Neroli Brennan: This is Seeds for Success, a show where we have
Neroli Brennan: a good yarn about Ag life with producers who are
Neroli Brennan: having a go. On the show, you'll hear from farmers
Neroli Brennan: in New South Wales who are out there battling the elements,
Neroli Brennan: making tough calls, and getting the job done. You'll get
Neroli Brennan: a laugh out of some of their stories and also
Neroli Brennan: pick up some know- how along the way. I'm your
Neroli Brennan: host Neroli Brennan. Today, we're catching up with Wal White.
Neroli Brennan: Wal manages The Mount, a mixed farming enterprise 20 km west
Neroli Brennan: of Forbes. Wal crops around 840 hectares with another 800
Neroli Brennan: hectares of grazing country. Its primary focus is the 4,
Neroli Brennan: 000 head cattle feedlot situated on the west slope of
Neroli Brennan: the Corridgery Range. In today's episode, Wal shares with us
Neroli Brennan: his experience working in feedlots and the cattle industry for
Neroli Brennan: nearly 15 years, including some insight from his time at
Neroli Brennan: big cattle feedlots near Toowoomba. Wal explains their backgrounding process
Neroli Brennan: for cattle entering the feedlot and the day- to- day
Neroli Brennan: running of 4, 000 cattle, as well as the challenges that
Neroli Brennan: natural disasters present in that situation. You'll also hear Wal
Neroli Brennan: talk about the improvements that have been made in his
Neroli Brennan: time at The Mount and how he prioritizes infrastructure improvements.
Neroli Brennan: Local Land Services mixed farming advisor, Rohan Leach, sat down
Neroli Brennan: with Wal for this chat after a farm visit ahead
Neroli Brennan: of an upcoming Lachlan PROGRAZE group workshop.
Rohan Leach: Good day, listeners. Today I'm with Wal White from The
Rohan Leach: Mount Feedlot Wal. Welcome to the Seeds for Success podcast.
Wal White: Thanks, Rohan. Good to be here.
Rohan Leach: Mate, can you just start off by giving me a
Rohan Leach: rundown of your operation here at The Mount?
Wal White: Yeah, so The Mount Feedlot, we're about 22Ks west of
Wal White: Forbes out towards Bedgerabong. It's called The Mount because as
Wal White: you go out that road there is one big gigantic
Wal White: hill that we sit on.
Rohan Leach: What is the name of this hill? Because for the listeners,
Rohan Leach: I'm a bit of a local. I'm Wal's neighbor, actually.
Rohan Leach: So is it the Corridgery Range?
Wal White: We're on the Corridgery Range. South of us over the river,
Wal White: there's the Jemlong Range. Which a lot of people in
Wal White: the area would be familiar with Jemlong Station, which is
Wal White: essentially just west of that. So you've got the Jemlong Range to the south, Corridgery Range,
Wal White: and I believe above the Yarrabandai Road, it's the Yarrabandai Road at the gap there.
Wal White: It's called another range to the north.
Rohan Leach: The Gunning, maybe.
Wal White: I think it is the Gunning Range. But we're on the Corridgery Range. Yes.
Rohan Leach: Geography aside. So you're on the Corridgery Range here, so that indicates some pretty
Rohan Leach: sandy soils. Am I right?
Wal White: Yes, you are. We did a bit of a drive
Wal White: around earlier in the day and yes, it's very sandy
Wal White: off the hill, moving down into more clay loamy soils
Wal White: on the flat. We border the Lachlan River to the south,
Wal White: so the front of our place during the flood was
Wal White: about 800 mil underwater. But it's all river flat country essentially,
Wal White: except off the hill. Yeah, you have to keep ground
Wal White: cover up there pretty well, otherwise it all washes away.
Wal White: But it's a good part of the world out here.
Rohan Leach: So some pretty different soil types there and obviously, a bit
Rohan Leach: tricky to manage. It's probably good having that with obviously
Rohan Leach: the floodplain down below and being able to push stock
Rohan Leach: up into the hill when it does flood.
