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
Neroli Brennan: elements, making tough calls, and getting the job done. You'll
Neroli Brennan: get a laugh out 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 having a yarn with Sherrie
Neroli Brennan: Whitty from Mount Pleasant Limousins. Sherrie runs her herd of
Neroli Brennan: 100 stud cows across 2, 000 acres just east of
Neroli Brennan: the Jemalong Range near Forbes with her husband, Luke. In
Neroli Brennan: today's episode, Sherrie talks to us about her Limousin cattle
Neroli Brennan: and how temperament and docility are key selection criteria for
Neroli Brennan: her cows. She also explains why Limousin bulls are prime
Neroli Brennan: candidates for implementing cross- breeding programs due to hybrid vigor
Neroli Brennan: and the carcass characteristics they offer. You'll also hear how
Neroli Brennan: manipulating weeds in her pasture paddocks has been a crucial
Neroli Brennan: part of optimizing feed on offer and maintaining the persistence
Neroli Brennan: of her pastures. Local Land Services mixed- farming advisor Rohan
Neroli Brennan: Leach sat down for this chat with Sherrie.
Rohan Leach: Good day, listeners. Today I'm out near Bedgerebong. Welcome to
Rohan Leach: the Seeds for Success podcast.
Sherrie Whitty: Thank you.
Rohan Leach: Can you just start off by giving us a bit
Rohan Leach: of rundown of your property here at Mount Pleasant?
Sherrie Whitty: Yep. Here we are a combination of four properties completely
Sherrie Whitty: joined together, just under 2, 000 acres. And here we
Sherrie Whitty: run about a hundred head of breeding female stud Limousin
Sherrie Whitty: cows, and then obviously their progeny that is up and coming
Sherrie Whitty: over a two- year period, as well as trying to
Sherrie Whitty: do some pasture improvements.
Rohan Leach: And so are you doing cropping as well?
Sherrie Whitty: We do cropping, but purely for fodder purposes. So generally, we will
Sherrie Whitty: use grazing oats and lock up probably three paddocks to
Sherrie Whitty: cut hay from, hopefully, if the season's good enough.
Rohan Leach: You are obviously focused on your Limousins, but my ears
Rohan Leach: always perk up when I hear about pastures. Can you
Rohan Leach: talk us through what your pastures are?
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. We are currently improving our pastures. We do have probably
Sherrie Whitty: five paddocks of lucerne. Don't ask me the variety, sorry.
Sherrie Whitty: But we are looking at doing a Phalaris, clover, sub
Sherrie Whitty: clover, and lucerne pasture mix in the wetter paddocks. And
Sherrie Whitty: yeah, hopefully into the next year, we'll be able to
Sherrie Whitty: graze over the summer months with the summer rain, have
Sherrie Whitty: paddock feed.
Rohan Leach: And what are the sort of soil types here? We're
Rohan Leach: sort of in the foothills of the Jemalong Range. What
Rohan Leach: would you describe your soil types as?
Sherrie Whitty: I would say it's that lovely black self- composting soil,
Sherrie Whitty: but that lovely black soil that when you walk across
Sherrie Whitty: it, you gain three inches in height because it likes
Sherrie Whitty: to stick to absolutely everything.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. So, some nice spongy heavy soils?
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. Yes.
Rohan Leach: Do you cover any of the hill, any of the
Rohan Leach: lighter stuff, or no?
Sherrie Whitty: We basically go to the tree line of the hill
Sherrie Whitty: and then that's it. The hill paddocks are good if
Sherrie Whitty: it's super wet. That way, there's a base in it
Sherrie Whitty: where the cattle don't bog up. So yeah, I've got
Sherrie Whitty: two paddocks that are very helpful in winter when it's wet.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. So how long have you been on the place for?
Sherrie Whitty: Luke and I purchased it I think back in 2002,
Sherrie Whitty: just after we all married. So yeah. And it was
Sherrie Whitty: a fairly bare block, so we've done a fair bit
Sherrie Whitty: to it over the 20- odd years that we've owned it.
Rohan Leach: Have you found that it's been easier to start with
Rohan Leach: a bare block or would you have preferred to sort
Rohan Leach: of had something a bit more established?
