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Prompt payment a big advantage
Prompt payment for his bullocks is an important advantage for Duck Bay, Smithton farmer, Les Porteus.
He is one of the biggest fatteners in Tasmania and farms a total of 4000 acres. The Smithton property covers 1200 acres and the remainder is about half an hour away.
“All my cattle go to Greenham, and have done since they started. Greenham saved us here in the north-west. It’s good having a meat works on our doorstep - very convenient and I’m sure it produces better quality meat because there’s less transport stress.
“The advantage of getting money upfront is that I can go out and buy replacements straightaway and that makes a difference when you are turning over a lot of stock. I always sell over the hooks and have a cheque within a couple of days.
“And they are good blokes to get on with,” he added.
Top quality beef from Tasmania’s most isolated farm
Donny and Royce Smith’s property is on the coast west of Zeehan at Granville Harbour and undoubtedly the most isolated farm in Tasmania. Surely they can claim to have the cleanest farming environment on the planet?
Their nearest agricultural neighbour is over 100km away, not something you would expect to find in the island state!
“Today over 2000 acres are under pasture, which after calving this year will host 1850 head.
“The Smiths run 640 breeding cows and fatten 450 head annually after putting aside replacement heifers. Back in 1984 it was 300 breeders and the progeny were turned off as stores.
The herd was Hereford based but is moving towards Angus ‘with a pinch of Simmental’.
“We haven’t bought a bull for 20 years. We breed our own but it’s mainly AI.”
“I do 400 cows on the natural cycle which means running them in every day. We end up with 800 head all up in the yards but have a good drafting system and I can run them off in one and a half hours.”
“It takes longer to get them in than it does to draft them.”
Royce says he’s tried various breeds including Charolais, Limousin and Murray Grey. "Limousin are hard to fatten and very toey – you have them bouncing off the rails – and the Greys don’t have any size."
"I like Angus because the breeders are switched on and have plenty of performance data available. There are lots of bulls to choose from and they do well in this type of country".
All the Smith’s cattle go to Greenham. “I reckon that Greenham is the best thing that has come into Tasmania,” Royce says.
“All our cattle go through the Aleph program. I sent eight loads up during July".
“Our supplier number is 001. The first beef Greenham sent to Aleph came from our cattle".
“We’re very happy with the program. We used to take them through to 380 to 400kg dressed weight but with Aleph, we unload them a bit earlier which means we can run a few more breeders".
“Most of ours go about 330kg but we had one recently that was 375kg at 23 months.”