As head of a family of competitive axemen, Alan Scrivener at Marathon, Yarrowitch, gives good advice to his two sons Mitch and Austin when he instructs on how to avoid chopping a limb: Always look at where the axe is cutting - not at your foot.
The same applies to his approach for commercial cattle on grass: Watch where you want to finish.
"We aim to consign at optimum fat cover," he says. "We get cows with calves onto as good a grass as we've got so they go back into calf. And we care about when the calves go. Those three months leading up to consignment or competition is all important.
"Rather than run in 300 steers in a mob and draft off a truckload, our priority is to work out what we want to sell and then put them in our best paddock - for months."
Certainly the Scrivener family, which includes Alan's wife Megan and daughter Emily, have come upon a recipe for repeated success.
Back in 2017 they won a number of awards in the Wingham Beef Exports MSA Branded Beef Challenge, receiving a Meat Standards Australia eating quality score of 67.18 for a milk tooth Angus steer which turned out to be the highest score out of 80,000 that the grading officer overseeing that project had measured during his career.
Fast forward to 2021 and the team from the banks of the Yarrowitch River have beaten their old record with an MSA eating quality score of 67.41 for a milk tooth Charolais/Angus steer entered in the recent Wingham Beef Week carcase competition.
Mr Scrivener rues the fact that there is no price premium for cattle with MSA scores over 60.
Ahead of this year's COVID-19 affected competition it seemed entry numbers would be down, so when NH Foods' livestock manager Matt Martin phoned the Scrivener family for support, they willingly prepared a truckload.
In the end entries came thick and fast with 130 head registered and out of those the Scrivener's cattle were awarded champion pen of four for grass fed Charolais/Angus with a combined total of 370.16pts and took home champion pen of two and reserve pen of two as well as winning heavyweight, reserve heavyweight and champion grass fed carcases.
The family entered 10 steers that produced carcases more than 90 points and of the 17 sent down in the truck, 14 scored more than 88pts and all 17 above 62 MSA Index - the lot well-finished on grass.
In fact, the steer with the highest MSA eating quality index was also the fattest with 26mm on the rump compared to 12-18 on the others. That calf was a little older and had been running with the others in the same mob.
The Scrivener family have been involved in Wingham Beef Week and its carcase competition since its inception in 1987, with Alan's uncle and DPI beef officer Tony Gaudron and his father Bruce Scrivener helping to create the event that brought together town and district that culminated in the Beef Barons' Ball, a grand night that made many memories.
"Led steer and carcase competitions have become reliant on the schools," says Mr Scrivener. "So when supplying steers for students to handle, selection for temperament is very important."
Using a breeder base of Angus, produced by Alan's parents Bruce and Helen Scrivener of Bonny Brooke Angus, Springvale Yarrowitch, these cows are put to a Palgrove bull and calves are yard weaned at six months old with an eye for structure and temperament.
"Steers destined for schools are handled, tied up and brushed so they get some education before they go," says Mr Scrivener.
Beyond the yards cattle are pretty much left alone with assessment from a distance and a mind always on feed in front of them.
"Feedlots found out 25 years ago that by handling and weighing cattle it could take them 11 days to get back onto full rations," he said.
"Playing with them causes stress so with the calves for the school kids we feed them for longer - a minimum of 130 days compared to 90-100 if we were taking them to a competition ourselves. We allow an extra month for the disruption."
Mr Scrivener despises the old carcase scoring system that he says is biased towards Limousin genetics with large eye muscle area and minimum fat.
"The advent of the MSA is much better for us who produce fat cattle that you can eat. With grain finished animals producers tend to have them peak on the day of a competition but MSA for us is about having Angus fat on grass for a few months or longer before they are consigned to the abattoir.
"For a high eating quality index you have got to get fat into the muscle. The more fat the more stored energy so when cattle do get stressed on the truck they don't use it all up."
"In my experience you have got to give cattle time," Mr Scrivener says - noting that the way his mother Helen handles the cows and heifers has taught him a lot. "If you get into too big a hurry it doesn't work.
"The right cattle ready to finish are put in the best paddock for months before they are consigned so they have adequate fat cover, and not "just there". I won't send cattle to a carcase competition that I wouldn't eat."
There is a fair bit of family history and experience in the Scrivener enterprise. Alan grew up on his family's property at Cooplacurripa, on the Nowendoc Road, on harder country than where the family lives now.
The landscape there demanded a different approach to cattle work, with horses and dogs. At Yarrowitch the fertile flats managed in rotation offer the opportunity to let cattle "do" with minimum interference from nosy humans.
"I can see how my cattle are faring by standing in the front paddock," Mr Scrivener says. "My father says that's not real cattle work but the results speak for themselves."
Central to their operation is the creation of paddocks that offer a diversity of feed. Paddock rotation is not measured precisely but rather by eye and experience but spelling is a critical ingredient.
Mitchell Scrivener studied rural science at University of New England and now works locally for Lyon Ag. He agrees with his father's suggestion of the more the merrier when it comes to grass species.
A typical paddock preparation involves sowing of millet and oats or rye before the establishment of permanent pasture that includes a variety of summer fescues, prairie grass, cocksfoot, red and white clovers and herbs like chicory or plantain. Lucerne is being trialed for persistence.
"Rather than go for one variety that produces maximum biomass at one time of the year we strive for resilience in our production system," Mitchell said.
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