For Grassmere cattleman, John Howard, the revival of the weaner sale at Mortlake is welcome after considerable past sales success at the centre.
He and son Justin operate a beef herd of 150 cows, while a sharefarmer handles a separate 400-cow dairy herd he bought in 2002.
Mr Howard previously sold weaners at Mortlake until the special sales ceased. “Mortlake was always a good place to sell and on a par with Casterton,” he said.
Today’s operation comprises the 320-hectare property Lyall Park he purchased in 2015 next door to his existing dairyfarm, consolidating his contiguous holdings at 670ha.
After selling a block of land across the road, Mr Howard gradually downsized beef cow numbers by up to 100 a year over the following four years, while increasing the dairy herd by about 100 milkers
He retained 60-70 of the older beef cows to build herd numbers up to today’s 150 head.
Each operation is conducted entirely separately and the beef herd retains EU accreditation status.
The original beef herd was founded in 1990 on Ballangeich bloodlines.
Mr Howard said Ballangeich was nearby and the bulls were acclimatised and quickly settled at their new home.
Since then genetics have been introduced from Barwidgee, Rossander, Weeran and Claremont.
Mr Howard said he had been buying “heifer” bulls from Bill and Jenny Slattery, Burrabil, Woolsthorpe.
“Jenny has been presenting bulls for use over my heifers for my selection. She will not present a bull she thinks will throw big calves,” he said.
The beef herd is managed similarly to a dairy herd using rotational grazing, with three mobs (age separated) being shifted every three-four weeks.
“The cows get used to being shifted regularly and almost move themselves,” he said.
Paddock size and rotation length is dictated by the steep nature of some of the Lyall Park property.
“There are three creeks through the property as well as steep country so fencing is according to topography,” he said.
Since acquiring the beef farm he and Justin have started a pasture improvement program that involved a couple of paddocks sown to summer forage crops which was fed off and the paddocks sown to permanent pasture the following autumn.
“We don’t use nitrogen. We grow clover and we run it the old fashioned way – we don’t stock too heavily,” he said.
The 60 Angus steers set for the Mortlake sale were March drop and should be around 320 to 330 kilograms by sale time.
The steers were weaned from early December. They were separated and put in a paddock with a few old cull cows to settle down and fed with silage.
The heifer portion were weaned after the completion of the steer weaning and would be retained this year.