Australia's feedlot industry used its BeefEx 2026 conference to press the case that access to fuel is a national-security and food-security issue, after the Strait of Hormuz closure earlier this year left some operators told they could not have their tanks filled, Beef Central reports.

"One of our big fuel suppliers was telling us they were no longer going to deliver fuel into Riverina and Prime City," said Brendan Tatt, chief operating officer of JBS Northern. "That was a bit of an issue for us because we have about 80,000 cattle on feed there." He said JBS got mixed messages from government departments on what was potentially a massive animal-welfare and food-security problem.

Australian Lot Feeders' Association president Grant Garey said the crisis showed there is no workaround for fuel: "We don't actually need a lot of fuel, but we need to have that fuel to be able to feed the cattle." He wants industry and government to agree plans in peacetime rather than in the middle of a crisis. Chief executive Christian Mulders warned the audience not to assume officials understand what happens when feedlots run out.

Andrew Henderson of AgSecure criticised the government's decisions to wind up its fuel supply taskforce and move the fertiliser supply working group to meeting as needed, saying the structural vulnerabilities remain. "The next disruption may give us less warning and fewer options than the last one," he said.

Economist Saul Eastlake noted that some large countries had drawn down fuel reserves and will soon look to replenish them. The report is by Eric Barker.

Source: Beef Central