Years of hard work, uncertain season and market conditions, drought proofing and investment is finally paying off for West Coorow Angus producers, Steele and Laura Rudd, who continue to push their hardy herd to success.
Although the initial purchase of Rudd Family Farms wasn't specifically for prime cattle production, the Rudd family can now vouch that producing Angus cattle for the WA beef market was a wise choice.
Having both grown up on multi-generational properties in the Mid West, Mr Rudd being from a cattle and irrigation background in Lancelin, and Ms Rudd coming from a sheep and grain property at Coorow, the pair thrives off the land, as do their children Eleanor, 3 and George, 1.
With the option to go into business and purchase the property with his parents Murray and Lesley Rudd in 2011, Mr Rudd jumped at the opportunity to continue building the family business in 2016 after hanging the boots up on his mechanical career in the mining industry.
An original goal to potentially delve into the sheep and cropping game was soon laid to rest when the Rudd family came across the Willcocks property that was set up to rotationally graze cattle.
Soon after, the family purchased multiple mobs of predominantly Angus cattle that were too good to pass up, and the rest was history.
"We started out with mostly Angus cattle, although some were crossed with Droughtmaster, Murray Grey, Santa Gertrudis and Red Angus," Mr Rudd said.
"From there we began to build up our straight-bred Angus numbers and continue to do that now too."
In the unique locality of Eganu, cattle isn't the first or most popular enterprise to get into, however the Rudds were eager to breed quality Angus cows that could perform well in the sometimes unforgiving local environment.
"The cattle we run perform well up here and are really hardy considering where we live," Mr Rudd said.
"On top of them handling the heat really well, they are a really quick growing breed which is what we base our enterprise around."
Their current 300 predominantly Angus breeders graze across their 6500 hectares between their four properties at West Coorow and Carnamah, which is made up of both owned and leased blocks.
The whereabouts of the cattle, in terms of what property they are kept on, is based on their age.
"The cattle are spread out across all of our farms," Mr Rudd said.
"We will keep the younger heifers at the home farm, and then keep the breeders on a lease farm close by and the older, more hardy cattle on some of our more challenging country because they still do well there."
Prior to 2019, the Rudds had built their stock numbers up to 500 head across two of their properties, before quickly learning how hard it can be to feed at such a large scale during dry summers and drought years.
"We had to drop stocking numbers at that point, there just wasn't enough feed, but we are finding sitting at 300 head at the moment is working well for us," Mr Rudd said.
When it comes to breeding, an intensive mating program works best.
The bulls will go out in June, with the cows for eight weeks and the heifers for 10 weeks.
"We allow longer on the heifers just in case they are shy maters," Mr Rudd said.
"The heifers and cows are bred separately and in age groups, we like to work on roughly three bulls to 100 breeders."
The breeding team comprises 18 bulls that are from the Dewar family's Ardcairnie Angus stud at Guilderton, as well as a few of their own young, smaller bulls.
"We retain our younger, smaller bulls to go over our heifers, when they are both about 14 months old and rotate the older bulls through the older breeding groups," Mr Rudd said.
A combination of stock agent advice, Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) and visual appraisal are used to assist the bull selection process, with low birthweight a big factor.
"Having a bull with low birthweight figures is big for us, as well as growth rates," Mr Rudd said.
"We'll look over the catalogue prior to the sale and then on sale day we will match the numbers with the bulls.
"Visually we will select an animal with a small frame and head, straight back, shiny coat, and no hump on its tail."
Annually pregnancy testing each November has been a helpful tool in recent years and allows the Rudds to tighten up their herd.
"We are sitting at about 95 to 98 per cent conception across the herd," Mr Rudd said.
"Any cows or heifers that are dry after scanning will be sent to the Muchea Livestock Centre for sale.
"Following an April calving, the marking process will be carried out in early November, to be lined up with the pregnancy scanning process.
"This way, we are getting the cattle into the yards once instead of twice close together," Mr Rudd said.
"Not long after the calves are marked and the cows are scanned, the bulls will go in again with the breeding herd, which includes the previous year's drop of heifers, so basically, the breeders will still have calves on them when they are pregnant again.
"At scanning we will also drench for worms and give cobalt, copper and selenium bullets."
Mr Rudd said stereotypically, they aimed to produce something different to what the usual Angus producer would.
"We want offspring that have a small frame for easy-calving, a smaller head and straight back," he said.
"A lot of people want bigger-framed Angus, but personally, I want something lower to the ground and smaller so it's more efficient, we just can't afford to have heavier cattle, the country we farm on can't handle it.
"We'd prefer to run more smaller cattle compared to fewer larger cows."
At Rudd Family Farms, there is no intervention for weaning unless it is needed for the calves to sell.
"The calves are usually sold before they need to be weaned, which seems to be more efficient, and they usually self-wean when their mums dry up, so they are eating dry feed prior to being sold," Mr Rudd said.
The steer calves are usually sent off to be sold at the Muchea Livestock Centre, starting with the heaviest calves in November, and then slowly filtering through the December and January sales as they get heavier until they are all gone.
"Due to market prices this year we have held onto all our calves, and hope to sell them in February or March, when hopefully, the prices are a bit better," Mr Rudd said.
On the ordinary farming calendar year, the steers would be sold and the heifer progeny would be retained, and grown out until the following breeding season when they are joined at 14 months.
"We usually cull some of the heifers and keep 50 to 60 to join, and then cull any that come up dry at scanning will go too," Mr Rudd said.
The rotational grazing program at Rudd Family Farms is endless, with cattle being rotated all-year-round on each of the properties.
"On the main farm, we have eight large paddocks that are split into four with hot wires," Mr Rudd said.
"There is a trough in the middle and they rotate around the trough for the whole year, moving them every three to four days.
"The only time we will pause the rotation is at Christmas time when they feed off of the stubbles post-harvest.
"We crop just short of 2000ha of hay, silage, wheat and lupins."
On top of the good feed source the stubbles offer, the properties have been seeded with perennials to provide green feed through the summer months.
"The aim is to have the cattle on green feed as much as possible," Mr Rudd said.
"We use Barenbrug Australia's great northern mix, which is made up of Megamax, Gatton Panic and Rhodes grass.
"The cattle are fed silage virtually all-year-round as well, it has been a game changer for us.
"One silage roll seems to be equivalent to three bales of hay and hold all the nutrients and minerals needed, elevating the need for dry lick.
"We use our straw and hay mainly for putting in the yards nowadays."
Two years ago, the Rudds installed Farmbot water sensors to improve and ease the farm management.
"Some of our other properties are up to 40 kilometres away, so it has been a really good time management tool too," Mr Rudd said.
"This has also been another gamechanger for us, because now we can check the water levels and get notified if something is wrong without having to waste time driving there and back."
