THE state's recent prolonged drought forced many producers to rethink the way they managed their cattle.
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None more so than Ellerston, which found weaning calves earlier than usual yielded successful results.
Manager Robert Teague said the decision to wean calves at 50kg was crucial and would be continued.
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"The Hunter River was dry, as was Pages Creek and it was unheard of for this area, so we had to drop down bores," Mr Teague said.
"By doing that [weaning earlier], your cow doesn't need as much feed, she's not lactating and together a cow and a calve will drink more water than if they are separated.
"However, the big kicker for us was that we had high 80 per cents back in calve again, which if we hadn't taken the calves off when we did would have been somewhere in the 50 per cents."
Ellerston trades 3500 to 4500 head of cattle every year.
However, due to record-high cattle prices across NSW, Mr Teague said most of this year's trade cattle had come from further afield.
"We don't care what breed, or how far away it is as long as it stacks up," he said.
"For example, this year we bought from as far afield as Fossil Downs in Broome, Western Australia.
"We love cows and calves, because nothing fattens quicker than an old cow with full-mouth teeth and this year, they have come from places like Quilpie, Hughenden, Winton, Longreach and everywhere in between.
"Last year, we bought a lot out of Western NSW, it just depends on where it is dry."
Mr Teague said the Bos indicus trade cattle would be marketed over the border, heifers likely killed on the coast, cows killed at Singleton and steers back over the border to feedlots.
"Believe it or not, with our purchasing we got in before the silly season hit and basically the way it worked out for us is that we need to get $1004 back per head on 4200 head of cattle," he said.
"It sounds pretty cheap, but that is every animal including the cows with calves at foot.
"We have just gone into the market of killing the older fat cows last week, it is just the beginning, but in our eyes, that $1004 is a pretty good benchmark.
"That figure accounts for every cost involved with having them here and it does have a pretty good feel about it this year."
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Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