Wal White: When I started here, I started in November 22 and that
Wal White: was pretty much peak flood. My first month was during
Wal White: those couple of big floods down this way, so trial
Wal White: by fire I suppose. And all the flat country, we
Wal White: had basically no cattle in the paddocks when I started because
Wal White: they had been in flood. And they were just clearing
Wal White: everything out as much as they could. They were trying
Wal White: to drop some numbers down in the feedlot as well,
Wal White: to do some capital works and things. But there was
Wal White: a couple of weeks there where we couldn't get anything
Wal White: in or out. So it took a bit to figure
Wal White: out and manage. I was lucky then, I had a
Wal White: really good two IC in the stock team who had
Wal White: a lot of experience in everything here, plus my direct
Wal White: report who working from afar but still helped us out
Wal White: a fair bit with trying to move things around and all
Wal White: the things we had to do.
Rohan Leach: So looking at enterprise mix here, obviously you're a feedlot.
Rohan Leach: Can you talk me through the feedlot a bit? And
Rohan Leach: then we'll talk about the other enterprises on farm.
Wal White: The history of the property is that it was owned
Wal White: it and Jemlong Station were one of the original properties
Wal White: from Twynam Pastoral. So Twynam built a feedlot here in 1970 something.
Wal White: I think it's about '75. So it's a pretty old yard.
Wal White: It's licensed to a 5, 000 head capacity, built to about four.
Wal White: And we've got 20- something pens. I think they hold
Wal White: about 200 head each, but quite an old sort of
Wal White: feedlot built up on the hill. So in terms of
Wal White: water inundation, it doesn't really happen. But we tend to
Wal White: get more cut off from town to get food stuffs
Wal White: and things out here. So that's the challenge with that.
Wal White: But yeah, built to a 4, 000 head capacity, mainly custom
Wal White: feeding Angus cattle here. So we did have some Wagyu
Wal White: cattle when I started that we were feeding for about
Wal White: 400 days. We've since changed tact on that and we're
Wal White: in feeding 150 day Angus cattle now, so they're all
Wal White: destined for different export markets. But one run of cattle
Wal White: is a lot easier to manage I can tell you. So the
Wal White: feedlot itself, depending on pen space and depending on the weeks,
Wal White: we take in 200 head, a full pen being either
Wal White: once a week or once every two weeks. And then
Wal White: the other end, they'll get trucked out after 150 days.
Rohan Leach: So we will definitely look more into that later in
Rohan Leach: the podcast. But just the other enterprises and pasture types
Rohan Leach: maybe on farm.
Wal White: Yeah, so in terms of cattle, the paddocks and the
Wal White: feedlot are all dedicated to either lot feeding the cattle
Wal White: in the pens or backgrounding the cattle to be ready
Wal White: for the feedlot. So all the cattle that you and
Wal White: I saw, they're destined to come into the feedlot and
Wal White: they grow up on, we've got one paddock of native pastures.
Wal White: But essentially, they're growing up on a loosened chicory, medic
Wal White: legume base, which we found really good for the sandy
Wal White: country on the hill because that's held that together really well.
Wal White: And we've got a few paddocks down on the flat that are down
Wal White: to that as well. And it works really well. It's
Wal White: just something that explodes away once you get a bit
Wal White: of rain. Really helps us because we tend to run
Wal White: country pretty hard, so it's pretty good. And then cropping wise,
Wal White: essentially most things have grown for use in the feedlot.
Rohan Leach: So what area are you cropping?
Wal White: About 800 hectares. So the whole property is about 1600. I think
Wal White: the hill's about 300. That's all scrubs, so you can't
Wal White: do much with that. But essentially, we've got about 1300
Wal White: hectares of usable ground. 800 of that goes down to crop
Wal White: every year. So since I've been here, it's basically barley
Wal White: and canola mix whereby we've got some paddocks down near
Wal White: the houses and below the feedlot that get put down
Wal White: for barley to be cut for silage. And we get
Wal White: some local contractors from out the Karuah side of town
Wal White: that come in and we'll do a chop on that.
