A paddock with a mixed of improved pastures, including buffel, green panic and bambatsi panic.
FARMING groups are gearing up for a fight to prevent buffel grass from being added to a Federal register of “Weeds of National Significance”.
The Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is in the process of updating the register for the first time in 13 years, and is expected to publish newly nominated species being considered for the list in coming weeks.
Expanding the Federal weed register to include buffel grass, a widely relied upon livestock feed source in northern Australia, would “inflict a devastating blow” to northern grazing systems, and would also decimate grasslands dominated by buffel grass and create significant top-soil loss, farming groups say.
Long-running trials in Queensland have also demonstrated that Buffel grass varieties are among the most tolerant to pasture dieback.
Environmental groups have lobbied for decades to have buffel grass declared as a weed, describing it as a monoculture that out competes native grasses and threatens biodiversity and conservation values in Australian rangelands.
Critics of buffel also say it increases fuel loads that produce hotter and more intense wildfires.
Some scientists have even claimed buffel grass is as damaging to inland Australia as feral cats.
Last year the Northern Territory government followed South Australia and declared buffel grass a weed.
The NT Govt said it would develop a formalised weed management plan with $750,000 set aside to strategically manage the grass in Central Australia.
This plan is still in development, according to a message posted to an NT Govt website last week, which is calling for “general public input” into buffel grass management in the NT – a link to enable people to access the survey is expected to go live soon (Beef Central will update this report when the link is available).
Nominations for nationally significant weeds to be considered for inclusion on the 2025 Weeds of National Significance registered closed on 12 January.
What farming groups say:
A Feed of National Signficance: NFF
In an earlier media release, NFF Sustainable Development and Climate Change Committee chair Angus Atkinson described calls to declare a productive agricultural plant as a
Weed of National Significance (WoNS) misinformed, and said it risked inflicting a “devastating blow” to northern grazing systems.
Buffel grass was carefully managed by producers to support grazing operations, he said, while the significant environmental co-benefits it provided, including land rehabilitation and erosion mitigation, were “conveniently ignored by environmental groups”.
“Our members would much rather see it listed as a Feed of National Significance,” he said.
A different process for contentious plants that acknowledged the economic value of plants like buffel was needed, he said.
Buffel feeds Australia, bureaucracy will starve it: AgForce
AgForce Cattle Board President Lloyd Hick said the push to list buffel as a Weed of National Significance (WoNS) was a direct threat to one of the most critical pasture species in Australia.
“If listed, buffel could face legislative restrictions, removal requirements, and even biological control research aimed at eradicating it.
He also hit out at the determination process which he described as fundamentally flawed and “anything but transparent” – “there is no confirmation on who has nominated buffel, and there is no formal appeal mechanism once a species is listed.
“A decision with such far-reaching consequences cannot be made behind closed doors.
“Buffel is not a weed. It is the backbone of Queensland’s grazing systems. It sustains the production of millions of kg’s of beef that underpin domestic and international food security.
“Removing access to buffel would cripple the beef industry. Restricting seed supply would undermine pasture regeneration, and any move towards biological control would be catastrophic for entire grazing regions.
“The economic damage would be widespread, yet, and most critically, the nomination process fails to consider the production and financial consequences of its removal.”
“Buffel also plays a vital role in landscape protection. It prevents soil erosion, reduces dust storms, and regenerates quickly after fire. At a time when sustainability reporting is becoming more complex, a WoNS listing would add unnecessary compliance burdens, affecting market access, financial approvals, and long-term property viability.”
Mr Hick said the move was not an isolated issue but part of a broader pattern of decisions being made without industry input, with disastrous consequences for agriculture.
“If the beef sector does not push back hard on this, it will be taken as a win and another critical pillar targeted next.”
Listing could lead to uncontrollable bio-control: PRA
Property Rights Australia in a post on its Facebook page urged people across the cattle industry to lobby hard to keep Buffel grass off the federal weeds of national significance list.
“If placed on the list, research will possibly be funded into a bio-control.
“The activist green groups must not be allowed to win this battle.
“Non-environmental representatives need to be made aware of how important this grass is to livestock and the environment.
“We also must make it very clear that governments or quasi government organisations have no right to release anything that will kill a valuable pasture, indiscriminately.
“We should, as a community, make it known that if they let loose with any sort of non-selective method of control, court cases will ensue and that we will support them as a community.”
This all assumes that eating beef, hard-hooved animals compacting our fragile soils, millions of miles of fences restricting native animal movement and the billions of tons of greenhouse gases being farted out by our domestic ruminants are all fabulous ideas.
