On The Land
1 March, 2026
Butcher gives new life to old abattoir
A WELL-deserved apprenticeship, keen beef industry interest, long hours and hard work are making a vast difference for the region and Atherton-based butcher Doug Cross.
In recent years, Mr Cross established his own beef brand, Altitude, and more recently, has purchased and re-fitted an abattoir in Innisfail that closed 20 years ago as he takes his next step in the Far Northern beef industry.
Last owned by Teys Brothers, the Innisfail meat-works operated until 2006. The plant was once able to process 700 cattle a day.
Mr Cross has been growing his business along with grass finished beef on the Tablelands and his own Altitude brand with welded-on customers right along the eastern States and the Northern Territory.
Processing around 100 carcasses a week through other abattoirs as far away as Biggenden Meatworks in the Burnett Region, west of Bundaberg, fuelled the need for Mr Cross to introduce further development of his brand and operations to reduce “food miles” for his products.
He also wanted to bring in-house processing and product control that ensured a stronger supply chain and business future without relying on other operators’ facilities in other regions.
“Relying on other abattoirs creates difficulties in timing and distance sometimes, so having established our own facilities gives greater support for our brand and what we do and ensures quality products for our growing customer base,” he said.
Starting from scratch, the Innisfail abattoir began operations in early January after a refit.
“Initially training staff and ironing out any production wrinkles to ensure processes are operating to our standards, I believe that we will be turning out 100 head per week by the middle of this year from our Innisfail-based facilities,” Mr Cross said.
The early stage of the renewed Innisfail plant will be servicing the domestic market exclusively.
To source continuous product standards and guarantee of supply, Mr Cross has developed strong links with numerous beef producers in the local Tablelands area and Far North Tropical coast region.
In total, there are well over 550 producers and an estimated total herd of 140,000 head of cattle, with around 40,000 heading to a variety of markets including JBS Townsville, local butchers, local fatteners, live export and southern-based feedlots.
Tablelands producers have been working to keep improving the quality of cattle and benchmarking through carcase competitions using Meat Standards Australia with many of the carcases in the competition returning MSA scores higher than index 60.
With the transition of over 400 former dairy farms to beef production, Mr Cross said the dairy industry had put a lot of work into developing grass and legume pastures and fertiliser requirements over the years.
“This allows current-beef producers to operate with ideal stocking rates producing 220-250kg annual live weight gain,” he said.
“This is necessary to produce a good weight-for- age animal which is the corner stone of high meat quality.”
Tableland and coastal beef producers had been working to find good crosses that provide tick resistance and produce high-quality carcases.
There was a wide spectrum of breeds, however, Belmont Reds, Brangus, Droughtmaster and Senepols were particularly popular among the bulls.
“There is a huge future for the meat industry in the north to grow a better article because trying to obtain regular quality products from other areas sometimes proves to be very tricky,” Mr Cross said.
He said the ability to finish cattle on the Tablelands provided a good opportunity for surrounding areas, which was mainly large-scale breeder properties targeting the northern meat trade and live export.