Wal White: And then the rest of the country will be put
Wal White: down to barley or canola for grain, essentially. Last year,
Wal White: along with the grain, we bailed a heap of straw
Wal White: out the back of the header. I think we ended
Wal White: up with about 1400 bales off that, so off about
Wal White: not even half of the country that we had. So
Wal White: we had a pretty good run there. So I don't
Wal White: know if we're going to bail anything this year, but
Wal White: we'll see. But that essentially, just gets all used back
Wal White: through the feedlot. As part of our ration, we feed,
Wal White: it's about 60% dry rolled barley that goes into the ration.
Wal White: So yeah, the more grain we can grow for ourselves
Wal White: the better.
Rohan Leach: And you don't use any fodder crops at all?
Wal White: Only for hay. No fodder crops ourselves.
Rohan Leach: And no cattle are grazing on the crops?
Wal White: No, not yet. We have toyed with the idea of
Wal White: putting some oats in to clean up some paddocks, but
Wal White: we haven't put that down yet. And we did have
Wal White: the agronomist out the other day to toy with a
Wal White: few ideas on that. But no, right now it's all
Wal White: just a loose and based pasture on the ground.
Rohan Leach: So you mentioned before that you do custom feeding within
Rohan Leach: the feedlot.
Wal White: Yes.
Rohan Leach: So who do you feed for?
Wal White: We're feeding for a company over at Boorowa called KC Natural.
Wal White: They're buying the cattle in themselves, mostly coming from a
Wal White: few 100Ks away from the feedlot. We'll pull some cattle
Wal White: out of Victoria and usually during winter sale time, pull
Wal White: some out of South Australia, but essentially most of them
Wal White: coming from Wagga, Yass, Carcoar, Forbes, Dubbo sorts of areas.
Wal White: So they're buying all the cattle in and yeah, we're
Wal White: looking after their health, looking after all the inductions and the exits, and all
Wal White: the toing and froing with that. And making sure they're
Wal White: fed every day.
Rohan Leach: Were you here when the Wagyu feeder job was on?
Rohan Leach: Can you talk me through that a little bit and
Rohan Leach: how things might've changed?
Wal White: So they had a contract going with a mob down
Wal White: in Victoria who were custom feeding F1 Wagyu crosses, and they're
Wal White: about half split. They background them and grow them out
Wal White: down there and they'd bring them up here to be put
Wal White: straight onto feed. And they'd feed here for 400 days
Wal White: and then they'd head off to either Casino or Melbourne
Wal White: depending on what kills they had for that week. But
Wal White: they go down there, they do that. The Wagyu are really good.
Wal White: I fed Wagyu at a couple other yards that I've worked
Wal White: at in the past. And Wagyu are really easy- care animals. Essentially,
Wal White: most feedlot cattle are. Once you get them over about
Wal White: 40 to 60 days on feed, the BRD is less of an issue.
Rohan Leach: So BRD for those that-
Wal White: Bovine Respiratory Disease. If you're in the feedlot game, you'll
Wal White: know what I mean because it's the number one cost
Wal White: to lot feeders in the country. But essentially, it's like pneumonia.
Wal White: It's pretty much they get a cold. The animals live
Wal White: with the bacteria in their airways through their lives, but
Wal White: through different stresses of sale yards or trucking or inductions
Wal White: to feedlots and that sort of thing, their immune system
Wal White: gets a bit depleted and they can get a bit crook. But it
Wal White: shows up like they've got a cold. Early BRDs are essentially,
Wal White: they get a bit dopey, and they just get a
Wal White: bit down and mopey. And you find the cattle themselves,
Wal White: they just hang their head a bit and get a
Wal White: bit dopey. And the worse they get, they get more
Wal White: snotty and they get more coughing, and it can get pretty rough.
Wal White: But that's where the backgrounding comes in, especially when you're
Wal White: putting mobs of cattle together. You want to put them
Wal White: out there for probably at least minimum two weeks, but
Wal White: a good month's probably the best case you can do.
Wal White: And just to let them socialize and just chill out
Wal White: with each other and get used to each other, so that
Wal White: when they do come into the feedlot there's less chance
Wal White: of BRD hitting its strides.
Rohan Leach: And so you were saying that Wagyu's are less likely to
Rohan Leach: cop that. So how long ago did the transition happen
Rohan Leach: into the straight Angus?
