Updated – Rainfall for the seven days to 7 Feb 2025.

A MONSOON trough has delivered significant rainfall across cattle producing regions of central and northern Queensland, including the parched Central West where increasingly dire hot and dry conditions had forced substantial cattle turnoffs during January.

Totals have been patchy within districts but many properties from the Gulf to Central Queensland have received falls in the vicinity of 100mm, or four inches in the old scale.

More is expected with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing warnings for continued heavy rainfall into the weekend.

Flooding and road closures in Townsville and Mackay has led to the closure of northern meatworks, with operations of plants in Central Queensland also likely to be impacted early next week.

Next week’s Blackall sale, which had been the first planned for 2025, has been cancelled.

Delivery of heavy steers for a livesock ship which was due to load in Townsville for Vietnam this week has been pushed back by three weeks.

Elders Rural Services State Livestock Manager, Qld/NT, Scott Mawn, said the Macrossan Bridge between Charters Towers and Townsville had reopened earlier this week but following last night’s rain water was lapping the bridge again when he spoke to Beef Central earlier today.

Mr Mawn said totals reported across the Elders network this morning included falls of 100mm plus at Winton, Longreach, Aramac, Muttaburra and Blackall.

“It really filled in particular that gap in Central Queensland that had missed out,” Mr Mawn said.

“Probably the thing to remember is it is only early February, we have another couple of months where you can still get that monsoonal influence.”

Grant Daniel Long Blackall branch manager Jack Burgess described the rain as “great” and “certainly needed” in the Central West.

While there had been mixed results, with some properties receiving as much as 220mm and some 40mm, even at the lower end of the scale the rain was highly beneficial.

“Everyone needed a few inches badly, and thank goodness,” he said.

“It was dry and hot for a long period of time without rain, the surface water and feed quality was pretty ordinary and cattle were going backwards.”

Mr Burgess said the amount of cattle sold out of the region in January was the most he had seen during the month in his 16 years at Blackall.

Dry conditions locally combined with better conditions further east and a strong opening market had prompted many producers to take advantage of the opportunity to sell and destock.

Generally speaking though cow numbers in the region were still quite good.

“No one really sold breeders, but if it went on another month we would have been into that situation,” he said.

He expected the flow of cattle to ease back and for things to stand still for a while now that widespread rain had been received.