Sherrie Whitty: Probably something a bit more established in regards to fences
Sherrie Whitty: because that's always fun with stock if your fences aren't
Sherrie Whitty: a hundred percent. But it has been good in that
Sherrie Whitty: we can look at where we would like everything in
Sherrie Whitty: regards to the cattle yards. We're able to see where
Sherrie Whitty: the wetter areas are and work around that. We have
Sherrie Whitty: been able to do a lane system in the farm,
Sherrie Whitty: where basically there's a lane that goes through the middle
Sherrie Whitty: of the farm and every paddock comes off it. So
Sherrie Whitty: you can put stock in it and send them to start
Sherrie Whitty: moving and it just makes life easy where you're not
Sherrie Whitty: trying to go through stock with the other paddocks.
Rohan Leach: So what's your background in? Are you a Forbes girl?
Sherrie Whitty: I'm a Forbes girl, but grew up with sheep, so
Sherrie Whitty: the whole cattle stud thing was a very new concept
Sherrie Whitty: and I thought my husband was mad when he suggested
Sherrie Whitty: it, but I do much prefer cattle over sheep.
Rohan Leach: Why is that?
Sherrie Whitty: Listen, cattle are a lot smarter and... I mean, in
Sherrie Whitty: saying that, you just give sheep a little bit more
Sherrie Whitty: time and they'll see where you want them to go,
Sherrie Whitty: but there's something about cattle. I suppose growing up with
Sherrie Whitty: horses, they're similar shape and size as well, but there's
Sherrie Whitty: just... Yeah, I get along with cattle a lot easier.
Rohan Leach: So, your son and your husband are both livestock agents as well here at Forbes?
Sherrie Whitty: They are. Yes.
Rohan Leach: What's it like having two agents in the family? Is it
Rohan Leach: a help or more of a hindrance?
Sherrie Whitty: It's probably both. In saying that, though, when I ask
Sherrie Whitty: for... You know, leading up to our bull sale, I'll say, "
Sherrie Whitty: How about we go through these bulls?" I get put
Sherrie Whitty: on the back- burner because there's just too much other
Sherrie Whitty: work. But it is good. They're very good. I have a
Sherrie Whitty: chat to them and say, " Right, what do you think?
Sherrie Whitty: Should we be doing this or that?" And it's generally
Sherrie Whitty: around the tea table, and the phones are told to
Sherrie Whitty: be left quiet for half an hour.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, I bet they'd be flat out. And you're not being able to nail them down
Rohan Leach: at a certain time. Maybe you just need to be
Rohan Leach: a bit tougher with mum or wife duties or something.
Sherrie Whitty: Well, I feel, yeah, their tea might be limited to eggs on toast if they
Sherrie Whitty: don't start listening to my wishes a little bit more, possibly.
Rohan Leach: That's a good one. But that aspect of your husband
Rohan Leach: and son being very knowledgeable as well in marketing and
Rohan Leach: that sort of thing, does that come into your business
Rohan Leach: at all?
Sherrie Whitty: A little bit. I generally just cruise along myself in
Sherrie Whitty: a sense. I'll get their opinions and advice, but generally
Sherrie Whitty: I'll use a photographer for photos and videos and things,
Sherrie Whitty: and the boys will sort of say, " Right, let's do
Sherrie Whitty: an ad here or here." Otherwise, I sort of just
Sherrie Whitty: run the show.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, yeah. You've said that you're got a Limousin stud, so
Rohan Leach: we might launch into that a bit. Firstly, why do
Rohan Leach: you grow Limos?
Sherrie Whitty: I was thinking about that the other day actually. And
Sherrie Whitty: originally Luke, when he was a youngster starting out with
Sherrie Whitty: Kevin Miller, they used to do the Tobias Limousins annual
Sherrie Whitty: sale. And I remember Luke coming home with a cow
Sherrie Whitty: called Carrots, Tobias Carrots, and I can't remember the bull
Sherrie Whitty: calf's name, but we've always had an interest in these
Sherrie Whitty: Limousin cows. Eventually we bought the farm and bought some
Sherrie Whitty: Black Baldy cows. And yeah, we went to Tobias and
Sherrie Whitty: bought Tobias Wagon, and the interest just grew from there.
