Australia's second largest landholder and fourth largest beef producer, Kidman Holdings Ltd, has predicted that it will take up to three years to fully recover from the impacts of the drought.

The company, which has agricultural holdings in South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales, totalling 112,000 square kilometres, has been pushed into scaling down its operations to minimise economic and environmental impacts associated with drought.  Consequently, the company's cattle numbers fell by approximately 25% to 130,000 head during 2002.

Company management has said that the next year will be grim, as the company expects to turn off very little stock throughout 2003, enabling the reconstruction of its breeding herds, provided the drought breaks this autumn.

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