To feed its larger herd, AA Co has opted for agistment and, in fact, the company sold its 420,795-hectare Brighton Downs Station in Queensland's Channel Country earlier this year and its 17,000ha Meteor Downs Station in July this year. Meteor Downs sold to Xstrata Coal Queensland for $21.6 million.

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported: "AA Co will agist cattle on Myers' properties at a cost of what is believed to be more than $1 million a year", quoting AA Co chief executive David Farley as saying the decision was all about saving costs. "Agistment is an efficient use of our capital within the variation of Australian seasons," AFR reported Mr Farley as saying.

Leasing preferred to buying

Mr Farley has declared AA Co will not be buying any property following its recent capital raising but is keen to lease more country. The company's share purchase plan, which closed in June this year, raised approximately $11.45 million and an institutional placement raised a further $56.3 million.

AA Co's Japanese black Wagyu herd of 30,000 head in southern Queensland has had another successful year, with its flagship Wagyu brand Master Kobe crowned Australia's best steak and champion of the show at the Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show in August.

Mr Farley says constant innovations and a focus on quality through the supply chain were behind this success and the increasing demand for their beef internationally.

"Using our world-class DNA sampling and archiving system, we have worked with Pfizer Animal Genetics to trace the bloodline of the exact piece of meat that was awarded this coveted prize," he said.

Owner of Australia's second-largest beef herd, Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC), moved up one place to become equal-third-largest landholder.

This year Ken Warriner stepped down as chief executive, having been chairman and chief executive of CPC and its predecessor companies since its inception in 1983.

The company's 2010 annual report noted, "The single biggest factor affecting the business in 2010 was the Indonesian Government's restriction on the issue of licences for the importing of cattle from August 2010, and at the same time the imposition of a maximum discharge weight in Indonesia of 350kg per beast".

The company said this resulted in older, heavier cattle, which had been kept on northern properties for export to Indonesia being redirected to alternative domestic markets in the south and east.

Change in purchase strategy

CPC's report states: "The challenges relating to the Indonesian market have curtailed our desire to acquire land in areas overly dependent on that trade. Balancing the portfolio of properties with more finishing and backgrounding properties in Queensland is the more prudent strategy at this time."

To that end, CPC settled in April this year on its purchase of 18,077ha Gowan, a property in south-west Queensland and the last of three Walker properties offered in the Blackall and Barcaldine districts in the past 12 months.

In July the company took advantage of another opportunity, picking up the sought-after Comely-Mapala Station, south of Bauhinia in Central Queensland. The 23,159ha aggregation was sold bare of stock by vendor Bill Reid, who purchased the property from Georgina in early 2009 for $32 million. The property had been listed for private sale at $35m but the final sale price was confidential.

CPC's herd increased by 11,000 head during the year due to the restocking of Queensland properties, particularly Nockatunga, which was coming out of severe drought.

Given the company's relatively recent change of majority ownership from the Packer family to Terra Firma, it was interesting to note that the Packers' agricultural interests declined further this year when their 50pc stake (via Consolidated Press Holdings) in meat processor Teys Bros passed to US-based Cargill.

NAPCO swaps places with CPC and moves to fourth position on the 2011 Top Ten landholder list. Its current beef herd of 176,000 head sees the company retain its title of Australia's sixth-largest beef herd owner.

Baldy Bay Pty Ltd drops from being Australia's fifth-biggest rural landholder to 10th position following the sale of the Alice Springs district Amburla, a 2305-square-kilometre pastoral lease, and Paraway Pastoral's purchase of its 13,100ha Allambie Station and 36,900ha Malvern Hills this year.

A May 2011 auction of 5000sq km Tanumbirini, which Baldy Bay purchased for $31m in 2007, was unsuccessful. The vendors in 2007, Henry and Maria Townsend, sold the Tanumbirini aggregation 400km south-east of Katherine together with all plant and machinery and 12,400 branded Brahman-cross cattle.

Sterling Buntine, head of Baldy Bay, had a contract with Great Southern to manage the company's entire pastoral herd. Since Great Southern's collapse, a number of Baldy Bay's properties have been listed for sale, with Inverness at Blackall selling for $14m late in 2009 and Tobermorey and Linda Downs west of Boulia for $17.5m in 2010.

Paraway underpins market

Paraway Pastoral's growth over the past five years has been opportune not just for Baldy Bay most recently but for a number of top 10 sellers, Table 3. In this period it has risen to become the seventh-largest rural landowner in Australia and owner of Australia's third-largest beef herd and sheep flock.

Writing in The Land newspaper, Peter Austin reports Paraway Pastoral chief executive David Goodfellow as saying the expansion made possible by Clyde Agriculture's winding-down will also enable the company to meet one of its specific goals: the acquisition of Oxley, with its vast capacity for 4000-plus breeders, to take Paraway within sight of achieving its target of 10,000 Angus cows in northern NSW.

"The property is now carrying 4300 cows (plus other cattle) but our idea is to scale this back to between 3000 and 3500 and run a similar number on Burindi and Buttabone," Mr Goodfellow says.

"We will then use the spare capacity at Oxley to grow out and finish the progeny from all three properties."

Mr Goodfellow says Paraway will take over the existing Haddon Rig Merino flocks on Pier Pier and Merrimimba, numbering about 17,000 and 9500 ewes respectively.

Like AAco, Paraway Pastoral has taken up agistment agreements this year - in Paraway's case at Athol Station near Blackall.

The current list sees Stanbroke slip two places to be the owner of Australia's fifth-largest cattle herd, with 200,000 head.

For Australia's ninth-largest landholder, the Brook family, 2011 provided ideal conditions for their grassfed organic beef operation.

David Brook explains: "We are having back-to-back excellent seasons out here following heavy rains in March and subsequent flooding in the major Channel Country rivers Cooper Creek, the Diamantina River and the Georgina/Eyre systems. Kamaran Downs, our property near Bedourie on Eyre Creek, received 520 millimetres over four consecutive days in March.

"We continue, along with other Channel Country producers, to supply grassfed organic beef through the OBE Organic supply chain to domestic as well as export markets in Asia and North America."

Less than half a million hectares separates the sixth to 10th ranked biggest landholders, with relative positions unchanged on last year (apart from Baldy Bay, which dropped to 10th position, and Paraway Pastoral, which jumped from 10th to seventh this year).

The sixth to 10th largest beef herd owners are similarly separated by a "small" margin of 25,000 head and their rankings remain unchanged from last year.