The North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCO) is a large, privately owned, Australian cattle company which operates 14 cattle stations (as well as the Wainui farm and feedlot) covering over 60,000 km2, managing around 200,000 cattle, throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory. It produces beef cattle which are pasture raised and grain finished before sale to Australian meat processors, who onsell beef to domestic and international customers.
Introduction The North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCO) is an Australian cattle company, founded in 1877. It was originally established in the Barkly Tableland in the Northern Territory before expanding to Queensland as the company developed.Michael Pearson, “Exploring in the 1860s and 1870s,” in Pastoral Australia: Fortunes, Failures and Hard Yakka: A Historical Overview 1788-1967 ed Jane Lennon, (Collingwood: CSIRO publishing, 2010) 103-106. It is one of Australia's oldest cattle companies and is today, a leading national beef producer in the Australian cattle industry.Michael Cranston, “Leading Cattle Company The North Australian Pastoral” The North Queensland Register, 13 September 2012, 5. The company has a variety of stations throughout the Northern Territory and Queensland. Northern Territory stations include those such as Alexandria and Mittiebah, whilst Queensland stations encompass those such as Boomarra, Kynuna and Portland Downs.Cranston, The North Australian Pastoral, 6. The company is most well known for its development of the Alexandria and Kynuna cattle composites which are species of cattle that are distinct to NAPCO and separate it from others in the pastoral industry.Cranston, The North Australian Pastoral, 7.
Overview of the North Australian Pastoral Company Founded in 1877 the North Australian Pastoral Company is one of Australia's leading agricultural enterprises as well as being one of its oldest and largest.Amy Phillips, “NAPCO for sale; The North Australian Pastoral Company, One of the Largest Cattle Producers and Landholders in Northern Australia, is for Sale” ABC Regional News NSW, 13 May 2013, 3. NAPCO’S rangelands span 6.1 million hectares across both Queensland and the Northern Territory where a variety of stations have been established.Lewis Kahn and David John Cottle, “Beef Composition of the Northern Beef Herd” In Beef Cattle Production and Trade (CSIRO publishing, 2014) 180. The company is currently in possession of cattle heads amounting to some 190,000 cows spread throughout each station from Queensland to the Northern Territory.David Bentley, Rodger Hegarty and Andrew Alford, “Managing Livestock Enterprises in Australia’s Extensive Rangelands for Greenhouse Gas and Environmental Outcomes: A Pastoral Company Perspective,” Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 2, no. 48, (January 2008) 60–64. There are currently twelve stations located in Queensland, and only two located in the Northern Territory.Bentley, Managing Livestock, 62. However, whilst Queensland contains more stations in comparison to the Northern Territory, its capacity of cattle is far less.Bentley, Managing Livestock, 63. For example, the Goldsborough station in Queensland only holds a capacity of 4,000 cattle, whereas the Northern Territory station of Mittiebah holds an approximate capacity of 80,000 cows.Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization for the Australian Agricultural Council, Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, (Cornell University Publishers, 1979) 261.
The company's standing in the Australian agricultural industry is attributed to its advanced composite breeding programs, from which it has developed two of its own registered cattle species known as the Alexandria composite and Kynuna composite.Bentley, Managing Livestock, 64-65. The company has also engaged in an Environmental Management System (EMS)Siobhan Denniss, A Critique of Environmental Management Systems and their Relevance in the North Australian Pastoral Industry (Melbourne: MTEM Publishers, 2002) 28. which is a policy implementation that aims to reduce carbon emissions by engaging in environmentally sound beef production.Denniss, Environmental Management Systems, 29. By introducing an Environmental Management Strategy, the company is in step with the work of fellow pastoralists operating in the Northern Rangeland industry who have also implemented a particular model of EMS to specifically target the impact they have on the environment.Marjorie A Gerrard and Patrick O’Leary, “Union-Avoidance Strategies in the Meat Industry in Australia and the United States” In Frontiers of Labor: Comparative Histories of the United States and Australia, ed. Greg Patmore, (Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2018), 129.
History The NAPCO partnership was formed in 1877 by Queenslanders William Collins, William Forrest and Sir Thomas McIlwraith, with Englishmen John Warner and Sir William Ingram. The first station acquired was Alexandria Downs in the Northern Territory.
Francis Foster invested in NAPCO in 1937 taking an 18% interest, which grew through his lifetime to 43%. His descendants eventually acquired a majority 51% stake in the company.
Monkira and Coorabulka were acquired in 1939 as part of their plan to breed cattle at Alexandria and then fatten and sell from the Channel Country.
In 1968 the company acquired Glenormiston along with the adjoining property, Marion Downs, at about the same time.
In 1990, the Australian Financial Review reported that the company controlled over of pastoral leases in the Northern Territory and Queensland, as well as four grazing properties in Tasmania.
In May 2016, Queensland Investment Corporation acquired a 79% interest in NAPCO with the Foster family owning the remaining 21%.
In 2016 NAPCO was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.
