CATTLE industry experts will share valuable herd management tips with farmers at a Cattle Value Adding Workshop on Tuesday May 29, at Badgingarra.
The free workshop, which is being held by the North South Beef Alliance (NSBA), will focus on how farmers can value-add to their cattle enterprise through data collection, improving reproductive performance, biosecurity awareness and much more.
The NSBA is a collaborative project between the West Midlands Group (WMG) and the Mingenew Irwin Group and is hosting the workshop with support from Gallagher and Harvey Beef.
“While the primary focus of the NSBA is to value-add northern cattle through backgrounding systems, we are also dedicated to providing learning opportunities to all cattle producers in Western Australia,” said NSBA project manager Courtney Martino.
Gallagher’s electronic identification expert Mike Hemsley will speak about why farmers should weigh their animals to identify whether to treat, reallocate or cull poor performers early.
“Farmers should come along to the workshop to see the latest products and learn how easily they can improve productivity and individual animal management,” Mr Hemsley said.
In conjunction with the Gascoyne Catchment Group’s (GCG) Bullseye project, the NSBA recently provided a field day that showcased the advantages of beef backgrounding by opening the gates to Craig Forsyth’s Avoca cattle backgrounding property near Dongara.
“It was a good chance to talk about backgrounding and animal health with pastoralists,” Mr Forsyth said.
Funded by the DPIRD Grower Group R&D fund, the beef backgrounding event delivered a suite of information regarding best management practices on station including the impact of vibriosis on herd reproduction and producers’ bottom line, the importance of genetic selection in the herd and advice on how to improve heifer and cow fertility.
Through the NSBA project four stations came on board in 2017 to background about 2000 head of cattle in the agricultural region.
Additional stations and backgrounding properties are showing strong interest this year.
Ms Martino said there was ample opportunity for agricultural region farmers to take advantage of the backgrounding system.
“We have an excellent line-up of speakers at the upcoming event and with 2018 being the last season to receive direct support from the NSBA, it is a great opportunity to be involved with the project,” Ms Martino said.
p If you are interested in cattle backgrounding or attending the upcoming workshop, contact Courtney Martino on 0429 136 780 or email courtney.martino@wmgroup.
org.au.