Getting up close with your clients and understanding and meeting their needs is not a new strategy, but it’s a strategy that Cam Emerson has stuck to in creating a profitable and sustainable livestock enterprise in Western Victoria.
Cam Emerson and wife Carol operate a beef cattle enterprise at Tahara South near Coleraine that is based on breeding steers for a select group of loyal clients in an efficient and sustainable way.
The success of the Alva Downs program and the loyalty that it has created has seen one client in Northern NSW purchase around 3000 of the Alva Downs Hereford/Simmental cross steers since 2005.
While Mr Emerson has an emotional tie to the land and his cattle enterprise, the key to the success is a business attitude that comes from more than 35 years he spent in the corporate world.
Mr Emerson returned to managing the business and property after the death of his brother David in 2004. It was his brother who set the foundation for today’s business, but it has been Cam who has fine-tuned and built on that foundation business.
The key change was from marketing through the sale yards process to an operation that markets to a group of private clients.
“We have streamlined our business so it’s as simple as it can be within the constraints of the seasons and the things we can’t control,” Mr Emerson said.
“We have to be able to adapt to what the season gives us at any point in time.”
He said depending on the season all farmers had a number of things that were outside their control.
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“You sit down and work out what you can’t control, and then we try to manage those areas and prepare for them as best we can,” Mr Emerson said.
“I believe you need to find a business that you like, understand, can manage and be successful in. You then develop that line of business embracing the principles of constant improvement,” he said.
Today’s operation comprises 567 hectares of freehold land at Tahara South and a number of blocks of leasehold land totaling around 970ha within a 10 kilometres radius.
The herd comprises 850 cows made up of 100 pure Herefords, 100 pure Simmentals and the balance is a herd of Hereford/Simmental cross cows of various percentages of each breed.
The Hereford herd was based on Injemira, NSW, bloodlines and previously Ardno, while the Simmentals were based on Woonallee stud, South Australia. Alva Downs produced the first Hereford/Simmental cross calf born in Victoria in 1971.
Numbers also include 250 to 350 heifers retained from which to select herd replacements. The heifers not required in the herd are sold PTIC.
The pure herds are separately housed and joined – Hereford to Injemira and Simmental to Woonallee.
Mr Emerson said they selected bulls from these pure bred herds for use over their cross bred female commercial herds.
“We select these bulls the same way we would from the studs – taking into account superior genetics and EBVs and paying particular attention to structural qualities, and soundness” he said.
“Grass fed is the trend of today and what we have been doing from the very start is to breed cattle on grass (with no grain ever fed) and grass hay,” he said.
He said a major change from the earlier operation was the rise in weights over time and the percentage of calves that fall in the top range.
The evidence is in the latest shipment of 2018 drop weaner steers that were delivered to Glen Innes client David and Helen Wirth and son Ben.
The 188 calves delivered averaged 383 kilograms, with 51 averaging 430kg and 137 averaging 370kg.
Mr Emerson said the latest weights were about 40kg above the cattle consigned to the same buyer in 2008.
“The pleasing thing is that weights have continued to rise year on year, regardless of the season,” Mr Emerson said.
“We are in the business of producing cattle that best meet the needs of our private clients.
“We know what they want and we have refined our breeding business to suit their requirements.”
He said it was important to provide cattle that the clients could market at the other end, hence the importance of fat cover and intramuscular fat, etc, into the genetics.
The Alva Downs heifers are run mainly on agistment properties near Swan Hill and for that reason have been joined to Angus bulls since 2016. The first black baldy calves were dropped in 2018 and the weights were “very pleasing”.
We are in the business of producing cattle that best meet the needs of our private clients
- Cam Emerson, Alva Downs, Tahara South
Mr Emerson said depending on the season and market opportunities, the remaining steer calves and surplus heifers could be sold direct for live export, privately or on AuctionsPlus. He said he was “open to meet that market, whatever it might be”.
Buyers – the Wirth family
The Wirth family of David and Helen and son Ben have bought around 3000 steers privately from Alva Downs since 2005.
“It’s such a huge advantage coming direct to us. We know the quality of the cattle we are getting. The thought that goes into this by the Emersons is pretty important, David Wirth said.
We have found the Alva Downs cattle to be excellent weight-for-age animals.”
He said for example a recent consignment of two B-double loads purchased as weaners, were slaughtered and averaged 380 to 390kg carcase weight, produced off grass, as milk and two tooth bullocks.