Sherrie Whitty: We just loved that he put the punch in, that
Sherrie Whitty: hybrid vigor into the calves, and we were able to sell them
Sherrie Whitty: as vealers straight off mum for a good price. So
Sherrie Whitty: then eventually down the track we heard that there was
Sherrie Whitty: a dispersal with Donna Valley, and Luke just sort of
Sherrie Whitty: come out of nowhere and hit me with the curveball, " Let's start a
Sherrie Whitty: cattle stud for the boys." So that's how it all began.
Rohan Leach: And so you like the fact that they're adding increased weight and
Rohan Leach: carcass attributes to your vealers, you said?
Sherrie Whitty: Absolutely. We breed pure Limos, obviously, here, but we've always
Sherrie Whitty: had an interest putting them over sort of those Black
Sherrie Whitty: Baldy, Angus- cross cows. And, yeah, the calves come out
Sherrie Whitty: nice and punchy with a bit of shape, and do
Sherrie Whitty: great in steer comps. But yeah, there's just something about
Sherrie Whitty: the Limo cows that I absolutely love.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. And so all like sandy- colored Limos or you got some...
Rohan Leach: Could you maybe start by outlining the differences?
Sherrie Whitty: Yeah. We have got, obviously, apricot cows. And then we
Sherrie Whitty: eventually went into some black genetics. We've noticed the trend
Sherrie Whitty: in the market is predominantly preferably black, so we tend
Sherrie Whitty: to buy homo polled, homo black bulls, so we can
Sherrie Whitty: put those over the cows and we're guaranteed then a
Sherrie Whitty: black calf that's hornless, that's polled. That helps our clients when they
Sherrie Whitty: buy the calves, they're not having to deal with horns,
Sherrie Whitty: which is preferable as well. And we've still got some
Sherrie Whitty: clients that prefer the apricot bulls, but yeah, most are chasing
Sherrie Whitty: the blacks.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. You've mentioned sort of homo and black and polled.
Rohan Leach: That's homozygous that you're talking about?
Sherrie Whitty: Yep, yep.
Rohan Leach: Could you just maybe talk through that a little?
Sherrie Whitty: Yep. That means that, say, the bull has two genes
Sherrie Whitty: of polled, so that means he will only throw polled
Sherrie Whitty: calves, and the same with black. If he's homo black
Sherrie Whitty: as we call it, he'll have two dominant black genes
Sherrie Whitty: and he'll only throw the black over an apricot cow.
Rohan Leach: And so, where you are sourcing your genetics from, they're testing for that. How do
Rohan Leach: they know that?
Sherrie Whitty: A lot of studs, whether they're Angus, Shorthorn, Limos, a
Sherrie Whitty: lot of them do genetic tests, and you usually either
Sherrie Whitty: can do a punch in the ear for some tissue
Sherrie Whitty: or you pull some hair samples out of their tail
Sherrie Whitty: dock and send that away, and they do their magic
Sherrie Whitty: at the lab and come back with the results.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, that'd be pretty invaluable for people just chasing that
Rohan Leach: black coat, because it doesn't seem to be if they're purebred
Rohan Leach: this or purebred that, as long as they've got a
Rohan Leach: black, or a dark coat even sometimes, they attract that premium.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes, absolutely.
Rohan Leach: So where do you source your genetics from?
Sherrie Whitty: Everywhere. Obviously, docility is another big factor in the cattle
Sherrie Whitty: stud, because I am a chicken and do all the
Sherrie Whitty: work by myself predominantly, so I do need quiet cattle.
Sherrie Whitty: But yeah, we've had cattle obviously from Donna Valley, Birubi,
Sherrie Whitty: who have now dispersed, Clearday Park, Tobias. There's Summit Limousins,
Sherrie Whitty: Flemington, Mandayen, there's a whole heap of them out there.
Sherrie Whitty: So we just get the catalogs and if anything spikes
Sherrie Whitty: our interest in the genetic side and the bloodlines, we'll
Sherrie Whitty: investigate further.
