Richard McAuliffe has only been farm manager at ‘Buchan Station’ for three years, but for half of that time has endured one of the region’s toughest seasons in decades.
Mr McAuliffe said the 500 cows and 300 ewes on the property “haven’t had a really good feed” in 16-17 months.
“We didn’t have an autumn last year, then we had a very dry winter, no spring, and then into this dryness,” Mr McAuliffe said.
“I stalled off feeding for as long as I could, but now I’ve started, I can’t stop.”
The Buchan farmer, who runs the operation with wife Elly, for owners Bryan and Vicki Hayden, said he usually sells cattle at 12-13 months of age, but begun culling heavily in early October.
“We have a spring and autumn calving, and after the spring calving, I had an idea of what might happen, so went through early and culled heavily,” he said.
“My instinct served me well, because it’s continued to be dry.
He said having two calvings has been beneficial not only for cashflow reasons, but also for management.
“If you have 500 calves on the ground at once and you get into trouble like this, it’s going to cost a lot of money to get them to sale, whereas if you only have 250 to nurse through, you can look after them a lot better,” he said.
He has also weaned calves early, and ensured cattle are fed in small paddocks, close to water so they don’t have to travel much.
“Has it helped? I don’t know, you just have to do what you reckon is right with feeding them,” he said.
One advantage that has helped this process has been the stockpile of hay and silage that had been built up in the two positive seasons prior.
But he estimates they will run out of feed in June.
Mr McAuliffe said he “can’t believe” how well the sheep have done in the testing conditions.
He credits the breed, Australian Whites, as being incredibly durable.
“I don’t know what it is with them, but they’ve done really, really well,” he said.
“They just tag along behind the cows, and they don’t chase the feed as much as the cows do, and they’ve just stayed fat, and the lambs look great.”
The decision was made to incorporate Australian Whites into the operation just prior to Mr McAuliffe taking on the role, but he said they’re great sheep, which he has found easy to run.
“I know the wool job’s good at the moment, and obviously you miss out on the income off the wool, but there’s no work in them compared to normal sheep, they’re cheap and simple and you don’t have to worry about them,” he said.
He is planning on expanding the flock from 300 to 500-700 ewes, as “there’s as much work in 700 ewes as there is in 100”.
Mr McAuliffe has been battling weed problems for the last few years, and said it has taken up until now to tidy the issues up.
“There’s an enormous bank of weed seeds in the ground, so you’ve got to grow crops and spray them and cultivate them for years before you can plant new pastures,” he said.
“We’ve been working to eliminate these problems, and now looking to improve things, and then we’ll be able to move towards more cropping.”
He said their chances of getting an autumn break are rapidly slipping away.
“We’d need to see a break before Anzac Day, but there’s no rain on the forecast,” he said.
“Moving forward, we’d like to see some decent late winter rain, and hopefully get a spring.”
Joely Mitchell
Joely started her career at Stock & Land as a cadet journalist in 2016. She is now the editor of the paper.
Joely started her career at Stock & Land as a cadet journalist in 2016. She is now the editor of the paper.
