Steven and Rebecca Cadzow
"Everybody here has breathed a huge sigh of relief, especially the Boreman whose run has been very constant for the last few weeks of around 1000km to 1600km a week". Read the latest entry below
Location: Mt Riddock Station, Northern Territory
Property area: 2,500km square
Enterprise targets:
Goal: To produce consistent good quality Poll Hereford cattle
Livestock: 7,000 Poll Hereford cattle
Pastures: Buffel grass, mulga Mitchell grass and native pastures
Soil types: Red sandy loam
Annual rainfall: 305mm
Read Steven and Rebecca's article from Frontier magazine on the Computer does the hard yards (100KB)
_______________________________________________________________________________________
2 December 2008
Up to mid-November our rainfall for the year was less than 4 inches, and as a consequence we were weaning heavily in the hope to give the cows a chance for the oncoming dry, hot summer. November changed everything - it finally started to rain!Some of our dams that have been dry for over 6 months were filled up overnight, and others are on the way to being full. The buffel grass has responded extremely well to this and is already several inches high, we are looking at one of the best starts to summer in a very long time.
Everybody here has breathed a huge sigh of relief, especially the Boreman whose run has been very constant for the last few weeks of around 1000km to 1600km a week. Our telemetry system has kept us up to date on the falls at the far eastern end of the station, and we eagerly turn the computer on first thing in the morning to see how much rain has fallen out there.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
6 November 2008
Water has been an issue for the last couple of years and although we can get our biggest falls in summer it is very unpredictable. We are getting our water supplies ready for summer, pulling bores, servicing motors and sand blasting and poly spraying tanks. The season this year has been one of the driest on record, and we are hoping for a build up to a big wet season.
With the use of the Observant remote water management system which we implemented over 12 months ago we are able to more accurately and regularly monitor water supplies. The Observant system allows us to monitor tank levels and operate pumps on a daily basis from the computer in the house. As a result staff have travelled around 28,000km less on bore runs, consequently reducing labour and vehicle costs and the use of diesel, equating to a combined saving of $20, 000 in the first 12 months.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
21 October 2008
We are operating 3 properties at the moment – Mt Riddock Station (2,633km squared), 200km North East Alice Springs, running 5000 head of Poll Herefords, Ooratippra (4190 km squared) which is leased and is running 3000 head of Poll Herefords, 400km North East Alice Springs and Greenhills (30, 000 acres) Longreach, which runs a Droughtmaster stud and 1000 head of cattle.
At Mt Riddock we are undertaking a grazing trial which looks at grazing techniques in arid rangelands. We have divided 2 large paddocks into 8 smaller ones, that we rotationally graze 400 steers. Grass monitoring and herd impact are regularly monitored by Department of Primary Industries staff, and herd performance data such as teeth, average daily weight gain, and condition score are recorded using the Saltbush software Racemate at two monthly intervals for each beast. When the steers reach an optimum weight of 400kg plus they are sold and replacement weaner steers are inducted into the trial paddocks.
Disclaimer
The opinions and views expressed in the producer diaries are strictly those of the producers. Publication of these opinions and views on the MLA website does not indicate an endorsement from MLA. MLA assumes no liability for any content or opinion expressed in a producer diary. If you rely on any information in a producer diary, you do so solely at your own risk.
|