TAKING the guesswork at of farming is the Bowie family and their cattle operation Bowie Beef at Bridgetown.
The Bowie's farm consists of 1619 hectares spread across 10 properties in the Bridgetown/Yornup area.
Their breed of choice is Angus which have been run on the property since 1968 when the family first acquired its initial farm near Greenbushes.
James and Katina Bowie have been living in Perth for the past few years, but are now planning to return to the farm with James leaving his corporate job and Katina gaining a new job as a community engagement manager with NBN Co, which she can do from the farm.
Helping to run their sizeable operation is farm manager Mat Fairbrass.
Over the years they initially started with Herefords and experimented also with Murray Greys and have recently begun crossbreeding with Black Simmentals and Charolais.
"We have decided to trial some Simmentals and Charolais' as terminal sires but we won't be keeping any progeny, we are just looking at what the difference in weight and conversion between those and our standard stock is," Mr Bowie said.
When it comes to building their already strong genetics, the Bowies have enlisted the help of Enoch Bergmann who assists with their AI program.
"I believe the future of our genetics is in our current heifer/cow herd," Mr Bowie said.
The Bowies are moving onwards and upwards with a current self-replacing herd size of 900-950 breeders, which is well on its way to reaching their 1000 breeders goal.
"The aim is to increase by 100 head each year," Mr Fairbrass said.
"We would ideally like to reach 1200 breeders but while we are renovating our pastures 1000 is the target," Mr Bowie said.
In addition to running cattle, the Bowies also crop 120 hectares of oats which are harvested in late December.
The Bowies run the operation to an exact science, with nothing left to chance to ensure they are being as economical as possible.
Everything that can be tested is, including semen testing the bulls, pregnancy testing the cows, soil sampling and plant tissue sampling.
"We are trying to apply as much science to our operation as we can, to make sure that what we are putting in is translating into a return," Mr Bowie said.
The latest venture has focused on maximising pasture productivity and rotational grazing.
To learn more on this subject, they recently completed the Grazing Matcher course run by Western Beef and supported by the South West Catchment Council.
Mr Bowie said the course was a 12-month program developed for WA conditions, including eight half-day meetings at participant farms run by two facilitators.
"It also includes the development of a supportive network of like minded producers that outlives the 12-month program," he said.
With this new approach to improving their pasture they have been able to lift their carrying capacity and it has also helped improve the general health and wellbeing of the stock.
Mr Bowie said they have also increased their weaning weights by an average of 30kg compared to last year.
With a new found focus on agronomy, the Bowies are working closely with their agronomist Ben Creek and Dan Glover from CSBP.
They have also started testing their hay and silage to see the energy levels and nutritional value of the feed they are giving to their cattle.
Silage is fed to the cows to get them healthy for calving and then they are fed oaten hay during the colder months.
Hailing from a dairy background, Mr Fairbrass also believes pasture is essential to running a livestock operation.
"You can't grow beef without grass and grass is the cheapest form of feed," Mr Fairbrass said.
The rotational grazing program is strict, with the cows being moved every three to four days, allowing for the grass to grow.
The paddocks consist of mixed pastures which are in a rotation.
Each year the paddocks are sprayed out and resown with a mix of ryegrass and clovers which are cut as silage in the first year, then they let the set seed which leads to pasture renovation.
"When we spray it out - our sprays don't touch the clovers, so we are just target spraying the wild oats and barley grass," Mr Fairbrass said.
At joining the aim is to select the most fertile cows, so they have been mating the cows with Angus bulls for six weeks and then putting in the terminal sires at the back end.
Calving occurs from April to May, which has been shifted from their traditional January-February calving.
The Bowies look for easy, low maintenance cows that have a good calf.
"The Angus cows are very easy," Mr Fairbrass said.
In the past weaning has been in December but this year they plan to wean in January, with some still being weaned in December for the first of the weaner sales.
Depending on the size of the farm,125-150 cattle are run per property as part of the rotation strategy to allow the pasture a chance to regrow.
Generally the Bowies like to run 1.1ha per cow/calf unit.
"None of the mobs are less than 100 head," Mr Fairbrass said.
Believing flexibility is important there is no strict calendar of operations for Bowie Beef.
"You have to be able to adjust to the season and the markets," Mr Fairbrass said.
While the markets that they strive for depends on the season, their calves are generally sold to feedlots.
"We have been in contact with some feedlots because we want to make sure we are developing a product that they want and show that we are listening and applying that," Mr Bowie said.
Elders Donnybrook agent Dean Allen said they were heavily sought after cattle and there were feedlots already asking when they can get some.
"We don't generally have much trouble trying to sell the Angus," Mr Fairbrass said.
"I don't think anyone could complain about the markets at the moment, it's a pretty good time to be in agriculture."
When it comes to rainfall, it varies from property to property.
The Yornup property usually has longer seasons with first rains at the end of March this year, but the Bridgetown properties didn't get their first rain until a month later.
"It was a really good start here (Yornup) but once we got to some of our other blocks we didn't get a break until June, but it has been a good season and there is grass coming out of our ears this year," Mr Bowie said.
This year their hay yields were up 20-30pc, yielding 8t/ha compared to last year's 5-6t/ha and silage was also slightly up yielding 4.5-5t/ha.
When culling their herd, age is the main focus, as the Bowies are trying to maintain high fertility within their herd.
"Any cows or heifers that aren't in calf after a certain period of time with the bull are sold, if they can't produce a paycheck then they are the pay check," Mr Bowie said.
