Feedlots play an integral role in the Australian livestock industry and are strongly influenced by the environment they are in. Only 25% of Australia (including its feedlots) have a growing season of more than 5 months. This is due to the Australian climate being incapable of sustaining crops and pastures over a sustained period of time. Characteristically, cattle and grain supplies are located in close proximity to feedlots, and the 2012 Australian Lot feeders Association Industry survey indicated that feedlot capacity is typically divided into particular sectors.
Whilst the southern states account for 51% of total feedlot capacity in Australia, NSW only possesses 45% of total feedlots. The effect of this feedlot distribution is that the southern states produce 1 266 710 heads of cows whilst NSW only owns 788 625 heads of cattle. These figures demonstrate how environmental and infrastructural conditions must be accounted for throughout Australian pastoral systems, thereby indicating how these influences have had an effect on the Southern and Northern rangeland industry. Further, in the Southern rangelands where there is a growing season of less than 5 months, sheep stations have been implemented to complement the farming of cattle. In comparison, the Northern beef zone takes up 116 million hectares of Australia's total land mass, which equates to 24.3% of the total land mass available; this figure is markedly different form the 265 million hectares consumed by the Southern rangelands (sheep and beef) which amounts to 55.3% of total land mass.  The Northern rangelands are operated by multiple companies which occupy more than one station.