The beef producers who are pricing their beef at top end

Chasing premiums is a business decision for Price Cattle Company in central Queensland who are carving out a niche beef market for their cattle. This is how they do it.

Chasing premiums is a business decision for Price Cattle Company in central Queensland who are carving out a niche beef market for their cattle.

Their operations – at Injune and Rockhampton – cover a wide expanse of about 27,000 hectares in some of the prime cattle regions in that state.

And in an ever-evolving business, they are set to sell their first organic Waygu-cross grass-fed beef in a major change-up for the premium beef breed which is traditionally finished on grain.

Owen and Brigid Price and their children run two separate entities – an organic operation in the Arcadia Valley on about 19,000ha, as well as 7600ha in a conventional system between Rockhampton and Yeppoon.

They originally started producing organic beef further west at Blackall, before returning to their Injune base in 2010 so their children could attend the local school.

Organic production is a natural fit – literally – for the country they run at Injune which includes about 1200 breeders.

With low or zero pressure from external or internal parasites like worms or ticks, and “clean” country with few natural weeds, organic is practical and economically sensible.

“Our Injune country just suits organic production, it’s like a goldilocks area in among the Carnarvon and Expedition Ranges,” Owen said.

“We are top of the watershed with reasonably reliable rainfall, very few weeds and few parasites, going organic made commercial sense.”

The Price family, Injune and near Rockhampton, Qld

BETTER RETURNS

It was ultimately a business decision to lift their beef production out of being “just a commodity” and into a classification where it gained consistently better returns.

While organics deliver a premium of at least 20 per cent and up to 100 per cent over conventional beef from their composite herd, the Prices could see there was potential to gain even bigger premiums if they used wagyu genetics.

The purchase of the Rockhampton property and its lack of suitability for organic certification led the Prices to investigate other premium opportunities for that enterprise and subsequently the entire business.

Two years ago, they started using full blood wagyu bulls across the herd and the first calves born are performing just as well on grass as other breeds. An older line of wagyu steers that were purchased and fed on pasture are about to be trucked to the processor.

“We are finishing the Wagyus on leuceana and are looking forward to seeing how these bloodlines perform,” Owen said.

“In the future we think organic, grass-fed could be a niche market with possibly Europe being a destination for this kind of grass-fed Wagyu beef.”

But they are also not limiting themselves to just the organic labelling.

“In addition, we are exploring insetting opportunities and carbon neutral beef production, to further maximise returns and market opportunities,” Brigid said

The reputation for later maturity in the Wagyu cattle could see a slower turnoff from the breeding operation. Currently the organic composite steers are being sold at about 600kg liveweight at about 2½ years, going to processors in central and southern Queensland. Surplus females from the system are sold at about 500kg liveweight at the same age.

The first crop of wagyu-composite steers is tracking along at the same growth rates as their pure composite brothers, which Owen said was pleasing, given the potential to gain greater value from the infusion.

Yet even if the operation kept crossing Wagyus, they will still be classed as Purebred not Fullblood.

To fast track the process, about 400 Fullblood wagyu females have been bought in, to again develop more high-end product and hopefully premiums.

“Our son, Rob, is our wagyu manager, and has done a great job sourcing females to establish a registered full blood foundation herd with good genetics,” Owen said

Owen believes the purebred and Fullblood Wagyus could take up to six months longer to finish to the same turn-off weights of about 600kg liveweight to be marketed at about three years old, but is quietly confident the premiums for the niche organic beef will make it worth their while.

The Price family, Injune and near Rockhampton, Qld

CONTINUE TO GROW

The Prices recognise the purchase of an additional property will now be necessary to continue to grow the herd while holding fattening stock longer.

While they chase genetics, maintaining that organic status and the organic accreditations with the United States Department of Agriculture, Australia and South Korea, requires careful management to prevent weeds especially coming into the system.

It’s one of the reasons why they have a highly developed biosecurity plan for their properties, so much so that even their own vehicles are limited in access to each of the geographically separate properties they run to try to prevent any incursions of weeds or pests.

Their biosecurity system was recognised by being named the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Farm Biosecurity Farmer of the Year in 2022.

The award “acknowledged the biosecurity measures the company had taken, including strict protocols for visitors, sign-in registers, specific access points and designated roads for moving within properties and third party washdown certificates for contactors who were bringing vehicles and machinery to properties” the department said.

On the ground, Brigid said the plan was protecting their business, with biosecurity one of the biggest threats to its success.

“We like to call biosecurity our life security,” Brigid said.

All staff are aware of the processes, which have become second nature, things like third party certification for washdown of vehicles to ensure weed seeds are not transported on tyres.

The challenge has been with external operators, like those in the coal seam gas industry, who have access to their properties but who do not follow procedures.

“You just have to constantly reinforce your biosecurity strategies – it is more than a plan that just sits on the shelf or a sign on the gate,” she said.

“We are protecting our business by having strong biosecurity policies and procedures.

“For us, biosecurity has to be a non-negotiable in our business.”

While outside vehicles and outside personnel represent a risk, so do any cattle which are brought onto the property.

This includes purchases of bulls, cattle transferred from their non-organic property near Rockhampton as well as the recent purchases of wagyu females from the NSW centres of Trangie and Glen Innes.

Some of the strategies they employ include yarding their cattle at Rockhampton and feeding certified weed free hay for eight days to allow their systems to clean out before being trucked to Injune.

Those cattle are never considered organic but are run in a parallel production system at Injune.

All cattle, regardless of if they are organic or not, are quarantined in small (40ha) paddocks for 28 days to ensure anything that has inadvertently been carried on their hooves or in the digestive system is not transferred to the more extensive areas.

Having weeds in quarantine areas is still not ideal, Owen said, but manageable even given the limited methods that can be used to control them.

And keeping organic also means careful grazing management of the pastures, a mix of improved and native country.

“It is about matching the number of stock to the carrying capacity,” Owen said.

“It’s not like we can go out and buy any feed (grain/hay) because it needs to be organic, and the availability of that can be limited.

“But it is also a risk to our business bringing on fodder in terms of weeds and it’s why we are so careful in terms of watching our feed levels in the paddocks.”

Price Cattle is infusing Wagyu into their herd to target a niche market for grassfed Wagyu organic cattle from their Injune property in Queensland.

CLEAR DECISIONS

The average paddock size is about 300ha, and a rotational grazing system with built in periods of rest ensure feed quality is as high as possible for the mobs of cattle which rotate through the system. Those rest periods vary from 60 to 90 days depending on the time of year.

With organic production and the premiums it attracts a key pillar of the operation, it begs the question of their purchase three years ago at Rockhampton, a property which won’t be organic, the couple said.

But it’s another example of how clear decisions are based on the business of farming as they bought more land three years ago which was 400km from Injune, and which will not be run organically.

“We had looked to buy more country in Central Queensland close to our Injune properties to expand but there were so many blocks that already had everything done,” Owen said.

“They were also selling for about $20,000 per adult equivalent (to run a 450kg steer).

“The land near Rockhampton had appeal because it was $6000 per AE, and we saw that we could make some changes and do things a bit differently with management to improve its carrying capacity.

“We saw it as a viable beef business with potential.”

This operation is gradually stepping up its carrying capacity with 2900 AE running there currently.

It’s also part of their succession plan – with three children, the couple acknowledges the business could be broken up at some stage and this offered a chance for one of the family to run a stand alone operation.

The business-first approach, whether it is running organic grassfed Wagyus or having a top-notch biosecurity plan or buying country outside their area, keeps Price Cattle Company’s trajectory moving forwards.

“You always have to put your business hat on,” Owen said.