Diverse feedlot program
PRODUCING strictly grass-fed beef is where Stuart Tait sees the value for his farming enterprise.
At 27, Stuart runs the 2000ha family property at Mandurama, in central NSW, with his parents, John and Jo.
After returning to the farm in 2014 – having attended Marcus Oldham College at Geelong and working on other properties – Stuart said the family expanded on the 1400ha home farm at Mandurama and bought a cropping block at nearby Canowindra, which allowed for diversity. At Mandurama, the Taits run 550 self-replacing angus breeding cows, and finish all steers and non-replacement heifers. Depending on the season, they also buy in between 300 and 800 weaner calves each year to finish to trade weights.
“We target all our steers at the heavy end of the feedlot market and grass-fed programs,” Stuart said.
They also grow dryland wheat and canola at Canowindra and aim to plant 110ha of canola and 150ha of grain-only wheat this year.
Stuart said they were also significantly expanding their dual-purpose cropping program. They have 160ha of dual-purpose wheat planted, up from 25ha last year, which they will graze steers on in June and July, before locking it up for harvest in the first week of August.
STEER COURSE
THIS flexibility means they do not stick to a rigid daily routine of monitoring the weight of their steers either.
Stuart said the aim was for the steers to put on 1kg of weight a day, every day.
“We do try to leave them alone as much as possible,
but we have three golden rules for the steers,” he said.
“One being they have to have good genetics, whether that is the ones we breed or buy in. Two, the steers have to have good animal health and the third is they have to have good pastures. If one of those three is missing we are not achieving that 1kg a day.” GRAIN AND GRAZE
THIS sparked the idea for Stuart’s 2017 Nuffield scholarship, to investigate
integrated beef and cropping systems.
“We can’t have ryegrass for 12 months of the year, so my study is looking at how we can fill the feed gap in a grass-fed system,” he said.
“I want to find pastures, forage crops or dual-purpose crops that can provide good quality feed for 12 months of the year at a low cost.”
Stuart has recently embarked on his final study tour to New Zealand.
At Mandurama, where the average rainfall is 800mm, cows are run on a phalaris, sub-clover perennial pasture, while the paddocks the steers are finished on have tall fescue, cocksfoot and phalaris with sub-clover.
The Taits have also started developing shorter, more intense rotations with annual Italian ryegrass, dual-purpose crops and summer forage crops.
“We are aiming to breed progeny with a low birth weight for ease of calving, steers which are fast growing and moderate-sized cows, because big cows cost more to feed,” Stuart said.
Calving is in July-August and he said they cull strictly on fertility with a six-week joining for heifers, which calve at two years.
“Essentially we want live calves on the ground, which turn into good steers for the feedlot market,” he said.