After years as solely a Merino breeding operation, Damien and Sophie Soster, Soster Grazing, Cassilis, have flipped their farming operation and dispersed their 8000 Merino breeding ewes.
Using the profits from selling all the sheep, the Sosters purchased cows and heifers with the herd now consisting of about 1000 head run over 5500 hectares.
Many factors influenced the Sosters change in focus, with the major aspects including cost and a personal preference to move towards a holistic approach.
"The cost structure with anything is labor, parts, chemicals, and it is just getting difficult to find, and the continuity, it just makes it extremely difficult to run a business, particularly with sheep," Mr Soster said.
"We went from one extreme of feeding them every single day of the week because of drought and then to turn around and 12 months later, you cant find them in tall grass and then flies and worms, it has just been a really long few years.
"Cattle are just a simpler article; simpler to run, simpler to manage, and we don't have the issues with so much cost and so much time.
"We just found that help would come and go, and then found that nine times out of 10 we were out doing the hard yards ourselves and having 8000 breeding ewes it is very difficult to try and do it with only two or three people."
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The sheep also struggled in the native country as grass grew tall, and they began to hang in gateways and around water troughs, not wanting to walk through or eat the long grass.
The impact of fly and worm burdens during the past seasons had raised concerns about supply of chemical and treatments and although they had not been badly caught out before, Mr Soster said he could envisage it happening.
"Our suppliers are slowing down and we had to basically make the decision that it's not going to get any better overnight and rejig our business based on that," he said.
Purchasing the Angus breeding cows and pregnancy-tested-in-calf (PTIC) heifers, Mr Soster was adamant that the land would be able to handle about 2000 cows.
"The goal is in the next two or three years to grow it to a 2000 herd base and if things stay good we will trade in and out around them," he said.
A major milestone for the Sosters was taking on a holistic grazing approach allowing them to create the lifestyle, business and sustainable environment they want, while lowering labour and cost inputs.
"All these years we have run a highly intensive mixed enterprise that is labor intensive and cost intensive. I think in the last few years with droughts, floods, and fires, we have had all three here and it's pretty evident that something has got to give," he said.
"We will look at the grass and what is around us and under our feet and I believe if we can get our grass right, and our soil right, and take the holistic approach, we will be better off in the long run."
After completing a holistic management course, Mr Soster said he was in the process of putting the theory into practice.
"We are right at the process where we need more cattle to achieve what we want to, so we are looking at agistment options too," he said.
In recent years, they have traded in Brahman and Bos indicus influenced females, but Mr Soster said he could see the market changing.
Aiming to stick with commercial purebred Angus, he invested heavily in PTIC Angus females but had to "load up" in the past few months with Hereford, Charolais, and European influenced breeds to make numbers.
Of the 1000 females on farm, about 600 were Angus breeders with the first calves currently being born.
"The goal would be to have a really solid grass-fed Angus herd, that's the ultimate goal but we will slowly fade out of the trading mixed breeds and go to full Angus," Mr Soster said.
When making the move from sheep to cattle, the Sosters chose younger cattle to allow big window for the stock to adapt to the country.
"We start out with good young cattle and then try and breed our way forward with them," he said.
Despite buying females from across the eastern states, Mr Soster will purchase bulls from local producers.
"At this point, I would like to buy locally with the likes of Trio Angus and the local studs because I am a bit of a believer in keeping the animal right for the environment," he said.
The Sosters hope to produce quality females to on-sell as future breeders.
"The market is changing... It is a bit hard to lock yourself into any particular market but I just want to produce a grass-fed product with little inputs because there is a huge market for that," Mr Soster said.
"I think if we can keep it simple; big numbers, grass-fed, look after the environment and what is around us, then we will produce good grass-fed beef."
