AUSTRALIA'S beef herd is heading north. The dominance of Queensland as Australia's major beef state continues to grow.
Projections provided by Meat and Livestock Australia indicate the Queensland cattle herd could rise by nearly a million head this year to more than 13 million.
Some of this growth, according to MLA economist Tim McRae, would be due to the relocation eastwards of drought-affected Northern Territory cattle, while the rest would be due to Queensland's plentiful season.
For research and marketing purposes, MLA, using Australian Bureau of Statistics survey data, divides the cattle herd into the north and the south.
The north includes the Queensland, Northern Territory and West Australian herds, while the south includes the temperate states of NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
According to its industry projections released last week, the "northern" herd was expected to climb to 17 million head, while the "southern" herd, which includes most of the nation's 2.5 million-head dairy herd, was expected to fall slightly to 11.5 million.
Victoria, which saw its herd fall last year by 8 per cent or 400,000 head to 3.9 million, was being hit the hardest because of the on-going drought.
Mr McRae said Victoria's herd was now at a 15-year low.
Mr McRae said ABS estimated there were 13.6 million cows and heifers older than 12 months nationally in June last year.
These cows and heifers represented 49 per cent of the national herd.
Mr McRae said this average was considerably up on the 44.9 average for the last 25 years and reflected a trend to herd rebuilding
He said when female numbers last exceeded 13.6 million head in the late 1970s, the national cattle herd was more than 30 million.
