Cattle producer Renato Gaspari of Coot's Creek Angus, Hall, ACT, has spent years building his herd up to breed high quality, marbled beef for Rangers Valley and Coles.
But drought has forced him and his manager Lawson Brown to come up with new weaning strategies to allow them to reach the quality they've been producing, despite little feed or water available.
Coot's Creek sold six B-Double loads of 12 to 14-month-old steers to Rangers Valley this year with the steers averaging 470kg and marbling between 3 and 3.6.
The above-average results netted them $1500 per head after costs.
Mr Gaspari said their usual tactics for achieving these results were a combination of strict classing, quality genetics and grazing on a combination of oats, wheat and triticale crops.
"We try to put over 240 hectares of crop in to fatten the steers over winter," Mr Gaspari said.
"Oats are at our Bungendore block because we try to sow there early, then in this area we do triticale and wheat a little bit later on."
They usually lock the crops off at the end of August to cut for hay, but the last couple of years they continued grazing some paddocks when little rain meant the crop wasn't big enough to cut.
"This year we were able to get off 350 bales of hay compared to the 1500 we would have liked, so we've had to buy hay in to keep them going," Mr Gaspari said.
"The year before we couldn't make any hay so we grazed it all out."
Mr Brown classes the heifers himself, looking for good legs, feet and joints.
"When they go to Rangers Valley they go into a feedlot at 470kgs, after 300 days they're 800-900kg, so they have to have the right feet and joints," Mr Brown said.
Mr Gaspari believed their herd's genetics helped them stand out to top producing companies like Ranges Valley and Coles.
"With the amount of people out there selling heifers, selling steers, we have to get ahead to get that extra money," Mr Gaspari said.
"I think Rangers Valley and Coles look at where you're buying your bulls."
Coot's Creek Angus initially bought in cattle from Wattletop and Lawson studs and continue to purchase bulls from Bongongo and Rennylea.
Weaning by swapping calves to a different mob of cows
This year Coot's Creek Angus are looking at new strategies to maintain the quality of their cattle.
Mr Gaspari said they would usually yard-wean their July/August born calves at Easter before placing them straight onto a January-sown oat crop.
But due to the conditions, for the first time they were considering weaning in January. A beneficial strategy but one Mr Gaspari's manager, Lawson Brown, said raised issues over lack of space, water and feed.
"We don't have anywhere to put 600 calves in January as water is going to be a problem," Mr Brown said.
Mr Gaspari explained they had lost the use of three paddocks at their Hall block due to dams drying up. They needed to consider what to feed the calves for the three months before a crop was ready to graze.
"If we sow the crop in January and wean in January, we've got to put the weaners somewhere," Mr Gaspari said.
Mr Brown said his plan to overcome these obstacles was to wean by swapping the calves to a different mob of cows.
"This way everyone's still together and we have a mother presence," Mr Brown said.
He said they were looking to use creep-feeders to get the calves on carb nuts prior to weaning to make sure their growth rates didn't stagnant. "The calves just walk in and get a feed but the cows can't get in," Mr Brown said.
"The carb nuts are expensive at $450/tonne, but we have to wean them at 300 plus kilograms to get them where we want to go."
To sell or not to sell?
Another key decision for Coot's Creek Angus heading into what's predicted to be another year of drought, is whether to offload their eight-year-old cows.
"I have a mob of 70 eight-year-old cows," he said.
"They produce fantastic calves, big milk producers.
"That's the genetics, I don't want to lose that, so if it means I've got to bring another load of hay in, I'll bring another load of hay in."
Mr Gaspari said it was hard to separate the emotional attachment from the pure economics of the situation.
"It's not the $1500 or $2000 you get a head, it's about all the years or work we've put in," Mr Gaspari said.
He agreed with Mr Brown's belief that it was better to feed cattle to good production levels than just maintain them.
"You can't come out of a drought with a bag of bones," Mr Brown said.
"You have to come out with cattle that are worth something.
"It costs a lot of money but at the end of the day it will rain and when you've got to come from the bottom they won't make it back up to the top."
