Police investigating up to 10 cattle duffing cases in northern area involving upwards of 100 stolen cattle

Livestock theft has a significant impact on producers across Queensland, with a total of 1078 cattle occurrences recorded in 2022 alone.

Despite cattle prices reaching new highs in 2022, police confirmed that there had been a significant decrease in stock theft that year.

Biloela graziers John and Margaret Warner run a cattle property just outside of town.

In November 2022, they reported three of their heifers stolen from their property by what they described as "well equipped thieves".

All three heifers had a market value of $9000, with one quarter of their selected replacement breeders taking their worth to $12,000.

One stolen heifer in particular, Mr Warner remembers it being down with three day sickness when he last saw her, before realising she had vanished.

"When I arrived at where she had been laying, you could only see scuff (drag) marks beside where she had been lying," Mr Warner said.

"A white landcruiser and stock trailer were observed in the area."

From the evidence he has gathered, Mr Warner believes the perpetrators have a good knowledge of the farms and areas they choose to target.

"These perpetrators have studied the work routine of targeted properties, know how to handle sick stock and subdue active animals," he said.

"After more than a month of person to person discussions, interviews, phone inquiries and emails it further appears to us that these thefts by a few, who seem to be well known to some cattle producers around central Queensland has gone on, apparently unchecked, for over 30 years.

"My research, so far, has revealed most thefts in this area are in the single digit area.

"No one, so far has told me about recovering their stolen stock or any successful prosecutions."

The Warners reported the theft to the Biloela Police and have shifted their cattle closer to home.

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The state's Rural and Stock Crime Squad officers are currently investigating reported cattle thefts in Biloela, Wowan, Longreach, Windorah, up into Cape York and the Gulf.

Though, statistics indicate there has been a significant decrease in stock theft in recent years, MOCS Rural northern area co-ordinator detective senior sergeant Paul Elliot said now wasn't the time to become complacent.

"We haven't calculated the total number of cattle stolen since November 2022, but that number is certain to grow, because there are in an excess of 10 investigations that the MOCS Rural northern area is currently investigating and that could be upwards of a couple of 100 head collectively," Senior Sergeant Elliot said.

"We deal with as much stock theft crime that's reported to us and some people are quite unwilling to report it.

"We are specialists in that field and we can investigate matters confidentially until the time comes that we need to take action against an offender and hopefully locate the animals back for the owner."

Senior Sergeant Elliot said stock theft was prevalent across the state whether it's opportunistic or an organised collection of individuals.

"Some times there is a device plan to lift a number of cattle off a property unbeknown to the owner and dispose of those cattle in various ways, whether that be through saleyards, live export, abattoirs or in some cases, keeping the stolen stock for themselves and raising the progeny and getting rid of the progeny through those other avenues," he said.

"(Rural and Stock Crime Squad officers) employ a wide range of investigative techniques to uncover the truth and the truth being is where these animals ended up and who's taken them.

"In some cases, our investigations reveal that the animals have died and the animals aren't accounted for.

"Sometimes we our techniques will involve lots of methodologies that will allow us to establish a timeline between the time the animals were last seen or known to be on property and their ultimate disposal by means of either selling on slaughtering."

In recent years, Senior Sergeant Elliot said police have been successful in their investigations into stock theft, with a lot of their investigations resulting in a court appearance for the offender.

"We take a lot of pride and a lot of satisfaction in returning stolen property to the owners," he said.

Senior Sergeant Elliot said without adequate information that police require, it can be very hard to track down and ultimately return property to it's rightful owners.

"We encourage rural communities to remain vigilant, including regularly inspecting firearms and ensuring they are secured, reporting any suspicious behaviour or stock theft and consider developing strategies to deter offending, including signage and the use of farm cameras," he said.

"If your management practices aren't up to scratch and you can't advise investigators how many animals that you have, it makes it very hard for us to investigate it.

"We acknowledged the fact that a muster may appear only once a year, which does make it very hard, which it is why it's even more important to keep those records and legible so that you can understand them in two years time when you may need them.

"We may need to know the statistics and averages over a period of time, not just for this day or this particular season."

Senior Sergeant Elliot said officers will continue to investigating ongoing cases of stock theft across the state.

"If there's anything suspicious, even if you think it might be suspicious, just give us a ring, because we will make attempts to either attend or look at look at the associated documentation that comes with those cattle in the form of an NVD and start following the lines of inquiry to see where we can go," he said.

"There's only 35 Rural and Stock Crime Squad officers in the state, we can't be at every sale, we can't be at every truck depo, so any anyone that's willing to provide information they should either be encouraged to ring their local stocks squad, their local police station or crimestoppers."

In 2022, QPS confirmed that 418 sheep had also been reported as stolen, an increase on 2021 number of 14 head, but considerably lower than the 1914 head reported stolen in 2020.