Wal White: I think February was the last mob of Waygs that
Wal White: went out.
Rohan Leach: February.
Wal White: February this year, 2025.
Rohan Leach: All right, so it's just been an ongoing process.
Wal White: Yeah, it's not long. When you have 400-day cattle, 365
Wal White: days is a year. So they're essentially here for a year and a bit. They
Wal White: would come in a pen at a time, so when
Wal White: you whittle it down, you've got them sitting there for
Wal White: quite a while. But yeah, we had quite a few
Wal White: pens come October, November, but yeah, just essentially I think
Wal White: every month it was like a pen that went. So
Wal White: it took a little bit of time to whittle them down,
Wal White: but the last of them left in Feb. And we've
Wal White: been whole and solely Angus ever since.
Rohan Leach: What was the business decision behind getting out of the Waygs for?
Wal White: It was all due to cashflow. So the Wagyu themselves, they're quite profitable,
Wal White: but they were quite expensive to be in for that long- term period.
Rohan Leach: A big chunk of money tied up in one animal
Rohan Leach: for 400 days.
Wal White: Yeah, 100%.
Rohan Leach: When you could probably do three trades on-
Wal White: At least two 150-day cattle, two and a half. So yeah,
Wal White: you're right. And it freed up a bit of that
Wal White: cash to do some capital improvements, which we had in
Wal White: the process and have been working on ever since. So it just
Wal White: helped with that more than anything.
Rohan Leach: ... Going into more depth into the feedlotting. So what age
Rohan Leach: are the stock and what type of stock as in male, female.
Rohan Leach: When are they coming on farm and how long are
Rohan Leach: they staying in a backgrounding paddock?
Wal White: So then generally coming in milk and two teeth, we
Wal White: usually bring them in. We do a draft when they
Wal White: arrive here, either side of 400 kilos. So anything that's
Wal White: over 400 is deemed ready to go straight onto feed.
Wal White: We've usually tried to keep a couple of lots out
Wal White: in the paddock in front of ourselves to come on feed.
Wal White: So generally, there's nothing coming here that goes straight onto
Wal White: feed unless we're really tight. So we'll draft, so any
Wal White: of the heavies, we'll leave out in the paddock for
Wal White: probably a minimum of two weeks in terms of our
Wal White: induction schedule. So we'll try and have those couple of
Wal White: lots in front of ourselves anyway. And then the lighter
Wal White: end will go into a separate paddock. Usually, I'm trying
Wal White: to put them on our better feed because they're the
Wal White: ones that have to make the gains. So they're fed
Wal White: on the better pastures.
Rohan Leach: Are you still supplementary feeding those ones as well with
Rohan Leach: bit of hay or grain?
Wal White: Yeah, they do because of the loosened base. We will put
Wal White: straw out with them just to help them, especially when
Wal White: it does take off with a bit of rain. December
Wal White: was pretty rough on us as well. We had just
Wal White: with that pasture growth and the moisture that was around, we
Wal White: had a lot going on. So we have also, I
Wal White: have put bloat oil into the troughs when I need
Wal White: to and use bloat blocks where I need to. But
Wal White: supplementary feeding, we do when we have to. But if
Wal White: we've got pasture enough then we try and keep them
Wal White: just on the pasture. And definitely, we've got all the
Wal White: ingredients up there to make a ration if we want to. But we try and use
Wal White: the pasture up as best we can first.
Rohan Leach: And then you mentioned before that the ration is about 60%
Rohan Leach: rolled barley. What else is going into that?
Wal White: So quite a few things. We're working with nutritionists up
Wal White: in Toowoomba who do quite a number of large feedlots
Wal White: both in Australia and the US. And so they have
Wal White: a lot of different ingredients that they like using. So
Wal White: along with the barley, we put in a molasses supplement that
Wal White: has various different vitamins and bits and pieces for the cattle.
