Warragundi Pastoral balances production with profit
Productive country isn’t the only trade secret for this NSW enterprise that shifts production between crops and cattle depending on margins.
Passion is the key to success and it is no more apparent than at Warragundi Pastoral.
Matt Kelley says he and wife Deb were both attracted to farming “like a magnet” and such passion motivated them to purchase their first farm 30 years ago.
They now have an aggregation of four properties across 2000ha at Currabubula in northwest NSW, where they have built a successful stud and commercial beef operation balanced with a summer and winter grains cropping program, capitalising on the strengths of their location.
“We are on the edge of the Liverpool Plains – some of the most productive country you’ll find anywhere,” Matt said.
“A mix of flat to undulating black basalt farming country to grazing hills.”
High grain prices in the past few years have tipped the balance towards cropping being 80 per cent of their business and cattle 20 per cent.
“It varies depending on the gross margins. You could find next year grain prices flatten out and our trading operation could ramp right up so our cropping acres would be converted to that,” Matt said.
MAXIMUM POTENTIAL
The Kelleys grow canola, durum wheat, bread wheat and sorghum as well as oats and barley producing 2000 tonnes of grain on average, although this figure can jump up to 3000 tonnes depending on cattle trading numbers.
Their canola typically averages yields of 2.5-2.7 tonnes a hectare and wheat 4.5-5t/ha but canola is down to 2.1-2.3t/ha this season.
“We are midway through harvesting canola, which has been down a little this year in yield compared to our normal averages because we’ve been inundated with rain and it’s knocked things about,” Matt said.
“But the wheat looks pretty dash good sitting out there. Full potential there from what I can see at this stage and the weather is looking good for the next few weeks.”
Rainfall is historically a 660mm average that is storm dependent over summer but in the past six years there has been three years of drought and three years of flood. Year to date the Kelleys have had 930mm that has come in concentrated amounts in the past six to eight weeks.
GOOD FOR OPTIONS
The Kelleys run 250 commercial Hereford breeders and turn off calves from six to 18 months as weaners or finish them depending on seasonal conditions.
“Where we are positioned here we’ve got a number of outlets. We’ve got very strong weaner sale opportunities but we are also closely positioned to Wingham and Cargill abattoirs in Tamworth, which is great because you get the MSA feedback on all the progeny there,” Matt said.
“If we have feed we try to take calves through to finishing. We also have an opportunity feedlot here where we can feed a couple of hundred head using our own grain.”
They also trade up to 700 commercial cattle a year, aiming to buy heifer weaners that are on Warragundi bloodlines ranging in weight from 270kg to 320kg and taking them through to joining age and weight. The heifers are resold as pregnancy-tested-in-calf weighing 400kg-plus.
SHOW OF SUCCESS
The Warragundi stud herd began in 2007 and now includes 180 females and an offering of 50 bulls each year, which are sold to buyers in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
They began showing cattle at local shows in 2012 believing it to be an important way to promote the breed.
A milestone was at Sydney Royal in 2018 when they won senior champion bull, grand champion Hereford bull, supreme Hereford exhibit, interbreed bull and the Urquhart Trophy for supreme beef exhibit.
They attended Melbourne Royal Show for the first time this year and won junior champion Hereford bull, senior champion Hereford bull and grand champion Hereford bull.
“We select our animals that we want to show and handle them from a young age,” Matt said.
“Animals do so well on this farm. It is such a fertile farm. You often hear about the Hunter Valley being the greatest place on earth for horses. This is damn good country too – our cattle do naturally very well and it is easy to bring them up and get them in good condition for showing.”
The Kelleys look for nicely coated cattle that are well conformed and “catch your eye”.
“Cattle buyers at a sale – that is what they look for. You can’t let that be pushed to one side and be blinded by figures,” Matt said.
“A lot of people are focused on those figures but you need the phenotype and structure in the animals first and foremost. Those figures are not necessarily accurate all the time.
“We are focused on the reliability of the figures and for the last few years have been buying stud bulls from Injemira, which we think have been able to put forward those reliable traits.”
EATING QUALITY KEY
The Kelleys have a keen interest in MSA data and like to follow their cattle through to slaughter.
From next year they will launch their own Warragundi Pastoral beef brand through an outlet in the Hunter Valley.
“We have been quietly planning and working with them for the last 12 months building up and looking at our MSA feedback data and working out how best to do it,” Matt said.
“We will be selling the carcass to them so it won’t really be any different to us selling them anyway. It will be more of a follow through and an interest. It is a little bit niche.”
Warragundi Pastoral Hereford Beef has already won four bronze medal awards at the Australian Food Awards, Sydney Royal Fine Food Awards and the Sydney Royal Beef Challenge, which the Kelleys entered back in 2016 and 2017 out of interest to see how their animals stacked up against more high-profile companies.
“We are selecting the animals that are really exhibiting those marbling traits for those types of markets,” Matt said. “It’s a whole area where our breed needs to focus a little bit more.”
NO SHORTCUTS
The Kelleys cost of production has increased significantly in the past few years but their key to viability remains crossing the Ts and dotting the Is.
“Diesel and fertiliser has blown us away this year. Crikey I think fertiliser has damn near tripled,” Matt said.
“Two harvests ago we were paying a dollar a litre for diesel and now it’s $2.39.
“How do you minimise those? I don’t think we ever waste it. We only use what we need. We are no-till farming but have chemical costs, which have risen as well.
“You can’t grow much without fertiliser, diesel or chemical so we are at the mercy of it all.
“Our key to remaining viable is attention to detail definitely. From a cropping point of view it is doing things properly – no shortcuts – and it’s the same with the cattle.”
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