FATHER and son cattle producers Paul and Rob Clarkson say they are fighting a losing battle when it comes to managing regrowth.
Despite their best efforts, trees and other woody weeds are slowly but surely taking over their grazing country.
"It's not just thousands of trees we're talking about. There are literally millions and millions," Paul Clarkson said.
It's not just thousands of trees we're talking about. There are literally millions and millions.
- Paul Clarkson, Cowandilla, Linville
"We're now at a situation where we have vegetation management laws in Queensland that appear designed to erode the stocking rate of this country with no regard for what actually happens to the productivity of the country or the environment.
"Heaven help the other states if (Labor leader) Bill Shorten is elected and he imposes Queensland's dud laws on the other states."
The Clarksons run some 750 breeders on Cowandilla, a 4000 hectare property at Linville in the upper Brisbane Valley.
Paul said if the vegetation on Cowandilla could be appropriately managed, the property could support up to 1200 breeders.
Over time - and particularly following the introduction of restrictive vegetation management laws in Queensland - the woody weed problem was threatening to overwhelm the property, Paul said.
Rob Clarkson said it was more logical that vegetation management laws were designed to encourage sustainable management, rather than delivering perverse environmental outcomes.
"We're already spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on chemicals to control woody weeds and regrowth and we're losing the fight," Rob said.
"We would need a team of four or five men working around the clock to make inroads into the regrowth we already have, let alone begin to restore our productivity.
"This is freehold land. It is very hard to understand why we don't have effective laws that recognise the practical realities of managing regrowth on our own property."
In addition to the eucalypts, an increasing problem is lantana and its ground covering relative, creeping lantana, Rob said.
"Just keeping those two weeds under control is a major exercise before we even begin to think about the tree regrowth," Rob said.
