Feedlot shutdown would cause $10.3 billion loss

feedlots-5If feedlots were to shut down in 2018 the size of the Australian economy would retract by a massive $10.3 billion and 49,000 FTE employees by 2029.

This is one of the key findings from the Deloitte’s Regional Feedlot Investment Study released earlier this week at BeefEx 2018.

The report highlights that the feedlot industry is a crucial part of Australia’s beef supply chain.

Feedlots play an important role in rural and regional economies, as a key buyer of cattle, feedstuff, good and services and as employers of staff.

From a supply perspective, feedlots enable a year-round supply of consistent high-quality beef that satisfies domestic, international and customer specifications.

Through their operations, feedlots also support greater efficiency in the pastoral and processing sectors both up and downstream.

Other key findings include:

  • In 2017, 2.9 million cattle were turned off from Australian feedlots, 20% above that of a decade ago and almost triple the number in the late 1990s.
  • The total (direct and indirect) economic contribution of the national feedlot industry to gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 was $4.4 billion, and approximately 31,000 full time equivalent employees.
  • Average feedlot utilisation in 2017 was 81%, with a national quarterly average of 1.03 million head of cattle on feed.

Commissioned by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) at the request of the Australian Lot Feeder’s Association, the independent economic analysis undertaken Deloitte Access Economics shows that the value of the feedlot sector goes well beyond the sector itself, increasing productivity in other parts of the beef supply chain and with impacts that flow through the regions in which feedlots operate.

-ALFA