Bonaccord Ingram: Vegetable waste once dumped now fattens steers

SWITCHING to vegetables has reaped rewards for the Ingram family of East Gippsland, writes JAMIE-LEE OLDFIELD.

Vegie might: Murray Ingram at the Bonaccord Ingram farm near Bairnsdale. Picture: Chloe smith

MAX and Kath Ingram’s decision to swap dairy cattle for vegetables so their four sons could work together on the family farm was a bold one.

But even in their wildest dreams they couldn’t have predicted how successful that move would be.

Thirty years later, Bonaccord Ingram, at Bairnsdale in East Gippsland, produces 22.000 tonnes of vegetables a year and, depending on the season, employs 120-200 workers.

On 1200ha it grows 15 different crops, thanks mostly to 700ha of lateral and pivot irrigation and 220ha of fixed irrigation.

Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, spinach, lettuce, pumpkins, capsicum and brocollini are produced year round while sweet corn and beans, lucerne, barley, Chinese cabbage and onions are grown seasonally.

“Because of cashflow you have got to have crop 12 months of the year to do what we do — you can’t just concentrate on one thing,” said Murray Ingram, who is responsible for the crop preparation and livestock arms of the business.

“The nursery on the property produces 16.5 million seedlings a year, which means you control your own planting program, you can grow them how you want them grown.

“It is a bit of a cost saving as well.”

WELL VERSED

CROP selection is based on the plants’ versatility and ability to be grown for as much of the year as possible in the Bairnsdale climate.

“We have a warm climate but not extremes in temperature, which is part of the reason it is a very good growing area here for vegetables,” Murray said.

To market: Murray Ingram with cauliflower ready for stores. Picture: Chloe Smith

“It is hard to put finger on one crop that is most profitable because they are all dictated by the variable market price, plus some grow 12 months of the year and others have higher margins, but only grown for five months.”

While most produce is sold direct to Coles and Woolworths, as well as to the fresh market, Bonaccord certainly doesn’t put all its vegetables in the one basket.

“We grow cabbages for a company that makes dim sims and sell a lot of fresh market cabbages into the open market, and the spinach that we grow goes to Harvest FreshCuts (a salad fresh cuts factory in Bairnsdale),” Murray said. “So we are not using all of the crop we plant through our packing plant, we are sending raw material to producers who value add and sell that product on.”

Bonaccord sells to four different states, with about 80 per cent of the turn-off headed to Sydney.

Murray said relationships with customers were crucial to the business and they only grow what they had a market for.

“We have got very good relationships with all of the people that purchase our produce and it is extremely important,” Murray said.

“You have got to be able to discuss issues with the people that are buying your product, to be able to talk about the weather, crop growth and all that sort of thing.

“You’ve got to have people (customers) that understand horticulture and farming, and we’re very lucky that most of them do.”

FLUID APPROACH

A CLEAN water supply year round is often a challenge and having a good weather man is crucial to the success of the business.

“Having a reliable forecast is a big help, as we can then get planting or harvesting done around the forecast,” Murray said.

Irrigation is used on about 890ha of the property, with the remainder dryland farmed and each block broken into 8ha segments.

“It is all about crop rotation in regards to pest and disease management,” Murray said.

“We can look and see the history, and determine which crop to have in next, and continue rotating.”

Beans and sweet corn are the crop of focus at this time of year, with planting beginning in September and harvest starting by about Christmas.

The cool weather this year will make them slightly later, Murray said.

“We plant 3-4ha of beans every second day and then harvest them as they come in sequentially, before they are packed for the fresh market and any waste fed to the cows.”

While the vegetable operation has become one of the biggest in the region, sending produce up and down the east coast, the Ingrams also value add the product that doesn’t make it off the farm.

Murray said between 15 and 100 cubic metres of waste material from the vegetable crops was previously dumped in paddocks on the farm.

Now, those paddocks are full of steers, turning what was once unusable produce waste into tasty steak and hamburgers.

“From when we started to ramp up production we had an issue with vegetable waste all the time — we have slowly increased our acreage and therefore increased our wastage,” Murray said.

“When we first started feeding waste to the cattle we only had about 20-30, and that was enough, but now we have 150 steers here and numbers will increase to about 350 by Christmas.”

HARVEST REWARDS

THE sweet corn and beans grown over summer require a destructive harvest, which means there’s plenty of material that doesn’t make it to the packing shed and on to market.

This is what complements the pasture and lucerne hay, and silage, the steers graze during winter.

Waste from the other crops is fed as the steers graze oats and barley during winter.

“Certain things they enjoy more than others, such as corn and carrot waste,” Murray said.

“We keep them from 8-10 months, depending on feed available and size they are when they are bought in.”

Steers are purchased at 250kg to 300kg and turned off direct to slaughter at 540kg, usually to Coles.

“The steers are also a good part of the rotation,” he said.

“If we have country that is a little bit tired we can sow it down to pasture to graze, if it is sick to death of growing vegetables.”

Bonaccord Ingram is a contender for The Weekly Times Coles 2016 Farmer of the Year.