Rohan Leach: Is there a trend in the numbers of Limousin cattle
Rohan Leach: getting bred or where do you see that going?
Sherrie Whitty: I would like to think we're holding steady. Few studs
Sherrie Whitty: have probably diversified and maybe gone Limousin and as well
Sherrie Whitty: as, say, an Angus stud. But yeah, I think we're
Sherrie Whitty: holding steady, which is nice.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, good. I think it's so important to have these
Rohan Leach: different breeds of cattle so that you can offer people
Rohan Leach: different things in different environments and different enterprises.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. Absolutely. Every breed's got a purpose, and certainly, different
Sherrie Whitty: attributes will suit your program better. You've got to work
Sherrie Whitty: out what you are breeding for and which genetics will work.
Rohan Leach: So what are you looking for in a bull when
Rohan Leach: you go out to select one?
Sherrie Whitty: Obviously homo polled, homo black is helpful, but definitely docility
Sherrie Whitty: is the top one on my list. Got to be
Sherrie Whitty: super quiet. Then obviously feet, because if they've got bad
Sherrie Whitty: feet, that longevity of that bull, or even the cow,
Sherrie Whitty: it's not there. So that's also important. Then obviously scrotal
Sherrie Whitty: size for a bull and the udder development for cows.
Sherrie Whitty: You want something nice and even. And obviously with the
Sherrie Whitty: boy parts, a little bit bigger, the better. So yeah.
Rohan Leach: I find that really interesting and maybe a good sign
Rohan Leach: that you probably haven't even mentioned carcass characteristics there in your
Rohan Leach: top five. You're after temperament, fertility, sort of longevity, being
Rohan Leach: able to get around the paddock.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes.
Rohan Leach: Probably Limos are in the ballpark that most of them
Rohan Leach: just seem to be naturally really well- muscled.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes, there is the gene... And I'll have to double check. I
Sherrie Whitty: think it's FL94, I should have done my homework there. And
Sherrie Whitty: obviously that's also a gene that the Limousins especially can test
Sherrie Whitty: for. And if there are two carriers, they're predominantly more muscled.
Rohan Leach: Is that the double- muscling gene?
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. The double- muscling gene. Absolutely. We obviously want a muscled
Sherrie Whitty: bull, say, but he doesn't need to be heavily muscled
Sherrie Whitty: because obviously our cows are muscled as well.
Rohan Leach: So are you picking for muscle scores, say?
Sherrie Whitty: Yes and no. I think the feet, the docility, and
Sherrie Whitty: the fertility are probably more important because that carries over
Sherrie Whitty: to the female line. His daughters. It's passed onto his
Sherrie Whitty: daughters, I should say.
Rohan Leach: We've talked a lot about the benefits of Limos. Is
Rohan Leach: there any sort of perceived weaknesses in the breed?
Sherrie Whitty: Definitely temperament, especially because when they first come over from
Sherrie Whitty: France, I'm told they were quite... I suppose spicy. So
Sherrie Whitty: we've worked really hard in our area, especially to show
Sherrie Whitty: that, hang on, no, Limos aren't... Yes you can, but
Sherrie Whitty: it's in every breed, too, there can be a temperament
Sherrie Whitty: issue, but that temperament issue that they were well known
Sherrie Whitty: for, we've worked hard on breeding that out of them.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. I think listeners are probably sick of me saying it, but there's as much
Rohan Leach: variation within breeds as there is between breeds sometimes.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes.
Rohan Leach: Like you can have muscled Limos and you can have
Rohan Leach: probably D- scored muscled Limos. The same in Angus or Shorthorn
Rohan Leach: or any of the other breeds.
Sherrie Whitty: Yep. Absolutely.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. All of that temperament, it comes a lot down
Rohan Leach: to management as well.
