Rural News
La Niña’s link to livestock’s fortunes

La Niña’s link to livestock’s fortunes
The national beef cattle herd and sheep flock is expected to increase for the third straight year as it recovers from the drought conditions of early 2020.
After reaching record lows in 2019–20, in 2022–23, the national beef herd is expected to reach 24.2 million head and the national sheep flock is forecast to reach 71.1 million head.
Consecutive La Niña events and above average rainfall between June and August 2022 in key production regions saw increased pasture growth across eastern, western and southern Australia, driving the positive outlook for livestock production in 2022–23.
However, climatic conditions have not been favourable for all agricultural regions. Between May and July 2022 rainfall was extremely high across much of the Australian east coast and caused a second round of localised flooding.
In the worst affected areas this resulted in a lack of field access, inundation of pastures and livestock losses for producers. A relatively poor finish to the 2021–22 northern wet season also resulted in lower-than-normal pasture availability across large areas of northern Australia.
During August, average to above average soil moisture levels, adequate rainfall and mild temperatures provided a boost to pasture production across most grazing regions in eastern, western and southern Australia.
This has likely enabled farmers to continue flock and herd rebuilding and provided opportunities to lower reliance on supplementary feeding to maintain current herds and flocks.
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