“Proud” is how Ashley Kirk succinctly described Rockley Brahmans’ return to the stud selling arena at the Big Country Brahman Sale held at Charters Towers earlier this week.
It has been a long road to recovery for Ashley, Chris and Sally Kirk and their Bajool-based stud which was placed under quarantine in November 2012 after three cows on-property tested positive to Bovine Johne’s Disease (BJD).
Ashley said the Big Country sale was chosen as the place for the stud to make its return because of the great success Rockley has had there in the past.
“We’ve sold a lot of bulls in the northern region, and we want to renew our focus on selling in the north with our new line of bulls,” he said.
“The growing demand in the north for cattleman looking for a elite red polled genetics is also a driving factor in us wanting to reestablish our brand at the sale.
“We still have limited numbers to choose from when it came to selecting our sale team, and we only wanted to sell bulls which live up to the high quality of what we used to sell at Big Country in the past, which is why the draft was comparatively small in size.”
Ashley said he’s ecstatic about the sale result with bidder’s embracing Rockley’s return to selling and engaging in some spirited bidding which saw Lot 69, Rockley Diplothia 07 go under the hammer for $24,000, while their second bull netted another $5000.
“To say we’re excited is an understatement. It’s been a long time coming. We’ve dealt with a lot of important issues, and we’ve had to overcome huge challenges.
“It’s a bit surreal being able to sell again; when things are going normally you take it for granted that you can load your cattle up and sell where you like.
The Kirk’s have been working closely with officials to create draft guidelines and policy that would view BJD in Australia as a biosecurity issue that can be effectively managed on-farm.
“I think it’s realistic to let graziers manage future BJD occurrences personally.”
Ashley said the proposed national BJD policy due to be implemented this year represent a sensible and appropriate approach.
“BJD will now be viewed as an on-farm biosecurity management issue that’s entrusted to producers and with the responsibility for checking animals for BJD shared by producers and buyers.
“Importantly, the new policy contains no further BJD ‘free, protected and management’ zoning.
“There will be no further quarantining or herd culling and no further differentiation in the rules for different strains of BJD. And under the new policy, BJD will remain a notifiable disease and individual states may restrict livestock movement across borders.”
He said during Rockley’s BJD quarantine nightmare the processes they had to go through didn’t really achieve anything, in terms of economic gain for the greater good of the industry.
“We had to deal with flawed policies, which led us to massive financial losses and the compensation still hasn’t been adequate.
“I was pretty disappointing with the industry response, I felt we were hung out to dry by AgForce, Cattle Council Australia and the Queensland government, along with unkept promises from state agricultural ministers.”
“No one has taken responsibility for how BJD got onto our property in the first place. The source has never been found.
“It’s been revealed that it wasn't an outbreak and out of all of the hundreds of bulls slaughtered for the good of the industry, not one spread it to another property.
“A great injustice has been serviced on many hard working families in Australia that haven’t been adequately compensated.
“I still believe Industry has an obligation to implement a biosecurity fund and repay those that have been financially affected.”
He said it’s hard to gauge the income the stud has lost of over the last three-plus years comparative to if it’d been business as usual over that period, but he estimated it would be close to $2 million.
“During the process of phasing the suspect cattle out of our herd we are being paid meatworks prices for cattle which before the BJD situation arose would have sold at stud prices. These financial and genetic losses are still ongoing.”
He said that despite the challenges and mental toll that the quarantine created he was determined to keep the business going no matter what.
“Even though we were angry and frustrated a lot of the time, we always remained passionate about what we do, and our determination to get back to where we were played a big part in what kept us all going.
“It wasn’t an easy path and our recovery is ongoing, but we agreed that we’d do whatever it took to get our stud back on track.”
Ashley said the silver lining that has come out of the ordeal is that he’s undergone a lot of personal development and really taken ownership of the stud, within the family business.
“I think when something like this happens you either sink or swim it’s a really test of character. It’s forced me get out of my comfort zone and become a lot more hands on in learning how the industry works and in trialing new practices within the operation that we probably wouldn’t have gone with had we not been forced to start from scratch.
Changes that the Kirk’s have included in the reformation of the Rockley herd include the use of advanced IVF/genetics breeding processes; their Elite Weaner Program, low stress handling techniques and science-led nutrition.
“I think the work we have done in producing the new herd will result in a better quality of line of cattle.”
And though he’s happy to be selling in the stud arena again, Ashley said there is still a lot of work ahead.
“We are still in the process of building herd bulls numbers to where they were which will take a long time.
“While it’s nice to be selling bulls at auction again, it was the herd bulls that provided us with our bread and butter income wise.
“We have calves coming through now from the new herd that will be able to be sold in the near future, but it’s frustrating as a breeder to have to go through years and years of work to get back to were we were, while still maintaining the high standards we place on the cattle we produce.”
“The next big step to help reestablish the Rockley brand will be when we attend the World Brahman Congress being held in Rockhampton in May, where we’ll be taking a selection of cattle for exhibition to showcase the work we’ve done.