WHEN Millaa Millaa grazier Graham Elmes sent his first shipment of bullocks to live export late last year he was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
The former Cook Shire mayor and Cape York pastoralist sold 20 Brahman bullocks as slaughter cattle to a boat out of Darwin, bound for Vietnam. The cattle averaged 664kg and sold for $2.70/kg.
It was the first time in his lifetime in the cattle industry that Graham had dipped his toes in the live export market – and its one he’s likely to return to. Up to then, he had sold direct to meatworks in Townsville, with small amounts at the saleyards and a regular contract to a local wholesale butcher.
“I was happy with that (the price),” Graham said. “Put it this way – that’s the market that suits me better. I haven’t got that extra distance to Townsville, I haven’t got to try and work out what grades my bullocks have got to go with fat score and I haven’t got to worry about getting cut to pieces if one side doesn’t come up to the other.
“When I send bullocks to Townsville, if you have a bullock that goes between 340 and 360 kg and one side fits that criteria and the other side comes under the 340 they take up to 5 to 10 cents a kilo off you. With live export I know exactly what I am getting for my bullocks virtually from when they walk on the truck.”
Graham believes live export is vital to northern Australia. “It gives producers another option,” Graham said. “It’s competition for one and then travelling costs. For people up the Cape the cost of getting cattle to Townsville is enormous.”
Graham and wife Lyn moved to the 105 hectare property at Millaa Millaa – renowned as being one of the wettest areas in far north Queensland – from Butchers Hill (now owned by their daughter Erica and her husband Troy D’Addona) about seven years ago. They also lease an adjoining 283 hectares, with the total home to 250 to 300 head of Brahman cattle.
Graham is well known across Cape York. He was raised on Springvale Station and made a name for himself bull catching. He diversified his business interests to include Butchers Hill, a hard rock quarry, mining lease, contract mustering and served as Cook Shire mayor.
Graham is a firm believer in keeping close tabs on cattle markets. “The only way you can survive is you have got to watch your market,” Graham said. “In all the years I’ve been in the cattle industry from the end of January to the end of June the meatworks give you a big tug; as soon as they get the big numbers come in they drop the rate back. You have to play the same game.”
Best Fattening Season in Years
When it comes to land types and rainfall, Lakeland and Millaa Millaa couldn’t be any different.
At their Millaa Millaa property, Graham and Lyn Elmes normally receive about 100 inches of rain – four times the annual average wet at their former home for more than 30 years, Butchers Hill at Lakeland.
While the extra rain is a boon, it does bring its challenges.
“The first year we came here I learnt my lesson – don’t put too much stock. They walk in the mud and rain.”
The weather also causes complications with treatment of tick and lice.
While rainfall records from the past wet are well down – the property received 106.5mm of rain in February compared with 506.5mm in February 2015 last year – Graham believes it has produced the best fattening season since they arrived.
Yet he still considers Cape York as “the best breeding country in Australia”.
“The Cape would have to be the safest breeding country in Australia because you always have rain and a bit of feed.”