GEOFF Cornford has battled years of drought while managing the North Australia Pastoral Company's Wainui cattle feedlot near the southern Queensland town of Dalby.

Now, just 20km down the road, a new threat looms for the $3 billion feedlot industry in the form of Dalby Bio Refinery's $150million plant, the first in Australia to be devoted to ethanol production. The plant is due to open in August, using sorghum to make a product that until recently held great hope for containing spiralling petrol costs.

Despite a bumper sorghum crop following summer rains, local feedgrain prices of $300 a tonne are twice what they were pre-drought. ... Read full article