THE installation of a brand new sheltered feedlot at Paradise Beef is proving a worthwhile investment for Gary and Josie Dimasi on their Donnybrook property.
Since 2009 when Paradise Beef first commenced construction of the original feedlot, Gary has been feeding all varieties of cattle on programs ranging from 30 to 100 days with wife Josie, and the help of their two young boys Sebastian and Mitchell and four employees.
The couple manage 1400 head of cattle, with approval to expand to 2000, and designed the dome-shaped feedlot themselves in a bid to add to their clean, green brand.
The new sheltered feedlot is 185 metres long and 15m wide, and fits 600 head of cattle in its six pens.
Gary said the sheltered facility allows cattle to keep dry in the winter months and cool in summer.
“The main reason for the shelter is to keep cattle dry and clean in winter and we’ve already seen performance improve massively,” he said.
“It does keep the cattle warmer so when a big rain comes all of the cattle are under the shelter and keeping good weight gains.
“Being sheltered from the rain is more important than the sun for us down here, so that’s a big reason why we’ve done it.
“It’s just a massive change on what we’ve seen so it is definitely the future.”
The shelter was imported from Turkey in December and construction followed soon after.
By using much of their own workforce to construct the sheltered feedlot, Gary said he had saved thousands of dollars.
“We did a lot of earthworks and had everything surveyed, and in February and March we started building the frame,” he said.
“We did everything ourselves with assistance from a few contractors.
“I basically put what I learnt in the last 20 years in the cattle game into that shelter design.
“We did save quite a lot on it, but I think if somebody tried to design and build it with the evaporation pond and everything down here, you wouldn’t get much change from half a million dollars.
“If you look at dollar value on what we’ve spent in the end, I think in a couple of years I’ll probably be able to say whether we’re in front or not, but at the moment it’s promising.”
The facility has been in use for two months and Gary said it had already led to significant improvements in the condition of his cattle.
“We had a line of Angus cross cattle that finished in the shelter for the last 40 days and their current weight gain was 2.6 kilograms a day, but their overall weight gain was 3kg a day on 80-day cattle and I’ve never seen that before.
“They were good Angus cross cattle, conversions were massive and yield was massive.”
The feedlot had also provided a more controlled environment, which Gary said would allow several trials to take place to further analyse and improve feeding programs.
Gary and Josie are also distributors for Australian Mineral Fertiliser Growsafe, and Gary offers consultancy services for other farmers in the South West as well as a depot for Milne Feeds.
He said the use of the sheltered feedlot facility in combination with the use of mineral fertilisers and improved nutrition were the main areas of focus for the future of Paradise Beef.
“Because of the Growsafe fertiliser and the interstate people coming through it’s important for me to present Paradise Beef on the right scale, so it matches their expectations for WA produce,” he said.
“To me this is the future, if China is going to play a big role in Australian beef, or if it’s Malaysia or Vietnam, or whoever it is at least they can come here and they can feel comfortable knowing that their cattle are getting looked after.”