Northern Beef Infrastructure Review (NBIR)

Summary

​The aim of the Northern Beef Infrastructure Audit is to determine constraints and opportunities and from them identify projects that will encourage and support the development of the beef industry in the northern beef region. The Audit has been conducted in four phases:

• Infrastructure audit and stakeholder consultation
• Modelling of cattle flows across the supply chain and industry growth scenarios
• Analysing the impact of infrastructure improvements on the supply chain
• Develop Northern Beef Infrastructure Plan

The project identified that typically, there are two main routes to market for cattle from the northern beef region. The first is cattle destined for the live export trade and the second main route to market is to an abattoir for slaughter. A number of cattle also travel between farming properties. There are marked differences between the supply chains for cattle from the Pilbara and Kimberley regions with cattle from the Kimberley region tending to follow a more direct route to their end destinations while cattle from the Pilbara region tend to follow a supply chain that involves more intermediate destinations and a greater number of these cattle travel to the south west of Western Australia.