The biggest grass threat to the NT is Gamba , it will take over every other species. It burns hotter than hell taking everything else out, its seeds carry for miles and grows too high for cattle feed. Buffle can be controlled.
As a soil scientist originally from South Africa specialising in environmental rehabilitation I strongly endorse efforts to preserve valuable grasses such as Buffel. Proclaiming it as a weed is madness and violates the rights of landowners.
How dare a scientist who has a life that lives on hypothesis , think they have a right to affect our industry.
How dare the government think the scientist knows more than the people that live and breath keeping our soils alive that grow our grasses to feed our live stock.
How dare a city person decide what is best for our industry.
To all the armchair environmentalists that think this thing is a weed try and dig it out tell me that this doesn’t hold the ground together and stop it blowing away. When the rest of the Tanami is dead and brown the buffel grass green pick.
This is a shocking story. I can’t believe the government sometimes. What a disgrace!
There are too many couch experts in Australia who are given too much credit to make decisions that have no consequence to them. Less idiots in the regulatory sector and the world will be better.
Absolutely delusional. Firstly we must track down who has nominated Buffel grass to be put on the register. This is criminal activism at its worst.
No one in their right mind would want this grass put up as a weed. It is the backbone of the grazing industry and who ever had nominated Buffel knows it. They are out to destroy industry. Costs fighting this must be recovered in full and those behind this criminal activity need to be flushed out.
If we argue this purely on livestock feed value, we are GOING TO LOOSE.
We must address the environmental values of buffel grass:
* ask the question, if the buffel grass is successfully eradicated, WHAT will realistically replace it?
* helps prevent soil erosion
* food & shelter for wildlife (yes, many wildlife prefer buffel over many lower palatability native grasses)
* sequesters carbon
Buffel, bare ground, or some inedible pest like galvanised burr are the options.
The naive idea that killing buffel will automatically bring forth a beautiful native grassland is completely delusional & MUST BE CALLED OUT.
Agree well stated
Hi Michelle,
Completely agree. Buffel’s benefits extend well beyond its value as a livestock feed. However the issue with the nomination process is that ALL positives are not factored into the review. ANY positive arguments for Buffel that we make cannot be considered during the nominations process narrow scope of view.
The Cattle Board are pushing hard to get this pulled up (before a successful nomination to the WONS) post-haste. Anyone with stories of Buffel, case studies & photos, send them through to myself. This requires total industry effort; an inch cannot be given.
How about funding the controll of the biosecurity bungle of GOVT who let parthiunium into this country
councils have been ignoring it for years
others spring to mind as well
Hi
Buffel grass seed was introduced into Australia via the Afghan camels which were released into Central Australia more than 60 years ago.
We produced some of the first commercial quantities of American Buffel Grass and later Biloela Buffel grass seed available from 1960’s to about 2000 at our property in Central Queensland.
During this period, I have witnessed the transition of the cattle grazing country in Queensland, NSW, SA and NT from poor natural grasses with poor stocking rates and cattle dying in poor times to the thriving pastures which support our fantastic beef industry.
Buffel grass, Green Panic and Rhodes grass planted with a long-term legume like Seca Stylo produces the best pasture available for the lower rainfall areas which produces most of the beef which feeds these people with little knowledge of where beef actually comes from.
Where are they moving to next on their weed list Green Panic or Rhodes Grass?
For all my farming years I have witnessed plenty of natural wildlife eating Buffel Grass in preference to the naturally occurring grass species.
A true predator weed, couch grass is taking over thousands of acres of country reducing stocking rates, but we do not here about this problem.
The focus of these groups should be on true weeds that actually harm and reduce pasture quality for the beef industry, such as Parthenium or some cactus varieties.
Parthenium a true weed of significance, in my farming years has spread from the garden to the paddock and takes over your country. Parthenium which can kill cattle has spread thru out the Queensland countryside and now into Northern NSW.
There is not enough chemical in Australia to contain this true weed now that it has got away because people did not control it when they should have.
Support the fight against this nieve proposal to reduce our great beef industry.
Russell Wells
Central Queensland
Putting buffel grass on a WONS list is a joke! If this took place, I have no doubt Qld bushies would rise up, like never before! Tell em they’re dreamin!!
The issue is that NOW is the critical time to halt this process. If it gets listed it is too late to rise up. Spread the word NOW.
I encourage everyone to engage with their Federal representatives immediately and strongly. This is a critical issue for our industry that the Cattle Board is working hard on; industry must stand together.