Diversification key to success for central Queensland's indigenous-owned Woorabinda Pastoral Company

Indigenous-operated, WPC is based between Duaringa and in the Aboriginal Shire of Woorabinda, with it's main Foleyvale property based 130km south west of Rockhampton.

WPC is a stand alone company operated through shareholder Woorabinda Council and is not reliant on grants.

The 44,736 hectare aggregation includes six properties, including Foleyvale, Stoney Creek, Dawsonvale, Leishavale, Zamia Creek, and Woorabinda Station.

WPC is a stand alone company, that is not reliant on grants and has been an Incorporated Company since May 20, 1990.

A seven person board of directors reside over the operations of WPC, including WPC chair David Galvin, Woorabinda mayor Josh Weazel, Ray Turton, Amy Brooks, Michael Shannahan, Woorabinda councillors Lawrence Weazel and Dellas Walker.

The company's ceo Tim Thompson has also taken over the reins recently.

WPC chair David Galvin said the company's focus on sustainable grazing management techniques and a good relationship with staff and local contractors, have all contributed to it's business success.

"Our goal here at WPC is to ensure the long term sustainability of the company, while providing employment pathways in agriculture for the Woorabinda community," Mr Galvin said.

With Foleyvale used as WPC base of operations, Mr Galvin said the property is also used for educating and encouraging indigenous youth in the local Woorabinda community to apply for jobs in the agriculture industry.

"It's not just the opportunities of being a ringer, but also opportunities to get involved in the cropping and also on farm apprenticeships," he said.

"There's a fair bit of pride with our group of people who come and work at WPC, in the sense that we're getting back to basics for what we're doing and achieving.

"That's been a really good process for us and in one sense, the cattle side of things is where the employment is, but our cropping is also doing well and it generates a lot of income for WPC, which then can put back into the pastures and of course, the cropping side."

Woorabinda has a significant foot hold in the CQ beef industry, running between 6000-8000 Droughtmaster Brahman Brangus cross cattle, with 22 people employed, including 18 indigenous staff, to assist with mustering and cattle handling.

A recent offering of 200 No.1 and No.2 WPC Brahman and Brangus feeder steers sparked strong bidding competition among feedlot buyers at the Central Queensland Livestock Exchange prime and store sale in February this year, with the lead pen hitting 388.2c/kg.

The offering had an average weight of 462.77kg and returned $1647/head, while the lead pen, a line of 373kg Brahman cross steers, reached 388.2c/kg and equalled $1451/head.

Rockhampton Nutrien Livestock agent Julian Laver commended the large line's quality the day they sold, commenting, "WPC have sent in an excellent order with plenty of weight to do that 100 feeder job."

In recent years, WPC has ventured into Brangus genetics to cross with their high content Brahman genetics.

Livestock manager Lawson Woodard said the cross would ensure WPC's future market versatility in CQ.

"The Brangus are putting good profile into the crossbred progeny," Mr Woodard said.

Mr Woodard has begun installing a seasonal mating program, with the Brangus bulls entering the paddock in early November and coming out at the end of April.

"We reduced the herd through the recent dry years and we were pretty strict on culling for fertility and our conception rate now hovers between 85 to 90 per cent," he said.

In recent times, WPC has been targeting the stores sales at the Gracemere Saleyards, with 12-month-old to two-year-old steers at 320 to 480kg, and cull heifers between 280 to 320kg.

"We've been receiving solid returns selling through CQLX and we've found that our Brangus-cross steers sell for up a $1 per kilo more than the other breeds," he said.

In an effort to improve the Brangus genetics through the Woorabinda herd, Mr Woodard has bought four bulls from the Central Brangus Classic sale in the last two years and also purchased another 14 from vendors' paddocks.

A 5000ha cropping enterprise is incorporated at Foleyvale 16,187 hectare property and at Dawsonvale, which is positioned in the Fitzroy and Mackenzie River catchments.

WPC cropping country consists of a variety of crops including wheat, corn, chickpea, sorghum and mungbean.

"At the moment, we've got about 800ha of sorghum planted there and then on Dawsonvale, we've got another 650ha of mungbeans," Mr Galvin said.

"We've got a good mix of country, it's well spread so if you get a drought at Foleyvale, than an hour away at Zamia Creek it might not have that drought, unless its really pervasive drought or it'll rain at Zamia extremely well."

In recent times, WPC has worked with not-for-profit organisations to improve management practices for it's Foleyvale and Woorabinda properties, including the reduction of stock rates, assessment and planning based on soil and rainfall conditions.

Mr Galvin said WPC continues to adaptively refine these management practices for each property with considerations around soil, rainfall, vegetation, livestock, and staff for their best practice management.

"We make sure that we've got a pretty good system where we can breed on our breeding blocks, then move off to fattening blocks and then on to markets," he said.

"What we're doing now is upgrading fences and we've also e put in another three dams in the last three months at Zamia, which will increase our carrying and background capacity.

"We're also looking at acquiring a 500 mega litre water license through the Rookwood Weir."

If successful, WPC would be able to bolster it's cropping enterprise, seek out new cropping, and grow crops all year round.

"We've got some other options for further water entitlements," Mr Galvin said.

"We'll be thinking about them in the next year and how we can use them to have a continuous cropping regime rather than a stop/start in regards to relying on the climate conditions."

All horses used on all of WPC properties are bred and broken in at Foleyvale, where livestock manager Lawson Woodard has helped managed.

WPC have 16 broodmares currently and they have taken an old-style approach to teaching the indigenous workers how to break in and maintain their saddle equipment.

"There's been strong focus on the horse breeding at WPC in the last couple of years," Mr Woodard said.

"I've got a couple of stallions that I bring in as well, that go over these mares.

"You'll find a lot of these kids have already ridden a horse before, but it helps to train them and show them how to break in a horse."

The use of horses has also cut WPC chopper bill by 74pc.

Woorabinda is in the process of establishing on-farm hay production at their Foleyvale and Dawsonvale blocks.

Mr Galvin said growing their oats, forage sorghum and rhodes hay would ensure their livestock's versatility in times of drought and low feed.

"We've had some pretty hard times at Woorabinda as well, with three years of drought," he said.

"We're just in the middle of starting off our hay production and we're getting all of our equipment ready and we're going to start growing all of our own hay very soon.

"It'll save the company a lot of money in the long run as we buy in a lot of hay when it does get dry, plus it creates training and employment for Woorabinda locals.

"We'll be setting it up so we can feed hay at our finishing block at Zamia."

WPC has also invested in an on-farm grain handling and storage facility at their property at Foleyvale.

Completed 18-months-ago, the facility consists of weighbridge, and 15 silos (50 tonne storage).

Mr Glavin said the facility will improve WPC market timing and access for their grain.

"It's a great investment for QPC and it'll provide jobs for people who want to work there, who maybe don't want to work in the pastoral side of things," he said.

"There's no debt on that facility and we have that flexibility now, which I think is great."

Read more: Is the $5 levy enough for beef to tackle the big issues?

Read more: Top quality drives prices at first Nebo weaner and feeder feature sale