Low stress, high standards: prioritising animal welfare at Bald Blair

With a family tradition of breeding champion Angus cattle that stretches back more than a century, caring for cattle is in Sam White’s blood.

As LPA-accredited producers, Sam and his wife Kirsty are continuing that tradition on ‘Bald Blair’, the family’s Angus stud and commercial cattle enterprise in the New England tablelands of NSW.

“The herd at Bald Blair has served our family for generations, so good stockmanship is important to us,” Sam said.

“That doesn’t just mean providing them with the basics like feed and water, but also seeing that they enjoy a comfortable life for the time they’re on our property.”

Paddocks across the family’s four properties are well watered with troughs and dams, and they monitor their feedbase constantly to ensure supply is never compromised.

In addition, the Whites have a stock management plan in place, ensuring their stud and commercial cattle are monitored throughout the year, with weekly stock checks and regular yarding for pregnancy testing, weaning, joining and calf marking.

Shade and shelter

Since Sam returned to Bald Blair in 1990, the goal has been to plant around 1,000 trees annually (conditions permitting) as part of a revegetation program.

“In 2019, with changes in the climate, we saw our animals seeking shelter from the sun and heat more than at any other time since we’ve been here,” Sam said.

The trees look good, but it soon became clear that the benefits weren’t just aesthetic.

“It was interesting to see that the animals who found shade and shelter under the tree cover performed much better than those who hadn’t.”

Socialising calves

The Whites yard their calves for around a week during weaning – during this time, young cattle are exposed to dogs, horses, bikes and lots of people.

“That early time spent in the yard is the best time in an animal’s life to actually have a real influence on its behaviour – it’s also your best chance to identify and fix an animal with temperament issues, or remove it,” Sam said.

“That early exposure establishes good social habits before an animal even reaches the paddock and they’ll be more relaxed as a result.”

Low-stress stock handling

The Whites are adamant about employing low stress stock handling on Bald Blair and believe force isn’t necessary to handle animals.

“Everybody seems to think low-stress stock handling is just walking around with your hands in your pockets and your head down, and it’s not,” Sam said.

“It’s all about movement and position. If you learn to position yourself correctly, the animals will see you in the same way they see a dog and you’ll be able to move anything.”

Paddocks on ‘Bald Blair’ are all well-watered with troughs or dams.

Reducing pain and mismothering

The Whites also run a sheepmeat enterprise. They said the introduction of Numnuts (a ring applicator with a pain relief delivery mechanism, developed in collaboration with MLA) has been a game‑changer for their lamb marking.

“It only adds five seconds to the marking process, but it means the pain for the lamb only lasts a few minutes and they’ll immediately seek out their mother once they’re put back in with them,” Sam said.

“The animals are much more settled as a result, and we’ve seen massive benefit from the reduction in mismothering happening post‑marking.”

Sam said reducing the stress and physical impact on the animals was really important to both him and Kirsty.

Ensuring consistency

In addition to their immediate family, the Whites employ two full‑time staff members and two to four contractors at any one time.

To ensure uniformity in how their animals are cared for on‑farm, the Whites have documented everything to remove any confusion across their workforce.

“We’ve got a cattle care page on our website for our team which outlines all our requirements, including things like our checklist for lamb marking, how we want our livestock handled, how we do our preg testing, how we do our artificial insemination – it’s all there,” Sam said.

The Whites also go through the Cattle welfare code of practice with their staff and ensure they all have a copy to refer back to.

Their staff are also asked to sign a statement on animal welfare, acknowledging they have a duty of care for the welfare of livestock at Bald Blair and its associated properties, based on the Australian animal welfare standards and guidelines for cattle.