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An 'absolutely magnificent' season prompts restocking at Boree Downs near Longreach. - ABC

After record-breaking winter rainfall, parts of drought ravaged Queensland are starting to see sheep and cattle return.

For the past four years, the drought has forced graziers across the state to lighten numbers or completely destock.

While the recent rain has not been drought breaking, it has grown some feed which graziers are keen to take advantage of, after years of empty paddocks.

But while some areas have been lucky enough to restock, other parts of the state continue to battle the daily struggles that come with prolonged drought.

The lucky one's — graziers with grass

Since the start of this year Cindy Taylor from Boree Downs south of Longreach has received her average annual rainfall, half of which fell in winter.

Because of the rain and warm temperatures, the pasture response has been 'absolutely magnificent' at Boree Downs.

"I haven't seen winter herbage since about 1989," she said.

It has prompted her to start restocking, purchasing 650 wethers from Goodooga in New South Wales.

She said the widespread and prolonged drought made it difficult to source sheep.

"Queensland has been in drought for so long there is no sheep really to be purchased within Queensland," she said.

"There is a few mobs that people have bought up here [that are] close handy.

"But I think if you are looking to buy sheep that suit you then you may have to go a fair way."

The wethers Ms Taylor purchased were $89.50 per head, a cost she said was worth outlaying.

"I have done the figures on it, certainly you need to be careful with your losses, you need to look carefully at what you are buying and do the numbers," she said.

"I am not having to borrow money on that, so that is always a big cost, borrowing money."

Ms Taylor said she has never had to pay that much for wethers before.

"We mostly breed our own, it is a self-replacing flock and I mostly sell wethers," she said.

Selling off sheep during the drought is what has allowed Ms Taylor to restock without borrowing money.

"I sold 2,400 wethers out of here last year but you know those fellows are the money on the hoof for drought feeding and keeping things going to keep your ewes going, so that was the whole idea," she said.

Boree Downs no longer drought declared

To help with the cost of restocking Ms Taylor revoked her property's drought status, allowing her to take advantage of the Queensland Government's Drought Relief Assistance Scheme.

Depending on the freight type and class of livestock, up to 75 per cent of the freight costs will be subsidised by the State Government if a property revokes its drought declaration.

Ms Taylor said the subsidy was a big help.

"The Longreach area [began being drought declared in September 2013, with the whole area] declared on January 1, 2014," she said.

"People who have bought stock back, [and] if they are bringing back a big number from a long distance, will normally revoke their drought status to get the subsidy on the transport costs," she said.

When a producer revokes their drought status they must prove there is enough pasture and water to last a minimum of 12 months at normal or near-normal stocking rate.

This is because once the status is revoked, the property will not be eligible to be drought declared for 12 months following the revocation.

Ms Taylor said even though that is the case she is confident that on a individual basis, that the drought is over at her place.

"You are talking about a fair bit of money involved, I think it is a big decision though," she said.

"But I look at it, that we are certainly out of drought here and you are looking towards your summer season coming up.

"By the law of averages we should get a good summer season and we certainly won't be back in drought.

"Certainly there are people that will be still looking for their grass to grow but it is certainly over for me — my grass is well and truly alive 70 to 80 per cent of it, so I think the drought is over for me."

Restocking but drought not over

But given the rain has still been patchy and producers had varying levels of groundcover before the rain, not everyone can say the drought is over.

That is the case at grazier Dominic Burden from Macsland station, north west of Longreach.

Even though he recently purchased 2,500 merino ewes, he said the drought was not over as he relies on summer rainfall.

"This is grassland country that relies on summer rain and grasses don't grown in the cooler months so we don't generate bulk feed out here for sheep or cattle without summer rain," he said.

"The drought is not over unfortunately — we have got water in dams and we have a little bit of short term feed but it will be March or April … before we can make any decisions about the extent to which the drought has been relieved."

But Mr Burden said he was keen to take advantage of the short term that had grown, after being fully destocked for more than 12 months.

"We got our first good rain two months ago, so we've got quite a bit of herbage which we sort of want to take advantage," he said.

"Potentially we could probably carry more [stock] but … purchasing any more sheep is going to be entirely subject to what the summer season or summer rainfall looks like.

