One of the roots of the industry's problems, according to Parryville (west of Denmark) cattle producer John Fleay, is that farmers are still very much price takers.

Mr Fleay share farms with the Carter family, Perth, and they run cattle more intensively than most in the region, running 1000 breeders on the 1200 hectare property which has allowed them the scale to make money from their enterprise.

However they face the same challenges as any other producer.

"Things have been tough," Mr Fleay said.

"We can't have the rising costs that we've had and have prices going back to what they were 10 years ago."

Although there has been an exodus of producers from the industry, Mr Fleay said many more would have turned their back on it if they had another option for the land.

As MLA put it - a combination of constrained cattle prices and turnoff, rising costs, the high dollar, difficult finance conditions and the impact of several years of drought, gives producers in southern Australia little incentive to expand herds overall.

It's a fact that Mr Fleay believes will make share farming a far more common business structure moving forward, as in their situation, it's given them the ability to achieve economies of scale.

"More people would get out of the industry if they had another option for land use, but they don't," he said.

"There is a lot of country down here that just isn't suitable for prime lamb production.

"If people started getting good returns for their cattle, or trees were an option, that would stop the rapid decline of producers."

While the stocktake report and the red meat precinct may be a shining light to some, Mr Fleay said he did not believe the industry in WA would go far until it was able to come together in a united front.

He said he agreed with the formation of a WA beef council and producer round table, but encouraged the selection of people without agripolitical agendas.