AAM's Bective Station to become a multi-hub protein source for AAM Investment

However, plans to further grow a multi-hub business producing protein will generate more excitement.

This was part of the discussion among AAM Investment's national business managers when they recently gathered at Goonoo Goonoo Station's Glasshouse near Tamworth.

AAM's executive director of managed investments is David Paton. He said the discussion was centred on how strategic priorities would be aligned and leaving the week with "a really clear understanding of what the investment profile is for the businesses and where the supply chains are heading".

"So we bring together both operational managers as well as some of the other key stakeholders: HR (human resources), safety, sustainability and finance, just for those couple of days of really key strategic discussion," he said.

Mr Paton said a big part of the discussion focused on resilience created by diversification.

"We have an opportunity to spread our risk geographically, both in terms of the location of the assets and in terms of our market exposure in the different asset classes and markets we participate in.

AAM has five key supply chains: beef cattle, sheep, cropping, timber, and poultry. These chains provide the company with geographical diversity and diversity in the markets it participates in, creating resilience for the fund and the staff.

"Bective is a really exciting part of our supply chain strategy," Mr Paton said.

"And that's because we really focus on creating integration between the assets and when the assets in a variety of ways credit efficiency and profitability and value for investors.

"Bective is in the process of transitioning from the existing business operation into what we're calling a multiprotein hub, so it's important to us geographically and to a number of our supply chains.

"It'll be important to our lamb supply chain given its proximity to processors, access to water and feeding infrastructure."

He said the irrigation infrastructure would also be a key part of the business.

Bective is a 4053-hectare (10,015 acre) property that will be the home base for AAM's herd of 1000 full-blood Wagyu cows as well as the feedlot and irrigation enterprises.

The genetics from the Bective Wagyus will be moved northwards, into Queensland and the Northern Territory, while progeny from the stations in the NT would then progress their way back towards eastern markets as a higher value composite or crossbred animals.

Mr Paton says this herd will provide the group with seedstock that will be used in its western Queensland property centred on Terrick Terrick, near Blackall, where about 6000 Ultrablacks are run.

Terrick Terrick is also home to a self-sustaining flock of about 50,000 Dorper and White Dorper ewes.

AM also owns the Condobolin district Burrawang West Station and Burrawang Dorper and White Dorper stud and has significant holdings in the Northern Territory, including Legune, a coastal cattle station of 285,270 hectares (704,900 acres) with about 30,000 cattle on the NT's north-western border with Western Australia.

Bective will also be a technology hub for the group, Mr Paton said, with its proximity to Tamworth, which has processing plants for beef, poultry and lamb.