Nareen Station: Farming cattle, sheep across three southern properties
Once home to former PM Malcolm Fraser, this Western District farm is part of a productive Merino and Angus operation driven by the power of youth.
The saying goes; it takes a village to raise a child.
Transpose that over to the task of rearing sheep and cattle across three sprawling properties, and you’re starting to get at the nub of the Dickinson family’s approach to farming.
Gordon and Alexandra Dickinson, along with daughter Asta, manage a Merino sheep and predominantly Angus cattle herd across three properties, which span Victoria’s Western District and Robe in South Australia.
The family purchased the first property, Nareen Station at Coleraine, in 1997. Nareen is Western District icon, being famously owned by Malcolm Fraser, including while he was Prime Minister from the late 1970s to early 1980s.
The Dickinsons added Boyong at Robe in South Australia in 1999 and Barrama — about 10km north of Nareen — in 2001.
The Dickinsons run sheep and cattle across all three properties, with Nareen and Barrama mainly focused on breeding.
“We run about 24,000 ewes, including 1200 stud ewes, all Merino,” Gordon says.
The family also joins about 2000 cows at Nareen and Barrama.
But nothing could be achieved without the vast team of people who work alongside the Dickinsons each day, working the land and living on-property.
“From our perspective, the people side of the business is one of the benefits,” Gordon says.
About three to four experienced livestock people are employed on farm, along with a number of graduates from colleges such as Longernong College, Hobart University, Marcus Olham and Melbourne Univesity, who Gordon says are developing their skills and experience in livestock management.
“There are usually two positions for jackaroos and jillaroos, usually young people” Gordon says.
“That’s a big part of our business, we like having the young people.”
Gordon says the workers all live on-property during their tenure.
“If they’re not off a farm, they’ve usually had quite an amount of exposure to a farm anyway, so they know agriculture is what they want to do,” Gordon says.
“We get them out here, most play sport like footy or netball, and they get involved. It’s a little community, like a little village on each farm.”
LIVESTOCK EFFICIENCY COUNTS
Gordon said Nareen and Barrama were on the Dundas Tablelands, about 300m above sea level, in rolling red gum country.
“It’s predominantly grazing, some people do cropping but it’s mainly grazing. Those tablelands run from the western edge of the Grampians through to the border. Boyong is a more coastal property, about 8km from the sea.
“It’s on coastal grey sands, and it’s sitting on underground water like a lot of the southeast grazing land there.”
Managing livestock in an efficient way is of paramount importance for the Dickinson family.
“Efficient in our context means working infrastructure, yards, shed, and vehicles, and healthy animals,” Gordon says.
“We want to do that in a sustainable way. Sustainable for us means we’re not mining our environment, waterways, and trees.”
Most of the waterways are fences off across the properties, and proximately 40ha of radiata or spotted gum is planted each year, with a long-cycle plantation of about 25 to 30 years.
“We’re trying to get that tree cover enhanced all the time, and we see that as providing environments for birds and animals as well,” Gordon says.
“We want the property to be improving, rather than deteriorating.”
WHY LOW-STRESS STOCK IS IMPORTANT
Asta says a big part of running an efficient operation is helping teach the next generation of stockmen and women how to handle and treat stock.
“That a driver for us. We can look after them and feed them well, but you’re also treating them well,” Asta says.
“You’re protecting them. It’s about low-stress stock handling, and how to give them respect.”
Merinos are the breed of choice for the Dickinsons, as the family inherited a Merino stud with the purchase of Barrama. Sheep are run in mobs up to 700-800 animals.
“We’ve got about 11 people, working to about 10,000 dry sheep equivalent per person,” Gordon says.
“We’re running at about 60 per cent of DSE in sheep, with is labour intensive.”
Gordon focuses on what he calls a “modern Merino” with low wrinkles, high fertility, and a 19-micron fleece.
He said the Merino side of the operation was something “we can perform quite well at”.
“It can be challenging breeding Merinos south of the divide, but it’s doable. We’re carefully bringing genetics into the stud.”
Genetics in the past have been sought from studs such as Glenlea Park in South Australia, and Wallaloo Park and Pendarra in Victoria.
“We’re trying to get plain bodies, easy care and fertile … moving towards an animal that may not need to be mulesed.”
Sheep are mulesed at present, with pain relief in the best interest of the animal.
GROWING OUT THE HERD
Cattle make up the other half of the Nareen Station enterprise, with a predominantly Angus herd with some black baldy cattle.
The family runs about 2000 cows across the properties, with about 400 heifers coming in a year.
The young cattle or weaned cattle are taken to Boyong, the steers are grown out for feedlots, and the heifers are grown and joined, with replacement heifers returned to Nareen or Barrama at 12 months.
“Our objective there is to have a fertile female, producing a calf with a reasonably high growth rate,” Gordon says.
“In the business of growing animals out, our steers going into feedlots are at about 450kg to 500kg … and they can get there in about 16 to 20 months.
“You’ve got to have a female that can calve easily, with moderate body weights.”
Calving is split in two, with 1000 cows calving in the autumn and another 1000 in the spring.
“We’re aiming to use bulls twice a year,” Gordon says.
“We’ll supervise the heifers closely at calving, but expect the adult cows to manage that themselves.”
Heifers and weaned calves are transported to the Boyong property with the steers and are grown out.
The top half of the heifers are returned pregnant, selected on a range of criteria such as body weight, confirmation, and temperament.
“We’ll cull out any extreme animal that’s too big, too small, too leggy, or too light in the shoulders,” Gordon said.
The other half of the Boyong stock is then sold at store sales or via Auctions Plus
Gordon says the family had installed irrigation on Boyong, with two pivots of 50ha each “to help finish stock”.
While there are no grains grown across the properties, Gordon says a few selected fodder crops are sown for pasture.
Pasture is predominantly phalaris, rye-grass and subclover pastures, working with lucerne paddocks for growing out lambs over summer months.
WHY THE FUTURE IS LOOKING BRIGHT
The season started out “a little tougher” this year for the Dickinsons.
But the future of farming still looks bright, according to Gordon.
“We didn’t get a lot of the early rain Melbourne got, which made it a little tougher,” Gordon says.
“But lamb survival is looking good, the body weight of the lambs are adequate. A lot of work went into feeding.”
Rainfall across the three properties sits within the 600mm range for the year: Nareen receives an average of 670mm, Barrama about 600mm and Boyong 640mm.
“They are largely getting rain from those southwest systems across The Bight, sweeping across the Western District plains, and it’s those stronger systems which will make it over the divide,” Gordon says.
As for the future of farming?
Gordon says when he left Marcus Oldham in the late 1970s, “the mantra was Australia is very well-placed to produce high-quality protein for a growing Asian middle class”.
“It’s probably been only in the last 10 to 15 years that has started to happen, in a big way,” Gordon says.
And looking forward to the future of agriculture, Gordon says an emerging trend towards high-quality products across the supply chain could be the next big move for the industry.
“High quality meaning a whole range of technical standards, and that might be wool strength, meat quality, whether you’ve got the right muscle-to-fat ratio, and a whole range of things,” Gordon says.
“But also, how these animals are produced, management, did it enjoy a life that met the broader communities expectations?
“Those forces are there to stay.”
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