IT is “capable and motivated people” that make Kylagh Cattle Backgrounding and Feedlot, south of Tammin, a “viable business”, according to owners Ivan and Jill Rogers.
The Rogers hosted a tour of more than 120 people on their property recently as part of the WAFarmers Field Day and Forum at Kellerberrin.
Mr Rogers said the business employed six full-time staff plus casuals, including overseas workers and they couldn’t get the job done without their help.
“We look after our staff as well as we can,” Mr Rogers said.
“We also ensure that they have the training they need to do the job that is required.”
The Rogers started the feedlot about 17 years ago with 499 head and built it up over the years to cover 50 hectares with a 5000-head capacity, providing plenty of work for their staff under the motto “quality through care”.
Mr Rogers said they had designed the yards to maximise throughput with as less stress as possible for the cattle when they arrive in the feedlot.
They could “bring in 100 cattle and have them (inducted in the yards) in 30 minutes with all the inoculations and identification completed.
The feedlot has about a 10,000 head turn over every year, providing “high quality” South West grain-fed cattle to Harvey Beef and the Taurindi Beef Alliance.
“We produce inspecification cattle week-in, week-out regardless of the season,” Mr Rogers said.
He said some contracts were delivered every week with nearly 100 per cent of turn-off going direct to the processors.
“Getting feed conversion is vital,” he said.
“We supply an energy based diet that is converted into beef.”
Mr Rogers said the Wheatbelt was chosen as the location for the business because it was “well-positioned” close to port and not too far from processors.
“The constant supply of grain in WA is fantastic,” he said.
“It’s not inhibiting to move cattle (from south Tammin) and it costs less to freight and is good for cattle health.”
Mr Rogers said they have 100pc traceability of their livestock.
“As much as we would like to we are not chasing specific genetics,” he said.
“Sometimes it is hard to find the cattle that you are looking for.”
Kylagh runs 850 breeders to ensure a percentage of the numbers required during the year, as well as the backgrounding operation where cattle run on pastures during winter and vetch and Tagasaste with supplementary feeding at other times.
With lots of saline water beneath the ground it is difficult to find fresh water from boring, so Kylagh has three days of freshwater on hand in tanks, as well as a dam.
In the hotter months 50 litres of water can be consumed per head per day so they “spend a lot of money on water” for their cattle.
Mr Rogers said because their cattle were exposed to the weather, they were watching it all the time.
Because the feedlot is 50ha there is plenty of space to move cattle to reduce the wet bulb temperatures in the pens and provide greater airflow on the ground.
Mr Rogers said they had looked into shade covers for the stock but so far have not seen the need to invest in that as their location and management system was working together well.
Following the visit to Kylagh, WAFarmers outgoing president Tony York hosted a visit to Anameka Farms, at Tammin, where attendees were able to hear how the York family had managed and utilised their salt-affected land by planting saltbushes and running sheep.
Mr York provided a display of sheep in live export pens showing the difference between the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock stocking density requirements and the new 17.5pc reduction in stocking rate that exporters had to adhere to.
The display highlighted the need for changes to the old stocking density – where 92 head of 43 kilogram average weight sheep were housed in 8.5 metre x 4.5m pens with very little room to move.
Under the new requirement the number dropped to 79 head with more than enough space for animals to move around.
Mr York said the organisation was doing all it could to “try and keep the trade open for nine months of the year”.
He then discussed how many farmers in the Wheatbelt had moved away from sheep over the years, but his family had decided to remain in the trade due to the nature of managing the land and making the most of less productive or saline-affected areas.
Mr York said they run 6000 head of ewes and generally all the wether lambs would be sent to live export by the end of December or January.
“Most go to live export – by February they will all be gone,” he said.
Mr York said they had concentrated on their ewe flock and were running 20pc more than they had done.
Anameka Farms covers 17,000ha – with about 25pc (or 4000ha) affected by salinity.
“We have learned to live with and manage the salinity,” Mr York said.
The “bread and butter” of the farm income is grain production.
“It’s a good environment to grow crops,” he said.
About 60pc of the arable land is planted with cereals while 40pc is planted in a mix of canola and legumes as well as for running sheep.
“We crop about 10,000ha with 8000ha of wheat and barley,” he said.
With 4000ha of salt land the family has “over the past 40 years been trying to find grazing productivity out of that saline land”.
“It will carry a degree of perennial pastures” – which they have trialled.
But with 320 millimetres of rainfall per year it has been “difficult to get anything to grow through summer”.
They found that saltbushes were somewhat effective and over the past 20 years have gone through a selection process to find the most suitable types for their environment.
“On 10-50ha on the edge of the saline land pastures are planted to increase productivity,” Mr York said.
“The complementary feeding system keeps us in livestock production.
“Part of farm management is managing risk and that’s why we still run livestock.”
It was also said that saltbushes, if used correctly as part of the sheep diet, would provide much needed vitamin E and could also help grow more wool – so long as it is not more than a third of the diet.
“It is a supplement in the system to better utilise pastures and crop stubbles.”
Tammin sheep and grain producer Graham Dixon was asked to share some of his story of land management.
Mr Dixon also runs sheep and said it was one part of his land management practices and he “would always have them”.
He said he had been stripping back his system by reducing chemical inputs and growing pastures to improve the health of soils and create a better balance with the environment, and livestock were “one part of that”.
“It’s not the silver bullet,” Mr Dixon said.
“It’s one part of the recycling process.
“Sheep are a great indicator of what is going on on the farm.”
