Semple’s Santa solution

Now, some 40 years later, the couple have gone from strength to strength and built their cattle and cropping operation in partnership with son, Andrew, and his wife, Justine, based on “Coolibah”, Dysart, Queensland, into a profitable, well-managed system.

Since the purchase of “Coolibah” in 1971, the Semples have used purebred Santa Gertrudis cattle as their base and still maintain the purebred line of Santas, which they cross over Brahmans.

The Semples own three properties: the main property, “Cooli-bah”, and “River Downs”, near Dysart, and a breeder block,Carlo Station, on the Northern Territory/Queensland border, south-west of Boulia.

They purchased “Coolibah” in their early 20s because Mr Semple decided there was no future in the smaller block he part-owned south of Biloela.

So he and Mrs Semple went to an auction in Mackay for an unimproved 5393-hectare brigalow parcel, which Mr Semple thought he had no chance of purchasing.

“Bruce said, ‘Don’t worry dear; we haven’t got a chance – this is such good country’,” Mrs Semple said.

They went on to pick up the property for what the couple thought was a brilliant price of $5.40/acre plus the value of improvements, which was an extra $7000.

The property had virtually nothing on it – almost no fencing, house, water, yards or electricity – so the first thing to do was build infrastructure.

The Semples admit the first decade or so of owning “Coolibah” was tough going.

The beef recession hit in the 1970s and Mr Semple was forced to work in the mines from 1975 to 1983, which turned out to be a blessing, as the job came with a house in Dysart.

Ironically, the Semples now face the prospect of losing land to mining and gas projects.

Having an off-farm job meant Mr Semple was effectively working around the clock, as he would tend to “Coolibah” during the day and then clock on for work at night.

“There were plenty of strikes at that stage so I got plenty of time off. For the first eight months I only worked one full fortnight,” Mr Semple said.

Straight after purchase, the Semples installed fencing and pulled 1416ha of brigalow scrub.

“Bruce looked at ‘Coolibah’ and said, ‘I never thought I’d see that much good land in one parcel’,” Mrs Semple said.

While Mr Semple thought $5.40/acre was a top price for “Coolibah”, his rival bidder had other ideas.

“When we bought it there was only one other bidder who said to us ‘You’re mad; you can’t pay that for a place’,” Mr Semple said.

“We thought it was ridiculously cheap and he thought it was ridiculously dear. The brigalow blocks went from that price and then at the next auction they all doubled. We got the only good block that went cheap.”

In 1985 the Semples added to their portfolio with the purchase of the nearby 3273ha “River Downs” as a fattening block, and in 1990 they began seriously farming, and now grow dryland chickpea and sorghum on about 1700ha of “Coolibah”.

In 2005 they added further land to their portfolio with the purchase of the 210,436ha Carlo Station as a breeder block.

The Semples turn off about 900 head of cattle each year and at peak run a total herd of about 4000.

They cross Santa Gertrudis bulls over Brahman cows for their commercial operation.

Currently, about 1200 breeders are run on Carlo Station, and 250 on “Coolibah” and “River Downs”, and they look to retain about 200 heifers a year.

The replacement heifers are generally trucked back to Carlo Station when they are 16 to 18 months old.

In May and June each year, they muster on Carlo Station and transport about 800 young cattle, aged between three and 15 months old, the 1300km back to “Coolibah” and “River Downs” where they are then fattened on some 1254ha of leucaena.

The heifers are then turned off at 18 months of age – most of which make the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grade – while steers are generally sold into the Jap Ox market at 30 months old, depending on the season.

Mr and Mrs Semple have been breeding the same purebred line of Santa Gertrudis cattle for more than 50 years.

“My uncle went to America and selected a Santa Gertrudis bull in 1957 and then put him over purebred Zebu cows, and (the Semples’ cattle) are direct – they’ve been bred straight Santa from 1957,” Mr Semple said.

He said the Santa cattle were perfectly suited to their operation; they thrive on the good country at Dysart but still handle the sometimes tougher conditions on Carlo Station.

“They just do extremely well. They handle Carlo Station – the calves do well out there – then you bring them (to “Coolibah” and “River Downs”) and they do extremely well and make the grade.”