Henderson Park calving rates thrive under supplementary program

Henderson Park has been within Annika Anderson's family for five generations, settled in 1865 by her ancestor Ben Barrett who upon migrating to the Barmoya property, cleared land for a dairy and free range piggery operation. The family later grew crops to support this operation such as corn, sweet potatoes and peanuts.

In the second world war, army troops trained along the creek and were fed by the owners on local stock, produce and dairy.

Mount Hedlow was a target during the war, when the American troops had a base on Artillery Road.

The family ran Herefords and shorthorn cattle alongside free-range pigs, which they would move into town by horseback.

While the property has grown and some structures have been re-built after cyclone batterings, old relics of the past still remain, including the old dairy. Nearby a 100 year old dance hall still stands proud beside a faded tennis court - the remnants of an old school, and a fire shed which now hosts the annual Barmoya Bash.

Through succession planning, Mrs Anderson now runs the operation alongside her husband Ryan, who said the pair have implemented innovative new practices to improve land management and animal handling as they move into a predominately Brangus-based herd.

"We bought Nikki's parents out about 10 years ago," Mr Anderson said.

"Initially the property was around 7500 acres, however we were able to purchase around 4500 acres, we are only custodians of this land for a short amount of time. Our intention is to continually improve soil fertility and productivity and hand it on to the next generation in an improved condition."

When it comes to supplementary weight gains, the pair have embarked on a leucaena-based program, moving from finishing bullocks to backgrounding steers or selling weaner steers straight off mum depending on market conditions.

This system has allowed an increase to breeder numbers.

"Previously the average (weight gain per day) was around 500g, leucaena has allowed this daily gain to nearly double," Mr Anderson said.

They use a three-row system of leucaena, spaced six-feet apart, with nine metre inter-rows and a pasture system revolving around species such as Gatton panic, bluegrass, Callide Rhodes, Signal grass and Mekong Brizantha.

"The leucaena benefits us in terms of nutrient cycling, moisture uptake to manage salinity, wind breaks to slow pasture drying, improved pastures and productivity. Since the development of the psyllid resistant variety 'Redlands', psyllids have not been as series an issue for us," Mr Anderson said.

"We've made a few mistakes along the way with the planting, but I think everyone does.

"Once you get it above your head height the cattle struggle to reach it, so the aim is to manage the leucaena to beneath head height (because) the cattle will always favour that new shoot rather than those older leaves and they'll graze the leucaena differently depending on soil types."

Mr Anderson said the family plans to move towards a dominant Brachiaria species, with a favour for a Mekong-mix, and Blue Grass now off the list following a tough few years with mealy bug and pasture die-back.

"The die-back has had a massive impact this year, resulting in an increase in broadleaf weed presence, we have decided to slash and re-pasture using a drill seeder, with the initial phase being a winter-based brassica and feed mix," he said.

"Instead of coming through and spraying...I took through a 15-foot slasher," he said.

"The die-back was really noticeable before the last bit of rain, which has seen the pasture take on a recent flush.

"We have to continually adapt to our conditions, as the mealy bug are targeting our dominant pastures, the only option is to re-pasture with more tolerant species."

Leucueana in most paddocks is now chopped annually to keep it at a manageable height.

For the last few years, the Andersons have been using brassica species such as tillable radishes as soil conditioners to assist with soil regeneration.

"The radishes punch well above their weight, create an amazing amount of organic matter and are a fuel tank for soil microbes," Mr Anderson said.

The family rotates the soil conditioning program to different paddocks each year.

This year the family has direct drilled a winter-based feed and have used a soil conditioning mix consisting of species such as radishes, chicory, turnips, wheat, rye oats for about 300 acres.

"We'll slash whatever's left after the winter graze and then I'll drill straight in with our new pasture mix," Mr Anderson said.

The family grows summer and winter forage crops and cuts hay and silage for their own use.

They also join around 550 cows each year (with a 3.5 month join) retaining their replacement heifers and selling off their steers as weaners or feeders.

They run each bull to about 30-40 cows, mixing and matching depending on size.

"A small number of our own bulls are kept, but we buy most of our bulls in," Mr Anderson said.

The bulls, which are put to work at three years old and retired at seven. The breeding season for the maiden heifers is about 1 month in front of the main breeder herd.

But while they opt for the climate-suitable Brangus, Mr Anderson said he had noticed a significant gap in the saleyard prices between Brangus and flatbacks, anything with a hump often trailing by more than 50 cents .

"There is no doubt that Brahman based breeds are much more suited to this part of the world and we would prefer to breed an animal that doesn't require continual tick and fly control," he said.

"The price gap we see at the saleyards which is driven by the feedlot industry is not reflected in the kill sheet at the meatworks.

"With such a large decrease in the appetite for Brahman-based cattle over recent years at saleyards we have to continually question how we should move forward.

"We've still got a fair way to go but we are cleaning our line up to open up options with agencies such as AuctionsPlus which sell cattle graded in a consistent system according to type, colour, size, sex, composition etc. "

Maiden heifers are joined at two-years-old and while the pregnancy rates sit at around 95 per cent, there are no second chances when it comes to fertility.

The MSA-certified operation means that animals are scored at the abattoir, according to parameters such as; fat color, fat grade, fat depth, dentures, meat color, pH, temperature conductivity etc. with tough penalties for not reaching MSA criteria.

"We struggle to meet MSA criteria without putting them on feed. We can't get it in this part of the world on pasture alone. Leucueana can often get me there, and that's what we've decided is our best option," Mr Anderson said.

"Although we don't sell many steers to the meat works at the moment, we are often finish our cull heifers.

"There are a few basic rules we stick to when selling anything to the meat works; the animals have to be on a rising plane of nutrition, we don't mix mobs within a month of selling, we employ low stress cattle handling techniques and we try and hit weight and fat depth targets.

"With our cattle handling, we try and keep everything steady and quiet. If they're dopey quiet, they're happy and so are we."

The family uses a combination of dogs, bikes and horses to muster and would prefer to call and lead cattle rather than push.

"We use a rotational grazing system where mobs are rotated through the 40 plus paddocks depending on pasture condition," Mr Anderson said.

The family diversified into tourism over 20 years ago and continually grew this business which spans along the banks of a beautiful spring fed creek, often expanding to accommodate more guests and larger and more diverse functions.

The couple hosted more than 300 weddings at the venue along with tens of thousands of local and international visitors.

As it grew and became a standalone business the couple decided to sell off the accommodation area and focus on their farming and mining consultancy businesses.