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Angus Australia president learns technological lessons from members

With higher profits and a wealth of reliable data, a switch to Angus made so much sense for Brad Gilmour.

All change: Angus Australia president Brad Gilmour on his property near Terang, in Victoria’s Western District, where he runs 800 Angus breeders. Picture: Andy Rogers
All change: Angus Australia president Brad Gilmour on his property near Terang, in Victoria’s Western District, where he runs 800 Angus breeders. Picture: Andy Rogers

ANGUS Australia this year celebrates its centenary.

And for about a third of that time Brad Gilmour — the current president of the society — has farmed the breed.

The 66-year-old — alongside his wife Marg and son Daniel — farms the 1200ha Gilmour Pastoral at Boorcan, near Terang, with a commercial herd of 800 breeders, and he said in those three decades he had seen enormous changes.

“I’d say immeasurable changes. For a start I would never have predicted I’d be chair of Angus Australia,” Brad said. “In the whole 100 years there’s only been one other commercial breeder who has been chair. But we have 1000 stud members and more than 2000 commercial members and they generally have bigger herds.

Commercial producers, he says, “are at the coal face”. “They live and die by what they produce,” he said.

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The Gilmours were early adopters, won over by the merits of the breed long before flashy marketing campaigns.

“When we first moved to this property about 33 years ago we were farming Angus and (Hereford-cross) black baldies and I was always keen on data,” Brad said. “For three years I weighed the calves on weaning. With about 500 steer calves I found the difference between the average weight of the Angus and black baldies was about 1kg, but the Angus always got about $50 more.

“I couldn’t ignore that figure so we went all black cattle and have been ever since. With Angus Australia having the most credible reference population and data set, Angus was the obvious choice.” Brad has been tireless in giving back to Angus societies and committees and has been privy to new trends, technologies and programs, which has seen him modify his own farm’s management methods.

TECH SAVVY

INITIALLY he joined the Western Victoria Angus region as a member, but rose to become chair of the Victorian committee.

For 25 years he has been a member of Angus Australia and last year became president.

He is on numerous committees including marketing and communications, breed development and extension, strategy and risk and commercial supply chain.

“We are always trying to make our members more profitable with innovative programs,” Brad said. “We must always do better.”

He said he hoped to put more focus on the sometimes-overlooked commercial producers. A good example of this is the role Angus Australia has taken as independent verifiers of many prominent branded Angus beef products in the commercial supply chain. “A seedstock producer sell bulls, often to commercial clients, the commercial producer relies on feedback from the abattoir or butcher, enabling him to meet both processor and consumer expectations.”

Brad said future farming trends included genomics, Fit Bits that track how far a cow has walked, whether it’s pregnant and even if its gut health is good.

Versatility counts: Angus breeder Brad Gilmour says technology plays a major role in his business.
Versatility counts: Angus breeder Brad Gilmour says technology plays a major role in his business.

A trial with the CSIRO has seen the creation of the ImmuneDEX estimated breeding values for cattle, so farmers can add immune competence into the mix of genetic traits when selecting new sires into the future.

“It can reduce the incidence of disease in beef cattle, particularly in feedlots, improve animal-welfare outcomes and reduce the use of antibiotics and chemicals in food production.”

And one of the most remarkable new programs soon to become commercial is the eShepherd or virtual fencing, where a map of a farm on a smart phone can create boundaries (“invisible to the eye in reality”) linked to a receiver on a collar worn by the cow and when they cross that boundary they receive a low shock.

Brad said while son Daniel — who will succeed him on the property — loves benchmarking through data, farm management was yet to reach such technological advances.

Nevertheless Gilmour Pastoral has changed farm management methods gained from Angus Australia knowledge.

Originally Brad and Marg relied on bulls, but being a cooperator herd for the Angus Sire Benchmarking Program for five years, they now focus on fixed-time artificial insemination (followed by a bull) using genetics from the US, New Zealand and around Australia, chasing productive females that produce a calf annually, with high marbling and carcass quality.


MAKES SENSE
BRAD said based on Angus best practice, he had improved cattle fertility rates to 95 per cent pregnancy in a six-week joining, which had driven up profits.

“Fertility and profitability are critical,” he said. “When I first started I had a six-month joining but now I focus on them in a six-week window and move to the next job.”

The Gilmours keep detailed cattle records on computer, from birth through to processing and the chiller, drilling down to details from marbling to treatments and feedlot diet and performance.

“It’s like a car, unless you lift the bonnet you don’t know whether it’s a high performance model or run of the mill.”

Steers are grown out to 500kg and sent to Rangers Valley feedlot for 240 days and then processed by that company; or alternatively steers at 420kg are sent to Hopkins River for 120 days.

Heifers are sent live export to Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Turkey at between eight to 12 months of age, ranging from 240kg up to 340kg liveweight.

About 120ha of pastures are renovated annually to GT phalaris, chosen because it can withstand the area’s climate.

The Terang district receives an average annual rainfall of about 800mm and it is because the Gilmour’s property has received a considerable drenching — “I feel guilty even saying that compared to some other parts of the country” — that for the first time in three decades this year they are stocking sheep, which are softer on the landscape than cattle.

They have about 4000 sheep: fine-wool Merino wethers, shearing a 16-17 micron, as well as composite ewes for prime lambs.

But, he said, Angus will always be his breed of choice, because of the large global gene pool.

“Angus is not just a one-trick pony. It’s a versatile breed for a commercial producer. They have high fertility, for instance, which is the No. 1 driver of profit, they are naturally polled and have diverse markets, even sold live export as breeders,” Brad said.

“And they are accepted by processors and consumers alike, whereas with other breeds you can find yourself at the mercy of the markets.”

Original URL: https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/on-farm/spreading-word-on-black-magic/news-story/5c5b465a48153ea63e85b81790ea2088