The results show overall sentiment has lifted significantly from 12 months ago.
The survey is run three times a year by Meat Livestock Australia, with the latest survey just released and reporting on data collected between October and December 2024.
Positive industry sentiment has lifted to 47 percent for this survey, compared to 11 percent from 12 months earlier and 34 percent from April 2024.
The survey includes responses from more than 3400 grassfed beef cattle producers and covers producer sentiment and intentions, herd profile, breed demographics, sales channels, and expected sales for 2025.
MLA manager for market information Stephen Bignell highlighted that positive sentiment in Queensland has lifted to 59 points and by 51 in NSW.
“Strong sentiment between states reflects the better conditions and prices contributing to the improved outlook, leading to improved producer sentiment and intentions over the next 12 months,” he said.
At the producer level, there is an overall intention to increase the on-farm grassfed adult beef cattle herd in the next 12 months with:
• 45 per cent indicating they would increase their herd size;
• 16 per cent indicating it would remain unchanged; and
• 39 per cent indicating they would decrease their herd size.
“This represents another lift in intentions from the last BPIS survey in April 2024 and from 12 months earlier,” Mr Bignell said.
“While the results do not indicate producers have all shifted to a rebuild focus, there has been a noticeable shift away from herd reductions.”
When asked about their reasons for the expected increase in herd, producers cited restocking/rebuilding (36%), expanding operations (30%), expectations of good seasonal conditions (26%) and expectations of strong market conditions (18%) as their reasons.
When asked about their intended methods to increase their herd, producers cited the retention of more heifers than normal (53%), the purchase of more steers (19%) and purchase of more breeding heifers (13%) as their top three approaches.
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