Angus measure up in Esperance

The family has been farming in Esperance since 1994 after selling its original property in Bunbury.

Growing up on the farm meant it was only natural for Peter Hough to follow in his parent's footsteps and enter into the agricultural industry.

"Its something I always wanted to do from a young age," Mr Hough said.

He is the fifth generation of Houghs to farm and works their 1600 hectare property alongside his wife Claire and two sons Darby (13) and Alex (11).

They are running three different enterprises including a small cropping program consisting of barley, oats and canola, a mob of sheep and a herd of cattle.

Having three enterprises makes the family very busy all year, but provides the benefit of a continuous cash flow.

"We are flat out most of the time," Mr Hough said.

The diversification also protects against a poor season.

"If the cropping side struggles then we have the livestock and vice versa," he said.

Their sheep enterprise consists of 1000 head of Merinos, which are mated to Dorset and Suffolk rams.

To reduce their workload and concentrate more on the meat side of sheep, the Houghs are looking to switch from Merinos to shedding breeds in the coming year.

The cattle herd is made up of 400 purebred Angus breeders.

In the early days, Mr Hough said his dad experimented with various cattle breeds, such as Friesian first crosses, Shorthorns and Herefords, but since moving to Esperance they have run Angus.

Mr Hough likes the Angus breed because they are well-suited to the climate, have a good temperament and are easy to market.

When sourcing their bulls he said they have been using the Golding family's Little Meadows stud in recent years.

Joining occurs in May with the females due to calve in mid-February, allowing plenty of time for growth.

Mr Hough said the Angus cows and heifers were also very consistent in terms of calving percentage.

"We usually sit at a 93 per cent calving rate," he said.

The calves are yard weaned for seven to 10 days and sold either to feedlotters or to other producers looking for heifers for their own breeding operations.

At selling time, the steers generally weigh 350 kilograms liveweight, while the heifers weigh 330kg.

Mr Hough said he was extremely happy with the prices they have been receiving over the past 12 months in a robust market.

Strong demand from interstate has helped to drive prices up and the Houghs recently sent a road train of weaned steers to Mount Gambier, South Australia.

"It has been great," he said.

As for the market outlook, Mr Hough said it was hard to speculate but believes there will be a couple more years of strong cattle prices.

When culling they are mainly selecting for temperament, age and any cattle that are not structurally correct or in good physical condition.

The cows are kept from eight to 10 years of age or until they are no longer productive.

Each year the Houghs pregnancy scan their heifers, but only test their cows every three to four years.

"Generally if a heifer is not in calf after its first joining it is sold," Mr Hough said.

After a dry 2019 season, the late break to 2020 put a strain on their operation, but luckily with showers continuing from June/July into spring, they managed to recover for an average season.

The area average annual rainfall is meant to be about the 625 millimetre mark, but Mr Hough said it has been closer to 500mm over the past couple of years.

"It turned out to be a pretty good season in the end," he said.

"Esperance has been pretty good to us."

As for feed, the Houghs grow all of their own pastures and hay on farm, cutting on average 700 rolls per year.

The pasture is a mix of naturally generated varieties such as ryegrass, Kikuyu, Serradella and clover with experimental summer crops such as Raphno and Triple S planted when the season allows.

Going forward Mr Hough said he was happy with how their cattle enterprise is performing and was not looking to make any major changes.

"What we are doing seems to be working well," he said.