In January 2020 NAPCO announced it was purchasing Mantuan Downs, a large-scale cattle breeding and finishing property in Central Queensland. The property consists of two pastoral leases, known as Mantuan Downs and Castlevale as well as the freehold Semper Idem.
Properties As at 2017, the company operated the following stations:
Alexandria Station, Northern Territory Boomarra Station, Queensland Coolullah Station, Queensland Coorabulka Station, Queensland Cungelella Station, Queensland Glenormiston Station, Queensland Goldsborough Station, Queensland Kynuna Station (includes Dagworth Station), Queensland Landsborough Station, Queensland Marion Downs Station, Queensland Mittiebah Station, Northern Territory Monkira Station, Queensland Portland Downs Station, Queensland Wainui Feedlot and Farm, Queensland
Other properties that the company has owned include:
Gordon Downs, Queensland
Livestock feedlots in Australia Feedlots play an integral role in the Australian livestock industry and are strongly influenced by the environment they are in. Only 25% of Australia (including its feedlots) have a growing season of more than 5 months.David Buckley, The Cattle Parasite Atlas; A Regional Guide to Cattle Parasite Control in Australia (CSIRO publishing, 2005) 32. This is due to the Australian climate being incapable of sustaining crops and pastures over a sustained period of time.Buckley, The Cattle Parasite Atlas, 34. Characteristically, cattle and grain supplies are located in close proximity to feedlots,Buckley, The Cattle Parasite Atlas, 39-41. and the 2012 Australian Lot feeders Association Industry survey indicated that feedlot capacity is typically divided into particular sectors.Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand, “Prediction of Food Intake” In Feeding Standards for Australian Livestock; Ruminants (CSIRO Publishing, 1990) 261.
Whilst the southern states account for 51% of total feedlot capacity in Australia, NSW only possesses 45% of total feedlots.Agriculture and Resource Management Council, Prediction of Food Intake, 262. The effect of this feedlot distribution is that the southern states produce 1 266 710 heads of cows whilst NSW only owns 788 625 heads of cattle. These figures demonstrate how environmental and infrastructural conditions must be accounted for throughout Australian pastoral systems, thereby indicating how these influences have had an effect on the Southern and Northern rangeland industry. Further, in the Southern rangelands where there is a growing season of less than 5 months, sheep stations have been implemented to complement the farming of cattle. In comparison, the Northern beef zone takes up 116 million hectares of Australia's total land mass, which equates to 24.3% of the total land mass available; this figure is markedly different form the 265 million hectares consumed by the Southern rangelands (sheep and beef) which amounts to 55.3% of total land mass.Meat and Livestock Australia, “Composite Breeds in the Northern Rangelands” In Beef Cattle Nutrition; An Introduction to the Essentials, (Meat and Livestock Australia, 2006) 76. The Northern rangelands are operated by multiple companies which occupy more than one station.Cranston, The North Australia Pastoral, 6.
Species of cattle utilised NAPCO began developing composite cow breeds in 1982 when they created the Alexandria composite by breeding Braham Bulls and Shorthorn cow herds.Peter Dundon, "Feedlots" In The Australian Feedlot Directory, (Elders Press Ltd, 1994) 12; Quevedo Martin Morgan, “The Beef Cattle Industry” In Australia's Livestock and Meat Industry, (Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1971) 2. The Alexandria composite is a species of cow that is specific to the NAPCO. The composite was developed at NAPCO's Alexandria station in the Northern Territory. The Alexandria station possess a land mass of 1,641,416 hectares which are home to some 80,000 of the company's cattle. It exhibits features such as a stronger carcass yield, reduced fat cover, improved temperament and environmental adaptation, as well as improved fertility.Steve Millard, “Experiences with Composites: North Australia Pastoral Company (NAPCO)” Armidale Feeder Steer School; Conference Proceedings and Support Material no.1 (August 2003): 131–133. The Barkalay Tableland in Australia's Northern Rangeland industry is home to 3,000 Alexandria composites.Millard, Experiences with Composites, 131. In 1995 NAPCO also developed the Kynuna composite which is a product of the remaining Shorthorn Herd that were bread with Braham Bulls to produce the Alexandria composite.Millard, Experiences with Composites, 144. The Boomarra station in Queensland is the breeding headquarters for the company's Kynuna composite. It is currently in possession of 10,000 individual cows which NAPCO distributes amongst its other properties. The development of the Kynuna composite also utilised Tuli and Red Angus cows, breeding them with Shorthorn species. The composites are closely monitored according to three particular traits; reproductive rates, pasture and feedlot growth. The company also partakes in a carcass assessment which draws upon data extracted from analysing feedlot trials and the specie's overall climate durability. Female Kynunas are culled if they fall out of sync with regular times for calving, and therefore are without calves for an extended period of time.Raymond M. Moore, “Proceedings” In Australian Grasslands, (Australian National University Press, 1970) 22. Bulls are also closely monitored, with particular attention given to testicle size, physical structure, feet composition and growth which is based on a predominantly grass based diet.
Species utilised in the Southern Rangelands