PrimeAg cut its profits forecast, and GrainCorp flagged transport disruptions, as Australian businesses counted the cost of "extensive damage" to flooding which in many areas has hit record levels and is still rising.

GrainCorp, the grain handler, said that flooding which had spread over a huge swathe of Queensland combined had cut rail deliveries from inland areas of the state to ports, and were not likely to resume for up to two weeks.

"Road accumulation is also effected," the group added.

PrimeAg Australia, the farm operator, said that 13% of its 15,200-hectare cotton sowings had been "inundated" by the floods which had said had caused "extensive damage to property, crops and some loss of livestock" in the state.

At the group's Condamine farm, in inland southern Queensland, floods breached levy walls on their way to peaking 1m higher than the previous record.

MP Evans, the London-listed cattle and plantations group, said a joint venture had lost 200 cattle to the floods.

Flood period

PrimeAg said its forecast for annual pre-tax profits of Aus$16m-25m was likely to be cut by Aus$4m-7m, although it was too early to make an accurate assessment.

While some flooded cotton "will be lost, other areas may recover if the period of inundation is less than two-to-three days", Peter Corish, the PrimeAg chairman, said.

Water levels at its farms were "slowly receding", he added, even if in many areas further downstream they are seen as rising into Wednesday.

The damage to PrimeAg plantings would have been significantly worse had the company not invested in flood defences at most of its irrigated cotton area, Mr Corish said.

PrimeAg shares closed down 3.5% at Aus$1.38 in Sydney, taking to 7.4% total losses since torrential rains caused by tropical cyclone Tasha began lashing Queensland just before Christmas.

'Force majeure'

In other sectors, some mining companies have also noted damage to floods, with Caledon noting "widespread disruption to the coal mining industry, and the declaration of force majeure at a growing number of mines".

The group, which is in the process of being acquired by China's Guangdong Rising Asset Management, said that its own 2010 sales had come in at 543,000 tonnes, below previous expectations of 550,000-570,000 tonnes, because of the closure of rail and road access to its Cook mine.

The Rock Building Society, based in Rockhampton, which has become the focus of media attention, said that while it had been forced by floods to close some branches temporarily, its head office functions had not been affected.

Records broken

GrainCorp's statement added that, in other states, receival records had been broken at many of its elevators as farmers caught up with their rain-delayed harvest.

One site in New South Wales had closed "due to being filled", although reports of more widespread shortage of storage capacity were "incorrect". GrainCorp shares closed 1.2% higher at Aus$6.68.

MP Evans also downplayed the impact said that the cattle losses at the North Australian Pastoral Co business, of which it owns 35%, were small in relation to total stock of 190,000.

Its Woodlands property in southern Queensland "if anything, will benefit from the above-average rainfall for the time of year", boosting pasture prospects, the group added.