Graziers Steven and Rebecca Cadzow gave visitors at the Northern Beef Producers Expo a detailed overview of how they’ve incorporated innovative beef-related practices and technology into their operation to maximise efficiency and increase profits.
The Cadzow’s manage the 2,633 square kilometre Mt Riddock Station, situated 200km north-east of Alice Springs which runs 11,500 Poll Hereford cattle.
One of the major changes the Cadzows have made is to shift to an eight paddock rotational grazing strategy on buffel grass pastures.
“We have found that by using rotational grazing practices we are maximising our available feed, our cattle are eating more and we are achieving a more even level grazing pasture,” Steven said.
“We move between 500-600 head of cattle into a paddock for a maximum of 21 days then shift them to the next paddock,” he said.
“By doing this the grass is given time to recuperate and cattle are continuously moving onto fresh grass and growing all of the time.”
Rebecca said they’ve also installed a series of telemetry units, solar bores and a remote livestock management system (RLMS) to significantly reduce the amount of fuel and labour needed to manage the operation.
“By installing the telemetry and RLMS system we can keep abreast of any problems or note changes that need to made to increase the efficiency of the operation from anywhere via laptop or mobile phone,” she said.
“The telemetry unit paid for itself in just over a week, it’s totally changed our day-to-day running of the business.”
Rebecca said that Steven and herself often have opposing views on how the operation should be run which has proven advantageous in the long-run.
“Listening to each others point-of-view has led to us creating a dynamic and diverse business, in which we’ve had to alter the way we think about and approach many issues.”
The Cadzow’s said their future goals include increasing the scale of their rotational grazing system by incorporating more paddocks and purchasing more RLMS and telemetry systems to further reduce labour and fuel costs.
“Our objective like any other grazier is to increase our bottom line, and while we aren’t saying our way is necessarily the best way, it suits us,” Rebecca said.