Sherrie Whitty: Well, that's it too. That's it too. You're obviously not
Sherrie Whitty: going to have quiet cattle, I suppose, if you only
Sherrie Whitty: drive around them and walk around them once a year
Sherrie Whitty: and that's to take the calves away there. Whereas I
Sherrie Whitty: suppose a herd that's getting driven around two or three
Sherrie Whitty: times a day, and you're anything like me, you talk
Sherrie Whitty: to them as you cruise around, they do get used
Sherrie Whitty: to that and it then is passed on, I think, to their calves.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, they just get that sense of calmness, I guess.
Sherrie Whitty: Yeah. Well there's no threat, I suppose, too. Yeah.
Rohan Leach: The question ever come up about large birth weights or
Rohan Leach: birthing difficulty?
Sherrie Whitty: Not really. And I suppose that too, there's a few
Sherrie Whitty: factors on that. The cow line can have a little
Sherrie Whitty: bit to do with that. In our little herd, we've
Sherrie Whitty: worked out that there are some females that can throw
Sherrie Whitty: a bigger calf due to their genetics that were further
Sherrie Whitty: back down the line. But also it can depend on
Sherrie Whitty: your season. This season, especially with all the summer rain
Sherrie Whitty: we've had, we're calving heifers now, and touch wood, we've
Sherrie Whitty: been safe and no problems. But if you've got a
Sherrie Whitty: really good wet, say, spring and you're calving, and especially
Sherrie Whitty: heifers if they're nice and fat, there is that chance
Sherrie Whitty: that calf could be big, because I feel like in
Sherrie Whitty: that last especially four weeks, if they're just gutsing into that
Sherrie Whitty: tucker, that calf is going to grow to a size.
Rohan Leach: That last trimester of a pregnancy is really important.
Sherrie Whitty: Yep, absolutely. Well, I like to calf my heifers down
Sherrie Whitty: in autumn because I find the feed's just a little
Sherrie Whitty: bit less, and then once they've got the calf on
Sherrie Whitty: that ground, usually by then we've got an oat crop
Sherrie Whitty: that they can go in on and pick back up on.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, that's a really good strategy I think because you've
Rohan Leach: obviously got your two big calving times of autumn and
Rohan Leach: spring. Spring in our environment is usually a pretty good,
Rohan Leach: pretty handy, especially in this beautiful country off the Lachlan
Rohan Leach: a little. So yeah, I think that's probably an out of the box
Rohan Leach: way of thinking.
Sherrie Whitty: Yeah. And the mature cows just go in spring and poke along
Sherrie Whitty: usually, unassisted. Every now and then you might have a
Sherrie Whitty: bigger calf, or generally, I've breached birth where they've needed
Sherrie Whitty: that assistance. We had one or two where I've sort
Sherrie Whitty: of picked up something's not right. But generally speaking, yeah,
Sherrie Whitty: the girls are good by themselves.
Rohan Leach: So where are some of your clients?
Sherrie Whitty: Generally, we've got quite a few in the Central West
Sherrie Whitty: area, which is really good. I've got a few from
Sherrie Whitty: up north that... I used to have a sign out
Sherrie Whitty: on the Parkes road on my grandmother's farm and there
Sherrie Whitty: was just a fellow that drove past and went, " Oh
Sherrie Whitty: wow, I'll give them a call." And his bull, Jim
Sherrie Whitty: Bean, Mount Pleasant Jim Bean, is still going strong, I'm
Sherrie Whitty: told. But yeah, generally speaking, they're in the Forbes, Tullamore,
Sherrie Whitty: Parkes area.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, I have seen the Mount Pleasant Limousins sign at
Rohan Leach: the entrance to the Forbes sale yards before, so I
Rohan Leach: was like, oh yeah, that's where they are.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. Yep.
Rohan Leach: Right. So have you got a strategy for marketing? I did notice coming out
Rohan Leach: here that you've got a fairly popular Facebook page of
Rohan Leach: Mount Pleasant Limos.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. I'm probably not quite as active on that as
Sherrie Whitty: I should be. But yeah, so marketing- wise, we have
Sherrie Whitty: got social media, so that's Facebook and Instagram obviously. We also,
Sherrie Whitty: leading up to the sale, we will do usually a
Sherrie Whitty: promotional in the Western magazine. And then there's also in
Sherrie Whitty: the Central West spring breeders special, I think, insert and
Sherrie Whitty: we usually place an ad in that. And if I
Sherrie Whitty: can, sometimes we do a radio ad. But yeah, generally
Sherrie Whitty: speaking in this day and age, it's purely Facebook and
Sherrie Whitty: Instagram, social media.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. Probably doesn't hurt having a couple of agents on
Rohan Leach: the books as well.
