Advertising Feature
Specialising in high-quality livestock handling solutions, Thompson Longhorn recently overcame the tyranny of distance to complete a cattle-handling facility that is not only yielding benefits in efficiency, safety and animal welfare, but has been labelled an asset to an entire agricultural region.
Last year, Andrew and Nicola Forrest's Minderoo Group commissioned Thompson Longhorn to design, fabricate and supply an automated handling facility and feed pens on a remote greenfield site at its Uaroo Station near Onslow, in WA's Pilbara region.
The main working yards cover about 6000 square metres and five feed pens cover about 7200 square metres, according to Thompson Longhorn managing director Byron Wolff.
This story is brought to you by Thompson Longhorn
A major challenge was that the yards would be located in a particularly remote part of WA, he said.
Certainly the company is used to completing projects across rural and regional Australia, but Uaroo's distance from Thompson Longhorn's Queensland headquarters is considerable.
"As far as Australia goes, it couldn’t be physically further from our factory, unless it was on Christmas Island of course," Mr Wolff laughed.
"It meant a high level of planning, and a high level of prefabrication before the material was sent on a triple road train load via the Northern Territory to complete its journey at Minderoo."
The project consists of a processing facility, spelling yard, point of sale for Minderoo cattle and a transit yard where local producers will be able to spell, re-hydrate and weigh cattle destined for the Harvey Beef abattoir.
The company is in the process of obtaining approvals for local producers to use the facility.
The state-of-the-art yards feature pneumatic-controlled gates combined with infrared sensors.
"The project also incorporates feeding facilities and a trade certified weigh-bridge that has the capacity to weigh up to 20 tonnes of live cattle at a time," Mr Wolff said.
"This will be used as a station cattle processing facility but also a trading depot for purchasing cattle across the Pilbara region so, if I'm a producer, I can take animals there, weigh them and set a price on the spot."
As part of the automated weighing and sorting system, animals could be processed through the race and crush and sorted into weight groups automatically, with limited human intervention, leaving a full record of individual animals and the weights they are sorted into.
The yards have also been designed for expansion if demand arises.
During planning, Mr Wolff said, the client requested construction should be able to be performed quickly on-site, without a large number of construction-specific workers.
"It was designed so Thompson Longhorn only needed to provide one site supervisor for the construction – all other resources were provided by Minderoo," he said.
"As you can imagine, for this to occur it needs to be meticulously planned in order to get a good result, and we did."
Materials used in the project had all been rolled in Australian steel mills.
"There was no imported product - we have a guarantee of very high-quality material where strength, integrity and longevity is maintained," Mr Wolff said.
Safety and animal welfare were integral factors in the yard's design. Automated gates could be opened and closed remotely.
"In all the high-pressure areas, we've removed human-animal contact - the people aren't in the pens with animals," Mr Wolff said.
The Uaroo project was also designed to minimise bruise points, which could occur in other designs when there were sharp bends in races or other factors that mean stock can not move through smoothly.
Much planning went into deciding which panels should be sheeted, that is, what should be visible to the animals.
"We intentionally leave some areas visible so animals can see the operators, so they can make a decision to move forward rather than being forced forward, good design invites animals to flow through," Mr Wolff said.
Feedback on the project has been impressive.
"One of the things we ask producers after they've used the yard for a while is what they'd change," Mr Wolff said.
"Often there are minor improvements, but in this instance there was very little they wanted to change, so it means we really got the briefing correct."
Uaroo Station manager Ben Wratten said his organisation chose Thompson Longhorn because they were impressed with their attention to detail and advanced equipment design.
"The company is focused on labour-saving design and safety, they worked with us to develop a plan that suits our requirements and environment. The end result is a great set of yards we're really happy with,” he said.
Thompson Longhorn offered value for money so it also made financial sense to use them, he said.
Designed to minimise labour requirements, the new yards at Uaroo have permanently removed two labour units, yielding an annual saving of about $100,000 and reducing the potential for workplace accidents.
Asked if he would recommend Thompson Longhorn to a friend, Mr Wratten said: "I already have".
Speaking at December’s official opening, Minderoo's head of agribusiness John Hartman said the yard would be a regional asset.
"The Minderoo South yards are an important investment for our group which we believe delivers positive benefits to northern producers within the Harvey Beef supply chain," he said.
"The yards are perfectly placed to spell Pilbara cattle travelling south, to ensure animal welfare is maintained."