The Glenmorgan beef producer will instead offload 400 breeding cows this week and spread his remaining cattle across his 6100ha property, Erambie, 15km west of Glenmorgan.

Erambie received just 350mm of its 550mm average rainfall in 2012, with no substantial grass-growing rain falling after February.

Working in partnership with his wife Janine, Mr Pechey bought his first load of cottonseed for $220/tonne (ex-gin) through BEC Feed Solutions in May last year.

He has since purchased 100t of cottonseed, paying $250/t (ex-gin) for his last load, just prior to Christmas.

"I was quoted $275/t last week but with freight of up to $70/t on top, I just don't think it's worthwhile and we decided to sell some cows instead," Mr Pechey said.

"Had we known back in May that it still wouldn't have rained, then we never would have started feeding cottonseed."

"We're pretty disappointed about having to sell our breeders.

"We should have joined 700 females on December 1, but so far we haven't joined anything."

The Pecheys were mixing the cottonseed with sorghum silage and a concentrate from Top Country.