The number of farms in Australia has dropped by 25 per cent since 1969, according to a beef blueprint prepared by solicitor Norman Hunt.
Abattoirs have lost 40,000 jobs in the past 30 years.
Cattle prices have continued dropping in real terms, with domestic beef consumption on a long-term decline rate of 1.7 per cent a year, down from 42.3kg in 1997 to 33.7kg last year.
"Some cattle properties are currently unsaleable and have dropped as much as 40 per cent in value, whilst beef industry costs continue to escalate and the competition in the beef industry continues to shrink," the report says. "National valuers Henron Todd White's agri-business newsletter of June 2010 talks of increasing incidences of properties reselling at 20 per cent to 50 per cent below the 2007-08 sale price."