 a head, from an average A$674 a year ago.

On Colwell Station, southeast of the rural hub of Mount Isa, manager Luke McNevin was unable to get cattle into a park refuge and said he was having to destroy livestock, tipping the carcasses into a boneyard in the dusty paddocks on his 40,000-acre property.

"There's just too many cattle and we've had to put them down," Mr. McNevin, 35, said. "This Christmas is our last throw of the dice."
Australian Drought Stirs Tension Over Public Lands - WSJ.com
 
Range land is almost always land where the weather is too dicy for any other kind of agriculture. So anyone in the cattle business should be ready to adjust their herd early on in drought conditions. This is not just academic knowledge. Many of my family had ranches in Eastern Oregon, and this was a frequent topic of conversation when we were visiting.
 

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