FEW would argue against business success beginning and ending with people and managing relationships between them.
With most farming businesses being family owned and managed, the value on relationships is even greater and the stakes sky high.
David and Kim Coulton, ‘Morella’, Boggabilla, south of Goondiwindi, have a multi-generations tale that epitomises what’s possible, with family succession well underway and each of their three sons playing vital roles in the business today.
Managers and employees are considered their most important asset, and agronomic, financial and marketing advisors all are respected and their input highly valued.
Kim is the daughter of Bob and Kerrie Crothers, who owned “Rangers Valley” at Glen Innes (where Kim grew up) and established its feedlot – now the fourth largest in Australia with a 32,000-head capacity.
That childhood link with Rangers Valley continues today, with the Coultons marketing the majority of their Te Mania-blood Angus steers at 430-500kg to Rangers Valley Feedlot, in a supply arrangement that has through feedback highlighted the industry leading performance genetics of their 4000-head cow herd. The Morella Agriculture cropping and cattle business encompasses a wide geographical spread, from Ebor in the Northern Tablelands to the black soil plains surrounding Goondiwindi – the family’s home town – to the iconic Channel Country.
The family runs most of its Angus breeders on the Goondiwindi properties, using natural pastures and forage crops when necessary.
“We believe this helps augment good weaning weights, marbling and female fertility,” Mrs Coulton said.
“The seasons dictate exact weaning age, but we do early wean. This is done by yard feeding and they are then worked outside with horses and motorbikes.” The male portion is then backgrounded and finished on high-rainfall rye, fescue and red clover pasture-based country in the Ebor district, east of Armidale. In March 2015, the family successfully tendered to lease ‘Nappa Merrie’ – 7275 square kilometres of Queensland channel country located three hours west of Thargomindah, with double frontage to Coopers Creek and bound to the west by the South Australian border.
They retained the previous manager, Peter ‘Whip’ Degoumois, and his family, to run ‘Nappa Merrie’ and the Coultons all clamber to be first in line to help out during busy times of processing and mustering.
There, they have the capacity to run as many as 20,000 head.
The property is running crossbred back cattle – a combination of breeders and steers to be turned off as bullocks or sold to feedlots, depending on the season and markets, and with ambition to tap into the increasingly popular grass-fed market.
“Last year, we sent some Angus heifers there and they have acclimatised, handling the area extremely well,” Mrs Coulton said.
“We are now infusing Angus with our crossbred females there.”
“Nappa Merrie” is home to the iconic ‘Dig Tree’, made famous for its part in the 1861 Burke and Wills expedition.
Mr and Mrs Coulton’s three sons, Thomas 30, Andrew 29, and Sam 25, each live on and manage separate properties for Morella Agriculture, bringing youth, enthusiasm and practical common sense to the group.
Tom and wife, Bridget, are based at “Tandawanna North”, Bungunya, Andrew at “Neilo”, Toobeah, and Sam on the home place “Morella” at Boggabilla.
These properties all run Morella Agriculture’s Angus breeding herd, which is split into age groups and multi-joined to sires with similar bloodlines.
The family also produces cotton, wheat, chickpeas, barley, sorghum and corn for grain and mileage –from both irrigated and dryland farming. Despite traditionally preferring to fly ‘under the radar’, the Coultons are now realising the need to support an increased growth in breeding numbers with a strong marketing strategy.
Mr and Mrs Coulton made the decision in 1999 to breed straight Angus cattle, availing themselves to the largest genetic pool of any beef breed in the country.
They use the knowledge and experience of southern NSW agent, Gerard Ryan, Brian Unthank Rural, Albury, to select a number of Angus females from various producers.
At the annual Gundagai short grass sale, the family paid a then-Australian record for three pens of Angus females.
They then headed back south in 2000 to purchase their first bulls from the Gubbins/McFarlane family’s Te Mania Angus Stud, Mortlake, Victoria.
“They had a really good name and we really liked their bulls,” Mrs Coulton said.
