Reddan's feedlot fruition

But if ever there were a time when the decision to diversify has been justified, then that time is now.

Don said seasonal conditions over the past two years had highlighted the benefits of operating his own feedlot, including the opportunities it affords them to take advantage of attractive trading margins when the market is working in their favour.

"The feedlot has allowed us to maintain our turnoff with the weights where we want them despite the season," he said.

"We haven't been forced to give cattle away on a flooded store market.

"We can put them in the feedlot where there has actually been a pretty handy margin."

Working in partnership with his wife Janet and parents Mick and Jenny, Don operates the 6800-hectare Point Lookout, along with their breeder block, 8500ha Lucknow Downs, 90km south of Roma.

Don's parents purchased Point Lookout in 1974 and then extended the business with the acquisition of Lucknow Downs in 2002.

They began building the feedlot in 2009 and have expanded it gradually to its current size, accredited to 999 head.

The family runs Santa Gertrudis breeders on Lucknow Downs and brings the progeny to Point Lookout as weaners, where they are usually backgrounded on oats before entering the feedlot.

Targeting the Japanese export market, steers and heifers are fed for 100 days, while cast-for-age cows are generally fed for 60 days. Finished animals are offloaded to processors at Dinmore or Kilcoy.

The Reddans grow their own fodder crops including oats and forage sorghum for silage.

"It's a pretty simple system. We have a wheat and silage-based ration. Nothing too complicated," Don said.

"We dry roll our grain out of the silo. We just feed out once a day using a feed mixer behind a tractor.

"We don't employ any staff at all and do all the work ourselves, so we try to keep it as simple as possible."

Having only been recently built, the feedlot is a modern design and construction.

"We have built it ourselves and it is all steel with concrete bunkers," Don said.

"We haven't got any shade. We find our Santa cattle can handle the heat pretty well."

The Reddans supplement their feedlot turnover with trade cattle, largely sourcing steers from local backgrounders, but recognise the advantages in breeding the bulk of the stock themselves.

Don said they made a conscious effort to keep their steers and heifers quiet and well-handled leading up to their induction to the Lookout Feedlot.

"We don't get a lot of sick cattle because they are mostly home-bred," he said.

"We just walk them to the feedlot when the time comes, and if we have drafted them up, we make sure we keep them with the animals they have been running with in the paddock.

"We find they remain pretty calm and happy if they can go into the feedlot with their mates."

The Reddans have used Santa Gertrudis genetics since the early 1990s, having first put Santa bulls over Hereford breeders.

Don said he had been impressed with how the Santa cattle handled feedlot conditions.

"We are really happy with the Santas," he said.

"They are particularly good at this time of the year when some other breeds might not cope as well."

Don has no current plans to expand or change the Lookout Feedlot, and said he was looking for some sort of return to "normal" seasonal conditions.

"At this stage, we are pretty happy with the size of it," he said.

"We would like to get our grass country working a bit harder for us, but that's moisture dependent."