27 January 2017
SNAPSHOT: Shane and Claire Harris
Location: Dumbalk North, 25km south-east of Leongatha, South Gippsland, Victoria
Area: 810ha (owned and leased)
Enterprise: Angus and prime lamb breeding and cattle trading
Livestock: 2,000 cattle (600 breeders, 1,400 trade stock), 1,600 ewes, 2,000 lambs
Pasture: Ryegrass and clover
Soil: Red, grey clay and sand peat
Rainfall: 1,075mm
Weaning cattle using advanced training techniques may take time and commitment, but South Gippsland producer Shane Harris is convinced it produces the best results.
Shane and his wife Claire, of ‘Harris Farms’, took part in an MLA-supported on-farm weaning trial that compared techniques to see which were best at quietening cattle and reducing weight loss.
Claire, who is also an Agriculture Victoria beef industry extension officer, was involved in the experiment design and data collection.
Shane and Claire put 100 Angus weaners in the trial (divided into two groups of 50) and compared their traditional paddock weaning method with advanced training, a technique that relies on the use of well-trained dogs and a sound understanding of the concepts of pressure and relief.
They had previously favoured paddock weaning, as they felt it avoided some of the respiratory and pink eye issues sometimes encountered when confining cattle, but the trial proved otherwise.
Shane said at the end of the trial the two groups were "chalk and cheese".
“The paddock-weaned mob were left on good pasture and were basically untouched, while the advanced training mob were worked with dogs for half-an-hour to an hour each day,” he said.
“By the end, the paddock-weaned mob weighed about the same or slightly better, but they weren’t quiet at all.
“The advanced training mob, which was also moved through the yards and crush as part of their routine, were really quiet – you could almost touch them in the paddock.”
Shane said that ‘quietness’ was also reflected in flight speed data, with the advanced training mob recording slower times than the paddock-weaned mob after the first week.
Making changes
In the two years since the trial, Shane and Claire have embraced advanced training and now use their dogs for all their stock movements.
They have also moved away from injectable drenches to pour-ons, as they believe too many needles upset young stock.
“It’s really important that those first experiences with us are good experiences,” he said.
The heifer weaners from the trial have now had their first calves, and Shane is convinced that sound training at weaning sets the animal up for life.
“If we have to pull a heifer, we walk her down the road to the yards,” he said.
“The steers put on weight fast because they’re calm and, now word is getting out how quiet our cattle are, we’re getting more inquiry from buyers.”
Shane and Claire breed about 60 commercial bulls each year, based on Queensland and New Zealand bloodlines, with their focus on a more compact type.
“When people come to look at our bulls they’re really impressed with how easy they are to work with and their calmness,” Shane said.
“We’ve also applied the same principles to our sheep and we are seeing the same pleasing results.”
More information:
Shane and Claire Harris E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Drought, destocking, and strong overseas cattle prices. The current picture of the cattle market isn't unfamiliar, with many factors on the surface looking remarkably similar to the period just before the breaking of the 2014 drought. So can we expect a repeat of the historic rally?
Looking back to the 2013 to 2014 period, cattle prices in Australia were quite subdued on the back of drought induced turnoff. While Australian cattle markets were trending downwards, global markets moved in the opposite direction. With the US herd in a rebuilding phase and reinvigorated confidence in the economic situation, cattle prices in the US rallied to all new highs. The benchmark for global lean beef markets - the 90CL, gained over 90 per cent from mid 2013 to mid 2015.
The contrasting situation between the US and Australia saw the relationship between the 90CL and the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI) fall away. In November 2014, the EYCI to 90CL basis reached a peak discount of 353 A/kg cwt or 51pc.
When the drought finally broke into the 2015 season, domestic cattle prices rallied up to meet US prices. From the low in 2013/14 to the peak in 2016 the EYCI gained 150pc, which placed the EYCI at a premium to the 90CL.
Since May this year, the EYCI has averaged a discount spread of 200 A/kg cwt or 30pc below the 90CL price. While the current discount isn't quite at the extreme level experienced in 2014, we can expect that when conditions improve locally, domestic prices will move back in line with the US.
A confident outlook in US cattle markets suggests that the gap is likely to be narrowed by another domestic rally. Unlike the 2014 season, the US is moving into a destocking phase of the cattle cycle. However, strong export growth and a domestic shortfall are expected to soak up the extra supply.
While the price spread between Australia and overseas markets is similar to 2014, the local supply scenario is very different now. Back in 2014, the Australian cattle herd was at 29.1 million, while the 2019 herd is currently projected at 25.2 million head. MLA is forecasting a 9pc year on year drop in slaughter for 2019/20. This isn't as severe as the 20pc drop in 2015/16, however, we are coming off a low base and a period of record high female slaughter which will make the rebuild more difficult this time round.
We are constantly having to get our clients to redo or amend their vendor dec's!!!!!! It's frustrating and can cost the vendor big money if they're vendor dec is incorrect or fails to answer every question .
Description of cattle; put in the breed , the sex breakup , the description ie cow bull steer hfr stag etc, the total head number including the break up of different descriptions . Do not put their NLIS tag number!!! It's not applicable .
NLIS devices is the number of devices on the cattle!!
question 4 "has the owner stated above owned these cattle since their birth" - it's pretty simple either yes or no-not both, if it's no put the lowest time in ie A- under two months, B 2-6 months etc
Question 9 put Russian and Saudi eligible. Russian eligible means that the cattle haven't had penicillin /antibiotics in the last 110 days and Saudi eligible means that the cattle have never in their life been fed animal fats . If applicable add that the cattle have never been treated antibiotics .