Wal White: So we've got the molasses supplement. We also put a
Wal White: veggie oil in as well along with both hay and straw,
Wal White: which we buy from, usually locally. It's within a few
Wal White: 100Ks of the feedlot. The straw obviously is mostly our own, but
Wal White: we have bought straw from locally as well if we
Wal White: need to. We also use corn hominy, which is a
Wal White: byproduct of some corn processing that's done. That'll either come
Wal White: out of Darlington Point or Sydney, but essentially it's like
Wal White: corn powder. It's a real powdery stuff. We used to
Wal White: use reconstituted bread. So essentially, when bread's been on the
Wal White: shelf too long it woolies, it goes back to Tip
Wal White: Top or whoever does it. They grind it back up.
Wal White: Or this company that was supplying it to us, grind
Wal White: it back up and it just makes a thick mealy stuff.
Wal White: It was quite good, but we switched over to corn
Wal White: hominy about 12 or 18 months ago. And because it's a dry product,
Wal White: I've actually found that the cattle tend to like eating
Wal White: it more. I've found, just by noticing. But on rain
Wal White: days the bunks tend to be a bit drier too. They're
Wal White: easy to clean out. The bread because it was quite moist,
Wal White: tended to go off a bit quicker, which needed your
Wal White: bunk management to be really on point. But no, the
Wal White: hominy is really good. We also then use canola meal,
Wal White: which is essentially comes from a mob that they extract
Wal White: the oil out of canola basically. And it's just the
Wal White: husk and the stuff that's left. So it's quite powdery as well.
Wal White: It's a protein source. And then we grow silage on site,
Wal White: so we put a bit of silage in as well,
Wal White: which has been different crops. It's currently barley, but we
Wal White: have used sorghum in the past. And way back when,
Wal White: I understand Twynam used to grow corn here and irrigate
Wal White: corn for silage too.
Rohan Leach: So hopefully, you're not giving any trade secrets away here,
Rohan Leach: but what would your metabolizable energy and your proteins that
Rohan Leach: you're looking at for your ideal ration there?
Wal White: Protein, I would have to check up on through the ration.
Wal White: But I know the ME is about 12.5 or so, 12.
Wal White: 6 or something I think for the ration, which is
Wal White: pretty much what you're looking for those-
Rohan Leach: Pretty hot.
Wal White: .... short to mid- fed rations.
Rohan Leach: And what sort of weight gain do you expect to
Rohan Leach: see from the animals?
Wal White: Out of these 150- day cattle you usually see of
Wal White: about 1.5 to 1. 7 within that, depending on the weight
Wal White: they're coming in and the type of cattle and that sort
Wal White: of thing. At the moment we've got mostly heifers, I'm
Wal White: going to say it's about 3/ 4s heifers to a 1/ 4 steers.
Wal White: But so your weight gains are generally a little bit
Wal White: lower in your heifers, but they're going to put more
Wal White: fat down. So it is a fairly hot ration, but a lot of
Wal White: those short to mid- fed rations. And when I say
Wal White: that I mean the 70 to a 100- day woolies and teas or
Wal White: those export feeding programs, they're generally running a similar ration
Wal White: to what we are. And then you'll dial it back for longer-
Wal White: fed rations. The Wagyu ration had a similar amount of grain
Wal White: but different amounts of other things. And it was designed
Wal White: for them to put on a kilo a day. But
Wal White: because they've got so many more days on, you're looking
Wal White: for a slow burn there with the Wagyu in terms of
Wal White: you want them to grow to a certain period within
Wal White: the feeding regime. But then put out of body fat
Wal White: on and then intramuscular fat towards the end.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, that's interesting. So essentially, all 4, 000 head are
Rohan Leach: basically on the same ration just at varying amounts depending
Rohan Leach: on their induction rate or time in the size.
Wal White: And we've got a nutritionist who is actually an American and he goes off an
Wal White: American system. So we use a two- ration system. We've
Wal White: got a starter and a finisher. A lot of feedlots work on
Wal White: a three or four- ration system where they're stepping up
Wal White: from one to the next. But our rations are pretty
Wal White: much starter and finisher and you shared it in for the first 15 to
Wal White: 20 days. And then they're on finisher ration for pretty
Wal White: much the rest of the time. Our main job is
Wal White: to just try and keep everything as consistent as we
Wal White: can in terms of grain milling, grain quality coming in,
Wal White: commodity quality coming in, and mixing percentages and where your
Wal White: variances are and stuff. Everything in feedlotting is trying to
Wal White: get to that magic zero of perfect. It's a never-
Wal White: ending thing that you're trying to chase, but that's the
Wal White: only way to get the production out of what you need.
