The keys to Blair Plains have changed hands to new owners in a "life-changing" and "life-altering" step in Travis Parry's cattle grazing career.
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The third-generation Speckle Park and Droughtmaster commercial beef producer had made the decision as part of his family's succession planning when an opportunity arose to not only take his venture in a new direction but to help set up his parents, Julie and Lionel, and sister, Katrina.
"We made sure that mum and dad were going to be able to retire comfortably and would be looked after for the rest of their lives...and also set my sister up for her life as well. I'm really proud and happy we were able to achieve that," Mr Parry said.
"The cattle are going to transfer over to me as an individual new business.
While the identities of the new owners remain anonymous for the time being, Mr Parry said the 1600 acre property situated at foothill of Blue Mountain (between Nebo and Sarina) will be passed to a local Wagyu producing family, well-known to the Parry clan on a "walk-in walk-out scenario" minus the herd.
"I'm retaining the cows and working them out with agistment. How long I can profitably do that in the current times, even agistment is quite expensive," he said.
"But it's good to retain the cows (as) I've spent a lot of time and effort on that cow herd in the last few years.
On June 6, Mr Parry will start calving down for the farm's first AI program - a new step on the back of the launch of his Speckle Park stud.
"There (are) a couple of big things in the pipeline...and I'm not looking to purchase anything," he said.
"The plan was to adopt the new technologies and run on an AI program to really pick some good sought-after sires. I can't afford to have bulls in the paddock but I can afford to buy the straws and the program.
"I'll try and pick up a few traits so I have weaners in quite high demand even where there's market pressure at the moment where there's an over supply and anything that's good quality is still bringing in decent money.
"I'm trying to get on a trend where we've got an article in a bit more demand...to stay in a positive trend all the way through."
Mr Parry said while he plans to remain on agistment for the foreseeable future an unpredictable market had left future plans "up in the air".
"Geographically that's dependent on where I end up, what scale I end up with, what I'm even going to be able to afford to do in such a volatile, difficult rural property market at the moment," he said.
"(As well as) a falling, sliding, diving beef price that doesn't want to seem to be want able to find a nice medium, where you could still make a living out of beef cattle.
"(Blair Plains) officially changed titles last week. I'm very fortunate with the family who purchased it as they are understanding of the situation and have allowed us to make a slow transition out of here. We don't have to up and leave straight away.
"The cattle are settled here and we have little time to get everything organised. We'll make sure it all flows and transitions very well...let the dust settle and the cattle will be right to start calving.
"I'm not looking to dive into anything straight away. There are opportunities a plenty at the moment."
