Latest producer survey shows growing optimism in Australian beef industry
16 January 2025
Key points:
- Survey results indicate that optimism continues to grow among Australian beef producers, with an increase of 36% since the previous survey
- There is a similar positive outlook among Southern and Northern producers, with the largest year-on-year improvements in sentiment coming from NSW and Queensland
- Survey indicates producers expect to increase their herd size in 2025.
Optimism and confidence continue to grow for Australian beef producers, with overall sentiment lifting significantly since 12 months ago, according to the latest Beef Producer Intentions Survey (BPIS) from Meat & Livestock Australia.
The survey is run three times a year by MLA 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 spoke to over 3400 grassfed beef cattle producers and covers producer sentiment and intentions, herd profile, breed demographics, sales channels, and expected sales for 2025.
“Producer sentiment has lifted across all states compared to last year,” Manager for Market Information at MLA, Stephen Bignell, said. “For example, positive sentiment in Queensland has lifted to 59 points and New South Wales sentiment has also lifted to 51 points.
“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.”
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% indicating they would increase their herd size
- 16% indicating it would remain unchanged; and
- 39% 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.
The Beef Producer Intentions Survey was designed by MLA to support the industry with reliable data and is used by MLA and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It is one of the inputs into the MLA beef industry forecasting models.