Sherrie Whitty: That's right. That's right. They can be helpful too. Yes.
Rohan Leach: Oh, that's good. So you touched on cross- breeding there before. Are
Rohan Leach: many of your clients using cross- breeding in their operations?
Sherrie Whitty: Definitely. Definitely. They're generally putting them over either Angus- cross
Sherrie Whitty: cows or we've got some Santa- cross cows. They're doing
Sherrie Whitty: it for the hybrid vigor. Generally, we've got a client
Sherrie Whitty: out of the west area that sells his vealers basically
Sherrie Whitty: straight off mum and into the fat market and goes
Sherrie Whitty: really well. So that's great to see.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. Can you explain what hybrid vigor is?
Sherrie Whitty: Basically, hybrid vigor is because the Limousins are such a
Sherrie Whitty: heavily muscled breed, when you cross them over a British
Sherrie Whitty: bred, so your Shorthorns or your Herefords or your Angus,
Sherrie Whitty: they just add that extra muscling punch. So they tend
Sherrie Whitty: to weigh a little bit heavier over the scales and
Sherrie Whitty: finish that little bit quicker.
Rohan Leach: Because I'm an agronomist, and the listeners will know that,
Rohan Leach: I actually did a little bit of research on MLA's
Rohan Leach: website. That sort of direct, I think it's called, or
Rohan Leach: an F1 progeny will have about 8. 5% up to
Rohan Leach: 10% higher growth rates than just what a normal purebred
Rohan Leach: would've been. And then if you're using that F2 maternal
Rohan Leach: mother, it compounds on that as well, so you can
Rohan Leach: get up to up to 23% increased growth.
Sherrie Whitty: Yeah. Yeah, no, it's very exciting to see. And as I mentioned earlier, we started off... Well, our
Sherrie Whitty: interest in the Limousin was using that Limousin bull over
Sherrie Whitty: our Black Baldy cows, so it's great to see our
Sherrie Whitty: clients doing the same thing.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. What did that animal look like?
Sherrie Whitty: I suppose because they're out of an Angus- based herd,
Sherrie Whitty: that was predominantly a darker coated calf, but they just
Sherrie Whitty: had that shapey little rump area, and yeah, just that
Sherrie Whitty: little bit heavily muscled.
Rohan Leach: So it's the muscling that makes a good candidate for
Rohan Leach: Limos in the hybrid vigor?
Sherrie Whitty: Yep. And I suppose if you're crossing over a softer
Sherrie Whitty: animal, you definitely want that double- muscled gene bull, the AA
Sherrie Whitty: gene, that'll help throw that punch.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. You also mentioned that some of your clients have
Rohan Leach: got Santa cattle, was it?
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. Santa- cross cows. Yep.
Rohan Leach: And they're crossing as well with Limos.
Sherrie Whitty: Yeah, yeah. So it's great to see.
Rohan Leach: So the Bos indicus is still... Yeah, it's a good candidate
Rohan Leach: to try and bulk them up and get some more muscle on them.
Sherrie Whitty: Yep. We did actually sell six bulls two years ago up into
Sherrie Whitty: Queensland, so that was really exciting to have that opportunity.
Rohan Leach: Are you still cross- breeding in your own operation in
Rohan Leach: a commercial sense, or your focused now is purely on
Rohan Leach: your (inaudible) .
Sherrie Whitty: Purely at the moment it is just on the stud. I just need that little bit
Sherrie Whitty: extra room. I know we would love to have probably some
Sherrie Whitty: Black Baldy cross Limos poking around, but I just need
Sherrie Whitty: that space where the 2- year- old heifers that are
Sherrie Whitty: about to calve are in a paddock, the yearling heifers
Sherrie Whitty: and then the yearling bulls and the 2- year- old
Sherrie Whitty: bulls. So I need just that little bit of room
Sherrie Whitty: to shuffle everything.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. Running cows plus followers I think sometimes gets people
Rohan Leach: caught out.
