THE office is the engine room at Mt Aberdeen Station, where Del and Steve Norman run a cattle and mango operation 50 kilometres south-west of Bowen.
During a recent bus tour for 40 women through the Burdekin, courtesy of NQ Dry Tropics, Mrs Norman explained the importance of business systems.
“Once upon a time we could all be hard workers on the land,” she said.
“This changed about 20 years ago.”
Mt Aberdeen Station runs 2000 head of breeding and trade cattle on its 8500 hectares as well as a 4000 tree mango plantation.
It lies in marginal country, with a mountain in the middle of it, rivers and soil that is easily eroded.
As a result, the Normans have management systems in place for every aspect of the business, from a property plan that is updated every five years and a business management plan every 10 years.
“We plan to protect our natural resources – it gives direction and goal to work towards,” Mrs Norman told the group.
The planning extends to monthly planning, and a white board details what each person will be doing through each month.
Mrs Norman explained that running both a mango plantation and a cattle property has made it essential to have these systems in place.
“It enables us to make much better decision, we can define clear roles. All of this then helps us apply for government grants and there are a few of them around.”
With help of NQ Dry Tropics, the Normans were able to access a grant and used this to implement riparian fencing on Mount Aberdeen to protect the riparian zone and spread grazing pressure more evenly through their rotational grazing program.
NQ Dry Tropics’ Lisa Hutchinson, who organised the bus trip around the Burdekin, also persuaded the Normans to do Grazing BMP.
“When she asked, I thought – no, not another system,” Mrs Norman laughed.
Grazing BMP involves a voluntary self-assessment and then voluntary audit process to attain BMP accreditation.
“We went over the modules and found we had a lot of that in place anyway, and really it was a matter of putting it together so it was formulated similarly to FreshCare (the system used for mangoes," she said.
“I found it really beneficial putting all our systems together. It is all about record keeping and business planning.
“Some people think writing things down is a waste of time, but you can look back at the information.
“You have to be able to measure to manage more efficiently.”
Although the Normans are quick to embrace innovation, the catalyst for change happened years before.
In the mid-90s, the Department of Primary Industries at the time began using individual animal identification and the Normans used this to change their cattle management.
From then on, they began recording as much data as possible on each animal every time it was processed.
Mrs Norman held up a large book to the audience – the Mt Aberdeen Station breed book and almost akin to a bible.
“I would say this is one of the most important systems on the property. We use it to assess benchmarks, and it has improved our decision-making for culling and female reproduction.”
Thanks to record-keeping, the Normans are able to know whether something is working or it’s not.
“Over the last three years we have changed our bull selection. We want to cut down our joining period from six months to five months and want to cut that down further to four months.”
What do you do when you can’t attract a good man? You turn to working dogs.
This is what the Normans did when their worker left and it was them and their four daughters to run the 8500ha property.
They now have 16 well-trained Border Collies, and Del and Steve can bring in 300 head of cattle with just them and a four wheeler.
Their plan is to have all their branding and weaning done in the same round, so there will be less mustering and more productivity.
There is another secret Mrs Norman divulged.
“Efficiency is key – and your social life is important.
“We play polocrosse, and you need a happy balance. If you stay at home on your days off, you will always find jobs that need doing.”
