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Short wait for more weight at Smithton - Queensland Country Life

Tasmanian beef cattle producer, Mike Buckby, works hard on a number of fronts to ensure he turns out the highest quality animals.  His properterty, "Dunion Range", in the far north-west corner of Tasmania near Smithton covers 400 hectares, 232ha of which is effective pasture.  The number of Angus cattle varies with the time of the year and peaks at 740 head in spring.  The herd supplies the yearling beef market on the Tasmanian North West Coast.

Mr Buckby is the fourth generation farming this land and has run beef for three years after switching from dairying.  At present he has a contract to add weight to cattle owned by meat processor, H.W. Greenham and Sons, which has an abattoir at Smithon, but would like to get into trading and finishing cattle on his own account as well as growing out cattle for breeders.  Vigilant cost-cutting is one of the ways he ensures profitability, concentrating on the variables that can be controlled.  And herd health is one of those controllable factors.

"You want to make sure the cattle are in good health all of the time to make sure they gain weight," he said.  "And making sure there's enough pasture going down their throats all the time, and supplying them with silage and hay."  Mr Buckby continually tests to monitor the health of his animals, keeping an eye on trace elements such as copper and selenium.

"We do blood tests on a regular basis so we know how trace elements are going," he said.  "And we do faecal samples every quarter at least to get them counted for worms, so if they need to be drenched, I can do that quickly."  Once the cattle have been killed, liver tests are done to identify how the trace elements are stored.  "So if (the liver) is low in copper, for instance, the rest of the mob are still there, and you can get straight in and treat them."