And, as predicted, the big beneficiaries are Queensland meatworks.

Darwin-based Road Trains Australia chief Brooke Hartley confirmed yesterday that his large fleet of road trains was travelling day and night bringing cattle originally destined for Indonesia to Queensland.

“Some are going to Longreach; some are being dropped at Winton and other areas of the Channel Country,” he said.

“They will eventually end up in a meatworks.”

The cattle were all earmarked for the Indonesian market until the freeze.

The Townsville meatworks is battling to cope with the sudden influx of cattle and is said to have a six-week backlog.

While some exporters who have relied on Indonesia are struggling to find and secure new markets, the big players are sending large numbers to Egypt and Libya.

The giant Ocean Shearer is due to pick up 14,000 head in Townsville later this month bound for Libya. The ship will load 3000 head in Broome before steaming to Townsville to collect the balance.

Wild buffalo from Kakadu National Park are also being caught and shipped to Indonesia, but numbers are restricted because of the difficulty in catching them in the wild.

And because of another bumper season in the north, many of the buffaloes are over the 350kg weight limit that also applies to that species.

“We could sell a lot more if we could catch them,” one exporter said.

Meanwhile, the North Australian Pastoral Company said the crisis in the live export market had not affected its operations.

“In fact, we are expanding,” said CEO Nigel Alexander.

NAPCO has properties in the Northern Territory and Queensland and aligns its production to take advantage of the southern processor markets, rather than the live export trade.

“We are currently in the middle of an $11 million expansion of our Wainui feedlot on the Darling Downs to produce a more consistent product,” Mr Alexander said.

Livestock agent GDL confirmed that northern cattle producers were looking at Queensland as an alternative destination for cattle caught up in the Indonesian ban.

Company spokesman Andrew Wardle said some cattle had been trucked from Kunnunurra, WA, to St George.

“Down here, we can put weight on cattle, but it is expensive,” he said.

“Some northern producers are now looking at buying land in southern Queensland.

There is country available – in fact, there’s a lot of country out there on the market.

“Freight is a major factor. Sometimes you might need to punch another calf out of a cow to help those costs and make it more profitable.”