Borden lotfeeder and grain producer Paul O'Meehan, has driven his family farm, based at the foothills of the Stirling Ranges at Borden, to success through developing a thriving beef business.
The farm, dating back four generations, is spread across 12,100 hectares of owned and leased land in the Great Southern that accommodates a feedlot holding up to 5000 head of cattle and 12,000 hectares of grain crops to feed them.
It was founded by Mr O'Meehan's great grandfather in 1906 and was passed down through the generations, and more than 110 years later, operates as a grassfed, grain-finished feedlot producing arguably the best beef around.
After leaving the farm for six years, gaining off-farm experience and educating himself on the ins and outs of farming across Australia and the world, Mr O'Meehan returned home with a plan to produce top-quality, sustainably raised beef.
After taking over the property in 1991, he turned to finishing calves off at one of their Bremer Bay properties in the late 1990s to establishing a feedlot that could hold 5000 head of cattle.
Now, about 2500-3000 predominantly Angus steers are finished in the feedlot, sustainably fed with grains not only grown at the farm - but milled, cleaned, rolled and tempered each day onsite.
Their beef brand, Stirling Ranges Beef, formerly known as Butterfield Beef, inspired by Armidale University professor Rex Butterfield, who worked closely with the O'Meehan family over the years, was transformed by Mr O'Meehan and Greg Ryan at Ryan's Quality Meats, Jandakot and Bunbury, 13 years ago.
The now well-established branded beef partnership between the two families, known as Stirling Ranges Beef, is built on the Ryan family's culinary skills and the O'Meehan family's farming knowledge, where they share 160 years of knowledge and experience to be a cut above the rest.
Although Stirling Ranges Beef started out as a business partnership, it soon became a long-term friendship between the two families that are tremendously focused on paddock-to-plate beef production.
"We have managed to build a great brand and relationship with Ryan's Quality Meats that has a local name attached to it, meaning consumers can trace where their product comes from," Mr O'Meehan said.
"It's not just about the product or the brand, but also about how passionate we are about keeping our customers happy and building relationships with them and our cattle suppliers too."
The O'Meehans have a long-standing supply relationship with Woolworths that dates back to when they were finishing calves in Bremer Bay.
A business of the scale of Stirling Ranges Beef needs a large team to keep it going, and joining Mr O'Meehan and his partner Maryjane Gibbs is feedlot manager Brett Page, cropping manager Isaac Baum, Integrated Animal Production (IAP) nutritionist John Doyle, Stirling Ranges Beef HR manager Steve Stanley, cattle buyer John Gallop and consultant David Falconer.
Being the close-knit group that the farm aspect of Stirling Ranges Beef is, each member of the business is constantly reminded they are valuable.
"Everyone remotely involved in the business is always a part of our planning process," Mr O'Meehan said.
"This is from our stakeholders, agronomist, chemical supplier, transport company, right down to AFGRI Equipment.
"We tell them what we need and it gives them the opportunity to say what they need from us in return to make their job easier and vice versa, we all have a part to play and we have good relationships with all parties involved."
The majority of the cattle are sourced from the Great Southern area by Mr Gallop, from a select 40 producers that grass rear cattle, which are finished on grain to ensure great taste, marbling and tenderness.
"We have consecutive producers that have been supplying their steers to Stirling Ranges Beef for more than 20 years dating back to when we were trading as Butterfield Beef," Mr O'Meehan said.
"It's great to have long-standing suppliers because we are able to assist them with their breeding objective and in return they learn the ins and outs of the feedlot processes."
Cattle are bought weekly by Mr Gallop, and Mr O'Meehan said the optimum weight bracket target shifts often, mainly due to grain prices.
"If prices go up we are buying heavier cattle," he said.
"Two years ago we were selecting cattle that weighed 300 kilograms, and now we are sourcing cattle that weigh 360-420kg."
Prior to entering the feedlot, steers are inducted before being background fed, which is all dependent on the amount of cattle in the feedlot at any one time.
The process involves identifying where the cattle are from, recording their arrival date, weight and breed, followed by administering various vaccinations and drenches.
"We give the cattle a bovine viral diarrhoea vaccine, and vaccinate accordingly depending on the animal's history," he said.
"Depending on how busy the market is for buying cattle, we will induct no more than 300 cattle a week to ensure they are all happy, settled and stress-free."
The steers will then be background fed for one to four weeks before they enter the feedlot, and their time being backgrounded is deciphered by the cattle capacity in the feedlot at the time.
"It depends on how quick we are selling beef, so once we sell a load we can put more cattle into the feedlot," Mr O'Meehan said.
The steers are fed a soft grain ration during their time in the backgrounding pens, made up of 40pc barley and 60pc roughage, being silage and hay and a small amount of lupins.
"It gives us confidence that our background ration meets the lotfeeding standards of energy and protein," he said.
"So, even though they are being backgrounded, it is a ration that enhances quality.
"It is a slow growing ration, but enhances quality so they can lay marbling rather than pushing them too much."
After the steers are background fed for an adequate amount of time, they will enter the feedlot for a minimum of 60 days, all the way up to 100 days.
"On average, the steers will spend 75-80 days," Mr O'Meehan said.
"There will be the odd few that will spend more than 100 days in the feedlot due to being shy eaters or having trouble socially adapting when they enter the feedlot.
"They also all grow differently, some will grow faster than others, and when this happens we use a tool called limit feeding."
The limit feeding process means taking away some of the cattle's feed so they can match the weights of their pen mates.
"We have a system that will show each individual animal and how much it's eating, not eating or needs to eat," he said.
The lotfed cattle are fed bunk-style, in concrete troughs on the main finishing ration that is milled, mixed and fed out daily.
The ration consists of 80pc barley, first mixing the hay and macromix together, followed by canola oil, barley and the silage.
Before the beef is sent off to Woolworths or Ryan's Quality Meats, cattle are handpicked based on their weight.
"This ensures the cattle we send to market are as even as possible," Mr O'Meehan said.
"We send about 80 bodies to Ryan's Quality Meats each week, that each weigh an average of 275kg and 92 for Woolworths per week that weigh 295kg on average.
"The cattle are then processed at V & V Walsh and delivered to Ryan's Quality Meats."
Another supplier of the brand is Albany Farm Fresh Foods, owned by Beau and Colin Ford, owners of Frankland River Pork and Albany Farm Fresh Eggs, which has recently begun stocking Stirling Ranges Beef, among other locally produced products.
To complement the mouth watering meats Stirling Ranges Beef has to offer, good mates Mr O'Meehan and Mr Ryan created Our Dad's Shiraz, to celebrate their families partnership and dedicated to Tony O'Meehan and the late Denis Ryan, the 'dads'.
The wine was specially crafted to be paired with their tasty Stirling Ranges Beef.
As the feedlot expanded over the years, the farm's infrastructure underwent significant changes, particularly in terms of removing fences to make the farm crop friendly.
The 12,000ha of crop is grown on the property to accommodate feed for the cattle.
This year the O'Meehan family and the Stirling Ranges Beef team cropped 5000ha of canola, with the remaining 7000ha dedicated to wheat, barley, silage, lupins and a small amount of faba beans.
"We use a no-till technique and rotate our crops annually to ensure good sustainability," Mr O'Meehan said.