Rohan Leach: And so you've been in the role since obviously, November
Rohan Leach: 22 I think you said. So are you getting better
Rohan Leach: at it, mate? Is it improving? Are things tracking the right way?
Wal White: Oh look, I'd like to think so. I've done other feedlot roles
Wal White: in other places. I actually had a bit of a
Wal White: break before this. I was a sales rep for a
Wal White: cattle tag company for about five years, but still connected
Wal White: to feedlots doing that. So you still get to see
Wal White: a bit of what they did. But look, I'd like
Wal White: to think so. It's my first full management role for feedlotting.
Wal White: There's a bit more to it than I guess you
Wal White: originally think there will be. Look, I think the experience
Wal White: I've had in other yards has definitely helped. I had
Wal White: a management traineeship with a corporate up in Queensland for
Wal White: a couple of years, which really set me up. That
Wal White: was really good experience for me. My father's a stock
Wal White: agent and has been very connected in that side of things forever.
Wal White: He worked for elders for a number of years and
Wal White: when elders bought Killara Feedlot back in the late '90s, he
Wal White: was buying the cattle there for a few years. So
Wal White: he's had a fair bit of affinity with feedlots. And he and
Wal White: another partner owned a feedlot at Dubbo for about 10 years that they
Wal White: sold recently. So there's been a bit of a connection
Wal White: to it. But I'll tell you what, every day's a
Wal White: school day. You're always learning something. And I'm just lucky here.
Wal White: I've got a great team in terms of stuff that,
Wal White: I don't know, just maintenance things and different ways of
Wal White: building things or changing things, or bits and pieces like that.
Wal White: So you learn to lean on who knows what I'll
Wal White: tell you.
Rohan Leach: That's it. You can't be an expert in everything. And
Rohan Leach: I have found, particularly the people that know what they're doing
Rohan Leach: with a cattle's gut, might not know what the guts of
Rohan Leach: a tractor look like. So those are two very different aspects.
Wal White: Yeah, 100%. But it's always good to teach the guys too.
Wal White: I've got maintenance guys that knew one end of a
Wal White: cow from another when they got here. But certainly learning a lot
Wal White: more in terms of nutrition and animal health and that
Wal White: sort of stuff. I think we've got about seven or
Wal White: eight employees or something up here. But for a small team,
Wal White: what we've got here, I do find having everyone have
Wal White: as much of an idea about everything as they can
Wal White: helps too, to spread that load a bit and spread
Wal White: that knowledge base. And someone might pick up on something
Wal White: that everyone else had just ruled out as that's just the way
Wal White: things are. So every day's a school day really.
Rohan Leach: What do you enjoy most about it, mate?
Wal White: Look, we're in a really nice part of the world
Wal White: and you'll probably attest to this being down the road.
Wal White: But when we came out here we went, " Oh geez,
Wal White: this is a pretty good little spot." But I'm enjoying the challenge.
Wal White: The feedlot itself, being an old yard, there's a lot
Wal White: of things that I want to say fairly run down. But I suppose, just need a bit of TLC.
Rohan Leach: That's very diplomatic.
Wal White: Oh, yeah. It's an old yard and they've had some
Wal White: challenges over the time. During the flood years, they had
Wal White: about three wet years and the clay here under the
Wal White: pens tends to bog up pretty quickly when it gets wet.
Wal White: So there's been a lot of dirt put back in
Wal White: to build pen floors back up. We've put new front
Wal White: rails across the bunks for about 2/ 3s of the feedlot so far.
Wal White: They had a shade project in the works that we've
Wal White: done a full row and about a third of the
Wal White: second one. They had two planned. And we're mostly through that.
