Regional Impact of Feedlot Investment

Summary

This research was commissioned by the Meat Research Corporation and the Australian Lot Feeders Association in conjunction with the Australian Local Government Association. The goal of this study is to provide clear, sensible indications of the regional benefits or otherwise of a feedlot development. There has been considerable investment and growth in the feedlot industry, particularly since 1988, in iural and regional Australia with associated greater demands for physical inputs (cattle, feedstuffs, plant and equipment, energy, etc.) and services (transport, repairs and maintenance, professional, etc). The demand for these goods and services and the employment generated by the feedlots and the associated industries, create significant economic and social impacts in the regions concerned.

This study identifies, in a consistent and methodically sound way, the magnitude and distribution of the impacts associated with a feedlot development in a region. The research involved case study examinations of established feedlot operations in Eastern Australia. The co-operating establishments requested strict confidentiality as regards their operations, which excludes the use of actual case examples. The study is therefore based on a representative feedlot modelled to represent the characteristics and influence of a typical feedlot development located and sited in a typical locality and region in Eastern Australia, and is able to represent the demands and interactions of a typical feedlot. The representative feedlot, which caters for the export market, has a capacity of 25,000 head with an annual average utilisation rate of 90 per cent. Half the capacity is used for cattle fed 150 day programs (150 DOF), half divided evenly between 100 and 300 DOF programs. As part of the sensitivity analysis, a less detailed impact assessment was undertaken for a 10,000 head feedlot. For this study, the local economy is defined as the area within a 50 kilometre radius of the feedlot and the regional economy as the area within a 100 kilometre radius.