Sherrie Whitty: Absolutely.
Rohan Leach: You think, oh, I've got plenty of feed, or, I've
Rohan Leach: got plenty of room, and then all of a sudden
Rohan Leach: you've got a hundred new calves coming on and things
Rohan Leach: just double.
Sherrie Whitty: Yep. And then paddocks are getting plowed ready for the
Sherrie Whitty: oats and it's like, where's that magic pencil for a
Sherrie Whitty: new paddock?
Rohan Leach: Yeah, good. We might just talk a little bit about
Rohan Leach: your pastures and cropping. So yeah, what is your typical program
Rohan Leach: for your forage crops?
Sherrie Whitty: Generally, we start working up the paddocks with the summer
Sherrie Whitty: rain. Because the cattle have been in on those paddocks
Sherrie Whitty: during the wet, we try and move them out as
Sherrie Whitty: much as possible so they don't bog it up too
Sherrie Whitty: much. But mother nature can throw curveballs. Five mils predicted
Sherrie Whitty: and you get 25 mils and the cows are still
Sherrie Whitty: on that paddock. So yeah, we'll work it up, sort of
Sherrie Whitty: speed tiller and then Kelly- chain it just to try
Sherrie Whitty: and smooth it and level it out a bit. And
Sherrie Whitty: generally, early March we try and get our grazing crops
Sherrie Whitty: in so they're up and going.
Rohan Leach: How's that shaping up this season?
Sherrie Whitty: Yeah, good. We've got majority of the paddocks worked up.
Sherrie Whitty: I'm waiting for a little bit more rain to chop
Sherrie Whitty: up the last three paddocks. And certainly having two teenage
Sherrie Whitty: school kids that are very capable helps.
Rohan Leach: Yeah, I bet. Some good tractor drivers there.
Sherrie Whitty: And especially when they can maybe have a day off
Sherrie Whitty: school here and there, it's helpful.
Rohan Leach: And yeah, generally, what's your rotation? Do you do that
Rohan Leach: for a few years and then go into something else?
Sherrie Whitty: Yep. We have got probably a couple of paddocks that
Sherrie Whitty: are less rocky where we sort of just earmark those
Sherrie Whitty: purely for hay because they're obviously close to the hay
Sherrie Whitty: shed and rock free for the hay making. But yeah,
Sherrie Whitty: generally we'll do a rotation. So we've sort of worked
Sherrie Whitty: out at the moment what paddocks are a little bit
Sherrie Whitty: exhausted and want to put those pastures in where they
Sherrie Whitty: can just have a break. Obviously, and you'll be able
Sherrie Whitty: to correct me if I'm wrong, the clover will add
Sherrie Whitty: that little bit of nitrogen back into the soil. They'll
Sherrie Whitty: poke along for a couple of years and then, yeah,
Sherrie Whitty: we'll eventually rotate them back into an oat crop for
Sherrie Whitty: a couple of years and then back into pasture if
Sherrie Whitty: the pasture gets worn out.
Rohan Leach: So you'll typically cut for hay all of your oat crops?
Sherrie Whitty: No. Generally, we'll earmark probably 200 acres, but that then also
Sherrie Whitty: depends on mother nature and how much rain we've had.
Sherrie Whitty: And the rest will just be grazing crops. We'll try
Sherrie Whitty: and rotate the grazing.
Rohan Leach: So you'll just graze them out?
Sherrie Whitty: Yes.
Rohan Leach: Spray them out in spring or something and sort of
Rohan Leach: clean them up and tidy up any weeds.
