Program evolves at Rhodes Pastoral

Originally founded in the 1950s by Donovan Francis Duncan Rhodes, the company, DFD Rhodes Pty Ltd, owned by the Rhodes family has experienced many successes in leaps and bounds over the years.

Now, made up of 17,000 hectares spread throughout the two shires, the company runs 850 Angus breeders, 26,000 Merino ewes, crops 5500ha and has recently experienced a very successful inaugural ram sale for its Boree Park White Suffolk stud.

With passion driving its purpose to produce quality stock and grain to the WA agriculture industry, and having three enterprises operating on such a large scale under one business, Rhodes Pastoral is ensuring no stone is left unturned.

The business employees 22 staff, with three making up the cattle team, led by experienced cattle manager John Curtin who has been with the company for five years.

Supporting Mr Curtin is Ian Smith and Brett Kinsman, who both have an abundant amount of knowledge and have extensive backgrounds in the farming industry.

What started out as an Angus steer finishing set-up 10 years ago, soon turned into a breeding program when an opportunity came up to source breeders from Coonac Angus, Wilga.

Now, seven years on, after breeding and expanding herd numbers, and farm purchases that included cattle based on the similar genetics, the cattle team manages 850 breeders, which are now heavily based on Coonamble bloodlines.

The Rhodes Pastoral bull team comprises 32 bulls, made up of sires from the Davis family's Coonamble Angus stud, Bremer Bay and the Wallace family's Springhills Angus stud, Boyup Brook.

Both Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) and visual appraisal are taken into consideration when picking suitable bulls for the breeding program.

"Leading up to the sale I will study the catalogue, and then go do a visual assessment of the catalogue favourites on sale day," Mr Curtin said.

"When I look at the bulls EBVs I'm focusing a lot on good milk and 400-day growth figures, as well as low birthweight, temperament and gestation period."

In the past three years, Mr Curtin and the team have intensified the breeding program significantly, especially when it comes to the heifers.

Leading up to their first mating when they are 18 months old, the first calvers will receive a feed ration mix of oats, barley, canola, hay and silage, which starts being fed pre-weaning.

"They will have that right through to winter, which is when we will add a bit of straw to maintain their condition alongside the green feed," Mr Curtin said.

"The idea is to gain maximum weight growth and get the animal to develop a lot earlier, which is another thing we focus on.

"In recent years we have managed to get weights of up to 500kg plus at the heifers first mating when they are 18 months old."

The 850 breeders, which also include 200 heifers, are joined in late June for 10 weeks, in age groups.

"We aim to have a bull to 30-cow ratio, with heifers joined separately to our cow herds," Mr Curtin said.

"We run roughly 11 mating groups, with roughly 75-90 head in each."

Rotating the bulls during the mating season seems to be improving the conception rates during the scanning process when the herd reaches about 17 weeks gestation.

"We achieved 96 per cent conception with our heifers at scanning and 90pc with our cows," Mr Curtin said.

"This is due to good growth leading up to joining, good bull selection and selecting the right breeding animals with the help of Paul Reilly."

Since intensifying their breeding program, the decision to mate 200 heifers to be sold as pregnancy tested in calf (PTIC) females was made.

"We generally sell 100 of them PTIC and retain the rest for ourselves," Mr Curtin said.

Any stock that is dry after the scanning process is isolated and sent off to the abattoir within a few weeks.

With a well-structured vaccination and feeding program in place, the cattle team will vaccinate the pregnant cattle with Ultravac 7in1 and a drench prior to calving, as well as feeding silage out a month in advance.

"The silage is to get the cows milk production up before calving and it has proved to work well," Mr Curtin said.

When calving commences in late March, Rhodes Pastoral has noticed that 75pc of the calves drop in the first four weeks of the 10 week calving period.

"We continue feeding out silage, and add hay once the cows have calved down, and do that for the first seven weeks of calving," Mr Curtin said.

"A hay buggy is always used to feed out, which is very helpful because the way the hay is spread out reduces the risk of calves getting trampled and the other cattle aren't pushing calves away to get to the food."

An improved animal health program means the marking system at Rhodes Pastoral is a lot more efficient and low-stress for the calves.

"Recently we purchased an offsider spin-a-calf marking cradle, which has made the world of difference, stress and speed wise," Mr Curtin said.

"We vaccinate the calves with an Ultravac 5in1 and Mulitmin, and then with another Multimin shot and Rhinogard in between marking and weaning."

With an emphasis on low stress stock handling, Mr Curtin said the cattle team won't work cattle in the heat.

"We will either bring them in the night before to settle them for the following day, or pick a day when the weather is cooler," he said.

"We have undercover yards at Rhodes which makes a massive difference too, for us and the cattle."

Low-stress stock handling is also the backbone of the weaning process, which was originally carried out in December, and pushed back to January to ease farm management.

"This year, for the first time just before weaning, we gave our calves a new feeding program," Mr Curtin said.

"The calves will receive a mix of oats, barley and canola meal in the feeders when they are still with their mothers.

"We've set up a bar system so that the calves can access the feeders but the cows can't."

The reason behind the new bar feeding system this year, was to try and get the calves' rumen developed early.

"This way, by the time they are weaned they know how to eat and drink properly," he said.

"We have noticed already that the calves are more settled this way and are growing out nicely, and noticed the cows stayed in good condition during the new weaning and feeding process."

Rhodes Pastoral aim to breed a good, long, deep, solid-framed animal, with smooth shoulders, rump and a good temperament, is taken into consideration post-weaning when the replacement heifers are hand-picked.

"This is what we select for with the 60pc of heifer progeny we keep, as well as their growth rates and where they sit in the mob's consistency," Mr Curtin said.

"All the steers will be sold to lotfeeders at an average liveweight of about 370kg at the end of February, while the heifer progeny will be vaccinated with Pestigard and PI tested.

"We will then put the heifers back onto grain and silage feeders prior to joining, and then anything dry at scanning will be sent off."

Due to the 5500ha of Rhodes Pastoral land dedicated to the cropping side of the enterprise, being canola, oats, barley, hay, silage and pasture, rotational grazing space is limited.

"The ability to rotationally graze our cattle is limited due to cropping, although we have great feed supplements for our sheep that we carry over to the cattle portion of the business which means the stock's dietary requirements are always met," Mr Curtin said.

"We also fertilise our pastures every year to ensure the cattle are getting a good winter pick of feed and nutrients from that."

Technology is a big part of the plan in place for not only the cattle side of the business, but the business as a whole.

"We run a system called AgriWebb, which we all have access to, including our Perth office which allows us to track and trace different things around the farm," Mr Curtin said.

"It is a great management tool that we use constantly."

Looking into the future of the Angus herd at Rhodes Pastoral, the cattle team is looking to grow its breeding numbers in the coming years.