Australia’s beef industry is navigating a storm of disruptions in the wake of US trade tariffs, a shifting political landscape at home, and devastating floods in regional Queensland.
Western Australian cattle farmers say the situation offers potential for overdue regional adaptations towards a regenerative future and increased Aussie ‘food sovereignty.’
International tensions bring new markets and fresh risks
Just weeks after the United States hit Australian beef with a 10 per cent tariff, farmers in Queensland’s Channel Country were hit with what locals are calling a “once-in-a-century” flood.
While the US tariff, announced in early April, has been paused, according to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), grain-fed beef exports to China rose nearly 40 per cent in February and March compared to last year.
Brett Stuart, a global meat analyst speaking at the Australian Meat Industry Council’s Red Meat Processing & Export Conference, highlighted that a tariff marketed as protecting US producers has made Australian beef more attractive to other global markets.
One of those markets is China, now imposing retaliatory tariffs on US beef and opting to increase Australian imports, particularly for grain-fed cuts.
“Australia is now the lone supplier of high-quality white fat marbled beef into China,” says Stuart.
As demand for grain-fed beef gradually increases across Asia, Australia’s reputation for clean, traceable supply chains has secured the country as a reliable trading partner and producer of high-quality beef.
During last week’s Wagyu Edge conference in Perth, vice-president of economic analysis at the Unites States Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Erin Borror said US and Australian beef production cycles typically operate in tandem.
“We know that Australia in a way benefits the US, it’s helpful that we’re kind of complementary and that our cycles alternate,” Mrs Borror said.
Whilst US exodus from the China market has created a temporary opportunity for Australia, the USMEF position is that “we really need China to keep buying to kind of keep the whole market together.”
Queensland floods destroy herds, damage futures
The March floods in outback Queensland following weeks of intense rainfall, decimated over half a million square kilometres, claiming the lives of more than 100,000 livestock – predominantly cattle and sheep.
The Queensland Department of Agriculture has acknowledged that these losses could climb as assessments continue.
For some West Australian farmers with surplus cattle yet to be absorbed into the new market landscape, these repeated shocks are pushing them to question the assumptions underlying large-scale beef production.
Charles Otway, who runs a small regenerative cattle operation in Pemberton WA, believes the future lies in decentralisation and diversification.
“We’re not going to solve this by chasing export markets or rebuilding what we had,” he says.
“We need to ask: What kind of food system do we want to be part of?”
Otway processes meat on-farm and sells directly to consumers in his region whilst interplanting degraded paddocks with rapid growth tree rows in a process known as ‘Syntropic Agroforestry.’
He believes more farmers should be encouraged to do the same in order to safeguard against a rapidly changing future.
“I think every farmer should aim for 20 per cent tree cover for all forms of ecological and agricultural functions,” he says.
“All farmers should be moving into regenerative farming practices to avoid the diminishing returns of inflation, fertiliser effectiveness and soil carbon.
“The returns from conventional beef are shrinking and regenerative methods like syntropic agroforestry give you more options for cash crops, more shade for happier cows and a healthier climate, the resilience is built in.”
He encourages Australians to consider moving away from reliance on the global food security to establishing and connecting to their own hyper-local, sovereign food systems.
“If it [the economy] all goes to shit this will be the only answer, given its my context I’m just jumping into small-scale, local-production, zero-debt farming a bit before the rush” he says.
A system of dependance, or evolution?
For farmers in Queensland, the immediate priority is recovery, for Otway and others exploring regenerative routes, the moment offers something else: a chance to rethink.
“What would it look like if we designed a food system for health, of the land, of people, and of local economies?
“I think we’re ready.”
