January 26, 2011

Australian state's beef firms slowly recover from flood damage

Most beef companies across Australia's Queensland are struggling to pick up their businesses because floods have interrupted cattle processing, said the state Member for Gregory, Vaughan Johnson.

Roads across Queensland have been badly damaged which has caused delays in transporting supplies and livestock.

Mr Johnson says a priority has to be to move the cattle to processing plants.

"In the meantime we have people who don't have work in those industries in question and that's why it's paramount that we get these cattle out and no load restrictions on heavy road transport to allow these operators to get a cash flow but also to keep jobs operating in those processing plants in question," stated Johnson.

"There are thousands of finished cattle in that area as there is in the west of the state. I think there's finished cattle all over the state at the moment because of the season we've enjoyed but the important fact is now that these graziers need to be able to get those cattle to processing plants for cash flow," Johnson added.