Rain may have sparked a resurgence of feed for central Queensland graziers, but tackling the issue of pasture dieback remains a top priority.
What is thought to be mealybug induced pasture dieback continues to wreak havoc across various regions, soil types and pastures, with many producers saying the only consistency is inconsistency.
Barry and Claire Hoare, Narawong, Moura, run a backgrounding operation across almost 2000 hectares, carrying an average of 1200 steers through to feeder weight.
Purchasing the property almost 12 months ago, Mr Hoare said it ticked all of their boxes, except for the problem of pasture dieback.
"I looked at properties from nearly as far north as Charters Towers, west to Barcaldine and Blackall, south to Taroom and pretty much everywhere in between," Mr Hoare said.
"I came across dieback in a lot of those areas, and it certainly had an impact on our decision making. It got me very nervous about buying properties."
Mr Hoare said it was clear that the mealybugs had been moving around the property, but there was no rhyme or reason to their movement.
"There are areas that have repaired itself in the time we've been here that were clearly dead or dying when we took over," he said.
"As far as the directional thing and where it moves, you're clutching at straws. There's no particular species of grass it hits."
Mr Hoare said during the recent dry conditions it had been harder to identify the areas that were impacted by mealybugs, but the 350mm of rain that they recorded over the past few months has caused a re-emergence.
"Those areas that had some sort of seed bed prior to the drought, they seemed to come back okay," he said.
"If it has been impacted quite badly over a period of seasons and there's limited to no seedbed there to come back from, that's when you really run into trouble I think.
"The grass came away quite well in February and March, and I thought maybe the little buggers had gone home and shut up shop.
"Towards the middle and end of March is when we could see them becoming active.
"Even today, you can see where they're active."
Mr Hoare said the mealybug induced pasture dieback had reduced the carrying capacity at Narawong by at least 10 to 15 per cent.
"And those numbers that we're running, the 1150 to 1250, you'd probably be able to take them through to a heavier weight if we had the extra grass."
In the dark
John Howard, Mountain View, Biloela, whose carrying capacity has dropped by 30 per cent due to pasture dieback, says the recent commitment of funding for research and development is a step in the right direction.
"It has taken a long time for departments to get their act together," he said.
"I'm just hoping they go full steam ahead and try and find out whether it is the mealybug or not with the money that's been allocated and then we can move on.
"At the moment we're flying in the dark. We have not had it confirmed scientifically that it is definitely a mealybug, so we're still flying in the dark really."
Pasture dieback has been periodically observed over the past 30 years, however, in 2017 red meat producers across parts of central Queensland reported widespread dieback of both sown and native pastures.
It has since been observed across southern and northern Queensland. Most recently, pasture dieback has been confirmed on the north coast of NSW.
MLA managing director Jason Strong, MLA board director Russell Lethbridge and MLA general manager of research, development and adoption, Michael Crowley, were on the ground in central Queensland recently to meet with impacted producers and AgForce representatives on the issue.
Mr Howard said the meeting signaled a more collaborative approach from industry, government and the private sector - something that hadn't been happening previously.