Sherrie Whitty: Yep. Absolutely.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. So that probably does a really good job in
Rohan Leach: terms of your paddock preparation and driving the weeds out
Rohan Leach: of a paddock for your pastures.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. Well, we have been a little bit guilty in
Sherrie Whitty: the previous years, and my agronomist... And you're probably going
Sherrie Whitty: to go, oh my gosh, what were they thinking? But
Sherrie Whitty: ryegrass is a great cattle feed. And it's free, it
Sherrie Whitty: just grows. So we have been guilty of the past on letting
Sherrie Whitty: that ryegrass set seed, and obviously, now where we're trying
Sherrie Whitty: to plant pasture, we have had a little bit of
Sherrie Whitty: a battle getting that under control. So last year we
Sherrie Whitty: did plant some pasture and the ryegrass overtook and obviously
Sherrie Whitty: we can't spray because of the Phalaris being so little.
Sherrie Whitty: We actually cut it for hay before it set seed
Sherrie Whitty: and tried to do a cleanup that way as well.
Rohan Leach: And what's been the persistence of the Phalaris in the paddock after that?
Sherrie Whitty: It wasn't too bad, actually. We did notice the lucerne
Sherrie Whitty: recovered pretty good after that too. But yeah, obviously keeping
Sherrie Whitty: on top of those weeds, even though they're probably good
Sherrie Whitty: feed at the time, is pretty crucial.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. There's compromises to be made in farming everywhere.
Sherrie Whitty: Absolutely.
Rohan Leach: Everyone knows that. But yeah, it does make it tricky when ryegrass
Rohan Leach: is just such a bloody good little feed, isn't it?
Sherrie Whitty: It is. It is. Yeah. Everything does well on it.
Rohan Leach: I've seen feed tests on it and it's remarkable. It'll
Rohan Leach: blow your socks off.
Sherrie Whitty: Yeah, that's for sure. That's for sure.
Rohan Leach: So how have you seen the persistence of your Phalaris and other in
Rohan Leach: your pastures?
Sherrie Whitty: Yeah, no, really good. The lucerne has gone exceptionally well.
Sherrie Whitty: Over this summer, especially with all that summer rain, we've
Sherrie Whitty: able to keep the bulls grazing on their paddocks. And
Sherrie Whitty: Harry has done a little trade on some lambs and
Sherrie Whitty: he's made some money, so he's pretty excited about that.
Sherrie Whitty: But yeah, it is been really good. The lucerne's done really well.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. So Harry's your youngest son?
Sherrie Whitty: Harry's my middle. So he's 18 this year.
Rohan Leach: That's always good if your first foray into the market
Rohan Leach: is a success.
Sherrie Whitty: Yes. Yes. Well, his first one might not have been
Sherrie Whitty: and he lost some money on his lambs, so this
Sherrie Whitty: one is, yeah, he's excited that he's made a little bit.
Rohan Leach: Oh, that's optimistic.
Sherrie Whitty: It is.
Rohan Leach: That's probably a good spot to finish it. But before
Rohan Leach: I let you go, Sherrie, what do you see as
Rohan Leach: the big issue in Australian ag at the moment?
Sherrie Whitty: I suppose there's talk of a tax coming in for
Sherrie Whitty: older, and I don't know the correct wording, older diesel
Sherrie Whitty: vehicles, and I feel that's going to hurt a lot
Sherrie Whitty: of farmers. Because I know, for one, I drive an
Sherrie Whitty: older ute around, and if I've got to pay a
Sherrie Whitty: higher registration for that because it's an older vehicle, I
Sherrie Whitty: think that's going to hurt a lot of farmers that
Sherrie Whitty: have that old ute that they just poke around in.
Sherrie Whitty: And certainly, I think a government change is going to
Sherrie Whitty: help there.
Rohan Leach: Yeah. Government policy is often what a lot of people
Rohan Leach: say on this as an issue that's going to directly
Rohan Leach: affect them. I probably can't get too political here.
Sherrie Whitty: No.
Rohan Leach: But no, that's a good one. It's just quite often farmers
Rohan Leach: like to say, " Just stay out of our way and
Rohan Leach: we'll keep doing things and we'll be productive and work hard."
Sherrie Whitty: Absolutely. If we can do our jobs, we'll keep making
Sherrie Whitty: the food.
Rohan Leach: That's a good one. No worries. Sherrie, thanks for your
Rohan Leach: time today. Thanks for coming on the podcast.
Sherrie Whitty: No worries. Thank you.
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