Wal White: And next spring, we'll finish that off. We've got a
Wal White: silo back operational. The silos here have had some issues
Wal White: over the years and we've got one back operational. We
Wal White: ran for nearly two years with no silos. Just bringing
Wal White: truckloads of grain in every couple of days. And I'll
Wal White: tell you what, the local producers that are around here
Wal White: that helped us out with that are just fantastic, because
Wal White: that was something that no one really expected. And no
Wal White: one really knew how to do, but we figured it
Wal White: out and got through it. So we're making a bit
Wal White: of progress on some stuff. And the feedlots. It's working out.
Wal White: It should now. We've got a new loading ramp that
Wal White: we just started using on the weekend off the commodity shed,
Wal White: which is a fully concreted setup. And if you came
Wal White: up here and had a look, it's a good little feedlot. Look,
Wal White: it's old and it's a bit tired in places, but
Wal White: it works.
Rohan Leach: So you've just mentioned a lot of the capital investment
Rohan Leach: that's going on there. So how do you assign priority
Rohan Leach: to what project needs attention?
Wal White: Well, when I got here, they had a lot of
Wal White: plans for different things that needed doing because yeah, they'd
Wal White: had a few rough years of just ... With the wet,
Wal White: it made the feedlot wet. But with the road being flooded,
Wal White: you couldn't get contractors out. People wouldn't come out, you couldn't
Wal White: get supplies out. They really battled for a bit. So
Wal White: when we started, a lot of the pens were pretty tight, in- the-
Wal White: pen services. So the first year, because the end of '22 ... After
Wal White: the floods, it dried out for a bit. We were
Wal White: able to get in with dry pens and just get
Wal White: in and just put dirt back into pens. That was the
Wal White: number one is just getting pens back to operational status. It
Wal White: was essentially, we just had to go around and go, " Okay,
Wal White: what needs doing and what can we do the quickest?
Wal White: And what can we essentially, get up and running so
Wal White: that we can just make our life a little bit easier?"
Wal White: And we did that. Of the four rows of pens that
Wal White: we've got, one of those, we pulled the bunk out.
Wal White: We've got plans to redo the bunk. The other one
Wal White: we've been lately working in putting back dirt into those
Wal White: pens to build the floors up. But we essentially, for
Wal White: the last couple of years we've been running off two
Wal White: of the pens, running about half full. So they've been
Wal White: getting a lot of attention just getting them back up
Wal White: to spec, but they're pretty good now. And with the
Wal White: shade over them and things that certainly helped. The shade was,
Wal White: I want to say end of '23, we really cracked
Wal White: into that and gave that a bit of a go.
Wal White: That was just to basically, with Angus cattle, getting them
Wal White: cooler pretty much. Funnily enough, Wagyu really don't mind the
Wal White: heat at all. The Wagyu will just sit out there
Wal White: in the sun when it's 40 degrees and go, "Oh, this is great."
Wal White: And the Angus are just sitting there going, " Wow, this
Wal White: is really hot." So it was essentially, just to finish that
Wal White: off because they'd started it. The towers for the shade
Wal White: had been built, but they just hadn't had the cables
Wal White: and the shade sections put up over them. So we've
Wal White: started doing that and we've had to figure a lot
Wal White: of the stuff out as we've gone. Because with me
Wal White: coming on, a lot of these projects were started with
Wal White: previous management. And so there's been a little bit of knowledge lost
Wal White: there and different things. But between myself and a few
Wal White: of the maintenance guys who again just know their stuff and are
Wal White: fantastic for figuring these things out. We've got to figure
Wal White: it out. The silos was one that we had some
Wal White: trouble getting concrete contractors to help sort out the bases
Wal White: for them. Because we were taking them from a conical
Wal White: silo base, down in the ground that it cracked and
Wal White: let moisture in and stuff over time, to a flat silo.
Wal White: So we found a mob in Bathurst who we'd been
Wal White: working with who've now gotten the bases done for us.
Wal White: But that held us up for a little bit. But now
Wal White: that had been done, we're really moving on that.
Rohan Leach: So it's a bit of a balance between what's really
Rohan Leach: important and what's practical in terms of getting contractors or
Rohan Leach: staff or materials and that sort of thing? And the
Rohan Leach: folding stuff as well.
Wal White: Well, and working that around your day to day too. Earlier on it
Wal White: was okay because with the Wagyu we're only having a pen of 120 coming in a month.
