Australia: Vegetables that did not make the supermarket grade have been sent to feed drought-stricken cattle in south-west Queensland.

Bundaberg's Barbera Farms donated a 22-tonne truckload of zucchinis and tomatoes to graziers near Charleville.

Drought charity organisation Aussie Helpers has been coordinating the delivery of the vegetables, and co-founder Brian Egan said the gesture was welcomed, since the drought was such an ongoing concern.

"It is that dry up there, there's just nothing on the ground. Honestly, there's not even leaves coming off the trees," Mr Egan said.

"Everything is dead and if it's not dead it's dying, and the people with stock are forced to hand feed."

With 80 per cent of Queensland still officially in drought, for those few graziers who are hand feeding cattle it is a continuous struggle to source feed for their stock.

Mr Egan said the produce would otherwise have gone to waste.

"They were probably better than what we buy in Charleville in the supermarket but they might've had a spot on them, or a bit bigger or a bit smaller, so they can't sell them," he said.

"I mean the people who got them were pretty happy I can tell you, and the cows are even happier."

Every little bit helps farmers doing it tough

Mr Egan said it showed every effort to assist those in drought was truly appreciated.

"Even the simplest of things can help. You don't have to be a millionaire to help in the drought," he said. "If you think outside the square, and most of the things we do are outside the square anyway and they do work." Barbera Farms spokesman Ross Barbera said he had heard about the plight of farmers in the state's west and thought he could help.

"Some of the product is out of specification, some of it is just waste, and when we do our harvesting we bring in everything from first grade right to waste," Mr Barbera said. "So if you're doing big volumes like we do here, our waste can be quite considerable."

Charleville grazier Rob Calcino has just over 500 head of cattle left at Joylands near Charleville. Mr Calcino said his place was very dry and he was hand-feeding some of the cow and calf portion of his herd to keep up their strength.

"It's like a tennis court at the moment, nothing at all and the only vegetation we've got is a bit of young mulga and old mulga, well they've cleaned up all the young mulga and I'm pushing mulga to keep them going, anything we get is always a big benefit."

Mr Calcino said his cattle were a little reluctant at first but they got a taste for the veggies very quickly.

"When we tipped the zucchinis out first they didn't know what they were, they just looked at them but once one had a bit of a nibble, a few more came and had a bit of a look and they all started getting into them, they certainly enjoyed them and nothing was wasted."

"When they're struggling feeding calves and that one good feed is not going to make an awful lot of difference to them, it just gives them strength to keep on foraging."

Mr Barbera said there was another load of vegetables on their way to properties south of Charters Towers for stock feed.