Bold move west to Wilcannia

However the couple, who run a pure Hereford cattle herd on their 30,365-hectare property, Cawkers Well Station, between Wilcannia and Broken Hill, have certainly made it work.

Previously running a herd of 80 cattle on a small grazing block near Maryborough, Victoria – where they ran the family bakery – producing cattle wasn’t a completely foreign notion when they bought the large western aggregation.

When the Townsings purchased Cawkers Well in 2006, the property was running a herd of half Angus and half Hereford cattle, as well as up to 9000 sheep on agistment, but after careful consideration they switched to a complete whiteface herd.

Mr Townsing said the main reasoning behind going with the Hereford herd was because “they do better in tough conditions”.

“Hereford cattle really suit the western division,” he said.

Initially buying 65 stud cows with calves from the Charvel Hereford stud dispersal sale at Roma, Queens-

land, the couple now run about 600 breeding cows and progeny, as well as using excess country for agistment.

As they were still in the early stages of their breeding program, Mr Townsing said they had bought bulls from Charvel, Merawah at Boggabilla, and Sevenbardot, Bylong.

Mr Townsing said when purchasing a bull they looked for a quiet temperament, good growth for age, high muscling ability and bone structure.

As they had such a large area to cover, the bulls also needed to be fit and able to walk long distances.

Aiming to breed “good, soft, quiet Hereford cattle”, Mr Townsing said they had focused heavily on impro-

ving property structures as well as ensuring they were doing everything they could to look after the land.

While breeding cattle was remarkably different in the western division than on the inner country, he said they still aimed to calve in spring and autumn.

The two calvings allowed them to spread their cashflow, take advantage of the seasonal conditions and produce steers that could fit into a specific weight range.

Despite the large paddock sizes and long distances between yards, the calves were yard weaned for 10 days, to educate them for feedlots.

“We yard wean to break the bond between cow and calf and to introduce them to water troughs and feed troughs,” Mr Townsing said.

As they were still trying to build up the numbers of their herd and replace any breeder that was 10 years old and above, Mr Townsing said they kept about 75 per cent of the heifer progeny.

While they normally sold steers at 280 to 300 kilograms and 10 months old, it depended on the season.

“In a year like we are having now with an abundance of feed, we have decided to grow our steers out to between 450kg and 500kg,” he said.

Having sold the cattle through saleyards so far, Mr Townsing said they were hoping to change to selling direct to feedlots.

With the closest saleyards at least 600 kilometres away, big loads were needed to make the trip worthwhile.

Despite the country having dried out, it has been their best season at Cawkers Well and there was still ample amounts of bulk, dry feed.

The cattle grazed mostly on native western division grasses, including Mitchell grass, blue bush, black bush, copper burr, clover and herbage.

However, as the season had recovered so well after the drought, there were species this year which they couldn’t find in their plant guide to the NSW rangeland.

Mr Townsing said they were hoping to build breeding numbers closer to optimal stocking capacity.

Fence ensures tip top cattle

SINCE making a lifestyle change to the western division station, Cawkers Well, between Wilcannia and Broken Hill, Charles and Fay Townsing have done more than just start breeding quality Hereford cattle.

To ensure the cattle were in top condition before sale, the couple applied for and received a GroundCover Program Grant to erect a 10-kilometre electric fence to divide a 7692-hectare paddock.

Mr Townsing said the smaller paddock was built to improve the capacity to sell store cattle on-property.

Only used for short periods of time during marketing, it ensured pasture conditions were maintained and reduced the need for supplementary feeding before sale.

As cattle usually had to travel long distances to a market, Mr Townsing said the smaller paddock with its abundance of native pasture meant they had more marketing options and had developed a reputation with finishers and feedlotters as a reliable source of store quality cattle.

To allow greater access to watering points and reliability of water, the couple replaced all the diesel pumps on the property with Mono solar pumps.

This change means all watering points are powered by the sun, dramatically reducing the running and servicing costs of pumps since the rise in fuel prices and the need for re-fuelling trips.

Mr Townsing said these environmental changes and improvements helped with the overall running of the operation.