Agriculture and Cattle in Australia

Agriculture and cattle in Australia is faces almost the same problems with other countries of the world when it comes to cattle development and maintenance. Although Australia has one of the best prairies in the world and the climate is also ideal to cattle grazing and agriculture, sometimes havoc can be caused due to the disturbances of the El Nino currents, which causes drought and makes most of the continent run dry. Australia is also one of the oldest and driest continent of the world, which further raises the question of having a good agricultural season and have good cattle grazing opportunities. Despite such infrequent weather conditions prevailing in the country, Australia is the proud owner of the biggest cattle farms that lie mostly in central and northern Australia.

There used to be a time when the economy was completely dependent on the agriculture and cattle rearing in Australia. In fact, the country's economy has been strengthened by the immense rural exports that it once used to deal in. Even today, rural exports contribute largely in the total export of Australia and has an immense share in developing the Australian economy. In fact, agriculture has provided for a large chunk of Australia's total income from exports. Cattle rearing and grazing takes place in all parts of Australia, but there lies a marked difference in the intensive cattle-grazing of southern Australia and the mob-grazing that is generally seen in northern Australia. Even the climate and surroundings of both these parts of the country are responsible for the difference in the method of cattle rearing in these 2 regions.

In northern Australia, the most common breeds of cattle found are Bos-Indicus while the Bos-Taurus breed is a common feature in the Australian south. There is a marked lack of European breeds of cattle in the Australian continent. Sheep rearing in Australia is a common feature of the southern part of the country because the wild overgrowth of speargrass in the Australian outland to the north, hinders sheep-grazing in the area. The cattle-grazing business in Australia is highly commercialized because it contributes largely to the Australian economy and hence, needs to be well-maintained. This is exactly the reason why, big commercial houses have lately taken up the initiative of running cattle farms in Australia because, the business involves huge capital investment. Cattle-grazing in Australia is highly dependent on the wet season and adequate rainfall. Beside the private cattle-rearing organizations, there are many non-profit organizations which take interest in developing the cattle industry of Australia. Some of these are; the Cattle Council of Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia, the Mountain Cattlemen's Association of Victoria and others.

The Department of Agriculture and Food in Australia is responsible for looking after the Australian agricultural and food sector, so as to give impetus to the all agricultural and cattle related exports of the country. This is a newly created department which is actually responsible for assisting the State agricultural department.