Peter and Robyn Sandy farm on Alpine country between 300 and 800 metres above sea level, and the long-term drought caused them to change their herd's calving pattern and how they manage their land.
The couple traditionally ran a 60:40 Hereford and Shorthorn breeding herd, grazing four blocks - at Swift's Creek, Tongio, Gap Creek and Top of The Gap - on the slopes of Mount Hotham, Victoria.
Five years ago, they began transitioning to a spring-calving, pure Hereford herd.
"We've moved out of Shorthorns and have nearly finished changing over to only Hereford bloodlines," Mr Sandy said.
"It means I can make better selections about which Hereford heifers and cows to keep, without having to think about choosing the best out of the Shorthorn-cross herd too. It'll also take pressure off choosing which cows to cull in the next drought.
"Spring calving begins on August 1 to take advantage of spring growth and utilise our pastures better. We've been able to increase our stocking rate by 20-22 per cent by moving to spring calving."
In recent years, succession gave the couple full ownership of two of the blocks of land. But they have also coped with the recent long-term drought, and wanted to find a more sustainable way of looking after the land and animals.
"We graze the four blocks as one, rotationally grazing the herd even though the blocks are geographically distant from each other."
In the last three years, Mr Sandy has employed a part-time agronomist and a part-time stockman to help subdivide his blocks into southside and northside paddocks and initiate a program of pasture renewal - cropping with rape and turnips for two years then sowing the country with perennial pastures, including ryegrass, subclovers, cocksfoot and phalaris.
"We're trying to eliminate bent and couch grass, and utilise perennial pastures to build up carbon in the soil."
"We cleaned up the Tongio and The Gap country and sowed it to cocksfoot, phalaris, subclovers and Kidman diploid perennial ryegrass. At the block Top of the Gap, we've sowed ryegrass and clover. You wouldn't believe the amount of pasture we've grown.
"Improving the country has improved the soil health, we're growing more grass, there's more moisture retention and less compaction. I turn over a stump and I can see earthworms active in the soil. It's given us more options for cutting hay and haylage. I've also got a bit of lucerne. We wrapped and buried haylage, baled green.
"We're trying to utilise our capital to conserve fodder by burying it now, rather than buying sheds to house it. It'll also save us having to sell cows to buy fodder during the next drought. The price of fuel makes it uneconomical to buy hay."
There are also floods. Last year, a particularly wet year, included a flood in July. Crops were sown in autumn, but consistently wet weather meant the crop couldn't be harvested, and was grazed as forage crops instead.
"The cattle did pretty well," he said.
They are rebuilding the herd and calving down 220 cows this year. They now have Ravensdale, Yavenvale, Injemira, Tubrok, Wirruna and Mawarra bloodlines in their herd. After recently touring some Hereford studs in Canada, they are considering importing Canadian genetics to use in the future.
Natural herd rebuild has been helped by strategic purchase of pregnancy-tested-in-calf heifers, or heifers with calves at foot.
"We bought some heifers with calves-at-foot at Ravensdale's dispersal sale in November last year," he said. "We also bought a couple of heifers at Mawarra's sale this year."
A Ravensdale heifer and a Mawarra heifer produced bull calves that he has retained as herd bulls. In June, he used artificial insemination to join 60 heifers to super sires.
"We've used Wirruna Matty for the last three years, including this year," he said. "This year, we also used Tubrok Queenstown. The bulk of this year's calves will be from using Tubrok Queenstown."
Both Wirruna Matty and Tubrok Queenstown are among a cohort of 14 sires classified in the Super Sires program by Herefords Australia, bulls identified with early high performing genetics. The aim is to build up the breeding herd to 280 calving cows, from a drought retraction to 150.
Mr Sandy's focus is on buying quiet bulls, hence the bloodlines he has injected over decades. He also focused on intramuscular fat (IMF).
"We're chasing IMF, because we want to get our eating quality up there with the best," he said. "I'm also choosing genetics that will give my cows good eye muscle area and grow a moderate-framed cow to turn weaners off at 600 days. I want steers to build muscle cover to sell at 400kg weaned weight and yield at a carcase weight of 60-plus per cent. That's where the processors really get value for money."
When they were running an autumn calving herd, Mr and Mrs Sandy were traditional sellers at the Mountain Calf Sales in March each year.
Moving to spring calving, they have moved on to other markets, selling through Wodonga and Bairnsdale saleyards, but retained the focus on turning off steers at 400kg.
Mr Sandy uses Anupro animal nutrition products to help develop the rumen activity of calves. "We started using it during the drought and got terrific results with fertility among our cows," he said. "We figured we'd keep using it to help improve efficiency in rumen development and health."
