AFTER dairy farming for more than 100 years, the Norton family at Capel has turned the table on its livestock operation from a predominantly dairy beef herd to a complete beef herd, and is confident of success.
Luke Norton and his brother Casey have been farming in the Capel area since they were born, although their family farming history in the area dates back to the 1800s.
- Subscribers have access to download our free app today from the App Store or Google Play
The Nortons began dairy farming in the late 1800s, after Governor Stirling settled the Capel River for dairy production in the mid 1800s.
The brothers now farm and reside across 900 hectares of pristine cattle country at 'Cloverdale', in conjunction with an additional 1200ha sheep and cropping property at Boyup Brook run by Ron and Noellene Bingham.
The Boyup Brook property has 400ha of cereal and feed grains, along with 7000 Merinos.
Since leaving the dairy industry in early 2022, seeking a change in lifestyle, Luke and Casey Norton said their three-year "time to get out" strategy has been quite smooth.
"We have always run beef cattle, even when the dairy was in full operation," Mr Norton said.
"We would usually run 70 per cent dairy cattle and 30pc beef, but now it has switched."
The brothers aim is to slowly breed out the dairy element of the now predominantly beef-based herd.
"It might sound like quite a large business shift but we have always been a mixed livestock operation so we know how beef cattle work," Mr Norton said.
"Not having the dairy has impacted us, but not negatively.
"Yes our overall revenue has decreased but so have our costs and inputs."
A total of 450 breeders are kept at the Capel property, comprising 300 beef cows and 150 dairy cattle.
"We are joining the dairy cows with quality Red Angus and Speckle Park genetics to get the beef herd replacements from," Mr Norton said.
"Our ideal mother is a cow that will calve easily, look after her calf in winter, along with something that will calve again the following year, respond well to supplementary feeding and hold her condition well."
With the new addition of a Speckle Park bull from Kamarah Speckles stud, Wannamal, three Red Angus sires from Kingslane Red Angus stud, Benger, and eight Charolais bulls from the Bardoo stud, Elgin, it is a visually impressive breeding team.
Mr Norton said he selected bulls based on both visual appraisal and Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs).
"The Speckle Park breed is renowned for milking ability, quiet temperament and meat quality, therefore we believe the breed will be a good replacement for the Friesian component of the breeding herd," Mr Norton said.
"We want a medium to large framed bull with good length and thickness that is tight, compact and chunky."
Mr Norton said they have been using bull genetics from the Bardoo Charolais stud for more than 20 years.
"We are continually impressed by the genetic-based improvement and the way it transitions into the calves we sell, both grassfed or grainfed," he said.
Mr Norton also said a bull with low birthweight figures was ideal to ensure an easy calving.
"The Red Angus bulls and our Speckle Park bull all have low birthweights as they will be serving our heifers," he said.
With a 100 per cent natural breeding approach, the Capel farmers are trialling their newly-purchased Speckle Park bull over their Friesian cows, backed up by Red Angus sires.
The Angus-Friesian and Speckle Park-Friesian heifers will be joined back to Speckle Park and Red Angus bulls and then to the Charolais bulls from their second calf onwards.
"Out of the 150 Friesians I expect a third of them to be in calf to our Speckle Park sire," Mr Norton said.
"We put our bulls in for about 10 weeks."
The Nortons have a split calving regime which means fewer calves on the ground all at once and they are not delivering large amounts of fodder during the autumn period.
"We calve the heifers first from mid-January and the mature cows drop from the start of February to early April," Mr Norton said.
"We will then have a break and our second group of breeders will begin their calving period from May to late June, with these calves being grainfed the following autumn/winter.
"Our calving and pregnancy scanning have been great the past few years, sitting well above the 90pc mark."
Post-calving ear marking and animal husbandry practices are carried out at six and 12 weeks.
READ MORE:
"We earmark at six weeks as well as giving all calves a 7in1 injection and Multimin, followed up by a booster six weeks later," Mr Norton said.
"We have started using a Pestivirus injection in our replacement heifers because they are at most risk of being susceptible."
He said the additional benefit of having a split calving system is they can sell cattle and have an income nearly all year round.
"We sell vealers from late October to the end of December and start selling the feedlot cattle in March," Mr Norton said.
Weaning at the property is carried out when calves reach nine to 10 months of age.
"All of our Charolais-sired calves will be sold to the supermarket trade regardless of their gender, grassfed or grainfed," he said.
The onsite feedlot at Cloverdale is where all of the Speckle Park cross, Red-Angus steers and Charolais yearlings are finished before being sold to the export or local supermarket trade.
"The steers will enter the feedlot at 10-12 months-old, weighing 350-400kg live weight," Mr Norton said.
"We can fit roughly 60 to 70 in a pen, over five pens."
After spending 60-90 days in the feedlot, the steers will exit weighing about 500-550kg, liveweight which will end up being a 280-310kg carcase, depending on their dressing percentage.
During the time in the feedlot the cattle are bunker fed a complete mixed ration.
"They get a silage and barley straw mix with about 70-80pc, crushed wheat or barley, depending on the time of the year," Mr Norton said.
The family's cropping component is very beneficial, with the Boyup Brook property providing grain-based feed for all livestock and a steady income through wool sheep and surplus grain sales.
"The barley used to be for the dairy cattle when the dairy was operating, but now we sell it through CBH or Bunge, depending on price and quality," Mr Norton said.
"I have done a lot of work with our silage over the year.
"I have been using a complete foliar fertiliser spray when spraying silage and hay paddocks for insects, red mite, lucerne flea and aphids.
"I guess it's like a two-pronged approach with granular fertiliser in mid-August and foliar in early September and extras like fulvics and humates in both granular and foliar form."
These products open up the cell walls of the plants, allowing increased fertiliser uptake.
"Therefore, it increases the forage quality and the end of season pasture production," Mr Norton said.
Hay and silage are grown at the Capel farm, spread across 200ha, with silage making up 150ha and the remainder for hay production.
"We have rotationally grazed all the cattle at Capel for more than 20 years with a mixture of natural and mechanical pasture improvement," Mr Norton said.
"We mostly oversow, without cultivating the pasture completely, so I'm sowing a ryegrass clover mix through autumn."
