FIFTY years with a big footprint in the beef industry has not slowed the progression of Queensland's Camm family, which is planning another major expansion of its premier Wonga Plains Feedlot, at Bowenville, in early 2021.
It has been a tumultuous few years for the family's Camm Agricultural Group (CAG) - with the death of matriarch Judy Camm in 2017, closely followed by the sale of three prime Charters Towers properties to Rural Funds Group for just over $70 million and then the trading challenges associated with COVID-19 during 2020.
During this period, there has also been continued business succession planning with the family's second and third generations.
Wonga Plains was founded in 1972 by David and Judy Camm, who were breeding and grazing cattle with David's parents, uncle and aunt at Bowenville, between Dalby and Toowoomba.
They started finishing stock on oats after identifying the potential to set up a feedlot in Australia when they visited cattle finishing operations in the US in the late 1960s.
David's son Bryce, who is now CAG's chief executive officer and oversees the Wonga Plains Feedlot, said the business started very much as a whole family affair that had now become a multi-generational success story in cattle breeding, production, domestic and export grain-fed programs and trading.
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He said in the early 1980s, his parents moved to Natal Downs, south of Charters Towers, to grow the breeding enterprises.
Changing of the guard
With the division of David's family partnership in the early 1990s, his sister Ainsley McArthur took over management of the Bowenville-based Wonga Plains feedlot.
She expanded the operation from 600 to 3000-head capacity and during her tenure it obtained its National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme (NFAS) registration.
In the past 30 years, David and Judy and their family have grown CAG to now encompass the Wonga Plains Feedlot and nine agricultural properties spread from Charters Towers to the Darling Downs.
A major upgrade of the feedlot was completed in 2007, growing it from 4000 to 7500-head capacity.
A steam flaking mill was also set up for high quality ration manufacture and more efficient use of grain, of which about 30 per cent is sourced from CAG's broadacre properties each year.
Rations are formulated with assistance from feedlot nutritionist Professor John Doyle, who has worked with the business for more than 25 years, to meet the specific needs of each category of cattle and market destination.
Production and performance is reviewed monthly.
The Wonga Plains Feedlot received ALFA's Feedlot of the Year award (for less than 10,000-head) at BeefEx in 2012.
Cattle capacity at the facility has now more than tripled to 10,000-head, with a typical annual throughput of about 35,000-head.
The next phase of expansion will see pens for an extra 4000-head added in early 2021.
The next phase in cattle finishing
"We are looking to maintain Wonga Plains as an industry-leading, stateof-the-art facility," Mr Camm said.
"And some of the necessary efficiencies we are seeking will be triggered by having more scale.
"The highest quality materials are being used to add new pens, upgrade shade and bituminise access roads."
The Camms are also making further investments to improve efficiencies in the feedlot's feed mill.
"Continued investment into infrastructure at the feedlot - and on all our properties - is very important to us to boost overall business productivity," Mr Camm said.
He said the family was confident in the future of Australia's beef industry and also ran a 22,000- head breeding herd of mainly Bos Indicus and crossbred cattle on their Queensland properties.
These include the iconic Natal Downs, Longton and Narellan holdings, south west of Charters Towers, that cover 390,600 hectares and were sold to Rural Funds Group (but are being leasedback for 10 years).
The sale of these properties has facilitated investments in improving productivity and cattle carrying capacity across the group.
CAG operates three backgrounding properties in the Clermont area, managed by Mr Camm's brother Simon.
It has a breeding and backgrounding block called Melrose, in the South Burnett, and the large-scale irrigation and broadacre farming property Morocco, between Surat and St George.
Investing in stock supply and staff
CAG puts the majority of cattle from its breeding and backgrounding properties through the Wonga Plains Feedlot for a verticallyintegrated paddock to plate grainfed production stream.
This company-owned stock makes up about 70pc of the cattle transitioning through the feedlot.
CAG buys, backgrounds and feeds additional cattle to top-up volumes if its own-bred cattle numbers fall short for a particular feeding requirement.
Cattle are also sourced direct from the paddock, often from suppliers of known performance, for custom feeding of 70 and 100-day finishing stock.
The Wonga Plains Feedlot stock team is trained in low stress stock handling techniques and receives regular re-training, including from qualified veterinarians in aspects of sickness identification and prevention in the feedlot environment.
The group has worked continually with Bell Veterinary Service for more than a decade.
This has led to a very enviable record of low cattle respiratory problems and low mortalities across the yard (averaging less than 0.35pc).
Market developments
Mr Camm said most of the cattle going through the Wonga Plains Feedlot were flat-back crossbreds, and in the past five years the business had grown a big Angus backgrounding and feeding program.
It also serves several east coast-based Angus and Wagyu producers, who commission the feedlot to finish cattle for a range of their premium branded products.
Mr Camm said about 70pc of the stock going through the feedlot each year was destined for high-value beef export markets across Asia, Europe and the US.
Keeping it in the family, about 30pc of cattle are supplied to Mr Camm's sister Josie Angus and her husband Blair for their premium Signature Beef brands.
This includes Sondella for Angus cuts that are well-known and a favourite with chefs in leading restaurants in the eastern states.
Next gen steps up
Also now involved in the Signature Beef business is the next generation of Camm family members - Tess Camm - who is its general manager.
She said her family highly valued education and pushed her towards university, where she completed a Bachelor of Business Management at the University of Queensland.
"Coming out of university, I was fortunate to participate in the Cattle Council of Australia's Rising Champions program," she said.
"Through that initiative, I gained insight into this whole other world - in terms of what was happening with market access issues, research and development - and it really inspired me."
Miss Camm has been with Signature Beef for six years and said she had a passion for her work.
"We have a focus on delivering products to customers that have not previously been available in the marketplace, so I can try new things, such as dry-aging," she said.
Valued support in industry
Grain-fed specialist Kilcoy Pastoral Company also sources cattle from the Wonga Plains Feedlot for its extensive and quality range of 100-day grain-fed and Angus brands.
Its focus is on supplying cartons of specific meat cuts, rather than entire full-set orders, to meet its customer requirements.
Kilcoy highly values the quality assurance processes used by Wonga Plains Feedlot, which are designed with an emphasis on common sense, recording and controlling and are guided by the NFAS standards.
Quality assurance systems at the feedlot include having several 'critical control points', a dedicated feedlot administrator employee - whose main responsibility is to put the quality assurance program into action - and regular internal audits of the system.
The NLIS database checks and reconciliation of the database are part of these audits, as well as a full external desk and physical audit.
Mr Camm has been a member of ALFA for more than a decade and is in his second term as elected president of the organisation.
"Our family has been involved as members of ALFA for a long time and by taking on the leadership, I aim to give back to the industry through a body that is driving lotfeeding forward in this country," he said.
"The association has the best model of producer and stakeholder representation of any agricultural organisation, and is heavily invested in the future of the grain-fed beef sector."
