Queensland's Department of Primary Industries director-general Graeme Bolton said stock losses could be as high as 20 per cent. "We're looking at losses of cattle about 270,000 … 176,000 for sheep and about 41,000 for goats."
Mr Bolton stressed the current disaster was unprecedented in both scale and severity, with flood levels exceeding 1974 records in many areas. "Some producers may be forced out of farming."
The long term impact is likely to be farms merging into bigger properties and certain farms being abandoned.