Angus fits well in avo operation

Lisa represents the third generation of Roche farmers on the 105 hectare home property and says the cattle operation has taken a positive turn in recent years.

“Lance and I enjoy the cattle side of the property and my parents, working alongside them both, have given us the opportunity to fulfil this,” she said.

“Our family have purchased another 141ha property in the Perup area to run cattle on in addition to the mob we run here and we’re focused on breeding quality calves.

Currently there is a total of around 180 head across the two properties which complement the orchard of 19 – 22 year old avocado trees which is one of the older orchards in the Pemberton area.

The Angus cattle on the home property are made up of more established on-property breeding, while the second property was stocked initially with heifers from a number of respected commercial producers in the South West and Great Southern regions.

“We focused on temperament and structure and also being aware of breeding herd reputation while we were setting up,” Lisa said.

“It’ll take a while for the mob at the other property to catch up to our more established herd but we made an effort to buy in quality and they aren’t too far behind really because they were all first time calvers.

“The bulls we put over them for the second joining were of a very good calibre so I would say the next drop which will start in March will be a big improvement and we look forward to see how they’ll go.”

The Roche cattle feature predominantly Diamond Tree Angus bloodlines, with the family undertaking a lot of effort to make good selections come bull selling season.

“We prefer to buy quality bulls to go over the herds and to help move them forward,” Lisa said.

“The Diamond Tree genetics and temperament have done very well on that front.

“But selecting a bull is a big exercise – we analyse the catalogues pretty carefully, looking at all the EBVs and things like that.

“In particular we like a moderate birthweight, good 200 and 400-day weight gain figures and a good milk potential figure as well as paying attention to the mature cow weight figure.

“But it also comes down to the visual inspection on the day because a bull could have all the right figures but if he doesn’t have the right structure then it’s not worth it.”

As the farm is made up of a 17 hectare orchard, as well as the cattle, it is imperative for the family that both areas have the correct attention to ensure maximum yields and profits are made to complement efforts with, of course, some enjoyment along the way.

So as a result, a few parts of the cattle operation have changed over the years to adapt to the avocado season.

“For example we used to calve down between January and March, but we pushed that back a month to now calve between February and April on the home property,” Lisa said.

“That was because we find we’re often still picking fruit in January so moving the start of calving to a bit later removes the overlap issue.”

Calving at the Perup property is staggered to start a bit later in March so there isn’t too much happening at once.

“There is a little overlap with the calving times but we find it’s manageable.”

The bulls at the Roche properties go in with the ladies on a fortnightly rotation to ensure the best possible coverage.

“And the results have been good, particularly with a complete heifer mob we were very happy with the success of their first calving,” Lisa said.

“The more mature cattle we’re running here was almost entirely successful so it’s been really good.”

Once they’re on the ground, the calves at the Roche property demonstrate the positive effects of a focused breeding program, with the heifers that don’t get selected for retention usually singled out at the saleyards as future breeders.

“It is really nice to see those heifers going on to work within a herd rather than heading to graziers and feedlots as it’s a nice indication that we’re producing good cattle,” Lisa said.

“We do keep back a few heifers each year as retainers for the Perup property but we buy in our replacements for the Pemberton farm to improve genetics.

“The rest we usually sell over the summer period through the weaner sales at Manjimup and Boyanup.”

Obviously good breeding plays a part in the popularity of Roche cattle at the saleyards but judging by the quantity of quality feed available in the paddocks in the lead up to the selling season it really is no surprise that they look so good.

The operation is grassfed with export quality hay brought in for use during the tighter feed periods.

“We pre-book our orders of hay each year to make sure we always have enough because we don’t cut our own,” Lisa said.

“We prefer to run more stock which is why we don’t cut our own hay but it’s also a risk management thing.

“And at the same time, late spring and early summer is when we’re starting to get busy with fruit picking which is our focus at that time so we don’t want our labour to be drawn away to make hay at that crucial time.”

They might not worry about making hay but the paddocks at the Roche properties get a reboot each year.

“We renovate the paddocks in a rotation doing one or two a year,” Lisa said.

“But it’s with nothing too special – just what works well here which are the usual mixes or ryegrass and clover varieties.

“We’ve done a bit of lucerne before as well and they all work pretty well together.”

Looking to the future Lisa said it’ll be business as usual.

“We’re pretty happy with our stocking rate at the moment – it’s probably sitting at the peak of what we can handle,” she said.

“So we probably won’t change that and just focus on improving the younger mob of breeders and continuing with what we’ve been doing.”

And when asked if they’d ever consider a cross or a different breed to Angus, Lisa said she hadn’t been tempted yet.

“I mean Angus is what sells at the moment isn’t it,” she said.

“So we’re probably not going to look at a change at this point – I think we’re onto a pretty good thing.”