"So that's it for the moment in terms of sheep until we get through the wet season.

"I guess it is an early move with a modest number of sheep is probably how I am thinking of it at this stage."

Dominic said the purchase took his numbers back to half of what he normally would run.

"It is excellent really, when there is hundreds of sheep with their heads down in green feed it certainly raises the spirits," he said,

"It's great to have your business back up and running even to a small extent."

Cattle also return to the west

But it is not just sheep returning to the west but also cattle.

After completely destocking their western Queensland property three years ago, the Driver family from the Northern Territory have recently sent their first load of cattle over to the station which is between Hughenden and Winton.

Amber Driver said it was a relief to have the station up and running again.

"We have just sent our first lot of cattle over this year, after a long time having it closed, three years due to the well publicised drought through there," she said.

"So we are really happy to see some good rains over that patch of dirt and be able to re-open it and get some cattle across there."

Restocking not an option as drought continues

However, not everyone has received rain allowing them to restock.

In fact in the south west of the state, supplement feeding continues to be a regular routine at Cliffdale station near Wyandra, between Charleville and Cunnamulla.

Peter Lucas and his family have been pushing mulga [a tree that livestock eat] to feed to their stock for four years.

"We are still feeding all our animals, we are still in drought...we have had very little rain, no grass cover at all," he said.

"We are feeding plenty of mulga and supplement licks to our sheep and cattle."

Every second day at Cliffdale station is spent with either Mr Lucas or his son in the dozer pushing mulga over for their livestock to eat.

"Yeah you get a bit worn out I suppose, but if you can look at your animals and see that they are doing quite alright on it, you don't mind," said Mr Lucas.

"Any one that lives in this country knows that they are going to go through periods where they have to feed animals.

"This one is definitely more prolonged than anything we have had before, but just ride it out.

"We know that it will rain and if your stock are in good order you feel buoyed about that and it is not too hard to jump on a dozer and continue when you are looking at your animals doing alright."

Mr Lucas said the prolonged drought forced him to destock down to 10 per cent of his property's carrying capacity.

Now he has just 210 cows and 1,000 ewes left.

"In the last four years, we have had under half our average rainfall per year," he said.

"We are in a 400 millimetre rainfall area and we have only been getting 150 millimetres, 160 millimetres was the highest yearly total we have had in the last four years.

"So we started destocking, reducing our numbers four years ago.

"And all we have been doing since is just trying to keep our core breeders and just keep them alive and hopefully when it does rain we can breed our way back in."

Mr Lucas believed he was better off holding onto his core breeders rather than selling, as he was worried about what it would cost to restock.

"As everyone can see now with the price of cattle and even sheep at the moment, when there is a general rain all over Australia the prices will just be unbelievable," he said.

"It will worry a lot of people whether they can ever get back in to buying breeders because the cost will just be too large."

Worst drought Lucas family has ever experienced

Mr Lucas said this drought has been the longest and most devastating drought he has ever experienced.

"We have never seen a dry time like this, this is the worst I have ever seen," he said.

"Basically in the last 15 years we have only had two years that have been above average rainfall and the rest have been dry periods.

"I have dams there that have gone dry that have never been dry before.

"We have acres of timber that has died in drought...there is 200-year-old trees that have died and it is just through the prolonged drought."

Mr Lucas said the prolonged drought was also impacting his mulga which was the only thing allowing him to hold onto his livestock.

"We are running out [of mulga] actually and we need some good wet years to get some germination going and some good young mulga regrowing," he said.

"This period has been such a long running one, that's why we reduced our stock numbers otherwise we would have already been out of mulga."

Grass or no grass everyone wants more rain

Mr Lucas, like landholders throughout drought-affected Queensland, is hopeful the unseasonal winter rain that has fallen is a sign of better times ahead.

"Hopefully this summer will be right, surely to goodness this year has got to deliver summer rainfall," Mr Lucas said.

Grazier, Amber Driver is also hopeful this coming summer will deliver widespread rainfall, ending the drought in Queensland, as most of western Queensland relies on the wet season for long term pasture growth.

"We have had a good start to this year so hopefully we can get some more rain at the end of the year and keep that going," she said.

"We certainly hope that for everyone producing cattle all across Australia."

ABC