Wal White: But with the Angus, you've got a lot more cattle
Wal White: coming in and out. So the day-to- day takes a lot
Wal White: more in terms of cattle movements and all the toing
Wal White: and froing around all of that. Yeah, that was probably
Wal White: the biggest challenge was working in the projects around what
Wal White: else you had to do for the day and just
Wal White: getting the place happening. But we're starting to get there.
Wal White: And when I started, there was just this mountain of
Wal White: things that needed doing, but now that we've gotten things
Wal White: off the list, it's made it easier because then you
Wal White: can just focus on the other ones that you've got
Wal White: in front of you. The other one, which actually which
Wal White: you saw today was our new office that hadn't been built.
Wal White: That was just a shed when I got here. And
Wal White: we had a builder come in and do the internal
Wal White: fit out, but that was just another one that took time.
Rohan Leach: So mate, just for my final question, I like to
Rohan Leach: ask what is the big issue in Australian ag at
Rohan Leach: the moment?
Wal White: I've heard a lot of people on this podcast say
Wal White: this and I'm definitely in this boat, but I reckon
Wal White: labor is a big one. The corporate company I work
Wal White: for up in Queensland and I hear a lot of
Wal White: feedlots up in the Darling Downs especially, are hiring a
Wal White: lot of 457 workers on the 457 visas and a
Wal White: lot from the Philippines. I worked in a team up
Wal White: at a feedlot at Emerald, and the whole feeding team
Wal White: was Filipino guys, and they were just the most phenomenal guys.
Wal White: Just got out of bed every day, loved life, just
Wal White: went and shoveled bunks, and just absolutely loved it.
Rohan Leach: There's probably a lot of able people here in Forbes
Rohan Leach: and within 50Ks, but probably just not the inclination or
Rohan Leach: capacity to work continually at a feedlot or hard work.
Wal White: Yeah, and it's not even the want of work. And
Wal White: I'm probably one of those bosses, I'm not extremely ... I'm
Wal White: not going to jump down your throat and you need
Wal White: to do all this. I'd prefer to have people around
Wal White: me that are happy to think for themselves a bit
Wal White: and go, " Okay, I need to do this, this and
Wal White: this now." Can go off and do it. And I help
Wal White: with the guidance of that. But a lot of people
Wal White: just don't want to think, is that too harsh to say?
Wal White: I don't know. But there's a lot of people that
Wal White: want to be told what to do. And I feel like
Wal White: with businesses, regardless if it's a feedlot or the LLS
Wal White: or where I worked in a corporate business, and I
Wal White: was as a rep for it. Businesses are becoming way
Wal White: more complicated these days I feel. And I think gone
Wal White: are the days where you can just be told to
Wal White: go and shovel something and you do it. It's a
Wal White: hard one.
Rohan Leach: It sounds like the kids have just rolled up, so
Rohan Leach: we'll probably hold it there for today.
Wal White: Yeah, no worries.
Neroli Brennan: This episode of Seeds for Success is supported by the
Neroli Brennan: Australian government through funding from the Natural Heritage Trust under
Neroli Brennan: the Climate- Smart Agriculture Program and delivered by Local Land Services,
Neroli Brennan: a member of the Commonwealth Regional Delivery Partners Panel. Thanks
Neroli Brennan: for listening. This podcast was brought to you by Central
Neroli Brennan: West Local Land Services. Local Land Services delivers advice and
Neroli Brennan: support to farmers, landholders in the community across New South Wales.
Neroli Brennan: To learn more, you can find us online by searching
Neroli Brennan: for Central West Local Land Services. If you'd like more
Neroli Brennan: information about the topics we discussed today, as well as
Neroli Brennan: links to relevant articles, fact sheets, events, and other helpful resources,
Neroli Brennan: we've added those into the show notes for this episode.
Neroli Brennan: You can find them by tapping or swiping over the
Neroli Brennan: cover art in your podcast player now. Hey, and while
Neroli Brennan: you're there, please leave us a five star review. It
Neroli Brennan: really helps other farmers find the show. I'm your host,
Neroli Brennan: Neroli Brennan, and I'll chat to you next time.